Ben Bensons

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Smith and Wollensky is Back.

February 3, 2010 in Marketing | 0 Comments

Back with a flourish.

Back in the day, so the story goes, Smith and Wollensky’s Steak House was about to close its doors for lack of business.  Poppe Tyson and creative director Fergus O’Daly created an ad for them – a full page in The New York Times – with a life-size picture of a Smith and Wollensky’s matchbook in the lower right corner atop a small headline: “Finally a match for the Palm and Christ Cella.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Steak for Stock

Today in that same New York Times Smith and Wollensky continues its great run of print advertising with “Steak for Stock.”  Not sure if Alan Stillman (CEO) is still behind the advertising but it certainly feels like him. The “Steak for Stock” ad invites you to bring in valid stock certificates in exchange it for a juicy, aged and perfectly charred sirloin.  Can’t you just smell the certificate paper?

Smith and Wollensky has made a living with its wit, its wine, its relevance and its meat and spinach. I’m probably borrowing this from Ben Benson’s, another brilliant NY steak house, but Smith and Wollensky’s is, indeed, the quintessential NY steak house.  Great to see them mixing it up again.  Peace!

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The Geier Plan.

January 23, 2009 in Marketing | 0 Comments

Philip Geier was the chairman of the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG), an advertising agency holding company, while it was riding high in the 80s and 90s. A cigar-chomping, Ben Benson’s Steakhouses-eating executive, Mr. Geier oversaw some of the top agencies in the world, including McCann and Lowe. He is a brilliant business man. When a huge bank account was up for grabs and the final decision to be made between McCann and another agency, Mr. Geier (it is my belief) offered the bank all of IPGs global banking business. Winning idea!

If anyone knows about the power of advertising, the power of the consumer spending, it is Mr. Geier, so his full page newspaper ad yesterday to Timothy Geithner, the Obama team, and other financial opinion leaders to issue American families stimulus checks with a twist was worth reading. Unlike bail-out checks, Mr. Geier wants to issue money that “can be used only for consumer purchasing over a short period of time.”  It’s a bit complicated, but doable. Certificate checks will be issued which must be spend quickly and must be paired with real money to make a purchase. The solution will  jump start sales and build consumer confidence.

Glad to know that Mr. Geier (The Geier Group) is still chomping. I think it’s time to get him back to IPG and allow Michael Roth to take a sabbatical.

                                        

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