Agency of the Week

barrettSF And Argonaut: San Francisco (TV) Advertising Agencies of the Week

Peter · March 26, 2013 · 1 Comment

I started my career in San Francisco as a photographer working for advertising agencies. This was way pre-Internet in a world of TV advertising dominance. In those days, San Francisco agencies led with their ½” reels. Today, one would suspect that they lead with their digital, mobile and social portfolios. Interestingly, for a couple of new Bay Area agencies, the lead is proudly TV.

It seems that San Francisco has lately been a hotbed for new agencies. I first heard about Argonaut and barrettSF in the rather breathy “San Francisco’s Thriving Agency Start-Up Scene“ article by Stuart Elliot in The New York Times.

It’s intriguing to see new broadcast-oriented agencies go for it at the tail end of our recession and in a world of daily “traditional advertising is dead” articles. So, what’s up with the optimism? From the Times:

“The Bay Area is quite vibrant these days,” said Robert G. Vallee Jr., chairman and chief executive at Project WorldWide. “There’s a lot of opportunity out there.”

Agencies in San Francisco are benefiting from a trend in which marketers that once used only agencies with which they had defined relationships on accounts — agencies of record, in industry parlance — are handing out creative assignments to other shops, Mr. Vallee said.”

The Times article reports that Amy Hoover, President at Atlanta’s TalentZoo, identified another trend that must be top of mind at every SF agency:

“The San Francisco ad market is being influenced by the entrepreneurial spirit of nearby Silicon Valley as agency employees are inspired to go into business for themselves with “a lot of breakoffs, guys starting their own thing.”

Argonaut

Argonaut looks the part. It has the SF creative types from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Agency.com, DraftFCB and even more Goodby and a website that drives its San Francisco brand. The website is lean and cool but I’m not really sure the manifesto is distinctive or what the sales proposition is beyond the standard we are an advertising agency that thinks. Here is the message…

Let’s be clear here. We’re an advertising agency. We make things that surprise and delight the world. But our focus is also on helping clients tackle their hairiest business problems, not just their advertising challenges.

We’re about people first – the best talent teamed with the bravest clients. We don’t have a hit list of brands we want to go after. Instead, we have a list of people we’d kill to work with, again or for the first time.

We’re looking for courageous souls and fearless thinkers more interested in making history than repeating it, all in pursuit of work that both drives business results and leaves a dent in culture.

But, beyond the website messaging, the crew is clearly heavy-hitter and the work, at least what they show for Chevy, Coke and HP in their show reel, is major league TV.

barretSF

Another Goodby offshoot, barrettSF is also a TV heavy shop (wow, Goodby’s HR department must be working overtime.) barrettSF has a fine goal: “We want to be the best advertising agency in the world.“ This message isn’t supported on the site but, hey, why not. Their own lean website also drives home the San Francisco vibe and branding (SF creative sure like the Golden Gate Bridge.) Again, from the Stuart Elliot article:

“I’m not sure many people start agencies with the initials of the city,” said Jamie Barrett, a partner at barrettSF. In May, he left Goodby, Silverstein, where he had been partner and executive creative director, to start the agency with Patrick Kelly, another former executive at Goodby, Silverstein.

We are proud of the market and excited about the market,” said Mr. Barrett, whose fledgling shop has two clients, the California Redwood Association and the Pacific-12 Networks. He and Mr. Kelly are bringing in a third partner, Pete Harvey, who also joins from Goodby, Silverstein.”

The barrettSF work section is also serious with spots for Chevy, Ebay, HBO, the NBA, Nike and Saturn.

So, what’s up here?

I am sensing that there is a core of experienced antsy agency executives that feel the need to break out (especially in the Northern California world of start-up mania), get their hands dirtier and offer clients, hopefully the large ones these agency execs have become accustomed to, world-class creativity from a leaner more nimble shop. Timing and the benefits for clients is mentioned in another article on barrettSF from ADWEEK:

“It’s a challenge for agencies, but a great time for clients because small, new startup agencies have a tremendous amount of top-level talent that is underutilized,” said Ken Robinson of Ark Advisors. “It’s a terrific opportunity to get people who are going to work even harder to prove themselves and give you tremendous access and great insight.”

All said, I find the concentration on TV by these agencies curious. Is there really that much stand-alone TV work out there? Clearly, clients are filling up the commercial blocks and agencies like 72andSunny are growing based on their TV work. However, beyond the big advertisers, isn’t the market moving to digital?

It will be interesting to watch Argonaut and barrettSF as they evolve. I must assume that what the websites show today is an early incarnation and that both agencies will evolve their messaging to sell a more holistic approach and, importantly, create needed differentiation between these two ex-Goodby groups.

Need help growing your agency, want to hear a Saatchi story, miss Don Corleone… its all here.

Wexley School For Girls: Advertising Agency Of The Week

Peter · March 20, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Did you hear the one about the ad agency? Probably not. There isn’t much humor in the ad biz. An advertising (or digital or PR) agency with a sense of humor is as rare as a Sasquatch sighting. Believe me. I’ve looked at hundreds of agency websites. But, but, check out the Wexley School For Girls.

FYI: This was written in 2013. Sadly Wexley School For Girls closed. Word on the street is that most of the Wexleyittes moved to Panama. I have not changed the post’s tense (as in today vs. yesterday to protect the innocent).

But, Seattle’s Wexley School For Girls has delightfully stared down the idea that dull is a positive agency attribute. Wexley has built a strong business around the idea of quirky plus sound strategic thinking plus compelling execution. This formula has netted them a very sweet client roster that recognizes that boring is boring and boring doesn’t cut it in a world where consumers / viewers now control the advertising experience.

How Funny?

Lets start with the name Wexley School For Girls. In a world of agency initials, founder names, cute names (I admit to this, my agency was called Citrus) and names that are so random and universal that it takes five minutes to find the agency on Google (go find Breakfast.) In me-too name-land, Wexley stands way out.

As Seattle Weekly reported in 2007:

“The name,” jokes the 40-year-old Ian Cohen, “came from a group of nuns in Wexleyshire, England. They were cantaloupe farmers with a holistic approach to their garden.” Advertising Age put Wexley first on its 2006 list of favorite agency names; the company beat out Tokyo Plastic, 86 the Onions, and Acne.”

Attitude?

“We really kind of want to be ridiculous, and it seems ridiculous that you could actually do business in this building,” says Cal McAllister, whose company does business with Nike, Microsoft and ESPN and others. “I think overall that Wexley is funny, but it’s not a joke.”

Agree, Wexley is funny / different in a world of ad agencies that barely register any sense of brand differentiation.

This attitude is carried across all the agency’s brand messaging.

Here are some shots of Wexley’s Seattle office.

Twitter.

Wexley’s Twitter profile reads like an effective online dating profile and why not? Even prospective clients are looking for an “interesting date.”

@Wexley Advertising agency filled to the brim with incredibly creative, attractive, cut, cut, buff, ridiculously gifted, yet humble and gorgeous people. Everywhere. And in Seattle.

On to the agency’s LinkedIn profile, which now adds a strong direct / social sales proposition (other than their buffness) by introducing the idea of Fan Factory.

Wexley is a fan factory. We take your money and turn it into thousands, tens of thousands, millions of thousands of crazy people. We can create them. We can reinvigorate them. We will deliver them. Fans that stay for a lifetime of loyalty, with the spending and championing that comes with it.

Our biggest value as an advertising agency is not just getting fans in the door, but earning and sustaining their fanship over the long haul by entertaining them time and time again. As they hold you in their hearts and minds and on the tips of their tongues, we engage them in ways you can imagine and others you cannot. It’s pretty simple, really.

And, YouTube.

Wexley continues to drive their brand mantra across YouTube and supports it with work that would not come out of stodgyville. Wexley has 64 videos up. Well over the agency average (vs., just for the hell of it, Droga5’s 54.). Take a look at this video for otherwise stodgy Microsoft’s Window Phone. And, note that it’s close to 1 million views.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PitGqCeJF8c

And, Facebook.

Hello there. FYI: Facebook was our idea in the mid 90’s and even though Al Gore created the internet, we thought of the phrase, “Information Super Highway.” So, yeah, you’re welcome people of the internet.

The Wexley School For Girls Website?

Not a me-too site. Here is an early version. Simple, to put it mildly. The soundtrack made it — maybe. Well, it always made me need to click through. So, it acted as an audio CTTSTM thing (I just made that up… CTTSTM = click-through-to-stop-the-music.)

Today? Click around the golf balls (marketing directors like golf balls) to see work for: ESPN, Microsoft, Oberto, Rainier, Taco del Mar, and Wilson.

Once you’ve seen the work and heard the story, Wexley sends you to a contact page that actually seeks contact and makes the hard to resist offers of, “If you want to hire us and make yourself rich and famous call:” There is even a humorous message for job seekers if you want to move on from your not so funny agency.

A caveat… I mentioned Wexley to an agency friend. She thinks that they, and the way they talk about themselves, might register as being a bit too full of themselves. OK, I can see where she is coming from — and yes not being too full is a Northwest attitude red flag. But, ALL agencies are full of themselves. In this case, it’s nice to see an agency that at least knows how to express its ego and use it as a sales proposition.

Do You Need A New Name? One As Good As Wexley School For Girls?

Here is how to name an advertising agency.

The World’s Fastest Agency: Advertising Agency Of The Week

Peter · March 19, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Either bull shit or brilliant. We’ll see. But, what it is… is…. f*cking smart. In our world of ad and digital agency sameness, same agency services, pitch, cute names, social media “expertise”, we now have the World’s Fastest Agency. An “idea” agency with a differentiated brand proposition — and edge. How refreshing.

The drill: Deliver services in our world of instant marketing by building a network of creatives that delivers rapid turnaround marketing. Rapid? You remember the Oreo Super Bowl real-time marketing event. Rapid as in virtually instant. Here is what the World’s Fastest Agency says about themselves in a press release:

World’s Fastest Agency is a new kind of marketing and communications agency.

From briefing to a creative solution within 24 hours, WFA helps time-pressured clients keep pace with the lightning fast 24/7 global media and social culture.

Clients can say goodbye to 100-page PowerPoint decks, meetings, weeks of fee negotiation, countless emails, more meetings, lunch, meetings, scope of work to-ing and fro-ing, meetings, more emails, Q&A sessions, tissue meetings, inaudible conference call, pitch, feedback, feedback on the feedback, re-briefing, re-pitching, another meeting, more feedback, focus groups, another meeting, more emails….

And on their website they offer this compelling promise:

WFA helps time-pressured clients keep pace with the lightening fast 24/7 global media and social culture.

Here is the process and, yes folks, pricing.

Note that they are inexpensive at $999 and fast. Two of those three things that clients want. The other? Great work. My bet is that guys are smart enough to be able to deliver all three. The Holy Grail!

See other Advertising Agency of the Week thoughts here.

Instrument: Advertising Agency Of The Week

Peter · March 8, 2013 · Leave a Comment

When I ask digital / advertising people in the Pacific Northwest what agency is hot, they most often mention Portland’s digital agency Instrument. We all know that hot is a relative term but when I hear an agency’s name and “hot” come up often, I have to assume that something is up. Portland gets hot as we’ve been living with Wieden + Kennedy and their definition of the concept of hot for decades… with no end in sight. Even today’s white hot 72andSunny’s luminescence will dim in comparison if they can’t keep Samsung moving forward.

So, why is Instrument hot? It’s usually a combination of factors, but the secret ingredient is generally having cool clients that are currently hot in their own right and want to nail younger markets (OK, I’ll calm down on the temperature thing.)

In Instrument’s case, they list work for client’s like: Google’s search app (and Oscars, Olympics and March Madness work), Nike’s Fuelstream and Designedtomove.org which had its introduction at the Clinton Global Initiative, the Colors Campaign for Beats by Dre, and Red Bull #givesyouwings. Google, Nike, Red Bull and Dre. Not bad. The only possible issue I see is that there is a concentration in work for Nike and Google. Most agencies would be glad to take this, but client concentration, as in billings, can wind up being painful.

Oh, one more cool factor = the office. Being Portland, Instrument has a wide open space with a wooden TeePee — take that Brooklyn, NY! (Image and office tour at VSCO):

Bottom line? Instrument will be a very interesting agency to watch to see if it maintains its trajectory. They have clearly excited super brands and have gotten repeat business that bodes well for their creative and tech chops and client service (an element not to be underrated.)

My bet is that the key to Instrument’s success will be how to manage their growth with the need for building a diverse client base via a smart business development program and some needed national press. In this case, not being in Brooklyn hurts a bit. That said, it’s nice to watch Instrument kill it in Portland.

See other Advertising Agency Of The Week agencies

StoryWorldwide: Advertising Agency Of The Week

Peter · March 2, 2013 · 1 Comment

Native advertising, content marketing, curation, death. Ah, I love our 2013 advertising buzzwords. I also love seeing companies that are perfectly positioned to take advantage of these buzzwords. This week’s Agency of the Week is just that. They also going to be unhappy with me because I call them the dirty words “advertising agency.”

StoryWorldwide calls itself a “post-advertising” agency that engages consumers through storytelling. The agency sure makes it sound like it’s the right agency for the right time. By the way, the “death” from above is about the looming death of advertising as we know it. I think that Digiday writes about the death of traditional advertising agencies every day. I’m not saying they are wrong. But, it has become an ever evergreen theme for them.

Here is the essence of the StoryWorldwide story – it’s a nice clear message in a word of fuzzy agency messaging:

In this post-advertising age, we work to connect brands directly to customers by telling engaging stories that audiences actually want to hear.

The idea of building audience engagement is not wholly unique, but StoryWorldwide grabbed the idea long before other agencies started to glom on. Plus, they managed to grab the brand name “story.”

StoryWorldwide goes further with this competitive stake-in-the-ground…

Today, brands are competing with filmmakers, writers and entertainers, not other brands.

Story is the world’s first post-advertising agency, applying established storytelling techniques and talent to marketing and communications.

Our work includes integrated campaigns and through-media content for clients such as Lexus, Unilever, Estee Lauder Companies and J&J.

The agency delivers a complete package by “creating stories, telling stories and spreading stories.”

StoryWorldwide is interestingly worldwide, with offices in Asia, Europe and North America. They seem to be cooking with a blue-chip client list that includes Bank of America, Chile’s Epica Wines, Columbia University, Holland America (talk about an industry that needs some good news), Lexus and Starbucks to name a few. They also own a Cannes Lion Bronze.

Why Do I Dig?

StoryWorldwide hammers home a few key, compelling points.

They have positioned themselves to own the storytelling niche. What client wouldn’t want to tell a story? Hey, they love their stories.
Their niche has legs. They can do digital, video, publishing and installations. They can even do good old-fashioned TV if they wanted to.
Business development should be a slam-dunk.
The agency likes to sound smart. This is always good news for nervous CMO’s.

Here is one of their videos (they have 20 on their YouTube channel.) At 52,000 views it has a decent view count. For a comparative YouTube view count, Ogilvy’s “Storytelling: Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland on Defining the Narrative” has only 900 views.

Last week’s Agency of the Week was Jess3.