Idea Factories: Night Agency -- Viral Video Trailblazers
Night Agency excels at coming up with unique viral video ideas for such clients as Symantec, MTV2, VH1, Maxim and Blender magazines, and Johnson & Johnson. For Symantec, Night devised "Phished!," a humorous short film designed to educate consumers about online fraud.
The buzz for the faux film was so favorable that Symantec reupped with Night for successive phases, including the creation of Safetytown, an online destination complete with an "adverband" that will actually play original songs and go on tour.
Night got its start doing outrageous event and guerrilla marketing. Take its headline-grabbing campaign for the New York Health & Racquet Club: To promote the club's "Booty Call" class, Night came up with "Ass-vertising," placing eight women wearing slogan-stamped panties in and around New York's Grand Central Station. The stunt drew media attention from all over the world.
The "ass-vertising" hijinks and other off-the-wall tactics reflect the Night partners' iconoclastic vision and willingness to take risks and instigate fresh ideas. It's what set the team apart from the very beginning. Darren Paul and Evan Vogel, Night's cofounders, along with Scott Cohn, the agency's creative powerhouse, met at Syracuse University; Paul and Vogel produced and promoted a variety of events and parties in college.
Night Agency was born Jan. 1, 2004, after many late-night-to-early-a.m. meetings and work sessions. "We felt there was a need for customized direct marketing, not a cookie-cutter approach," Vogel says. "We wanted to be media-neutral and felt there was an untapped market in nontraditional and guerrilla marketing."
For MTV2, Night produced the outrageous online video "the2headeddog.com," and for J&J, "Warm Up Date," a funny interactive dating spoof touting the K-Y brand. Night also produced digital content for the 2006 Video Music Awards on a fully featured site with blogs, on-demand celebrity video, and a "favorite places in Manhattan" locator created with Night's media partners.
Based in New York's Chinatown, Night boasts a diverse roster of talent that includes artists, writers, directors, musicians, comedians, programmers, and bloggers, as well as a production company, interactive group, brand strategy, design expertise, digital PR, and street teams/agents.
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