Agency Spy

SS who? Me? Oh, no SS+K. That’s right - Shepardson Stern and Kaminsky - the agency that you very rarely hear about it has sent out a press release. Good to hear the Josh Kilmer Purcell and the rest of the crew are still churning out work.

SS+K has just launched a new advertising campaign for Congestion Pricing on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund. Mayor Bloomberg’s Congestion Pricing is up for consideration in the New York State Assembly on March 31 and is facing strong opposition from alternate plans and special interests. SS+K, who dabbles in politics quite a bit, are hear to save the day!“

“New Yorkers agree that commuting is a nightmare,” said Marty Cooke, chief creative officer at SS+K. “So we’re targeting them at their most miserable: while they’re waiting for buses or packed into subway trains. It’s the perfect time to tell them how 100% of the money from Congestion Pricing will finance improvements to their commute.”

Now, Marty… You know, what? We’ll save our Marty stories for another post. So, after that little quote, the press release gets a little weird. Included in the release is a swill of information that seems more like an internal release than one for the press:

“Although the campaign will use contextual headlines to reflect the range of placements, it will communicate the following key message in all ads:

• Keep New York New York: Congestion Pricing means more and better, transit, and a more livable city for all of us.
• 100% of the money raised by Congestion Pricing will go to more buses, more subways and a better commute.”

To view the work, go to: ftp.ssk.com

Username: congestion_pricing

Password: sskcp21

CAMPAIGN BRIEF
Agency:		SS+K
Product Name:		Congestion Pricing
Client:		Environmental Defense Fund
Campaign Breaks:		March 2008
Name of Executions:
		1. 100%
		2. No excuse
		3. Faster than walking
		4. Slow moving billboards
		5. Sodoku
		6. Swear Less
		7. Lottery
		8. Your bus would be here
Tagline:		Keep New York New York
Where Airing:		Transit media in NYC
Media Spend:		Nearly 400 bus shelters around the city + subway and commuter ads
Target Audience:		New York commuters, and ultimately the state assembly
THE TEAM (CREDITS)
Chief Creative Officer:		Marty Cooke
Art Director:		Bryan Chiao
Copywriter:		Jack Cheng
Producers:		Jeannie O’Toole
Account Executive(s):		Jonathan Kopp, Alex Mailman

Right, so that happened.

Don’t bother trying the FTP. It doesn’t work (and yes, we tried a MAC and a PC). I guess it would make way to much sense to send out a press release and have the related media on hand for the press to view.

Anyway, nice to hear from you SS+K.

The agency SS+K has been working with new company Credo Mobile . Credo aims to make the best out of cell phone service by taking 1% of your charges and putting them towards “progressive” causes such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. Finally! A cell phone service for liberals.

No seriously… Okay, so while we just poked some fun, we’re also going to give SS+K a big thumbs up for using interactive artist Paul Notzold to create a dynamic street campaign. Paul agreed to the project because he believes in the mission of Working Assets, which Credo is a subsidiary of.

And we’re going to give AdWeek, who covered the campaign, a big thumbs down for not mentioning him. Advertising journals often fail to mention the artist (unless they’re a big name) who provides the actual creative force. Hey AdAge? The agencies won’t look bad if you reference whom they tapped. Notzold’s made quite a name for himself lately and is a respected member of the street artist community. We all know that brands are especially worried these days about whether or not agencies have a clue about what’s going both online and off. SS+K look like they’ve got their ear to the street on this one. Nice.

SS+K employed Paul’s genius technology that provides passersby to interact with the campaign using their cell phones. Projected cartoons, drawn by political satirist Tom Tomorrow, (featuring images of people such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney) were shown next to blank dialogue boxes leaving onlookers to fill in the blanks. The application of Paul’s technology is so great because it allows contextualizing of text messaging to tell a story in public space. 

Alice Ann Wilson, design director, SS+K, said “This is voice that contributes to larger issues. The text projection creates a sense of community where everyone can use their phone to actively engage in the brand.”

Right on.

SS+K - Shepardson Stern and Kaminsky has just laid off eight people across various departments this past week. Just in case you didn’t know, the shop participated in the account reviews for both Porsche (won by Cramer-Kresselt) and Epson (won by BSSP). There’s also a dirty little unsubstantiated rumor floating around that SS+K is retreating from the ad game and moving further into PR, so we contacted the agency to find out if it’s true.

Samantha DiGennaro, who represents SS+K, said in a statement to us that: “Losing a couple tough pitches is a bummer. Letting some good colleagues go is even worse. But it’s the way this game’s played and is par for the course in the ad industry. Yes, that’s our industry. SS+K is very much still in the ad industry and has never considered retiring from it. SS+K does public affairs, public relations and a lot of other good stuff, as well.”

Josh Kilmer-Purcell, creative director/partner at SS+K, had this to add: “I hate that we had to lay-off some great people. It’s never a nice thing to go through, no matter how many times, at how many agencies one goes through it. It’s not something you get used to.”

Who are the nameless eight and where will they go? You tell us: agencyspy@mediabistro.com

SS+K creative director/partner Josh Kilmer-Purcell is holding a book reading tonight in New York City. Sounds boring right? Think again. Josh’s novel “I am not myself these days” chronicles the double life he was leading as a advertising exec by day and a fabulous drag queen by night (see the above video). It’s at the McNally Robinson bookstore in Nolita and he’ll be reading with his “pals” Robert Westfield, and Grant Stoddard as part of a promotional gig for Harper’s called “Take A Stranger Home: HarperCollins Puts Out.” No. We didn’t make that up. It’s tonight - Monday, Aug. 6th, 7 pm at 52 Prince St.

We’re so going. We can’t even manage to admit our identity to the blogosphere and here this guy is like, “And what…?” Love him. The advertising industry needs more flavor like Josh’s or the fierce women at W+K London.

We’ve been lurking around making conversation with ad exes across New York City. According to our non-scientific poll, hands down, the worst agency to work for is… SS+K - Shepardson Stern and Kaminsky. The founding big three names have heavy experience in elections, which explains how Barack Obama became a client. The agency is also partially owned by Creative Artist Agency, which isn’t a good sign either. You know what Hollywood is like. Here’s the deal… We hear…. that the employees at SS+K literally loathe their employers. Hmmm… We got stories, but we’re going to stay silent on the nitty gritty details.

By the way guys, what’s with that new Delta campaign? While we get the double entendre of the new “Delta Is Change” tagline (the Greek letter Delta is used to signify change in physics ) only a true nerd is going to pick up on that. Meanwhile, the associated Delta billboards (see below), which have appeared all over NYC actually use the word “fly” to highlight cutting edge services like an mp3 catalog. If it was 1992 and In Living Colour was still on the air, maybe that would make some sense. In the mean time, we’re all laughing at you. Promise.

SS+K ain’t looking so good. Is there anyone who worked at SS+K who didn’t sign one of their infamous non-disparagements agreements? Do you love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Talk to us at AgencySpy AT mediabistro Dot com

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