![]() Owners of the device could select their favorite team, and whenever it scored a goal, the light would glow right in their living room (or bar). The agency created a retail product sure to please hockey fans-a Wi-Fi-enabled replica of the red lights that light up on a hockey net whenever a team scores. One of Anomaly’s quirkiest ideas leveraged its experience as both a product developer and a brand communicator. We can go after hockey in a completely authentic way.’” Mike Byrne, a founding partner with a role akin to that of a chief creative officer, says, “When we heard about it, we said, ‘This is great. A few years ago, its rival, Molson Canadian, won the right to sponsor the National Hockey League, which in Canada is a lot like sponsoring Canada. To understand how it comes together, we can start with a problem the company addressed for Budweiser Canada. Anomaly would invest a substantial portion of its profits in new ideas it would then sell. In other words, they must create their own intellectual property. If they were going to solve clients’ business problems, they also had to understand what it was like to walk in their shoes. The founders’ final principle was their most risky and ambitious. “We want to be the most premium-priced agency you ever hire,” says Johnson, “and the best value you’ve ever had.” That gives the agency a reason to both work quickly and produce an effective solution. Instead, Anomaly charges a fee to work on a problem and takes a bonus if it solves it. You may care about your clients, but you are never completely aligned with them. If you’re charging by the hour, you always have an incentive to take longer. Their second principle was that, unlike other agencies, they would not bill for time. “If a client says, ‘We want to have an ad campaign,’ we can say to them, ‘We thought it through, and an ad campaign will not really solve the core business issue.’ For example, we might say, ‘You should create a pop-up store, use it as an activation center and distribute it socially.’” “If you’re set up like us, you don’t care what the answer is,” says Johnson. But if the client needed a new product instead, that’s exactly what they would provide. If communications achieved that, terrific. The first was that they would not create a marketing or advertising agency. The pair eventually came up with a set of three principles that have guided Anomaly ever since. Over the course of two years, DeLand and Johnson had a series of conversations, looping in like-minded people. He wanted to start a new one, based on a new, entrepreneurial approach. After interviewing for a few months, DeLand realized he didn’t want to work for just any agency. DeLand had been working as the senior vice president of marketing at Hong Kong Telecom, but 9/11 had a strong effect on him as well-it made him want to return to New York. ![]() It turned out that former employee Jason DeLand had ideas in that direction. “If I was going to come back,” he says, “it had to be for something f**king interesting.” He felt he had done pretty much everything he could in traditional advertising, and he decided to retire. A former COO of TBWA\Worldwide, he had also helped lead the revival of TBWA\Chiat\Day’s New York office in the late 1990s. It all makes sense, once you get the basics.Īnomaly traces its roots to 2002, when founding partner Carl Johnson was relaxing on the beach in Australia. When that campaign won an Effie, Anomaly became the only agency ever to win an effectiveness award as a client.ĭid we mention the agency also produces a TV show? Its Emmy-winning series Avec Eric features famed chef Eric Ripert. And you almost certainly don’t know that EOS and Anomaly hired a different agency to promote the product after its initial (and highly successful) launch. You may not know that the agency took an early ownership stake in EOS, which today makes a popular lip balm. You probably know the agency from its tear-jerking “Puppy Love” and “Lost Dog” Super Bowl spots for Budweiser. After describing this post-apocalyptic wasteland, the participants adjourn to $200 tasting menus and posh rooms at the W.īut while all are trying to adapt to the new realities of the business, few have gone to quite the same lengths as Anomaly, a twelve-year-old upstart-and now a 400-person global agency. You’ll hear that the old models are broken. If you’re ever in need of an over-the-top cliché, head straight to an advertising industry event.
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