Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague, who earlier this year exited their respective positions at JWT as North American president and North American co-president/chief creative officer, have resurfaced with their much anticipated new venture, Co:, a Manhattan-based brand studio which partners them with Neil Parker, former global head of strategy for branding firm Wolff Olins, and Richard Schatzberger, who had been director of creative technology at BBH.
Parker serves as chief strategy officer at Co: while Schatzberger is chief technology experience officer. Parker’s experience also includes having worked as a management consultant and as part of IBM’s corporate strategy group. Prior to BBH, Schatzberger worked in interaction design and product innovation at Motorola.
Additionally Co: is looking for a partner to fill the role of chief commercial officer to manage the co-ventures practice, forging relationships that allow Co: to co-fund strategic ventures with marketers and with start-ups.
Co: is being structured so that its core team can readily collaborate with other shops and talent, ramping up resources and workforce depending on the nature of the task at hand be it the development of new brands and businesses, and/or brand messaging. “It’s the studio model brought to marketing services,” said Co: co-founder Montague. “Old film studios used to be vertically integrated in that they owned everything–actors, producers, directors, cameras, theaters. Today a film studio is a small, senior group of executives, a little bit of infrastructure and a pile of money, with talent custom-assembled on a project basis. Much more efficient.”
Co: released a list of “co-conspirators” spanning mobile, interactive, PR, design, entertainment, brand story, transmedia narrative, data and analytics, direct/CRM, media strategy and buying, business strategy, brand strategy, social media strategy, sustainability/CSR, experience and events, IP and capital, software and technology, social platforms and gaming. Co:’s model allows this constellation of independent specialist experts to deliver better, more innovative thinking in a coordinated and collaborative fashion.
Co-conspirators that have joined Co: to date include: Behance, BERG London, Big Spaceship, Brand Synchronicity, Breakfast, Campfire, Collins, Consigliere, Cool Hunting, CreativeFeed, Cunning, DKC, Dosage, GMD Studios, Headmint, Horizon Media, IfWe RanTheWorld, Imagination, Juba Plus, Largetail, Made By Many, MarketShare, Medialink, Meteor Solutions, MIR, MotiveQuest, Naked Communications, Player Three, Powell Communications, Propellerfish, Purpose, Red Bricks Media, Skyrockit, Sleuth, Starling, Tether, The KM Co, Tronic, Unconventional Partners, Vast Ventures, Victors & Spoils, and Your Majesty.
“We’ve chosen a roster of ‘co-conspirators’ who are best in class at what they do and expert collaborators,” said Schatzberger. “This makes Co: about scalability and not about scale, so brands don’t have to pay for anyone who is not working on their business. Brands get the right talent for the right project for the right outcome.”
Ryan, co-founder of Co:, related, “The CMO now has the most dangerous job in business, due in large part to the networked age we are living in. It used to be that audiences, money, and time were abundant–now, these things are scarce. Brands, channels and agencies are now abundant. CMOs need to be armed with the tools they need to succeed in a networked age.”
Co: draws its name from the way it works with marketers and partners: co-creation, collaboration, and co-venturing. Designed to eradicate costly inefficiencies in the marketing world in which return on investment is more crucial than ever, Co: opens with the ability to scale from a five- to a 1500-person organization from inception.
“A recent study showed that there were 2.5 million brands in the world in 1997, and 8 million by 2008,” said Parker. “In that same time frame, there has been a 50 percent decline in brand trust, along with a 90 percent decline in perceived product differentiation. We’ve designed Co: to help CMOs eradicate the commoditization of brands, leading to more meaningful consumer experiences.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More