• by Phil Leggiere , December 27, 2005

Power Planning From a Major Merger

Few marketing disciplines have changed so profoundly and often confusingly over the last few decades as media planning and buying. Consider that in 1960, a marketer could easily reach 80 percent of all women through just one media buy on three TV networks, as Tim Armstrong, Google's vice president of North American advertising sales, recently pointed out. Yet most agencies, however much they pay lip service to embracing change, remain conceptually more comfortable with the three-channel universe than the one we now inhabit, filled with literally thousands, even millions of placement possibilities.

When it comes to online media planning and buying, Seattle-based Avenue A/Razorfish, this year's Bronze award winner for Best Media Planning and Buying, has effectively positioned itself as a best-in-breed multichannel specialist. The agency's mission is clear: to find precisely the right media touchpoints to promote brands through unique, relevant, and entertaining customer experiences. The touchpoints range from the big portals to niche content sites.

In 2005 the agency spearheaded breakthrough efforts on behalf of Best Buy, Disney, Levi's, Apple, and Expedia Travel, among other blue-chip brands. For Best Buy, the agency created two campaigns, "How To" and "Digital Life," which sought to integrate the consumer electronics retailer's brand more fully into the life of the digital consumer. For "How To," Avenue A/Razorfish formed a partnership between Best Buy and Cnet.com to create a Best Buy-sponsored tab on its site focused solely on educating electronics consumers on how to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies.

Last May, the agency nabbed msnbc.com as the exclusive sponsor of the new "Digital Life" hub on the Best Buy site. Each month, the hub featured a different aspect of the digital home. The partnership enabled msnbc.com to take content that was spread throughout the site in text-only form and present it in a highly interactive, engaging way.

For Disney, Avenue A/Razorfish coordinated an unprecedented New Year's Day multimedia "roadblock" heralding the entertainment giant's yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, "The Happiest Celebration on Earth." The campaign involved 60-second TV spots and streaming video running simultaneously on CBS, NBC, and Disney-owned ABC, and on major portals including Yahoo!, MSN, About.com, Excite.com, Weather.com, and Disney.com.

For Levi's, Avenue A/Razorfish constructed a campaign to showcase the brand's broad selection of fits, styles, and finishes beyond the original 501 blue jean. The campaign, called "Style for Every Story," celebrated the unique fit between jeans and people of all shapes and sizes, using a variety of rich media to target men and women.

Formed by the July 2004 merger of two pioneering interactive firms, Avenue A and Razorfish, the aQuantive-headed agency continues to grow its client base and expand its repertoire, but media planning and buying remain a core strength. With much of the Razorfish acquisition behind aQuantive, we expect the agency and its siblings to pursue an aggressive international expansion that will only strengthen its playbook.