You can’t make this stuff up, people, unless you’re really just that into yourself.
Claude Brodesser Akner of Adage was first to report today (Wa waa) that William Morris has teamed up with, “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.”
A strong enough match-up. But why, oh why, are the on our front page today?
Brodesser-Akner put it like this, “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.”
First off, what newly formed company ISN’T trying to meld these ideas? I just posted about this yesterday, although none of you lazy-asses responded. Yeah I said it. Fine, maybe you were busy putting together storyboards or ordering an intern to get you a chai-tea latte, but still — why the hell is it taking so long for digital content to have a permanent fixture in common agency culture?
Secondly, and aptly said on AdScam, Adverganza and TribbleAgency, who the hell was tasked with naming (and, um, APPROVING!) the name? Why not call it 008 — as in 2008 because next year that name is going to feel so 1982.