• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 8, 2011

The Media Kitchen, the media services division of MDC Partners, is betting that 12 digital media companies are poised to transform advertising and marketing as we know it. The companies -- some early-stage, others slightly more established digital vets -- are part of a new portfolio the agency is touting to its clients as players that stand the best chance of transforming four critical areas of the business: content, personalization, distribution, and platforms.

The initiative, which the Kitchen aptly calls "The Menu," is a more formalized approach of something the agency has been doing for years. The goal, says Darren Herman, the head of the Kitchen's digital operations, and chief digital officer of sister agency Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, is to draw industry attention to help support the growth of the companies.

"The goal is to foster innovation by putting the spotlight on companies -- some start-ups, and some more established ones -- that we find particularly interesting," Herman tells Online Media Daily, adding: "We believe that the next big ideas, specifically in the technology landscape, are going to be won and lost in garages. So how do we align our agencies and our clients with what's going on in garages?"

To be accurate, not all of the players on the Kitchen's menu could be classified as garage bands. Among the dishes on the list is Google's Android operating system, which is one of two "platform" companies that the Kitchen is betting on. The other is Boxee, a hardware and software developer that marks equipment enabling consumers to stream TV and video content to their TV sets. Both are potentially transformational systems, says Herman.

"Android is special, because they're on smartphones, but they're also on television. If you're looking at a media world in which something penetrates all devices, Android is a good bet," explains Herman, adding: "We also like Boxee. It's more technical and not as mainstream, but it is a promising platform."

Among the Kitchen's content picks is Next New Networks, which also isn't exactly new, but Herman says it's coming into its own, and is "creating sustainable programming models." The other content pick is Santa Monica-based ThisWeekInc., which touts itself as a "Web television network."

The Kitchen's distribution picks include Outbrain, TubeMogul, BuzzFeed, and Zemanta, which Darren says are all worth keeping an eye on.

But the category that gets him most excited is personalization, because it is a genre of technologies that he believes have the greatest potential to alter the way people consume media content.

"In a world that is going digital, and in a world that has way too much content for anyone, you need to personalize what you do," Herman says. "These are the companies that are doing it."

The Kitchen includes three personalization platforms on its list: Quora, Summify, and Knowaboutit.

Herman says he cannot guarantee that all 12 of the companies on the Kitchen's list will make it, and in fact, he believes that at least three of them will "flame out." But he believes they all deserve Madison Avenue's attention.

Herman says the Kitchen will likely update its menu at the beginning of each year, based on the meetings it takes with early-stage and game-changing companies throughout the year.