Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

digital marketing

Nike+ Accelerator, TechStars, Wieden+Kennedy, Opal Labs and Moi

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Nike Fuel Band Preorder Restock Nike InsiderShould advertising agencies get involved with the digital startup scene? Is going down this digital road a smart idea? What’s the payoff? I wanted to know so I assembled some of Portland’s leading accelerator (Nike+ Accelerator and UpStart Labs), advertising agency (Wieden+Kennedy) and very sharp startup (Opal Labs) leaders for a Portland Ad Federation session.

It grooved. Check it out. Oh, moi? I’m the moderator.

Here is how the Ad Fed announced the program:

GET STARTED:  PORTLAND’S CREATIVE COMMUNITY AND THE STARTUP SCENE

Portland has hit the radar: Business Week has noted the stunning growth of our tech scene. Local start-ups are actually being funded fueling awareness and rivaling Portland’s larger competitors (like San Francisco).

The fuel for the fire? Accelerators (PIE: Portland Incubator Experiment) in partnership with leading brands, technology innovators, and trend setting local agencies (Wieden+Kennedy); Upstart Labs is helping grow local companies Chirpify and Celly; and the Nike+ Accelerator is powering TechStars and Nike.

PAF’s GET STARTED gives you a front-row seat by bringing together the leaders of PIE, Upstart and Nike+ Accelerator. Unearthing the magic behind growing startups, they’ll outline how advertising and digital agencies can and are providing guidance and support to bring companies to life. You’ll learn how your agency/company can participate in this trend and how you’ll benefit and grow from your own tech chops alongside your startup partners.

Our panel of PORTLAND INSIDERS will add perspective to nurturing an internal startup:

DYLAN BOYD, Managing Director, Nike+ Accelerator
KEVIN TATE, General Partner, Upstart Labs
RENNY GLEESON, Co-Founder, PIE / Digital Guru at Wieden+Kennedy
STEVE GIANNINI, President & CFO, Opal Labs
GEORGE HUFF, CEO, Opal Labs
PETER LEVITAN, Peter Levitan & Co.
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By the way, I was the founder and CEO of two Internet startups. Microsoft bought one. You can read about them and other fascinating facts right here.

Finally, A Fcking Ad Agency Blog Worth Reading

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I’m talking about The Escape Pod’s blog.

The Escape Pod

Ok, its not the only ad agency blog worth reading, but, hey, lets face it, how many of these word-rich-self-loving missives ever enrich anything? Ooops, I’m being harsh.

 

In my line of work I read (well, actually scan) a bunch of ad agency blogs. Note to my clients: I actually do read your blogs, I swear it!

Ok, for all of you other ad agencies. Here are some thoughts on what to do and some reasons I like The Escape Pod’s blog.

  1. Please be fun to read. Fun does not have to mean witty (although Escape Pod is witty) — it just means fun (which can also, for me, mean intellectually stimulating.)
  2. Have a (fresh) point of view.
  3. Have a personality. Its OK if your blog sounds like a human wrote it.
  4. Don’t parrot everyone else. We’all don’t need more words on how to blog; the joy of  responsive design; Twitter for marketers; or the post (this is real) -> “The New Landscape of Content Marketing” from one of Chicago’s leading agencies. Note to self: I might err on this “don’t parrot” thing, since this post is about an agency’s blog.
  5. Enlighten me: Like “Behold the Power of  Video Demonstration” does, even if it isn’t what you’d expect a creative agency to love.
  6. Get the idea of Portland.
  7. Oh, and have a really smart kid.

One more point. Have an agency About page that moves the reader.

Bottom line? The Escape Pod is interesting and makes interesting advertising. Interesting is good. Interesting sells.

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Email me – look up and left for an email link – and lets discuss how your agency will never do irrelevant (as in not strategic) blog postings.

IDL Worldwide & Best Ad Agency Sign

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logo-idlOne could argue that coming up with recognition for “Best Agency Sign” is not that relevant to the ad business. But, IDL Worldwide, as they say on Twitter: “@IDLWorldwide. Brand in Real Life”, is about experiences. To kinda prove the point to people walking through Portland’s trendy North Park Blocks (I say trendy just to piss off Portland folks) that IDL lives up to “real life”, they have a Working / Playing neon sign over their front door.

Since sizable crowds walk by the agency during Portland’s First Thursday Art Walk, the agency proudly declares PLAYING while serving free beers to people who come into see IDL’s art show.

So, what I dig is that they are living and declaring the agency’s stated mantra and reason for being.

Here is their neon sign which changes from…

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Leagas Delaney + Booz & Company + Snowden

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Edward SnowdenFrom 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.

 

 

 

Summly, Nick D’Aloisio, Bloomberg, Charlie Rose and Yahoo! (And Advertising)

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The press take on Nick D’Aloisio and his sale of the news app Summly to Yahoo! for a reported $30,000,000 made big news because he is 17. He has much more going for him than just his age.

Watch this really inspiring interview with Nick on Charlie Rose. One of Nick’s main points is that he built Summly, which has been pulled off the iTunes store while its moved into Yahoo! land, as a tool to summerize the news (and soon more) for the small screen. Nick zeroed in on the insight that people under 25 are mobile-phone centric. They use their phones as their first screen, not the second and he built Summly for his kinsmen.  The idea of phone-as-first-screen is a wonderful disrupter.

And, yes, there is more Nick… Here he is on Bloomberg. This interview is a bit more entertainment oriented.

While you are here, go here to see what I do.