Brand New World Ventures Into Mediascape

ATLANTA Brand New World opened for business this week with one client, Visible World, the agency said.

Co-founders Alan Schulman, former senior vice president and creative director of Universal McCann, and Alan Feldenkris, former vice president of interactive marketing at America Online, made a point of announcing their new agency at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The principals said they are opening the shop in Alexandria, Va., in response to advertisers’ need for strategies and creative solutions that integrate broadband applications such as PVR (personal video recorder), video on demand, wireless and other “advanced media” with traditional services.

“The goal is to work hand in hand with advertisers and their agencies to help extend brand message programs into the platforms that are becoming more relevant and more personalized for the consumer,” said Feldenkris, chief executive officer of BNW.

BNW chief creative officer Schulman, who has worked on accounts including MSN, Sony, Johnson & Johnson and L’Oreal, said clients want to understand PVR systems such as TiVo and to gauge the impact these media will have on advertising effectiveness and value.

The shop’s first client, Visible World in New York, develops systems Schulman called “addressable advertising,” or ways to send customized commercials to individuals via ZIP codes. “We’ll work with them on strategies to get advertising agencies educated about the technology,” said Schulman, adding that other likely clients would be media services without creative departments that “are talking to [companies] about advanced media and need expertise in creating touch points.”