Guy Kawasaki once said “Advertising is the plastic surgery of business,: a procedure to make ugly and old products look good” (“Selling the dream”) and it seems that agency types are still looking for new ways to package their same old mojo:
Ernie Schenck Calls This Advertising?: Bruce Bildsten Opens Brew. The Devil Made Him Do It.
Former Fallon CD, Bruce Bildsten, has opened Brew: A Creative Collaborative. Do not call it an ad agency or I will kill you. Brew is what I see as one of a new and emerging class of creative organizations. Says Bruce: “We are reinventing the creative team for the new communications landscape.” And Bildsten should know about new creative landscapes. While at Fallon, he directly oversaw the creation of BMW Films.“Think of Brew as the nation’s first truly unbundled creative shop—where we assemble best-in-class creative, strategy and media on a custom basis for clients,” said Bildsten.
I’m sure Bildsten is hotter than an Iranian nuclear dump- but his differentiation strategy is one of ignorance of the “new communication landscape”- you see the monster in the closet in marketing is search- the Google brand of search- and if we try to find Mr. Bildsten’s firm- well, we’ll end up looking at beer sites- lots of them.With a name like “Bildsten” he could have been like “Esrati”- a unique name for search marketing- but, I named this firm in 1988- in the days when a “Search engine” was a little old gray haired lady called a librarian and you still went to a phone book to look someone up.
I took some flack on Ernie’s site for suggesting that Mr. Bildsten was sounding like a poser on launch of his new endeavor, however I stand by the idea that the customers (marketers/clients in this case) still need to be able to define your “Creative Collaborative” by the standard vocabulary- “Meta data” of “Advertising Agency” in search- instead of forcing people into fumbling to find you.
I haven’t found the site for “Brew” yet- but I can almost bet that it will built with some search evading technology like Flash or a site full of pretty pictures with proper meta data to identify them.
If you do know the url for “Brew”- please add it in the comments.
Note: it’s been found:brew-creative.com
And if you want to see the Press release, it’s here: http://brew-creative.com/brew_press_release.pdf
Note: Dec 10, 2006, almost three months later, site is still under construction. Internet time doesn’t wait 3 months for content.
Note: Feb 8 2007, still waiting for content.
Note: April 13, 2007 it’s up. All Flash. No RSS. Search? 3 whole pages. Will there be new content from the “new” media gurus? Time will tell.
If you are really interested in new ideas for a new economy, but don’t want the same old tacking on the word “new” to the old wisdom of advertising- you are in the right place- The Next Wave in advertising- since 1988, nothing new about us, other than we were doing this long before Bildsten knew what a browser was.
We’re also available to speak to Ad Clubs around the country on the “new technology” of the “new media” of the “web 2.0 world.”
Sure hope this post has enough keywords in it.
Kudos David (and The Next Wave)!
It is Well Past the time for real Creatives to begin the critical task of resurrecting our industry from clueless juvenile wannabes and Pompous Assholes like Mr. Bildsten. (With respect to the former). Keep it Real!
Hey, as a Creative Director (of my own marketing design and brand development company) I am all for leading with a category differential, or Unique Selling Proposition. But this nebulous labeling of entities, titles, and capabilities has spiraled into a dark abyss of insane shit!
It all seemed to happen so innocently. One day advertising copywriters, marketeers, and other “creative” pros were simply over using adjectives like quality leader, responsive, saavy, innovative, cutting edge, integrated, full-service, state-of-the-art, Out-of-the-Box, unique, Big Ballers, Shot Callers… And then the next day FastCompany (mag.) is throwing around esoteric titles like ” Chief Information Guru”, “COO of Knowledge”, and “Director of Futurism”. And We think it’s sooo coool! Please stop the madness!!
This erroneous labeling, posturing, or “posing” is so pervasive in the American culture that it is damn near surreal. And, the sad fact is We are our own worst enemies because We embrace this attitude. Call it what you want…Selling the Dream…Selling the Sizzle…Embracing the American Dream…Propaganda…Hype…! Can anyone say “Dot.Com”?
Granted, hype (or “Spin” in political arenas) has, and will always be utilized in an open market, free-enterprise system. But this level of over selling and under perfoming has gotten seriously out of control.
Industry Big Heads like Mr.Bildsten isn’t helping the issue with his grandiose company image and pretentious positioning statement. Sir, by all means “reinvent” yourself. But know for a fact that true creative teams have been “unbundled” since the birth of Crayolas. Of course, I do understand how this may seem like a novel and fresh concept for a professional who has been recently liberated from the “fully-integrated”,”full-service” mega-corporate, mega-agency plantation.
If only our clients (and their constituents and stakeholders) were more educated about the creative industry and more discriminating about the services (and messages) we provide, it might encourage greater creative output and accountability. We owe to our industry and livelihood to keep it real and deliver value. To be blunt, let’s stop licking ourselves, and start focusing on the good of the collective!
Guy Kawasaki said it right. However, I prefer the sentiments of Malcolm X : “Oh I say, You’ve been Hoodwinked, you’ve been Bamboozled…” Those words ring even truer today then when he passionately spoke them in the Sixties.
Razzle-dazzle ’em! Careful Mr. Bildsten, the Brew seems to have gone to your head. Just call it what it is. (Select a description and SIC code from the ADFed Glossary and apply the prefix “N-ovative & All Out of The Box”)!
Let’s accept it. There really isn’t much new under the sun. It’s all in the approach. Hell, even Warhol had the Balls to acknowledge that he had reinvented himself as a celebrity icon by aping styles and biting on the contemporary labels his day.
I’m not hating. I’m sure Mr. Bildsten has mad skills (I dig the Beemer spots). Just keep it real man. Your creative meter has been extended another 15 seconds. Enjoy the Brew!
Peace.
JLW
MMCX
Wow. Using Malcom X to describe the advertising business. Another new low, achieved. Congrats to all. Peace JLW. To paraphrase from your own inspired words, keep licking yourself.
I just took the time to call Bruce- nice guy. He thinks some of the things above are “nasty” and that he’s launching a very sophisticated site soon.
We wish him the best- but stand by our belief that launching a site that works for search isn’t that difficult if you use the right tools from the start.
We’ve seen agencies build sites for themselves that look cool and don’t search. We provide links to our competition to help people evaluate and compare agencies- and to make sure we are part of the evoked set- good tactics to use if you hope to have potential clients find you.
I look forward to seeing what Brew cooks up for a site.
David –
All I have to say is that people who infatuate themselves with search (like you) are people who can’t come up with a concrete creative execution to smartly prepared strategies. Many brands, companies, projects, have been extremely successful without search now and before search was available. It’s just something you can talk about over and over again to make yourself feel better that your work entirely sucks.
I guess the sad thing is that because of your talentless operation there, you rely on clients that no one knows about so I guess search is all that you have. Sad, sad, sad.
Hi Ted-
The fact is- search is here.
It’s a new part of business- and if you want to ignore it- as Brew has, fine.
The fact that you came to this site- and looked at our work, supports the fact that search is important.
As to your opinion of our work- our clients are all local, with small budgets, in Dayton OH.
More importantly- they are all making money- and some of them even have sites that show up in search.
David –
I know search is here. The whole world knows search is here. It’s completely understandable that your client roster needs support from search to help people find their business. It’s also understandable that it’s an important selling point for you.
The point you are missing, however, is that the brands that Mr. Bildsten has had the fortune to work on (and most likely will continue to do based on his talent) don’t need that same attention. When do you think anyone has credited their BMW purchase to search? And the fact that you need to slander someone to death on the topic of “search” is completely tacky and unprofessional. (And to clarify, I only found your site beacuse someone told me what a raging prick you were, so don’t think it’s of any credit to your search prowess)
I’m also curious how you can slander Bildsten’s new company by stating he has ignored search. How has he ignored it? Is it because you don’t find 50 results with articles of him talking about himself? I typed in his companies name and got it, so what’s the problem.
The point of all this is that search as a technology will never hold itself up as a point of differentiation and compete with beautiful creative. I don’t know Mr. Bildsten, but I hope he does well because he does good work. Something I doubt you will ever be able to say about yourself.
Ted-
this started out with a comment made about Mr. Bildsten’s claim of creating some new kind of agency- and his “new media skill set”-
he brought it upon himself.
In a time when being able to be found- and deliver up-to-date info is key, he still hasn’t launched anything- in three months.
Clients don’t have that kind of time anymore.
I’m not belittling his skills- he’s a talented guy- who has been lucky to work with big money- put up by other people, for a long time.
Now, it’s his money- and he is out on his own- we will see if his skills translate from big agency- to his own shingle-
Hate to tell you- but people search for information on BMW’s all the time- I know- because my site gets a lot of traffic for some key BMW search terms.
If you understand the brand- and the buyer, you would know that they are very much feature and specification driven- more so than those buying other luxury cars.
Although you seem to take great pride in continuously pointing out our lack of skills- you don’t provide a link to your illustrious work.
Maybe it’s because you don’t have a site? Or maybe you can’t update it yourself- either way- search is an important part of many buying decisions- continue to ignore it at your own risk.