From the June 26th edition of Britain’s advertising industry Campaign Magazine comes this rather timely headline:
Leagas Delaney launches tech alliance with Booz & Company
Teams from the two companies will be created to work on designing customer experience, crafting technology solutions and working with clients to launch these solutions. Discussions with potential clients have begun.
Delaney said: “Our combined model with Booz Digital will bring CEOs and CMOs the confidence that their vision for transforming their business can be realised because we understand the accelerated change that consumers’ digital demands create.”
Imagine. You are Leagas’ founder Tim Delaney and you are sitting on this big news and you wake up a week earlier to this headline:
Booz Allen Hamilton: Edward Snowden News ‘Shocking’, ‘A Grave Violation’
Now, to be factual, Booz and Booz Allen Hamilton (Snowden’s employer and earner of $3.8 billion in secretive U.S. defense contracts) are separate companies. Booz was spun out a few years ago. But, its all a bit confusing. And the branding issue, like who knows that Booz and Booz aren’t the same…. well, you know.
So, whether Leagas likes it or not*, to the unknowing, they are now associated with America’s latest whistle-blower / traitor-type.
*By the way, timing and unfortunate branding issues aside, the idea of an advertising agency teaming up with a smart tech company is brilliant. I have been preaching this type of alliance since 1995 when I left Saatchi to found my first Internet start-up.
