• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, July 15, 2014

Agencies beware! Marketers rejoice! Appropriately named IQ Agency is out with a multiple choice quiz, entitled the Agency IQ Test that allows marketers to rate their ad agency. Questions center on an agency's focus on paid, earned or owned media; content marketing; the handling of integration; style of delivery; propensity to be safe, risky or original when it comes to creative; knowledge of trends and more. Scores of the ten-question quiz can then be shared via LinkedIn or Email. The quiz is fun but it's no joke. It asks some very serious questions and just might get you thinking, as a marketer, whether or not you are working with the right agency and, as an agency, if you are providing what today's marketers need.

Hold on to your hats, folks, There's a new agency in town. And they are different. Very, very different. In fact, "they're a new kind of agency set on developing out-of-the-box thinking and state-of-the-art campaign executions for their clients," screams the press release. Never before have we heard such a differentiating statement from an ad agency. It seems these guys are really going to bring it like it's never been brung before! Fronted by what's touted as "the brains, the brawn and the experience," LA-based Revolve "breaks the mold" and opens its doors for business bringing together " a team of seasoned creative and innovative marketers who have years of experience partnering with the top movie, television, sports and technology clients in the industry." Can't get enough of these awesome press release quotes? Here's another. One of the founders "was born and raised in the heart of Los Angeles and has been knocking it out of the box for over a decade." Knocking it out of the park, I say! Of this same executive? "Jack of all trades is an understatement when it comes to what he is capable of." Who writes this stuff?

DDB Group Asia Pacific has created a wonderfully inspirational video that will call attention to the fact true creativity and the big idea have, perhaps, fallen out of favor, pushed aside by our obsession with real-time, programmatic, socially-fueled hoo-ha. But the video will also inspire you to get back to basics, explore your inner self and to dig deep for that big idea that hides within. Making great creative isn't easy. It takes hard work. And it takes time. Creativity should be given the time it takes to yield greatness, not mediocrity attached to a stock photo.

CRM, or customer relationship management, was once spoken only within tech sector circles. Now, like everything (let’s be honest), agencies are latching on and launching entire CRM departments in a bid to create yet another hook to retain dwindling business. Las Vegas-based SK+G, which already has a CRM division, is bolstering that department with two new hires. The agency is bringing in former Bopi Marketing Automation manager Barbara Pape as Director of Client Services and former The Proper Image Events Coordinator Julia Porche-Garcia as Assistant account Executive.

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