A truly global and diverse crew at AKQA hosted a party last night to celebrate the opening of the agency's New York office. Actually, the office has been open for a few months now, but who's counting.
On a sultry, summer night is there any other place you'd rather be than a rooftop overlooking Manhattan?
AKQA has staked its claim in the red-hot epicenter of Soho, New York and has assembled
a talented, creative dream team. The folks we met are as unpretentious and genuine as they come, a rare thing in such an ego-driven business. The agency by the Bay is growing, has a great client
roster that includes Visa, Palm, Xbox, Nike, and VitaminWater. Its repertoire includes digital branding, Web development and e-commerce, interactive advertising, emerging media, integrated marketing,
and various tech services. We say "agency by the Bay" because we've always associated AKQA with San Francisco where it has 160 people, though we learned last night that the London office has at least
as many people.
We were reacquainted with Lars Bastholm, the agency's executive creative director in New York, who spoke at Joe Jaffe's "Battle for the Heart" event last week; met
Brazilian-born P.J. Pereira, executive creative director, San Francisco; chatted with San Francisco-based Rei Inamoto, the agency's global creative director, formerly of R/GA, New York; Tom Bedecarre,
CEO; and Kate Everett-Thorp, president, interactive advertising. We met for the first time Ajaz Ahmed, chairman; Michael de Kare-Silver, managing director, Europe; Jason Whiting, managing director,
Washington, D.C. (Gee, who knew AKQA had a D.C. office? We didn't); and spotted, though didn't officially meet, James Hilton and Daniel Bronner, both London-based executive creative directors.
It was a fun crowd, and we saw friends from Creativity and Advertising Age there.
Speaking of hot and happy summer times: An earlier meeting with Doug Jaeger and Rob Hudak,
partners in The Happy Corp., also down Soho-way, revealed exactly why we think their approach to media and marketing issues is so creative. They come up with distinctly unique approaches to each
client issue and know how to tell a story with a pinch of whimsy and a lot of heart. They are no nonsense, fun, and completely committed to infusing each project with an artistic sensibility. That's
rare and we like it.
Jaeger, who many people in the industry know as the wunderkind creative who set up J.W.T's digital department and then went on to become a star at TBWA/Chiat/Day, is
building The Happy Corp. into a unique creative cooperative by using a completely collaborative and entrepreneurial approach. We worked with the guys to introduce an original illustrated column in the
July issue of Media magazine. Check it out in the magazine or online at MediaPostPublications.com.
Speaking of creative, it's that time again. Time to enter our CREATIVE MEDIA AWARDS!
You have until August 5, but psssst, we hear that the deadline will be extended, so submit your entries through the link below.