New York Observer on Jennings - FedEx placed in Jeopardy! Saved by BBDO

All-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings ended his 74-game, $2.52 million winning streak when he asked the question "What Is FedEx?" But that was just the beginning for BBDO, the company's agency of record.
The 30-year-old Salt Lake City software engineer was ahead by $4,400 when he stumbled on the Final Jeopardy! answer: "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year." Jennings asked, "What is FedEx?"; real estate agent Nancy Zerg correctly responded, "What is H&R Block?"
With that, Zerg became the new champ — and possibly a future Jeopardy! answer herself. Zerg finished with $14,401; Jennings fell to $8,799. The episode was taped in September.

According to Mr. Martin, on the afternoon of Nov. 30-a few hours before the final episode was broadcast showing the end of Mr. Jennings’ $2.5 million run-John Osborn, the president and chief executive of BBDO New York, learned that “What is FedEx?” was the response that would close out the highest-grossing game-show run in television history. Much like a hard-driving editor kicking reporters onto a story, said Mr. Martin, Mr. Osborn sent out a memo to get his troops ready for a spot.



“The news cycle on something like this is one week-two, max. Our criteria was to get it in the paper by Friday or we’d have lost the publicity boost of it,” Mr. Martin said, adding that these kinds of campaigns fill an effective advertising niche: “I think that there is a newsroom mentality that marketers and agencies should take.”



Shows like Jeopardy! are bound to mention brand names. But as brand names increasingly become a part of the pop-culture vernacular, staging last-minute interventions like this one to protect the hard-won (and expensive) image of a company is becoming more and more important. That means cultivating almost a newsroom sensibility at agencies like BBDO.



“This advertisement was a way to capitalize on the publicity when the record-setter ends up losing by calling out one of our clients. We thought there must be a way to turn that around and make that a positive message for FedEx,” Mr. Martin said.



“There’s only one time FedEx has ever been the wrong answer,” the ad’s copy opened in block lettering, set in bold for emphasis. Below that, the ad continued: “Congratulations Ken Jennings on your amazing Jeopardy! winning streak. And thanks for mentioning our name. Even if it was the one time you shouldn’t have.”

You can read The New York Observer's article here.