Former Ogilvy & Mather executive creative director Tommy Henvey and executive producer Patti McConnell launched Something Different, a creative marketing boutique in Brooklyn that “will leverage a lean and flexible business structure to provide brands with the thing that agencies do well—produce great creative—while avoiding pitfalls that cause work to bog down and cost too much.”
The pair plan to avoid overstaffing and attendant layers of bureaucracy with an agency model that assembles creative, production and planning teams on an assignment basis to work directly and intimately with clients. In that respect it somewhat resembles recent project-based entities like San Francisco’s Partners in Crime while maintaining the same sort of small permanent staff as Erich & Kallman and Joan, the new shop launched by Jamie Robinson and Lisa Clunie.
“We’ll bring in the right people at the right time,” Henvey explained. “If we need a planner, we’ll pull in a great planner. If we need a designer, we’ll hire a designer who has the right head for what the project needs.”
Before launching Something Different, Henvey spent around eight years as an executive creative director with Ogilvy & Mather, working with clients such as Time Warner Cable, Kraft, NASCAR and Citizens Bank. He previously served as an ECD with mcgarrybowen and a GCD at Y&R after nine years in BBDO’s creative department.
McConnell joined Ogilvy & Mather in 2001 and served in a variety of executive producer and senior partner positions, most recently as senior partner/executive producer for North America. She also held the partner/executive producer title at JWT New York and worked as an executive producer at BBDO.
“Clients are looking for a different way to get things done, that’s why there are a billion new places popping up, trying to figure out the best way to do it. We figured a billion and one might be the magic number,” Henvey said. “The process of making things today can be tedious. Our plan is to make it smoother, more efficient and more fun.”
“Clients want to sit across the table from people they like and feel comfortable collaborating with,” added McConnell. “They want to work with people who allow them to have a voice in their advertising and branding, and who respect their voice.”