Forty years from now, when a fledgling television show recreates the advertising scene of the late ‘aughts, it will likely take place in Brooklyn.
The cloud of Lucky Strike smoke that dominated the canyons of Madison Avenue will be replaced across the river in warehouse lofts of brick and mortar built by creatives from countless industries ranging from film, marketing and publishing.
See, a funny thing happened on the way to this new era of advertising. While the economy has crumbled and marketing positions were eliminated, jobless creative folks teeming with vast skill sets and an arsenal of tools began forming agencies of their own.
Not necessarily dependent on just being a production shop or an interactive agency, creative entrepreneurs are banding together and forming studios whose work is very attractive to corporations looking to change the dynamic of their advertising strategy.
It is not nearly as cost effective for a company to spend its entire ad budget on a television commercial when a boutique production agency can help create, visualize and produce a robust campaign that positions itself with online video and a social media strategy. When the Old Spice Man answers tweets in real time on YouTube, this strategy becomes clear.
Oftentimes, their output is an amalgamation of work cut from Final Cut Pro, visual platforms married with a purposeful, high-end design that becomes an influence in advertising. Creative and production directors at new shops like GoodGreatGrand and Apek Exposure have wrangled in huge clients while being able to immediately apply their services
GoodGreatGrand — with a roster of three employees, developed and produced a webseries for Covergirl and collaborated with Dita Von Teese to develop an online ad campaign for Cointreau. Apek promoted a Nike marathon using Facebook and was responsible for updating the design for Rolling Stone magazine’s website with an influx of video.
Creativity, design execution and understanding how to maximize skills across today’s growing technological and visual tools trumps all else.
AdWeek published what they believe to be, the first map that documents this unfolding creative revolution and the sprouting of shops in Brooklyn, Dumbo, Greenpoint and points in between.
And just as some may well recognize that Brooklyn is the focal point of this new shift in ad agency model, there are similar shops that are cropping up in Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
