Agency Spy

Fast Company has released their annual “50 Most Innovative Companies” list and Anomaly is the only ad agency to be represented. Anomaly comes in at twenty-four with the opening line of:

“There’s a body lining on the floor - no actual flesh, just the crime-scene white-tape outline of a 6-foot-tall man frozen in a mad dash. “Here it is, death of the old advertising model,” smirks Jason DeLand, a partner at Anomaly, pointing at the floor of his company’s Soho loft space. “Shot as he was running out.”‘

Smirk. That sounds about right. Read it all here.

AKQA is number 48. Nice.

“Which is why, after five consecutive years of profitability, AKQA is one of the most dangerous global forces in the ad industry. While ad holding companies and tech firms spent billions in 2007 to snap up digital shops, AKQA fended them off, opting instead for a $250 million investment from private-equity firm General Atlantic.”

See it here.

The rest of the list is as you would expect: Google is number one, Apple, two and Facebook, three. Nintendo is ten. They deserve it. Method, the eco-friendly cleaning product company, comes in at sixteen. In 2005, the company brought in $15M, but by 2007, they were up $100M. Whole Foods is thirty six and on and on.

Another Anomaly, the spawn of Anomaly, has released its first piece of work. “The-little-shop-that-maybe-can” was charged with developing and implementing a non-traditional marketing plan to ensure New Yorkers hear about a fight taking place on January 17th for Jones v Trinidad.

So, a non-traditional marketing plan coming from a small and radical new shop? One would expect that it would be creative and at least somewhat compelling. Not so much. Here are some of the elements:

- Projection text media in partnership with Visual Goodness and the technology of Paul Notzold. We love this part. We love this tech every time we see it.

- The online viral campaign is a boxing postcard. Why the URL has “game” in it (http://www.msgboxinggame.com ) we’ll never know, as there is nothing “gamey” about it.

– They got Beanie Sigel to give a track from his new album. As Another Anomaly hypes him inconjuction with the fight, Siegel mentions them on radio. Standard PR fare.

There’s also some traditional stuff (print, broadcast, radio, etc.). They sent some ring girls around town and got one of the fighters to get snaps with the Knicks. Did some wall paintings, too. Yawn. Oh and they reached out to the Hispanic community. We’re no sure how, but it’s bound to be just as interesting as the rest of this stuff.

When Another Anomaly was announced, there was all this talk of providing services dealing in IP, marketing communications and “whatever the new partners feel passionate about.” To the partners, do you guys feel passionately about the fight or the work you’ve created to promote it? Where’s the IP anyway?

You know, the best marketing we ever saw for a fight dealt with the recent Hatton/Mayweather match on HBO. The cable station produced a traditional marketing reality show called 24/7, which followed the fighters for three weeks before the big night. No one in my brownstone (3 boys and 1 gal) watches boxing. We’re more soccer, football and video game enthusiasts. Quite accidentally, we all fell into watching the third episode, as it followed behind a re-run of The Wire. From that moment on, we were hooked on two people and an event that we had been oblivious of only moments before. People took sides. Hatton’s tagline of “A pint and a fight” became the mantra of the house. We called friends and made them watch the show. On fight night, we got some beer, food and 25 of our nearest and dearest over to watch the boys slug it out. It was awesome. We were yelling. We were invested, became advocates. Maybe, just maybe… simplicity can be more effective, better - a pint and fight and some emotion. That’s all you need. Just a thought.

AdWeek is reporting that Virgin America and hot ad shop Anomaly are parting ways - amicably. According to our inside sources, the Ad-almost-every-other-Week has gotten the story right, but we have a bit more information. Anomaly and Virgin are to remain good friends and is likely to do work for the brand informally. Virgin America is apparently looking for JUST an advertising agency. You know, a firm that is just going to produce ads, not take advantage of Anomaly’s more analytical, over arching brand and content approach, which is often tied to entrepenurialism/innovation, and thus, profit sharing.

For more on Anomaly’s approach, see here. The Virgin America account is headed into review.

Meanwhile, in the UK, WPP-owned advertising agency RKCR/Y&R has resigned the £6m-a-year Virgin Money. The agency is afraid of account conflicts between their long time account Lloyds TSB and Richard Branson impending purchase of the crumbling Northern Rock. Read more here.

Remember how we were wondering about what happened to the Converse brand? Anomaly has managed to save one of our favorite sneaker company from the decade’s mad rush to luxury and a too-cool for school image. Love the new commercials. LOVE. The agency has taken Converse back to its sweet spot - authenticity, the feeling of being mashed up against the stage at a show; music and the power of… so good. And then, they’ve got a second spot where a “Me” turns to a “We.” Did someone read our piece titled “I versus We”? Nah, probably not. It’s in the collective unconscious and Anomaly was just smart enough to pull it out.

Mike Byrne, Partner and Creative Director at Anomaly told AS that:

“We wanted to be disruptive but “positively disrupt.” So jar people a bit from their regularly scheduled program and make them think a little. Leave them with a little residue. A little homework to do.”

The Converse team said that: “In terms of the media behind this we’re going quite broad but into places where we can disrupt. MTV, VH1 for ‘3 chords’ and ‘Unsigned Band’…MEWe is going into political programming and places online and offline, big and small where there is a debate going on – sport, politics, music - wherever. It’s about being disruptive with the media and the message.”

We have always had trouble with the idea of advertising being “disruptive.” Words count and that one, always rings with negativity for us and we’re sure, consumers, too. That’s why we’re pleased to see Byrne adding in the word “positively.” Precise language makes a big difference in perception.

Hot shop Anomaly is supposedly backing marketing/trend whiz/PSFK co-founder Piers Fawkes and consumer insight genius Maria Vrachnos in a new endeavor called Peep Insights that will bring reliable, exacting and of the moment insights to brands, and maybe agencies, too. Fawkes will reportedly be releasing more details at Future Trends Conference today. We’ll let you know what he says. Anomaly is so crafty.

The Brazilian version of Advertising Age will running the above spot next Monday in a full page spread for small agency ag407. The small print reads - “Online, offline, bellow the line. It is just a symptomatic mood of a chaotic moment. Ah ah ah, stay in the line.” We’re sure you don’t need any help reading the word fuck.

We contacted ag407 chief Alex Von Schonburg to find out why the shop felt the need to use the expletive. Call us pessimists, but we expected some silly logic in response, but got a passionate plea that is worth posting. Please keep in mind that Alex’s first language, nor second, is English.

“The reason we used the word “Fuck” in the headline and the weird copy is, that we are quite exasperated by a very futile discussion going on right now in Brazil, about what works better, classic advertising or the new medias, or which agencies are better, the classic ones or the online, or who is going to die first, and so on. Mainstream agencies are running ads in the mainstream media, telling [sic] that they are the best option, while digital ones are doing the same. Others are giving some ridiculous denominations to convey that they do everything, like: 360º, holistic, multidisciplinary, and God knows what. And meanwhile and light years away, Mother, CP+B, Anomaly, Gluesociety are doing one terrific stuff [sic] after the other, even Simon Waterfall from Poke, a digital company, was elected D&AD president. So we thought, it was about time for someone to make a call, that maybe it is time for us to burry this nonsense, and just focus on what we should, doing just good work, regardless where.”

If you aren’t operating in the U.S. and have something to say about the industry at large, please send us an email with your thoughts and affiliation - agencyspy at mediabistro dot com

Read More: Global Ad Perspectives: British Royalty 

Miami HEAT guard Dwyane Wade’s life is getting the “fuzzy-focus” feel in a new integrated marketing campaign highlighting the “basketball journey of a skinny kid from Illinois to an NBA Champion.” The spot, titled, “From Robbins, Illinois” was inspired by a letter written by Wade to describe his relationship with basketball. Directed by Samuel Bayer, the spot is a tear jerker. Naturally, considering that the WADE 3 advertising campaign was headed up by Anomaly’s creative director Mike Byrne. Formerly of Wieden + Kennedy, Byrne 2000 to 2006 creating those almost iconic touching, inspiring Nike spots. Watch the Dwayen Wade commerical here. The television spot will begin running October 28, 2007 on ESPN, MTV, BET and during NBA programming.

“Being out last season with injuries reminded me of my first year at Marquette University when I had to sit out for a year. It was like basketball was being taken away from me again and it inspired me to put my thoughts on paper. Most people may not believe that I wrote this, but I did,” said Dwyane Wade.

Read More: Anomaly Is Going To Be Rich Bitch

Piers Fawkes has just posted one of his amazing interviews on his site PSFK. This time it’s with Johnny Vulkan on his and now the industry’s newest hot concept - branded utility. Interesting short read about the idea of “good” and whether or not agencies need to participate in this cultural shift to the light and if so, how. Sample:

P: What’s your biggest concern with what’s going on today?

J: Apart from my own lack of time and increasing RSS list? - I actually feel very positive and optimistic. It may seem strange given a backdrop of intensely reported unrest, violence and inequality in many parts of the world, but at the same time I think we are in a position to really help and start addressing some of these issues.

Read it all here.

Yeah, yeah… we’re going to take a moment and toot our own horn. On June 22nd, we said that the rumor was that New York based indie agency Anomaly scored the Converse account. Today, AdWeek is reporting the same info. What can we say? We’re good.

Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners broke up with Converse this spring after having worked on the account for three years. The account has an estimated $20 million in billings. But, Anomaly has their work cut out for them if you ask us. Read our thoughts on the brand here: What Happened To Converse?

Anomaly this. Anomaly that. There’s a good reason the indie agency’s name is on everyone’s lips. Consider their recent launch of their new company Another Anomaly that has its own product line. Whoa. Business Week has a piece today about the New York based shop’s dive into intellectual property agreements with its clients. Like all good business men, founders Carl Johnson, Sal LaGreca, and Johnny Vulkan have realized that there is lot more power and cash in owning the product then just schilling for it. This may be the model of the future that keeps advertising agency’s in business, while expanding the scope of what they can do. Johnson notes that the motivation to help a brand succeed is intensified when you’ve won a piece of the business’ future. Naturally. “When we own the IP or we share in the revenue, you can bet we’re going to work all day, every day.”

Defer regular payments for percentage? You may think that advertisers would bulk at such a proposition. Think again. Read the rest of this entry »