Ask Jeeves said yesterday that it put its account up for review, but wouldn't offer up much more information. AJ's public relations director Patrick Crisp did say that incumbent Chiat Day "is participating in the review." Just two weeks ago, MarketingVOX asked AJ's VP marketing Greg Ott point blank whether or not the firm would jump into a review once the acquisition by InterActive Corp closed. He then said, "We're not planning any changes, but when we get integrated, we'll take an inventory on everything we need to do to win."
Typically, once IAC acquires a company, an agency-ectomy ensues, often awarding the account to an IAC roster shop.
An AdWeek report repeated rumors that Ask Jeeves is preparing for a $30 million media campaign to relaunch the brand. Anonymous AdWeek sources said about six shops have been contacted.
IAC faves Razorfish (Hotels.com), Mullen (TripAdvisor, Lending Tree, Match.com) and Hanft Unlimited (Match.com) are all decent bets to be in the running, along with the Chiat Day folks.
