E*Trade Shops Its Traditional Account

Internet brokerage E*Trade Group Inc. reportedly is conducting a creative shootout for its traditional advertising account, with billings estimated at $100 million.

Executives at E*Trade have asked the incumbent agency, Gotham in New York City, to offer campaign ideas along with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, a unit of Omnicom Group, according to a New York Times report.

Michael Sievert, vice president for marketing at E*Trade in Palo Alto, CA, confirmed reports of the review this week in the trade publications Advertising Age and Adweek. He said that E*Trade wants to explore what new perspectives Goodby, Silverstein might bring to the business. The online portion of the account remains at Modem Media.Poppe Tyson in Westport, CT, a unit of True North Communications.

F. Stone Roberts, co-chairman and chief executive at Gotham, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies, told the Times that he had not yet decided whether his agency would take part in the review.

“We may end up standing behind the work we have produced. I have a high degree of confidence what we’ve done has been incredibly effective,” he said. The current campaign for E*Trade carries the theme “Someday, we’ll all invest this way.”