• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 10, 2007

Certain that big ideas are better born online than on TV, digital shops are done playing second fiddle to their traditional brethren. Take Omnicom's EVB, which is presently competing for several accounts against top traditional agencies, according to its CEO Daniel Stein.

"These clients accept that the big campaign idea is just as likely to begin online, today," Stein said. "And they know we're not just a digital agency anymore."

EVB did its first TV spot last year while working with adidas on its Major League Soccer campaign. The end product--band mash-ups, which represented MLS teams who competed in last year's playoffs--ended up online, on TV, and in a print promotional campaign featured throughout adidas retail stores.

"MSL Mash-Ups was the perfect example of a great idea starting online, and then playing out across other platforms and media," Stein said. "There's no reason why a great digital idea needs to be confined to the Web."

But to win larger accounts, digital shops first need to boost their resources and manpower. For that reason, EVB has doubled its staff in the past year and plans to keep up the pace in 2008. (The agency had 50 employees when it was acquired in summer 2006 by Omnicom.) In particular, editors and producers are being hired to support the growth of its in-house video post-production facility.

In addition, EVB has hire Andrew Walter to the new position of vice president of content delivery. Walter most recently served as director of operations at OgilvyOne San Francisco, and was also on the board at OgilvyOne New York.

"The best thing about EVB is that there's no need to break down the walls between different specialties," Walter said. "But we do have to streamline the process of delivering content across different media, which will be my job."

Another instance of a hugely successful idea beginning online is EVB's "Elf Yourself" holiday campaign for Office Max. Working with a tiny creative agency named Toy, EVB created a site for people to send friends and family their faces attached to a dancing elf.

Last year, the site racked up 36 million visits in about five weeks. This year, the site passed the 36 million market in about two weeks. But, more to the point, Office Max then decided to take the Elf Yourself campaign offline on TV and in its brochures.