I suppose it’s a little unusual to be breaking out the story late on a Thursday night for a Friday rollout, but The New York Times reports on the latest venture from former JWT execs Ty Montague and Rosemarie Ryan.
Mr. Montague and Ms. Ryan, whose titles at Co: are co-founders, described the agency as a “brand studio,” likening it to a movie studio that provides money and infrastructure to a continually changing lineup of actors, writers, directors and producers.
At Co:, “teams are formed around individual client needs,” Mr. Montague said, “and when the needs are satisfied, the teams are dispersed.”
To form those teams, Co: will draw from a list of “co-conspirators” — 40 agencies, consultancies and firms that specialize in tasks like media services, digital and interactive marketing, public relations, social media, design, brand identity, event marketing, technology, ideation and gaming.
“It’s forming relationships with specialist experts,” Mr. Montague said, or, he added, laughing, “coalitions of the willing.”
We’ve seen the last few years bring about a whole bunch of new startup firms in the ad world, both high-profile and under the radar. Lots of eyes will be on this one. And though the name has a colon, the website is cocollective.com.
This is the high profile version of what I’m doing with my own company. It’s all about alliances, and when you have the right mix of outside partners, you’re good to go. The client has one point of contact (you) and you have a well developed network of trusted partners that are ready to tackle any task. For instance, right now Bonehook is managing an interior design project for a new children’s hospital in Tucson. I’ve never worked in interior design before, but it’s a necessary evolution of the hospital’s brand identity, so we’re doing it.
In the Times article on Co: one the their clients says he hired them because he needs so much more than advertising to solve his marketing problems. That’s a pretty big insight into where we are today. You can specialize in making ads, or making ads can be one of several brand building competencies under the agency roof.