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Brian Cristiano is the CEO of 24DP. Today his agency released a statement saying they’ve changed their business model from production agency to hybrid agency, “providing all the services of a large agency without the overhead.” Where have we heard that before? Oh yes, David Ogilvy, half a century ago. Also, Cristiano’s bringing back “web 2.0”. We looked into some of the statements he made in the release and elsewhere, and got the real story.
Some fine points:
— The Microsoft work mentioned in this Examiner interview was done on spec, says the agency. We hear they demonstrated their capabilities to Crispin, but never made the shortlist.
— 24DP stressed this isn’t about the awards, though you’ll see the phrase “award-winning” in the first line of the Examiner piece. “24DP, an award winning Greenwich Village-based production company…” How’d that get in there?
— Awards include: one NY Emmy (Cristiano’s, he’s been nominated for 9 more. Per the Emmy site: the awards “recognize outstanding achievement in the television industry by conferring annual awards of merit as an incentive for achievement within the industry…”); 24DP won 7 Telly awards last year (The Telly Awards honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web.); and there are a few others — none of which are advertising related. But hey, 7 Tellys! But the point stands — someone must have told Tim Barello about these highly sought after* awards. I say that because the fluffiness of his article tells me there wasn’t much research done into 24’s background.
— Their biggest campaign is for Flatrate Moving, which for now includes TV. There’s a Web site in the works, but it’s 4 months out. Posters and a not-yet-named social media campaign are coming soon. That’s 360, apparently.
— Fox Business News?
— Check out this YouTube clip. Fandango, anyone? Points for doing something off the cuff and using puppets.
— These guys are really into the small agency thing. If there’s one way to win approval, it’s telling off big name brand companies.
— Cristiano is now the ECD of his agency. It’s his first “agency gig”, and already he’s jumped like 15 rungs on the ladder. As owner of 24DP, it’s well within his right to give himself that title. However, we know people who own creative shops, have been in the business longer and still wouldn’t have the balls to title themselves ECD. Kids these days.
– Last we’d heard, the shop employs about 5 people. But according to a rep., they have five managing partners (Chelsea Tillett and three “silent” partners). The rest are a handful of account execs, sales people and “9 cds/directors/post/vfx-gfx part time/freelance creatives/copywriters/etc based on project.
Click here for the full release.
*sort of