Perhaps most recognized for their work on re-branding eHarmony and Hotwire.com, Santa Monica-based agency DonatWald and Haque (DW+H) has reached a crossroads. You see, the agency re-branded itself early last year when partner Amir Haque added his name to the door, something he now apparently regrets. In a blog post on DW+H’s site, Haque writes:
Our company exists to accelerate business’ role as the most powerful force for positive change. The problem is that our old-school advertising agency name simply does nothing to help us communicate that. So earlier this year, Lucas and I decided to rename our company, taking our names off the door in favor of a new name that communicates the essence of what we do. So what’s the new name? Don’t know yet. But today is a big day.
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Who does an ad agency turn to in order to re-brand itself? Apparently, it turns to those crowd-sourcing extraordinaires at Victors and Spoils, which is unleashing its legions of freelancing creatives on DW+H’s brief. As Haque notes, this is probably one of the first times an agency has ever hired another agency to do the job the formerly mentioned agency is generally responsible for. Of course, this isn’t sitting well with some. In fact, an anonymous tipster who claims to be a formal employee of DW+H has this to says of the agency’s second re-branding in as many years, “They spent tons of cash last year on new biz cards, t-shirts, painting the place–all this re-branding crap only to pay someone else to do the job not even a full year later! Who would hire an agency that can’t even brand itself?”
What say you, dear readers? Is this an innovative move within a constantly evolving industry, or, as the tipster says, is DW+H wasting its money? Before you answer, note that Haque does add in his post that, “It puts our agency philosophy and approach in front of 6,000 of our industry colleagues, and provides a platform for our own company to participate as well.”
Update: V&S chief John Winsor has updated his blog to discuss the DW+H proposition.