Richard Lent, founder and CEO of digital agency AgencyNet, and Ari Merkin, former Crispin Porter+Bogusky (CP+B) executive creative director, have launched brand and digital innovation agency, TEN, headquartered in South Florida with an additional office in New York. Merkin serves as TEN’s chief brand officer while Lent assumes the chief innovation officer mantle.
TEN will focus on ushering clients into what the two founders call, “the era of the ‘Do Brand’.” Combining Ari and Richard’s experience in brand-building and digital innovation, respectively, TEN will ideate, design and develop marketing and IP platforms that enable brands to build lasting relationships with a new generation of consumers. The agency will leverage its strong technology pedigree to create real value in a changing world where dialogue matters more than monologue, where behavior matters more than image, and “do” matters more than “say.”
Merkin brings an 18-year history of brand building to his new role. He formerly served in such capacities as chief creative officer/co-founder of Toy, as well as exec creative director at CP+B and Fallon. Merkin is perhaps best known for his Mini Cooper launch work, “Ikea Lamp” (Cannes Grand Prix Film winner), Office Max’s “Elf Yourself” and Truth’s “Body Bags” campaigns. Merkin has worked over the years with such clients as Starbucks, Virgin Mobile and MetLife. He was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2009 and currently serves on the board of the One Club.
Lent brings his entrepreneurial and digital leadership, as well as the heritage and talent of his own agency to TEN. The AgencyNet moniker gives way to the TEN shingle. During AgencyNet’s 18-year history, Lent has steered award-winning, results-driven work for clients that include Bacardi, Universal Music Group, Nickelodeon and The Bill Clinton Foundation. Lent has been heavily involved in development of the industry, including serving as an expert witness to the U.S. Congress on the digital ecosystem, and co-founding The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), now the largest digital agency network in the world.
TEN subscribes to a simple formula for success: Brand Building + Digital Innovation. While traditionally creative teams were comprised of an art director + copywriter, and digital agencies combined a designer + developer, TEN believes that the new creative team = brand builders + innovators. “There’s been some real enthusiasm from clients given the way we’re now structured,” said Merkin. “We’re a digital agency that can solve those big brand problems.”
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More