[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Baby steps lead to stock price decline – when steps taken are by exec behind ETFC's talking babies.

E*Trade chief media officer Nick Utton made his name with the financial services firm's long-running and popular ad campaign featuring talking babies.  Now, Mr. Utton moves on, leaving a vacuum in his place as the firm struggles with a stock drop and re-establishing (or not) the relationship Mr. Utton forged on behalf of E*Trade with longtime lead creative shop WWP's Grey.

Was E*Trade's stock decline inevitable?  Last year, it spent $248 million on domestic measured media, $30 million of which it hopes to cut by 2014.  At least until Mr. Utton's replacement is found, Grey will remain the agency of record.  In 2010, Lindsay Lohan sued E*Trade on the grounds that the company insulted her in one of the ads.  The lawsuit ended in a settlement, and an unbroken relationship between Grey and E*Trade.  [C-I Note: Surely, Mr. Utton's departure will have more impact.]

Before his talking babies campaign and his career at E*Trade even began, Mr. Utton worked at financial-services and consumer-packaged-goods firms.  At Unilever, he served as an associate product manager, before moving up the ladder Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cadbury Schweppes, Revlon International, MasterCard, and JP Morgan Chase.  Upon his departure, he had spent 9 years at E*Trade.

For further details, go to [Ad Age, 3/18/13].

To contact Melanie Gretchen: melanie@compliance-insights.com.