William Morris, Media Execs Create 'Agency 3.0'

Thanks to Ad Age - Madison+Vine for this post


Partnership Reflects Drastic Changes in Hollywood, Advertising and Technology

By Claude Brodesser-Akner

Published: May 21, 2008
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- About all they have in common is the word "agency" -- but that appears to be enough for now.

Hollywood's oldest talent shop, the 110-year-old William Morris Agency, is partnering with a triumvirate of digital media, wireless and advertising executives to create a joint venture called Agency 3.0, a digital-marketing-services company seeking to marry digital technology to strategically developed content.

Greg Johnson, a partner in Agency 3.0, told Ad Age that TV advertising 'is becoming less effective,' in part because 'it's highly disconnected from the creative process.'


Power players
That trio of executives includes Peter Adderton, founder of both Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile; Greg Johnson, a former chief creative officer at McCann Worldgroup and Digitas; and Steve Stanford, who created rival talent agency ICM's digital media group and who had more recently served as general manager of HBO and AOL's broadband comedy joint venture.

In an interview with Ad Age, Mr. Johnson said TV advertising "is becoming less effective," in part because "it's highly disconnected from the creative process."

His partners' new venture aims to "bring the ad dollars that much closer to the creative process," Mr. Johnson said.

Time for a new approach
"There's a whole new world in the marketing, distribution and monetization of digital media, with unique demands for new approaches to both design and implementation," said Jim Wiatt, William Morris' CEO. "We recently announced a digital-media venture fund, and now with Agency 3.0, we'll be providing services as well as making investments in this sector."

Peter Adderton is the founder of both Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile.


Mr. Stanford, who also founded and served as CEO of Voce premium wireless, noted that thanks to the protracted Writers Guild of America strike (which hinged, aptly enough, on digital distribution of content), the recent upfront advertising presentations made by broadcast TV networks reveal a business that has been totally reshaped by digital. NBC Universal's upfront ad presentation, for example, touted all of the NBC Universal properties, including various cable networks, web operations and amusement parks -- not just its 52-week network-TV schedule.

"People would spend millions on pilots and have no idea if anybody would watch them," Mr. Stanford said. "Today, things have changed; a show that has sponsors already in place has a much better chance of airing."

The new advertising joint venture's chief creative officer will be Scott Anderson, the former creative head and co-founder with Mr. Adderton of Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile. Like the rest of the team, he will be based at William Morris' Beverly Hills headquarters.

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=127229

Helping an Agency (and Clients) Branch Out Into Content Space

Thanks to Ad Age - Madison+Vine for this post.

Entertainment-Industry Vet Brian Murphy Brings a Different Perspective to TBA Global

By Jonathan Lemonnier

Published: May 20, 2008
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- TBA Global recently announced the creation of a new branded-entertainment division, TBA Deep, to be headed by Brian J. Murphy, exec VP-branded entertainment (Deep stands for "digital, entertainment, engagement and programming"). A veteran of the entertainment industry, Mr. Murphy spent a decade as exec VP of Warner Music Group, and was responsible for the joint venture of Warner/Avalon (which would later become Warner/TBA).


Brian J. Murphy


During his time at Warner, he also helped create the first joint divisional strategic marketing programs between General Motors and Warner Bros. Films/ Warner Music Group, one of the original branded-entertainment initiatives. He later founded Fearless Entertainment, a branded-entertainment specialist firm, and led it as CEO for seven years until it was picked up by TBA last March.

Madison & Vine spoke with Mr. Murphy to get a quick sense of Deep's purpose, the branded-entertainment industry and the advertising industry's current obsession with content ownership.

M&V: Why create a new division for branded entertainment?

Mr. Murphy: It's what's we've always been doing. Fearless was in the branded-entertainment space for seven years and was acquired by TBA Global last March so it could develop on branded entertainment. TBA's core business is a combination of marketing and communication, with particular success in business-to-business initiatives. ... We created Deep in order to clarify to the market where these capacities of TBA reside. It's a way of branding our division, and giving it visibility. TBA aren't an advertising agency, they're not PR and they're not a sales promotion company. TBA is from the consumer marketing side. The brand thing is new.

M&V: How did Deep come about?

Mr. Murphy: Well, our co-chairman Irving Azoff's background is in the entertainment industry. Mr. Azoff heads the Frontline Management talent company, one of the best in the world. ... PQ Media recently mentioned that branded entertainment is due to become a $25 billion market this year. That's where the marketing community is going. That's part of the reason [TBA] acquired Fearless.

M&V: There's a lot of talk about agencies trying to monetize content they create for branded entertainment as a bulwark against diminishing revenue from traditional sources. What is your take on that?

Mr. Murphy: We started out as entertainment professionals who got involved in marketing, so we are approaching this issue differently. The traditional agency model looks at the declining revenues from traditional sources, and uses content creation and ownership as a new revenue stream. We flip that model over. We start out from an entertainment model. We create entertainment exclusively for brands, and we also create properties that we then own and license. Most brands are not interested in owning [intellectual property], they are interested in achieving marketing objectives. TBA's business is healthy. This isn't just a margin play.

M&V: What kind of assets does Deep have?

Mr. Murphy: We have groups of strategists and architects bred on consumer/entertainment/digital thinking. We also have dedicated groups of sales people from TBA. The value in being in TBA is that the production services, creative, etc., are all integrated and accessible when we need them.

Our acronym begins with "digital" because we live in a digital ecology. One of our premises is knowing that and manipulating it. TV has been mandated to become fully digital and interactive by 2009, but even now live events and concerts are experienced as much digitally on huge screens as they are live. New York cabs have interactive screens in the back for passengers. It's not just cellphones and computers.

M&V: What is your impression of branded entertainment today?

Mr. Murphy: If you are marketing your brand through any kind of entertainment, then you are in branded entertainment. Clients are demanding more and more from branded entertainment, because that's how people are living.

From a brand standpoint, what is important is being able to control their destiny in the world of entertainment, which wasn't always possible before. If branded entertainment doesn't do that for them, there is no point. They're the ones who are putting the money down.

Brands need to think about how they fit organically in what they are trying to do. You have a sophisticated consumer population out there. If you are transparent and organic, they will welcome you. If not, they will tear you apart. In some cases, the product may not be in the entertainment content created at all.

The key questions are: Is this the best way to get things done? What is that brand doing in essence?

M&V: Does it bring back the expected return on investment?

Mr. Murphy: When people spoke of impressions back in the day, what was that? Is that ROI? Engagement that turns to sale, or word of mouth, that's real ROI. A lot of companies have all the brand awareness in the world. What they need is to convert that into sales and lifetime consumers. The typical lifespan of a 30-second spot is about three months. Typical lifespan for content can be one to two years, depending on the approach. It's a strategic standpoint rather than a tactical standpoint.

How effective something is depends on your objectives going in. We like to stress to our clients the importance of having clarity on the objectives you are trying to accomplish. Metrics are only a piece of the entertainment branding result. What are you trying to do?

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=127201

Agency websites

Thanks Wendy!

http://www.akqa.com/

http://www.aa-rf.co.uk

http://www.tbglondon.com

http://www.daredigital.com/

http://www.globalbeach.com/

http://www.craikjones.co.uk

http://www.thegrandunion.com/

http://www.digitalanddirect.com

http://www.togetheragency.co.uk/

http://www.work-club.com/

We feel fine: sharing feelings through the web

An oldie, but a goodie: http://wefeelfine.org/

Earn mobile credit by getting your friends to watch ads!

Thanks Contagious

To anyone who’s on Virgin Mobile US and has befriended every man and his dog on Facebook, the ‘fund my phone’ application is a dream come true.

On adding the app to their profile, Facebook aficionados can invite their friends to watch ads by entering a phone number or email address in the ‘to’ box. They then receive an extra minute of free airtime for every four friends who give a minute of their time.

For Virgin Mobile, which has already experimented in the ad-funded calls area, ‘fund my phone’ marks a positive entry into the social networking space: not only do customers benefit directly, but non-Virgin Mobile users will be exposed to the brand and will see friends acquiring free minutes for themselves rather than relying on word of mouth.

‘Fund my phone’ extends Virgin Mobile’s SugarMama programme which offers customers up to 75 minutes of free airtime a month in return for watching ads (although no timewasters, please - participants have to answers questions to prove they were paying attention). Since it was first introduced in 2006, SugarMama has served up over 20m free minutes.

‘Fund my phone’ has already attracted 327 fans and five-star reviews from Facebook friends who, in the true spirit of social networking, are suggesting a ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ arrangement. It’s certainly refreshing to see an application that gives something meaningful back to users rather than the more run-of-the-mill vampire-bites or custard-pies.

Blyk, a similar service which has launched in the UK and is about to embark on a pan-European roll-out - has already sussed that the way to conquer the hearts and minds of mobile-obsessed 16-24 year olds is to give them free texts and free minutes in return for receiving between four and six ad messages a day. Blyk attracted 100,000 users in the UK six months ahead of its target and claims that response rates to its advertising messages from the likes of Xbox and adidas are averaging 29%.

If an ad does touch you in some way, the temptation to forward it to Facebook friends and earn free airtime will be hard to resist. Everyone’s a winner. But only if the ads are any good to start with…
www.virginmobileusa.com/stuff/sugarmama.do

Digital TV - on the go?

Thanks Simon for this link to an interesting article about mobile digital TV

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com

Thanks O'Reilly Radar!

Via Azeem Azaar's twitter feed, a great visualization of worldwide social network market share, from Le Monde: