Group items tagged

Admitting it isn't at the top of the list when it comes to digital agencies, EURO RSCG Brussels set out to change that by becoming the most visible virtual agency. How? It set out to check in on Foursquare at 42 of its rivals until it became mayor. When it did, it posted the mayorship on Facebook along with a message encouraging area creatives to join the agency to help make it better.

AMC's new reality show pits agencies against each other for real client business, but they're not able to find any agencies to participate. Kodak and Yahoo are on board as clients.

he agency ran several ads on Facebook touting the usual stuff agencies do. Then, as an experiment, they ran an ad that featured a cat named Cous Cous. The ad read, "This ad features a cat. It has nothing to do with Red Square Agency, but we hope you'll click on it anyway." People did. 78 percent more than they did the "regular"ads.

Uniform, a British brand communications agency, has rigged up a crazy gumball machine that gets activated whenever anyone follows them on Twitter-sending a gumball careening down a long and winding chute, coming to rest in the agency's studio, where workers presumably fight over it (or maybe not). In the meantime, the agency @replies you with a link to a video of the machine in action (though not, sadly, featuring footage of your particular gumball).

Industry trend: "We're not an agency"

A pair of startling statistics was presented at the opening of the session: 16% of the U.S. population is currently Latino, while only 1% of U.S. marketing dollars are targeted toward reaching that population. Agencies share some of the blame for marketers' dropping the ball in the Hispanic marketing arena, said Lance Rios, founder of Hispanic social media platform Being Latino. He said that agencies frequently ignore requests for meetings to simply introduce his platform and explain how marketers might benefit from its use.

"The survey polled 80 ad shops earlier this month with 47% of respondents saying their clients are waiting until after the elections to advertise in order to avoid competing with political buys. Strata surmised that the finding suggests that advertisers are concerned about future costs. That finding is also a significant shift from a similar survey done in the second quarter, when a majority of agencies polled said they were willing to compete with political advertisers, and only 18% said they would wait to advertise until after the elections."

 "Our research showed that our target group of ages 25 to 35 views life as a game...not fun and frivolous, but purposeful," said Sara Bamossy, strategic planning director for the Saatchi office. In search of a property, Toyota and the agency approached Hasbro to license the material for the campaign. Ms. Bamossy said the agency found that many in the target demographic grew up playing the board game and that [real] life for them is a constant media stream of information, but they love social games, they might invent a game at work, and it bonds them together."

Interesting perspective on agency identity now that digital is a standard practice.

"The deal, easily the largest yet between an agency holding company and a tech company, would pool global spending from Publicis media networks Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia as well as large digital shops like Digitas, Razorfish and Rosetta."

we cant fall into the trap!

WPP (ad agency network) bought the agency that did Obama's online fundraising and social media efforts in 2008.

"So what happens when an ad exec is unhappy with what he sees around him? He gets everyone in his agency to get behind his pet project for pro bono account work. And that's just what Paul Venables, founder of San Francisco's Venables Bell & Partners did when he became upset of the plight of public schools in Marin county California."

In what's become a natural evolution from startup to mega-media company, Facebook hosted its first Studio Live agency event in New York today to teach creatives how to bring their clients onto the platform beyond free brand pages.

With the launch of community site Facebook Studio, Facebook looks to open dialog with marketers and their agencies about strategies and tactics which lead to better Facebook pages for brands.

"Boutique Agencies Are Helping Make High-End Brands More Approachable by Shifting Strategy From Glossy Magazines to Digital, Social Media" Also discusses how fashion brands tend to be a reflection of one person's vision and that person wants a similarly singular partner on the agency side.