NYT: Most everyone on Madison Avenue waxes rhapsodic about the “partnerships” between agencies and their clients, ignoring the reality that agencies all too often prove about as indispensable as Pez. Now, a boutique agency is hoping to rectify that by actually going into business with a client.
The boutique, Sugartown Creative in New York, is working with Trudie Styler and her husband, the musician Sting, to introduce a line of premium-priced organic food items that are produced on the couple’s estate farm in the Tuscany region of Italy.
Sugartown Creative is responsible for the packaging and marketing of the line, named Il Palagio after the villa on the estate, as well as subsequent advertising campaigns for the products.
Rather than being compensated through commissions or fees, Sugartown Creative will earn a percentage of the revenue that the products generate at specialty food stores. The four initial Il Palagio products – an olive oil and three flavors of honey – are scheduled to be introduced today at the Harrods department store in London.
Plans call for Il Palagio products to be brought next year to the United States, where Sugartown Creative will serve as the sales agent.
