A new generation of creatively focused boutique shops, often started by creatives with backgrounds at major agencies, is causing considerable buzz in the ad industry, as more and more high-end clients gravitate towards them in search of marketing solutions. While creatively driven smaller shops are not new, the advertising landscape continues to shift, offering these boutiques opportunities to work with larger accounts and in an ever-expanding number of media.
“We remain bullish about the time we’re in,” notes Michael Hart, partner/creative director at mono, Minneapolis. “Clients are really raising their hands and saying, ‘I want to see something different.’ We look at it as great environment and time to be doing what we’re doing right now. Clients are looking for ideas and ways to come at it–not how many offices you have, or what your long list of capabilities is.”
To that end, larger clients, who may have one or more large, multinational agencies handing their accounts, are turning to smaller, creatively focused boutiques in an effort to capture the attention of ever-elusive consumers. “We’re getting a lot of calls like that where a large company will have an agency of record,” says Steve Stone, a founder and creative director at the recently opened Heat, San Francisco. “I think [larger clients] are always going to be curious of what else is out there, and the smarter clients are just going to turn those little flashlights into the caves, and find out, is there something going on in the smaller places? And [these clients will] give out smaller assignments.”
Stone believes that’s a positive dynamic for all involved–larger shops, boutiques and the clients. “The agencies of record are going to really fight harder so in a way, everybody wins,” he explains. “The client gets better work because the agency of record works harder, but also gets to peek underneath these other rocks and find out if there are some other people who are passionate about their brand and bring a whole new insight.”
Charles Rosen–managing partner of Amalgamated, New York, which does work for clients including Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream (owned by Unilever), Fuse, the music channel that actually shows videos, and New Belgium Brewery–notes that larger companies have altered the way in which they seek out new work. “I think you’ve seen a real shift in big companies, whether it’s Unilever coming to shops like us or going to BBH to do their Axe work — Big multi-conglomerates are saying, there has to be another way to create our content. And I think what they’re responding to is that most traditional agencies or bigger shops have mirrored the bureaucracy of those big clients,” he says, noting that Amalgamated recently won a large technology account, which he was not at liberty to disclose. “There are layers upon layers in every department that destroy real collaboration. That bureaucracy is a barrier to good thinking, so we trashed that whole model and are structured around these very small, dedicated teams of senior people. It’s four or five people, all senior enough to have some insight, but junior enough to actually be doing the work.”
Hart notes that clients, even of the larger, more conservative ilk, are hungry for changing approaches. “There is this changing appetite out there, and dissatisfaction with the status quo,” he explains, noting that mono will begin working with a large, traditionally conservative client in the near future. “Any start-up, whether they want to remain a creative boutique, or they have other aspirations, that’s the exciting part–a ton of clients out there are dissatisfied with what they have, [and they are looking for something new.]”
Being smaller also allows a creative boutique to react more quickly. “There’s a nimbleness and a speed that we can offer clients,” notes Guy Barnett, partner/creative director, along with Callum MacGregor, at agency The Brooklyn Brothers, New York. “That’s not to say we’re fast food, but we are able, simply because you’re talking to the people who are doing the work, and the relationship is built on that.
“Getting from TV script to TV production is a lot quicker with us, than with a large agency,” he continues, “and because we have a broad range of experiences. Advertising agencies tend to have a lot of specialists, while we tend to bring broader experience to a client, so we can offer a more rounded notion of advertising and what it can do for clients, than perhaps larger agencies who specialize in one particular field.”
Being smaller also means being less encumbered by a particular style or specialty. “There’s an element of originality that we bring to clients that big agencies often don’t,” says Paul Parton, who recently joined The Brooklyn Brothers from DDB New York, where he had been director of brand planning. “When you’re working in a big agency, there’s a lot of formula, and there’s a lot of dogma, and there’s a sense of ‘This is the way that we do things, this is the way we think, and this is the right answer.’ And we haven’t got any of that, so every time we start something, we’re starting it for the first time, pretty much. And it definitely changes the way we think–I think its make our thinking more interesting.”
“Our ambition is not to replace big agencies, because then we would have necessarily become one, and that’s not what we’re about,” notes Barnett. “It’s always [about offering] alternative thinking to what a client’s agency currently does, with a promise of speed to market.”
Agency The Wexley School for Girls, Seattle, offers clients a less traditional approach to advertising. The shop has produced online content for Nike, TV for ESPN, and viral work for a local record store called Silver Platters; for the latter the agency created “Hip Harp” and “Blues Man,” which juxtapose widely varying genres of music. “We’ve been really fortunate to be tapped, maybe because we’re smaller and more flexible. People come to us, even established brands, and tap us for more off the wall ideas,” explains Ian Cohen, partner/creative director along with Cal McAllister at the shop. Cohen adds that the agency recently started work on a series of entertainment-based videos for cell phones for imaging company Corbis, which is headquartered in Seattle. “We set out not to just do advertising, which is easier said than done. … We’ve been really fortunate that people are now seeking us out off of some of the other things we’ve done.”
CREATIVE OWNERSHIP
Indeed, no matter the style or approach to the work, or what their backgrounds, the partners at the agencies SHOOT spoke with expressed a desire to have a hands-on role in the creation of advertising, both for their own gratification, as well as to better serve the client. Like Amalgamated, several of the shops are structured so that senior level creatives play a role in each account and the work produced. Hart and Chris Lange, partners/creative directors at mono, have been a team for over a decade, most recently at Fallon, Minneapolis, where the pair worked on Archipelago, BMW, and PBS, among other brands. They started mono last year along with a third partner, managing director Jim Scott, who had previously been an account director at Carmichael/Lynch, Minneapolis.
Hart relates that over the years, he and his partners had discussed opening their own agency. “[The idea] started growing a little momentum in the last several years, as we’ve watched a shift happening in the industry,” says Hart, “and we also reflected back on those times — when it felt like the work was the best. That was when the [people working on an account] were very senior and smart, they were fairly lean. Whether it was PBS or Archipelago, we found that with those working environments–when we had a really strong planner, and a really good account person, and the support we needed, and we were working directly with the clients, and we didn’t have a lot of layers to work through or with–it felt like the work was better.”
In setting up mono, which does creative for the Sesame Workshop, and was recently awarded branding duties for the USA Network, Hart and Lange note that they wanted a shop that was open to input from them and others. “We want to create an environment where people are free to say, ‘Hey, I have an idea for this, even though it’s not my assignment.’ That’s fine,” says Lange. “We’re trying to break down some of the barriers that frustrated us when accounts got far more complicated, with more and more people working on the business. You then spend a lot of your time navigating that. Part of the desire we had was to create an environment where we all get to think and do what we love to do, which is the work.”
Hart notes that another part of the appeal of heading up a smaller shop is knowing that creatives will be dedicated to specific pieces of business, and the shop will grow depending on those creative teams. “It’s more about how we want to work, and I think the interesting thing about our model, is it doesn’t suggest a number [of employees],” explains Hart. “The number can be anything from 20 amazing people to 120 to 320. We can flatten it out, and build these teams of talented people–the A-list pitch team that doesn’t disassemble–there’s no reason we can’t be big, and, there’s no reason you have to be big either.”
Amalgamated, was opened along similar lines three years ago by Rosen, partner/creative director Jason Gaboriau, and partner/account strategist Doug Cameron, all of whom worked at Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York. Amalgamated has added a fourth partner, Douglas Hall, who is also the chair of marketing at England’s Oxford University, and author of How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding. The agency has grown around the concept of cultural branding, notes Rosen, explaining that brands gain icon status not because of product attributes, but by becoming a part of the larger culture through addressing contradictions–and offering solutions–within that culture.
Rosen notes that the shop has grown “horizontally–there’s a very clear line between senior level people who are doing the lion’s share of the work, and people who are participating in the execution.” To that end, the shop expands based on creative need, meaning that most creative hires are senior level artisans who will focus on specific pieces of business. The creative team of Carlos Moreno and Peter Ignazi–who worked on the award-winning Bud Light Institute at Downtown Partners, Toronto–recently joined the shop, though the pair will stay in Toronto, to work on Ben & Jerry’s, as well as the undisclosed tech client. “Each individual senior person is on fewer pieces of business, so we need more senior people,” Rosen sums up.
THE WORK
Those types of senior level creatives are noted for inspired work–whether in spot form or other mediums–something that has not diminished since they left the big agency fold. And, as each shop’s creatives can attest to, production companies and others are looking to work with them, and seem to enjoy the approach of each agency.
Upon opening, Amalgamated gained notice for its integrated campaign for Fuse, which positions itself as being more in touch with music than MTV. One aspect of the initial campaign was outdoor work that featured Sally Struthers pleading with the public to help save the music video, a parody of her well-known work as a spokeswoman for Help Save The Children. One billboard was even displayed outside of MTV’s Times Square studio. Subsequent TV work included an infomercial-style piece offering an uncensored version of a TV that promoted dance moves bar patrons learned from watching Fuse videos. The spot, called “Uncensored,” was directed by Jacobs/Briere through New New Films, Toronto. (The directorial pair is repped stateside via bicoastal HKM Productions.)
The agency also recently completed two spots for Fat Tire beer, from the New Belgium Brewery. Jake Scott of bicoastal RSA USA directed the spots, “Tinker” and “Bike Ride.” Rosen notes that the agency’s philosophy of cultural branding applies to directors and their role in the process as well. “We bring in the director very early on,” notes Rosen, adding that they often receive a strategy document on the brand. “I think they really respect that, and the client gets a lot out of that. [The concept of cultural branding] is affecting production, and it’s affecting the script’s development.
At The Wexley School for Girls, Cohen and McAllister have found that their non-traditional approach is appealing to directors and production companies. The pair worked with director Jared Hess of bicoastal Moxie Pictures on the online project “Winner Takes Steve,” for Nike. For Yakima roof racks, the shop recently created three short films for a DVD that will be included with the company’s catalogue, and available online. The shorts form the basis for The Yakima Short Film Festival. The agency hopes consumers will vote for their favorite films online, and that future installments of the festival will include shorts submitted by Yakima users. The first round of films were directed by:
Chris Hill of Moxie, Jonnie Ross of Oil Factory Films, Beverly Hills, Calif., and Tomorrow’s Brightest Minds (TBM), a directing collective from Oil Factory comprising writer/ director Boo, designers/animators Dave Simmons and Randy Lynch, and producer Wade Harpootlian. “Production companies, because they recognize that sponsored media or branded entertainment has a big future for brands large and small for the next decade or next generation,” says McAllister, “are willing to put some money behind it. Both companies [on Yakima] got behind the project and contributed where they could in terms of volunteering hours and people and it’s all been a fun thing, because it’s been a little more film-y than thirty seconds of advertising.”
The Brooklyn Brothers recently completed an anti-landmine PSA with director Kevin Thomas of Thomas Thomas, London, and a second round of cnn.com ads directed by Brendan Gibbons of bicoastal/international Hungry Man. “What attracts directors is that they deal with Callum and myself,” explains Barnett. “We are the creative directors/writers/art directors all in one, so they don’t have to go through layers, they get approvals instantly, nobody is going back to the agency to present cuts. Any experience that we’ve had with directors so far has been really great, and I think they appreciate the fact that they don’t have to be waiting for decisions to be made.”
Hart and Lange of mono relate that the agency is working with Hello Design, Culver City, Calif.–which also collaborates with Wieden + Kennedy, Portland Ore., and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami–on the interactive portion of its U.S. work. “We’re not selling ourselves as a one-stop shop. We’d rather be brilliant in just a few places.”