A few months ago, I attended an APA meeting and had my website selected at random for a live review in front of the audience. The panel was made up of agency folks from my local Seattle market. I found myself retelling the scene to colleagues and friends like this: "A CD from Creature and another AD from Rocket Dog thought..." and it struck me... who names a company "Creature" or "RocketDog?" What happened to the days of J Walter Thompson, Chiat/Day, Saatchi & Saatchi?
I thought it would be fun to visually spoof these agency names in a series of conceptual images. In the end, I'd have a collection of cool images to use for promos! Enter my crack consultants Suzanne Sease and Amanda Sosa Stone. They loved the idea and came up with a brilliant way to make it even better: approach the leading industry marketing company about a cross-promotion! So we did. Agency Access owner Keith Gentile and Director of Marketing/Design Charles Truelson were very enthusiastic about the project! Agency Access is able to target their audience -- photographers -- and challenge our knowledge of our own market. This is just the information they provide for their members!
Genius.
Next, we all began brainstorming a list of advertising agencies with names we could have fun with. Suzanne and Amanda pushed the creative along, not settling for anything less than stellar execution and ideas. They also pushed me to make the images my own vision and make them true to my sense of humor and design aesthetic. My team, including set stylist, Lisa Hammond, and producer, Wendy Dreaney, went to work creating these scenes. Meanwhile, Keith and Charles devised a clever twist to make the contest about researching your audience and finding the creative decision maker within the agency.
With all the elements in place, a contest was born: Name That Agency - Win an iPad! Agency Access launched the campaign this week. My own promotions featuring these images will follow. Check back to see future agency images! Maybe your agency will be featured...
