• by Tameka Kee , March 10, 2008

Move over, 360i and iCrossing--there's a new independent, search-centric interactive agency in town, as Steak Media has crossed the Atlantic to set up shop in New York. The London-based interactive shop has opened its first U.S. office, with a trio of new clients including French Connection, luxury lingerie brand Myla and mobile community FunkySexyCool.

Steak offers paid, organic and mobile search, reputation management, creative and digital media planning and buying. For French Connection, the decision to go with Steak was driven by the agency's inclusive attitude to strategic planning. "Steak has a fantastic collaborative approach with clients--they are a partner in every sense of the word," said Jennifer Roebuck, the fashion brand's head of e-commerce.

Indeed, being able to play well with others--including a client's traditional agency or other vendor--is one of the non-negotiables when it comes to Steak's strategy. According to CEO Oliver Bishop, that's what will help separate Steak from the myriad other search-centric shops that clients can choose from--as that cooperative spirit is often absent during strategic planning meetings for many companies here in the U.S.

"We did quite a bit of research with account executives and brand managers and found that the quality of the agency-client relationship is a very important, but oft-neglected aspect in terms of search and media here," Bishop said. "We've kept 90% of our clients for the past two years by making things transparent, adopting a technology-agnostic approach, and being able to work with other agencies at that top table."

Steak's plans to expand to the U.S. (as well as open an office in Sydney, Australia) had been in the works for almost a year, Bishop said, but market forces and an influx of investor capital made this the right time. "We've only been going for three years, but we got very good at working with blue-chip clients in the U.K.," Bishop said. "So when we secured the funding, we felt that we had a good management team and a strong enough offering to move to the U.S. and Australia."

Bishop will spend the bulk of his time leading the U.S. team in the next six months, a group that includes a mix of industry veterans from stateside and U.K.-based shops. For example, Noah Elkin has signed on as Steak's new vice president of corporate strategy, the same role he most recently held at iCrossing. Rick Dalton, former account director at New York-based search firm Didit, will be Steak's director of paid search. Meanwhile, Steak board member Chrysi Philalithes will help grow the business as launch managing director. Philalithes most recently served as vice president of global marketing and communications at MIVA.