Ascentium Names first Chief Client Officer

March 3, 2010 — John Kottcamp

I am proud to welcome the newest addition to Ascentium’s ranks, David Blum who has joined in the newly created role of chief client officer. David has joined Ascentium after leading interactive for Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, the Bay area advertising agency, named small agency of the decade by Adweek.
Not only does David bring tremendous talent, energy and experience to the job, but what is more important is what it represents to an agency like Ascentium.

Over the last few years, Ascentium has been steadily building a reputation as one of the nation’s leading digital agencies, producing great work for client’s like Microsoft, T-Mobile, Cisco, Precor and Samsonite. But being the best digital agency is only a milestone on the road to helping redefine what agencies should look like in the future.

At our core, we are an experience agency. We meld passion for big ideas with an obsession for performance that produces engaging experiences, not just on the Web, but across multiple platforms, channels and devices. And to do that, we need to take from what traditional advertising agencies do best; own the “big idea” and manage account relationships and fuse that together with what digital agencies are known for; innovation leveraging emerging channels, technologies and customer behavior.

David Blum’s arrival at Ascentium will help us do that. His experience at BSSP helping to win major AOR accounts like Priceline, Allstate, Greyhound, Columbia Sportswear, Chipotle, Epson and Radio Shack coupled with the work he did managing Razorfish’s web development group in Seattle. Give testimony to Ascentium’s commitment to going beyond digital and leading the evolution into a true Experience agency.

Check out the article in today’s Adweek online about David, www.adweek.com.

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Forrester think Publicis and Razorfish a good fit, I disagree

August 19, 2009 — John Kottcamp

I was just reading Harley Manning’s post on the acquisition of Razorfish by Publicis. It’s a good read, check it out. I posted the following comment on Harley’s blog, but thought it appropriate to repreat it here.

While I fully agree with Harley that Razorfish was always an afterthought at Microsoft and never made sense as a strategic fit, I’m not sure I buy the idea that selling to Publicis is either good for Razorfish or good for its customers.

I don’t believe the fact that Digitas and Razorfish are different types of digital agencies matters nearly as much as that Publicis and Digital agencies in general, have continued to be almost like oil and water. The problem is not simply possessing enough creative juices, Publicis certainly has plenty, and it’s not just having the technical skills that Digitas brings to the table.

The problem is that the cultures and ultimately the business models of traditional advertising agencies and digital agencies continue to be fundamentally different. And as long as that difference exists, mergers of mega agencies will falter.

Now, if Digitas and Razorfish were to be combined and then spun off, there would be an incredible powerhouse. But in fact, there are already some agencies, including Sapient, and my own agency, Ascentium, that have been building up this balance between great creative and deep technology expertise for several years. So in that context, a merger between Digitas and Razorfish wouldn’t produce a new kind of agency, simply the biggest one of its kind.

But it doesn’t sound like it’s a merger between Digitas and Razorfish, it sounds like another attempt on the part of Publicis to integrate a digital agency into a traditional advertising world. And I predict the outcome will be no better than what we’ve already seen with Digitas. As a marketer, it’s a waste of great talent. As a competitor, it’s great news. Big isn’t always better.

Posted in Ascentium, CMO, Interactive Agency, Marketing Strategy, microsoft. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Razorfish and Crispin Porter & Bugusky Layoffs, When Strong Reputations are no long enough

February 7, 2009 — John Kottcamp

I just read a few minutes ago that Razorfish, one of the top digital agencies, and one my company, Ascentium’s, chief competitors, announced layoffs of 70 people. This is hours after I heard about Crispin, Porter, & Bugusky, one of the brightest shining stars in the advertising agency world, and a partner of Ascentium, announced layoffs of 60 people this morning. Both companies are considered at the top of the industry. Both excel at creative ideas, well-executed and yet both are taking pretty big hits on the same day. And personally, I know people at both companies from our work together at Microsoft. So what does this mean?

The deep answer is I don’t know yet, but it will make me take a look in the mirror and make sure I’m doing everything at my company so that we don’t suffer the same fate. However the more immediate answer is that this sends a clear signal about the progression of this economic downturn. When good companies make cuts, it’s a sure sign that even in the new digital world of marketing, most of the fat must already be gone, because the industry is cutting into the muscle.
My heart goes out to everyone at these two organizations who is out of a job. They say it’s not personal, it’s just business, but having personally been on both sides of the axe. It’s a lot more personal if you’re the one without a job. Good luck to everyone and let’s hope for the change sooner rather than later.

Posted in Ascentium, Interactive Agency, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, aQuantive, integrated marketing, microsoft. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments »

Ascentium debuts on the Adage Top 50 Digital Agency list; along with some good company

May 6, 2008 — John Kottcamp

Adage released its 2008 Agency report today and my company, Ascentium, appeared for the first time at #27 on the list and at #11 among independent agencies.  While this may be considered remarkable in itself by those of you who have never heard of Ascentium, I think the more remarkable story is that there are other companies who you probably have heard of that made the list for the first time today.  MRM Worldwide, the relationship and interactive side of McCann Worldgroup (and my former employer) appeared on the list for the first time at #17.  Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a great advertising company, normally not thought of as an “interactive” agency shows up at #32 and reports 52% of its revenue coming from interactive and then there’s IBM Interactive, which debuts at #5 with almost $200 Million in digital marketing revenue. What does all this mean?  Everybody is jumping on the digital bandwagon?  An acknowledgement of what every pundit has been saying for several years, that digital is finally taking its rightful place next to traditional advertising? Or is it a sign that the inmates are taking over the asylum, consumers are using digital media to drive, shape and define their relationships with brands rather than having brands prescribed to them through traditional push advertising. 

Almost 50% of the list experienced growth of greater than 30% in an economy that was already showing signs of weakness.  And combined, the top fifty agencies generated almost $4 Billion dollars in revenue in 2007.  If I were an investor, I’d be looking at companies like Ascentium, and to be fair, others like Brulant and of course AKQA and VML, recognized leaders in the digital marketing world.  There aren’t that many of us who have reached the critical mass needed to meet the digital needs of big brands and yet have maintained our independence from the holding companies that tend to sacrifice innovation to support outdated business models far too heavily dependent on media spend.

But more importantly, if I were a CMO, I’d start taking a hard look at digital agencies, not as supporting cast members, but as the strategic consultants who can help their brands make the transition from advertising to engagement.  And even then, be careful of any agency who too quickly tells you the answer is interactive.  It’s not.  It’s a combination of online, offline, customer service, commerce and sales. 

Customer engagement is recognizing your customers, wherever they interact with you, remember who they are and what they’ve told you about themselves and then be able to continue the conversation by delivering something of meaningful value back to them.  If your agency, digital or not, can’t help you build that kind of engagement, then you still need to keep looking around.  There are a few of us who can.  And from the way the list is changing, there’s a lot more who would like to be able to do it and are moving in the right direction.

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