A Strategic Guide To How To Find Your New Advertising Agency Name
This is Part One of a two-part series on how to name your advertising agency (or, most businesses for that matter).
Other than the gyrations that agencies constantly go through with how to position their agency (go here to see my advice on agency positioning); design and redesign their website… how they name themselves is one of their most important branding decisions.
I worked for three advertising agencies. Two were “founder” agencies: Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (remember “Where’s the beef?”) and Saatchi & Saatchi (which bought Dancer) and the other was my very own Portland agency and its “current usage” name: Citrus. Or, as one of our creative directors thought was critical to our success, citrus, with a lower case “c.’
A Question…
Do advertising names matter? Wow, this is a tough one to answer. As you will see from the different naming conventions listed below, how one chooses a name is a broad journey. However, just for the hell of it, here are some of the names for AdAge’s 2018 Small Agency Awards. Do any of these agency names instill immediate confidence? A must call reaction? Are memorable?
- Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners
- Mistress
- Johnxhannes
- The Chopping Block
- Funworks
- Oberland
- Walrus (cool website)
- Phenomenon
- Brownstein Group
- Steak
- Yard
- G&M Plumbing
- Spawn ideas
- Next/Now
My favorite (at least for this one second) is Next/Now. This name kind of meets a client pain point.
Part One: The Wonderful World of the Advertising Agency Name
I recently asked one of my advertising agency clients how they selected their name (note, it’s a word you use every day in your kitchen.) They said that they went through a fairly random process with the goal of finding a name that was easy to remember and not taken. Well, that’s one way to do it. Another is to apply process. [Read more…] about How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part One