I like that Jonah Bloom of Ad Age doesn’t like how casual agencies and brands are about their naming schemes these days.
This week, Publicis’ shops Starcom, Leo Burnett and Digitas announced they were collaborating on a new agency that will go by the name … Insight Factory. Sounds sort of familiar? Maybe you live in the U.K., where there’s a company called The Insight Factory. Or maybe you’re getting it confused with The Idea Factory in Pollock Pines, Calif., or maybe you’re thinking of The Idea Factory from Singapore, which also has an office in San Francisco, Calif.. And then there’s Idea City, GSD&M’s new venture, which is not to be confused with Idea City (a Canadian conference) or The Idea Conference, an Ad Age event that took place last Thursday.
Surely there’s still a place for the original and evocative name, one that speaks to a company’s central premise and brand attitude. It worked for Amazon, Target, Starbucks, JetBlue, Mini and Virgin, didn’t it?
Advertising agencies are notorious for being their own worst clients. It’s a safe bet that all these names were the result of internal committees and intense over-thinking—the very thing we complain that our clients do. Most of the good examples Bloom listed had key leaders who probably dictated the identity/name.