by Next Wave Team | Oct 6, 2007 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Careers in Advertising, Change the world, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Hot New Creative Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, The Craft Of Advertising, The Next Wave in Business, Web strategy
Fallon may be winning the battle as the womb of new agencies - as I’ve stumbled upon yet another spin-off: Zeus Jones. This agency popped onto the scene March 1, 2007 (and deserves extra credit for not naming the agency after themselves).
While we’ve not been very complimentary of Brew: A creative collaborative, or Barrie D’Rozario Murphy and the way they started off online (weakly)- the crew at Zeus Jones scores a B+ for “getting it.” The front page is just a series of places you’ll find them online- starting with their presentation on Slideshare (see below). Very cool stuff.
Zeus Jones Welcomes You.
Zeus Jones approaches marketing differently.
View our credentials to see what we mean by “Marketing As A Service.”
They also have a separate blog: From the head of Zeus Jones which for some odd reason, they didn’t decide to build on their own site- but using Blogspot- which is what stopped me from giving them an A+
The idea of a blog, separate from a site, is old school. Ideally, while having all those places online as place to hang out is great- the fulcrum of your online (the de facto realization of your brand these days) in 2 places is a mistake.
What I had time to look at on ZJ’s sites looked good. They’ve decided it’s not advertising brands need- it’s more of a reason to like a brand- utility. We’ve always thought of our solutions for clients as one that makes the relationship between customers and our clients one of mutual joy, as opposed to a one-way shouting match.
There are some smart, small agencies out there- but, finding and identifying them will take a new kind of filter. With agency search firms still clueless about what makes good web strategy, and Ad Age and everyone else so fascinated by Crispin Porter & Bogusky (us included)- what has been slipping under the radar is agencies like Zeus Jones who seem to have a true Unique Selling Proposition- and the smarts to make it happen in our Web 2.0 world.
by Next Wave Team | Jul 18, 2007 | Brand Relevancy, Careers in Advertising, Change the world, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Guerrilla Campaigns, Hot New Creative Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Search and Business, Secrets of Great Advertising, Web strategy
To all the über creatives out there about to launch your new “hot agency”- a few words of advice: launch a site before you send out your press release telling the world that you are open for business.
Unfortunately, most trade press doesn’t bother to publish your url, your phone number or your address so potential clients who are dying to hire a spin-off of Fallon, Wieden+Kennedy, The Martin Agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, TBWA Chiat/Day etc.
If I was a client, I’d assume that an agency is the first to realize that people can’t buy from you if they can’t find you, so, start off with your best foot forward.
Please note: this also means, don’t waste your money on a fancy Flash site- save that for when you are too big and don’t want business (unless you are really smart and know exactly how to make a Flash site that is both accessible for the blind- and search friendly- which few of you do). Google doesn’t like Flash much- and so all those people googling to find start-ups like Goodness Manufacturing, Toy, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy, and Brew Creative are ending up on some upstart agency site like this to find a link to your site.
There is also a bit more to it- web 2.0 and search require more than a brochure site- you have to continually add and update content to make your site relevant to search. If your agency doesn’t understand this, we’re happy to offer our consulting services to help you get the results you want.
by Next Wave Team | Jul 14, 2007 | Careers in Advertising, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Hot New Creative Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Search and Business, Web strategy
My father was a copy editor for a major newspaper. Facts counted back then- apparently, that skill has been lost- when Ad Age continues to ad to the legend of Crispin Porter + Bogusky by saying an office that opened on Sept. 10, 2001, was “shuttered in the 1990’s.
Advertising Age - Five Crispin Refugees Set Up Shop in L.A.
There’s a new creative boutique gunning for Crispin Porter & Bogusky’s hotshop crown — and it’s staffed with five of the agency’s own.
Setting up shop in Venice, Calif., just blocks from an office Crispin opened (and later shuttered) in the 1990s, are a cadre of the agency’s former staffers — some of the minds behind a handful of the shop’s most high-profile and envied campaigns for Burger King, the “Truth” anti-smoking movement, Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Miller High Life and Ikea. Their fledgling agency will be called Goodness Mfg. and led by three former Crispin creative directors who resigned last week, along with two others who left previously.
The natural evolution of great creative shops should be the spawning of more creative shops. When I visited Portland Oregon about 10 years ago, it was clear that the caliber of the entire market was elevated by having Wieden + Kennedy in the ‘hood. It’s interesting to see that CP+B is spreading its seeds all over- with Alex Bogusky stating that Toy in NYC as a CP+B offspring- and now Goodness Mfg. in Venice.
Mr. Bogusky put the number of Crispin employees at 600, with 80 in the creative department. He also pointed out that this is not the first shop to break away from the agency — the first was Stick & Move, based in Philadelphia. Mr. Bogusky also considers Toy, under Ari Merkin, to be inspired by Crispin. “I think of myself as the father and Chuck [Porter] as the mother.”
However, for the kings of new media- it’s going to be hard for them to land new business- since they don’t seem to have a site up at either www.goodnessmfg.com (16 July 07 update- holding page is up) or goodnessmanufacturing.com and have cloaked their identities through the registrar. Another question arises in a google search where it seems that there is already a “Goodness manufacturing” out there- and it isn’t anything to do with advertising.
Considering that Crispin Porter + Bogusky is considered a leading new media agency, it’s odd that they, or their spinoffs don’t practice what they preach.
by Next Wave Team | Jun 23, 2007 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Change the world, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Guerrilla Campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Media, Practical Marketing 101, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Secrets of Great Advertising, The Craft Of Advertising, The Next Wave in Business, Viral Marketing, VW advertising, Web strategy
The payola scandals of the Fifties were a black-eye on commercial radio, where record labels would pay radio stations to play certain albums.
Now with corporate and satellite radio controlling the airwaves, and internet radio still in the nascent stages- the best way to get your songs played to mass audiences is to sell your song to a major advertising campaign. When Wieden + Kennedy bought the Beetles “Revolution” for Nike there was a major outcry of selling out. (Personally, this commercial still makes me love advertising- and what I do)
After the warning shot- it was a free-for-all, with every major advertiser buying top hits. Then Arnold changed the game again- by putting arcane, but catchy tunes into VW commercials- da, da, da, Dr. Roboto and the songs of Nick Drake- all turning forgotten tunes into hits.
But, besides bringing new exposure to old hits- or even hits in the making- there is also an area of concern for artists- will they be seen as selling out? Some artists have sworn off commercialization of their art- Bob Dylan taking a hit for selling music through Starbucks for instance.
So, when Crispin Porter + Bogusky follows in the footsteps of Arnold by putting Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” into a campaign, Wilco fights back- and in the tradition of David Ogilvy who believed you should use the products you shill, admits to driving V-dubs.
Pitchfork: Wilco Explain Volkswagen Ads
After millions of infuriated Wilco fans around the globe set fire to their copies of Sky Blue Sky and drove their Jettas off cliffs yesterday, Wilco took it upon themselves to explain their recent involvement in a Volkswagen ad campaign.
“With the commercial radio airplay route getting more difficult for many bands,” wrote the Chicago sextet on its official website, “we see this as another way to get the music out there.”
They continued: “And we feel okay about VWs. Several of us even drive them.”
Securing rights to popular music isn’t always easy- we once traded building a website for Buckwheat Zydeco in exchange for using his music as the background for a local neighborhood non-profit marketing piece- which cost us a bunch- but gave the neighborhood new life. Besides the website- (which has been sadly and badly basterdized over the years) Buckwheat gained a whole new bevy of fans- who would not have been exposed to his great music any other way.
With viral videos like Jud Laipply’s “Evolution of Dance” using a bunch of copyrighted music- the question is- is it better marketing for the music than the old school pay-to-play? If I was the copyright holder, I’d be thrilled to have “tastes” of my music given that much exposure.
It’s a whole new world out there in marketing, what you learned in school doesn’t apply anymore. Sharing is the new currency and attention is the new jackpot.
by Next Wave Team | Jun 22, 2007 | Ad Agenices in Dayton, OH, Advertising, Advertising Case Studies for The Next Wave, Brand Relevancy, Change the world, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Low Budget Advertising, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, The Next Wave in Business, Web strategy
There was an IBM tv ad called “Deep Intelligence” about a sage who saw relationships in the data that drove sales. He says things like “Greeting cards, Lip Gloss” “Beer/Diapers” “Motor oil/ Turkey franks” we can’t be sure that he knows- all we know is that he knows.
If either the agency, Ogilvy, or IBM was tuned into this web 2.0 thing- they’d have it on YouTube to share- but they don’t. [UPDATE Dec 2010]If you have access to Ad Critic, it’s right here: http://www.adcritic.com/content/ibm-deep-intelligence.html
I’ve always liked this spot- but tonight, it became relevant- someone searching for “mark cuban buys hotel chain” ended up finding us at number 4 in Google- and calling us to see if we could help them sell wine.
This wasn’t search engine optimization- he wasn’t searching for small creative ad agency, or ad agencies in Dayton OH, or even great ad agencies- he wasn’t looking for the next Crispin Porter + Bogusky, or how to pick an ad agency (all terms that we’ve ended up on the first page of Google)- he was looking to find independent thinkers in the hotel industry to market to them as outlets for wine from his LA County vinyard.
There we were: The Next Wave>low budget advertising at number four, because we had combined content in a category that managed to put Mark Cuban and the Drury Inn- into the same place.
Go figure- good technology leads to happy accidents. Once the potential client read that “Our job is to make you more money than you pay us” he was reaching for his phone.
Can you ad agency get you this kind of happy results?
by Next Wave Team | Jun 10, 2007 | 2007 AAF National Convention, Advertising, Apple Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Practical Marketing 101
When the “Get a Mac” campaign broke - we wrote about it, comparing it to the Burger King Manthem spot from Crispin Porter + Bogusky. We said one was a campaign, the other- a one shot wonder. One had brilliant strategy, the other a big budget. And for all the things we said, it turned true: TBWA Chiat Day is still churning out more of the simple spots- and Burger King is on execution 243.
Effie Awards : Effie Awards Press Release
June 8, 2007 (New York, NY) – Apple Inc.’s “Get a Mac” campaign, created by Media Arts Lab\TBWA was awarded the Grand Effie at the 39th Annual Effie Awards gala last night at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York. The Effie Awards honor the most significant achievement in the business of marketing communications: ideas that work. Results from the “Get a Mac” campaign included market share growth of 42%, record sales and cultural influence.
“After much spirited discussion, the jury unanimously awarded Apple the Grand Effie for its portrayal of the Mac/PC rivalry. They managed to do it with humor, class, and honesty without falling into the trap of overtly negative competitive advertising,” said John Butler, Co-Creative Director of Butler Shine Stern & Partners and the 2007 Grand Effie Jury Chair.
There was a quote I heard at the 2007 AAF National Convention that summed the contrast of these two ideas up quite nicely:
“practice safe advertising: never do it without a concept”
Take note- a great concept wins an effie- and a stock price that’s climbed 50+ points- the other, continues to require extraordinary efforts to keep the brand fresh.
3 cheers to TBWA/Chiat/Day.
