A tale of two networks. It could be the best of times for creativity, and the worst of times for those agencies that fail to tap into all their in-house creative resources, including those outside the designated creative department.
The alluded to online networks entail collaboration between WongDoody, the independent ad agency with shops in Seattle and Culver City, Calif., and its interactive and technology development division, United^Future.
The creative genesis of one network–NoStankYou.com for client the Washington State Department of Health–has already been chronicled in SHOOT (10/27/06 iWork), with TV and radio spots helping to drive teen traffic to the site.
The other network, Saber Hacer (saberhacer.com; Spanish for Know-How Now), is currently in beta test with plans for a major rollout in three markets–including Los Angeles and Chicago–in about three months. The client is veteran TV news anchor Michele Ruiz, with the backing of an undisclosed firm.
SaberHacer.com is designed to serve the rapidly growing Latino community with relevant news and information. On the beta site, for example, there are news stories on the identity theft crisis as well as the check-cashing store industry. A significant number of Latinos in the United States who are wary of banks have become regular customers of check-cashing stores. The news story on the Saber Hacer network points out that a premium, often exorbitant, is being paid for the “convenience” of these outlets, which are used for not only check cashing but also wiring money to relatives outside the United States.
Currently there are about a dozen video news stories on the network site, which web surfers are already plugging into, with word of mouth bringing additional people to the network. Plans call for the news story inventory to increase to at least 50 when the formal three-market launch takes place. And the blueprint calls for the network to eventually be advertiser supported, with special brand sponsorship opportunities in the offing.
Client Ruiz–the president of Saber Hacer and a former 6 p.m. news anchor at KNBC-TV, the NBC station in L.A.–came to United^Future to help design and develop the broadband network, which users can access in English or Spanish.
“They [Ruiz and the investment firm] weren’t even thinking in terms of coming to an agency at first,” relates Scott Holmes, managing partner of United^Future. “Instead they sought out an interactive firm, which led them to us and in turn WongDoody.”
But the fortuitousness of the situation for WongDoody underscores the opportunities emerging from varied unexpected sources for agency creatives. “As we get closer to the official launch, we will help to shape the branding and identity of the network through a promotional campaign and ID package,” relates Michael Boychuk, creative director at WongDoody, Culver City. “We will be branding the network and driving traffic to it.”
The experience with Saber Hacer, continues Boychuk, is also driving the agency to think more expansively in terms of formulating networks when appropriate for other clients in tandem with United^Future.
And Saber Hacer brings WongDoody into the burgeoning Hispanic ad market, another potentially expansive dynamic for the agency.
WongDoody didn’t even need a conventional client to establish this foothold; instead the catalyst was the creation of a broadband network by the agency’s interactive sister shop.
NoStankYou The integrated campaign for the aforementioned NoStankYou looks to reach youngsters based not on the dire life or death consequences of smoking but rather the nasty habit’s negative impacts on one’s physical appearance and social life, both of critical importance to most teenagers.
WongDoody and United^Future teamed to develop the network and its original content, including short-take messages and the “No Stank You NOW” video log, an online news/entertainment show hosted by local teens, for teens, on the social risks of tobacco. The vlog features interviews with peers, state officials, dentists and professional athletes, among others. The site also contains irreverent, interactive and portable content. Users are given code snippets for avatars, comment images, emotions and more to post into blogs, MySpace and YouTube pages, personal websites and mp3 players. News pages offer rotating factoids about tobacco use.
“It’s an online entertainment network,” says Tracy Wong, chairman/executive creative director of WongDoody. “Teenagers are on the Internet. And in this case true engagement with the target has to come on the web, not from TV. The web is the only way we can get teenagers’ time on their terms so that they can dive deep into information.”
The number of unique visitors to the NoStankYou site is growing by approximately 20 percent each month since it launched on Sept. 25. New vlog episodes are posted on the online network every three weeks.
Collaboration The creative rapport developing between WongDoody and United^Future is evident in the two online networks, and crucial to success in an evolving marketplace. “You have to come to view people in all departments of the agency as being creative,” says Boychuk, who’s been with WongDoody pretty much since its inception, becoming its third staffer in Seattle before moving down to the Los Angeles area in ’98 to co-found the agency’s Southern California office with managing partner Ben Wiener.
“Being a small advertising agency, we have always been a democracy when it comes to getting ideas from anyone and everyone here,” continues Boychuk. “That has served us well, particularly when it comes to our interactive division…I think creatives generally–I know I do–have a fear of technology. But through United^Future and by regarding the interactive people as creative contributors and equals, we can explore and take advantage of new opportunities, like the online networks we’ve created.”
Wong affirms that perhaps the greatest challenge for agencies today is to create a working creative relationship between traditional creatives and technologically based people.
“I talked to Nick Law [chief creative officer, North America, for New York-headquartered R/GA] at a creative conference and his main message was just that–the pressing need to build a bridge uniting these people within the agency. One group has to teach the other and vice versa, making everybody more of a hybrid creative, a mix of creative and technical sensibilities that in the end benefit the client in the integrated marketplace.”
Wong believes smaller entrepreneurial shops like his have a leg up when it comes to creating relevant integrated campaigns spanning varied media. “Generally the people having more success with the integration model are the smaller agencies,” contends Wong. “The huge agencies with more than $250 million in billings and that are part of big holding companies are struggling in this regard. They talk about integration but it’s not happening.
“For us, I won’t say it’s been painless but it’s been a lot easier,” he continues. “We got into this years ago because of our clients’ spending levels. Our clients say, ‘We don’t have enough money for TV or to put everything into TV, so what can we do? What is the best way to spend our money?’ That’s when integration kicks in because there’s no one answer anymore…But when you’re a large agency and paid by traditional media, it’s heresy to go against that. As a result these big shops tend to have an integration team in one building, and the creative team in another. Their resources are siloed, which leads to a mentality in which the traditional creatives tell the interactive guys ‘to do some banners around our ideas.’ There’s no truly meaningful creative dialogue.”
Wong adds that in this scenario, creatives view the interactive division as something it was many years ago–“an IT department with nerds.” But that isn’t today’s reality, he continues, citing creative interactive artisans such as the aforementioned Holmes.
Holmes, who co-founded United^Future two years ago after having played a key role in the development of Zentropy Partners, Los Angeles, McCann Erickson’s interactive agency, concurs that creative collaborations involving the different agency departments are pivotal, as evidenced by the online network endeavors, which also include an ambitious site for client Alpine.
“This isn’t the model where an NBC or ABC creates an online network in order to drive traffic to the linear broadcast network,” relates Holmes who notes that the web networks being created by United^Future and WongDoody are the end destinations that help to attract, entertain and inform target audiences.
At the same time, cautions Wong, “You can’t fall into the trap of doing an online network just for the sake of doing one. It all depends on the target. NoStankYou made perfect sense because teenagers live on the Internet and if you do things right, you have the potential of having a longer discussion with them there. But an agency is making a big mistake if its rationale is, ‘Let’s be on the web and have a channel thingy. We’ll do some crazy promotion on the network or throw some games on the web to show we’re contemporary.’ “
