The Who’s Who Of Advertising

How did we miss this? Hilarious lyrics, great editing, funny little plot that centers around the love/hate process of creating a demo. It’s for the website Hank Music, which is an online website offering music ready to be licensed for your next spot. The commercial stars (and it’s a long list of advertising notables):

New Agency Alert: Anomaly Gives Birth

Looks like Anomaly (the hot shop du jour) is launching a new agency - of sorts. Johnny “Hot Shit” Vulkan’s Flickr page is currently being used to announce the birth of this shop, which is called Another Anomaly. The company will have its own partners and office, as well as clients. Apparently, they’ve already got two on its roster. Plus - and this is where you should be getting all hot and bothered - Another Anomaly has a product line of some sort. Being one of those new fandangled agencies, the shop will provide services dealing in IP, marketing communications and “whatever the new partners feel passionate about.” That’s one way to keep our business fresh and fun. Godspeed. Marc Brownstein - are you listening?

So… who are the partners? Who are the clients and what’s the product line? Do you know? Tell us - agencyspy @ mediabistro dot com

Denver Is The New Portland?

If Cannes, is well Cannes, then The New Denver Ad Club 50 competition might be like Sundance - for people in Colorado that is. The club was started by a bunch of advertising professionals living in the city as a way to promote their ad industry. The club also has a group for professionals age 32 and under, called AD2 Denver. Ohh… These kids really love their home town, no? Denver is supposedly going to be the next Portland. Didn’t you know that Alex Bogusky, creative director of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, loves it there? Here’s the thing, the press release we got makes it clear that this isn’t a competition, but more of a showcase. It’s a free for all with judges picking what they like, just because they like it. Kinda neat actually. The fifty winners get placed in the Denver50 show book and that’s about it.
Judges for this first time out include: Mike Byrne, CD and partner at Anomaly/NY - Kevin Roddy ECD at BBH/NY - Robert Rasmussen, CD at JWT/NY and Jason Zada, ECD and founder at EVB

Want more info? Watch the video above or get it here

More: Brands: Sprint’s New Problem
Or, The Ray Ban Campaign

How Rap Cat Marks The Fall Of Goliath

Due to the weird, funny, viral phenomenon that is Rap Cat (see the video above), New York Magazine has done an extensive piece on the rise of the small agency and their domination of the internet business. Shops like Amalgamated, Anomaly, the Barbarian Group, Big Spaceship, Campfire, Droga5, Mother, Taxi, Toy and the recently tattered Deep Focus all get shout-outs. It’s really a big fat kiss to the small agencies with special attention being paid to each: Droga5 for their awesome Ecko stunt; Amalgamated and Deep Focus for a CourtTV campaign and Anomaly for just being one of the best agencies on the block.

The piece is long winded, but sums up all the things you already know (gawd, we’re getting tired of saying this) - big boy agencies are in a deep shit. They don’t know the internet and they don’t know culture, which has made a lot of room for these fast, smart, tiny shops to come in and sweep up millions of dollars of business.

Our suggestion? Print out the article and read it on the john tonight. While you already know everything the article is going to say, it’s still pretty entertaining.

More: Stuart Elliot Says Its All About NYC
Or, Strawberry Frog Saves Mircosoft

Advertising Hearts New York

New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott says when it comes to the US - it’s still all about New York baby. For the past 10 years, the industry has been claiming the hot beds of creativity are with the small shops in Austin or Portland. However, Elliot say the creativity juice is back in New York due to a small agencies like Mother, Anomaly and Strawberry Frog.

“I think for the first time in a very long time you have a lot of creative talent doing new and interesting and different things in New York. Agencies like Anomaly, and the New York office of StrawberryFrog, and the New York office of Mother and Amalgamated and a lot of other new agencies that are starting up here as opposed to other cities and other markets.”

The iPhone Brings Out The Best In All Of Us

We were just talking about Anomaly weren’t we? Well it appears that Johnny Vulkan (above right) of Anomoly, is out on Prince Street in NYC, since this morning waiting around for the iPhone to be released. But before you start laughing, here’s what he told the excellent design blog Core77 when they caught him in his lawn chair:

“We’re doing this for Keep a Child Alive which is a charity that provides drugs for children in Africa. There are 20 million kids living with AIDS in Africa who need anti-retroviral drugs and it only costs a dollar a day to save a life for those kids. The iPhone is all about keeping connected with people and it’s important at times like this to remember that we are all in fact connected to everybody, and it would be nice to remember people less fortunate than ourselves. So we’re lining up for the next three day. We have about 80 volunteers so far and actually people on the street are coming by and volunteering to sit in as well. We are taking sponsors on our t-shirts; it’s a minimum bid of $500. On Friday, one of Keep a Child Alive’s ambassadors will go in here and buy the first iPhone. And then we’re going to be auctioning off the iPhone on eBay, and the prize will be that iPhone, a Jawbone bluetooth headset, two round-trip tickets on Virgin America which launches in a month, and the prize winner will have that presented to them by one of Keep a Child Alive’s [above mentioned] ambassadors. We want people to come by, say hi, and please visit keepachildalive.org and donate money; it’s a great cause and we’d love to raise as much awareness for the cause as we can.”

We Hear… Anomaly Takes Converse.

One of our favorite small agencies, Anomaly, seems to have proven its metal again by landing the Converse account. Sweet. Now, we’re not sure if it’s just web or web and print or broadcast, but Converse needs a little help if you ask us. Remember when that brand was cool? Like, authentically cool and not John Varvatos-I’m-a-mid-thirty-something-analyst-at-a-mid-sized-bank cool? Yeah, the JV shoes were good looking, but Converse is a street cred type a brand. You can’t go high fashion and then totally forget about the fifteen year-old skate rats and alternative offbeat rockers (think Kurt Cobain) that made you what you are. Yes, Wilt Chamberlain was what really made the brand, but it’s best to skip it. The basketball market is a tough nut to crack these days. Duh. We got a feeling that Anomaly is gonna set ‘em straight though.

Got a tip? Send it to: agencyspy AT mediabistro DOT com