Peter Levitan & Co.
The New Business of Advertising
Hi.
If you go to AdPulp… You will see a post I put up yesterday on how the Seattle agency Copacino+Fujikado has done a smart digital trick with their website that puts most other ad agency (and digital for that matter) “wanna-be” we’ll show you our social chops efforts to shame.
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.
StoryWorldwide hammers home a few key, compelling points.
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.
I woke up, read my mail and saw these three quotes in an eMarketer email. They got me thinking fast.
You are an advertising agency. You worry about how to be digitally relevant in the next couple of years — or perish. Here are just three quotes from eMarketer that can act as thought starters. if these don’t start your mind, maybe its time to, um, bail?
By 2016 nearly a quarter of the world will be using location based services.
US online video ad spending will nearly triple in the next four years.
43 million Americans convert to using smart phones every minute.
If you need one more idea, another path to agency success lies in the following eMarketer chart. And, no it isn’t rushing onto the Facebook or Twitter scrum.
Today’s marketing advertising and digital agencies need a well-considered marketing plan to plan and build a profitable marketing communications agency for the future. The problem: most agencies don’t have a plan.
Through my experience as a board member of the Portland Advertising Federation, a business development director working across the global Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide network, President of the Newspaper Association of America’s Digital Federation and an Internet entrepreneur, I have been continually amazed that most agencies, media and tech companies don’t have a master plan. Considering the rapid changes happening in the advertising and technology industries, I can’t imagine navigating the marketplace without one. [Read more…] about Why Don’t Advertising & Digital Agencies Have A Business Plan?
This is my first Agency of the Week post. My criteria includes: agencies that deliver some distinction, a competitive positioning, have figured out what the agency of the future might look like, delivers “great” work (my personal opinion), appears to be a destination agency for incoming new business and seems to be able to get out of their way to sell themselves. And, this is a rare one, has some soul and maybe even a sense of humor.
JESS3. LA and Oklahoma City. Not the usual mix. (Compare JESS3 to other LA agencies here in the Pinterest Advertising and Digital Agency directory.)
At JESS3 we take complex topics and large data sets and make them accessible through beautiful visuals.
We are a creative interactive agency that specializes in the art of data visualization, adding context and meaning to the exponentially growing world of data around us.
And…
JESS3 is a creative interactive agency that specializes in visual storytelling. We challenge ourselves and our clients to push the limits of what creativity and engagement means. Our services range from UI / UX, animation, content creation and digital PR to developing large-scale installations, social strategies, data visualizations and infographics.
They specialize. A major zag while other agencies zig by trying to do too much and have an unfocussed agency positioning.
They are positioned for success. They meld data with visual storytelling. Two biggies.
They have lots of cool clients like Amnesty International, AMEX, Chobani, CSPAN, GE, Facebook, Google, Samsung and Skype.
“JESS# Named to iMedia 25 Agencies to Watch”
iMedia Connection named JESS3 to the iMedia 25 agency list, recognizing JESS3 as a key agency that has advanced interactive marketing through big ideas, brilliant creative, cutting-edge technology, and the passionate pursuit of excellence in the digital space. Citing our work with Samsung, ESPN, American Express, and recent partnership with the Google Politics and Elections team for the 2012 National Conventions, the article states, “JESS3 has a gift for turning numbers into stories and a passion for creating content strategies that resonate over the long haul.”
Hit their creepy cupids on Pinterest.
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