• by Tameka Kee , May 29, 2008

Studio 101, a full-service agency out of Atlanta, recently picked up a product packaging assignment from Abrau Durso, an upscale spirits brand owned and operated by a Russian winery. And not one agency rep flew across the Atlantic to negotiate the deal, brainstorm with the brand managers, or even grab the creative brief.

The two companies found each other through BootB, a Denver-based online marketplace that aims to connect creatives (and their agencies) with pitches from around the globe. Brands including Disney, Lego and UNICEF have already tapped the wisdom of BootB's creative crowd.

BootB's founder and CEO Pier Ludovico Bancale said that the marketplace solves the problem of brands being stuck with pre-millennial creative in a Web 2.0 world. "It seems like the creative side of advertising hasn't evolved as fast as the other areas of the industry," Bancale said. "Retail got enhanced by auctions like eBay and Amazon; media buyers have ad exchanges and auctions, not to mention search and Google. But creative pitches have been run and managed the same way that they were 20 years ago, and we found that strange."

Brand pitches get posted to the www.BootB.com site, and interested parties can jockey for the jobs, which average in the $10,000-$20,000 range. A pitch remains open for a predetermined length of time, during which applicants upload their submissions--which can include on- and offline components--and then the brand chooses a winner. Chosen applicants or agencies get their cash within five days of the announcement, as the funds are initially held in an escrow account.

BootB typically charges brands a 10% to 20% fee for each pitch they launch on the marketplace. Although most of the brands that have tested the creative marketplace have been based in Europe, Bancale said the company plans to increase its U.S. promotional focus in the coming months.

As to whether creative shops should fear a BootB onslaught, Bancale is on the fence--since submissions can come from individuals, teams or agencies themselves. "Agencies understand that creativity cannot be automated or forced, but also that the way pitches are handled now must change," Bancale said. "The Internet revolution is too big to not affect the creative side."