At Cannes: thenetworkone Showcases a New Generation of Agencies


RETURN TO INTERNATIONALIST HOME PAGE	At Cannes: thenetworkone Showcases a New Generation of Agencies Julian Boulding, Founder of thenetworkone, established the Independent Agency Showcase presentation at Cannes in 2006. At the 2010 seminar held on Tuesday, he introduced a panel of top independents from around the world by describing the significance of the changes that have occurred in just 5 years. "The communications industry today is dominated by companies who were recent entrepreneurial start-ups—Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter,” he said. "Not so long ago, the TV Commercial of the Year was the prize everyone wanted to win. It was also unusual to consider that a company other than the decades-old, big network agency brands—McCann, JWT, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett—would contend for a top prize. TV hasn't died, but a plethora of new media opportunities are taking the headlines these days—interactive, experiential, social, mobile, etc. And a new generation of creative talent has grown up to utilize these media options with dramatic and exciting results." Boulding underscored that "We are looking at the birth of a new generation of agencies today. The next step will be a new kind of network." His view is that an aggregator like thenetworkone can help marketers find their way to great new talents on a country by country basis. "The age of networks is passing. The age of networking, is just beginning." The independent agencies featured on the 2010 panel included Sid Lee (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Happiness (Brussels, Belgium) and Taproot India. Alex Pasini, Partner & Director of Strategic Planning at Amsterdam’s Sid Lee agency believes that diversity, or the elimination of the boundaries between disciplines, culture, business and art, is key to success. “If you visit one of our offices you will note we do not have the founders’ initials on the door. Instead, it’s simple written ‘Collective’.” Sid Lee’s roots are in Montreal, and Pasini opened the agency’s first overseas office in Amsterdam in 2008 by winning accounts like adidas, Ubisoft and Heineken. A year later, he was responsible for opening another Sid Lee European office, Paris. Karen Corrigan and Greg Titeca, Founders of the award-winning Happiness Brussels, also touched on notions of boundaries by explaining how their agency has broken down the traditional creative department structure of writer, art director, and producer. The founding ethos of Happiness is “everything is media,” and that concept has enabled Corrigan and Titeca to drive the company to be one of most internationally-recognized in Europe, ranking it as the number three independent agency worldwide at Cannes last year and Interactive Agency of the Year at Eurobest. (Happiness Brussels won an unprecedented 18 awards at Eurobest, including an interactive Grand Prix.) Agnello Dias, considered one of the most influential people in Indian advertising, left JWT last year at the peak of his career to start his own independent agency, Taproot India. Despite two decades with top international networks and key wins at major award shows, Dias believed that he had to leave the big agency world behind in order to move forward. His work today encompasses the breadth of print, outdoor, activation, live events, PR and “plenty of ‘et cetera’.”

Julian Boulding

Alexandre Pasini

Karen Corrigan

Greg Titeca

Agnello Dias

RETURN TO
INTERNATIONALIST HOME PAGE

At Cannes: thenetworkone Showcases a New Generation of Agencies

Julian Boulding, Founder of thenetworkone, established the Independent Agency Showcase presentation at Cannes in 2006. At the 2010 seminar held on Tuesday, he introduced a panel of top independents from around the world by describing the significance of the changes that have occurred in just 5 years.

"The communications industry today is dominated by companies who were recent entrepreneurial start-ups—Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter,” he said.

"Not so long ago, the TV Commercial of the Year was the prize everyone wanted to win. It was also unusual to consider that a company other than the decades-old, big network agency brands—McCann, JWT, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett—would contend for a top prize.

TV hasn't died, but a plethora of new media opportunities are taking the headlines these days—interactive, experiential, social, mobile, etc. And a new generation of creative talent has grown up to utilize these media options with dramatic and exciting results."

Boulding underscored that "We are looking at the birth of a new generation of agencies today. The next step will be a new kind of network." His view is that an aggregator like thenetworkone can help marketers find their way to great new talents on a country by country basis. "The age of networks is passing. The age of networking, is just beginning."

The independent agencies featured on the 2010 panel included Sid Lee (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Happiness (Brussels, Belgium) and Taproot India.

Alex Pasini, Partner & Director of Strategic Planning at Amsterdam’s Sid Lee agency believes that diversity, or the elimination of the boundaries between disciplines, culture, business and art, is key to success. “If you visit one of our offices you will note we do not have the founders’ initials on the door. Instead, it’s simple written ‘Collective’.”

Sid Lee’s roots are in Montreal, and Pasini opened the agency’s first overseas office in Amsterdam in 2008 by winning accounts like adidas, Ubisoft and Heineken. A year later, he was responsible for opening another Sid Lee European office, Paris.

Karen Corrigan and Greg Titeca, Founders of the award-winning Happiness Brussels, also touched on notions of boundaries by explaining how their agency has broken down the traditional creative department structure of writer, art director, and producer. The founding ethos of Happiness is “everything is media,” and that concept has enabled Corrigan and Titeca to drive the company to be one of most internationally-recognized in Europe, ranking it as the number three independent agency worldwide at Cannes last year and Interactive Agency of the Year at Eurobest. (Happiness Brussels won an unprecedented 18 awards at Eurobest, including an interactive Grand Prix.)

Agnello Dias, considered one of the most influential people in Indian advertising, left JWT last year at the peak of his career to start his own independent agency, Taproot India. Despite two decades with top international networks and key wins at major award shows, Dias believed that he had to leave the big agency world behind in order to move forward. His work today encompasses the breadth of print, outdoor, activation, live events, PR and “plenty of ‘et cetera’.”