Who the hell do we think we are?

One of the biggest challenges for us as an agency has been the fact that we're not an agency - not in the traditional sense. In fact, when the company first started in '88, it was a production and post house. Over the years, the marketing and strategy side evolved to keep up with the needs of our clients. Like fish that grow feet.

We brought in agency talent from around the region and the country. Advertising studs who, instead of resumes, can bring in an issue of Fortune, point to a page and say, "I helped make that."

While that certainly made us look like forward thinkers - having agency and production so closely linked has been one of our strongest differentiators - up until recently, we weren't quite sure what to make of it. And if we were unsure, it's safe to say some of our prospective clients were thoroughly perplexed. Especially when many of our clients on the production side are other agencies.

Believe me, it's was months (read: years) of internal hand-wringing, brainstorming beatdowns, and branding brawls as we tried to wrap our heads and arms and legs around exactly who we were. But through it all, a funny thing emerged. We began to embrace this agency/production paradox as a good thing. We realized that we can be many things to many people and not have to compromise or hide or otherwise subvert what makes the whole place great. After all, industry newswires are chock-full of consolidations and mergers - usually from a financial or operations aspect. We're simply celebrating what we've been doing all along - consolidating services.

And true to form, we're doing it the exact opposite way others have done it: building a brand by splitting it apart. Confused yet?

Meet Renegade Productions. Not to be confused with Renegade. We're still the fully-integrated advertising and production company. We're just making it easier for different people to get a handle on our different services. Clients have always been able to come to us for the whole shebang, from the concept to the casting couch to the cut. Now, there's a little more clarity, a little better understanding of how the company fits the needs of clients from all sides. We hope.

Our Director of Production, Jason Stern, put this out to help clear things up for clients and agencies looking for a shop who can help produce pretty moving pictures.




So Renegade moves forward from today as one. In two pieces. Or something like that.

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Logolicious

Driving down I-95 Sunday, my old lady and I spotted this billboard:


I originally didn't like this ad because it was so hard to read that I nearly slammed into the jersey wall. After my wife and I took turns trying to pronounce "Hungergency", like a poor reenactment of the nitrous oxide scene in Black Sheep, it dawned on me that the ad was actually kind of ingenious.

First, we spent the rest of the car ride home talking about it. That conversation was ultimately cut short by me actually reenacting the scene from Black Sheep starring me as both Chris Farley and David Spade.

She laughed but I don't think it was with me.

More importantly, without any mention of the product or brand, we instantly associated this ad with Snickers. Mostly because they do a good job of carrying their logo and font design from product packaging to a different medium. Just goes to show how important your logo is. It can elicit instant brand recognition or you could end up here.

You could always get a new logo design from these guys, but I question their ability to tie their shoes with a website like that. I'd let them know, but apparently they don't want anyone to contact them.

Logergency? Why wait? Get Renegade. (ed. note: Way to work in a call to action, shill.)

Got any funny words that you've made up? Leave them in the comments so I can take credit for them.

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Shameless Self-Promotion: DeWalt drills the competition good and hard

Our web videos for DeWalt's kick-ass contractor-grade drills are officially up on their website. Mad, filthy props to our production team for bringing these together - and to our homies at DeWalt for letting us take them in some interesting directions.

A few from their YouTube page...





Stats:
Producer - Noah Thomason
Director - Jason Stern
Director of Photography - Tim Matkosky
Writer - Yours truly
Account Exec - Jennifer Stine
Online Editor - Brian Stetson
Offline Editor - Jeremy Stevens

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The Blanket with Sleeves! Seriously?

Sure, the Snuggie is a craze sweeping the nation. Just try and watch TV without seeing the ad or read a blog that doesn't have a post about it (Sorry). Like all fads it will soon fade into oblivion. Before I get into that, here's a quick money saving tip.

Instead of buying a Snuggie, go upstairs to your closet. Probably the section where you have things you never wear. Now grab your bathrobe off the hanger and PUT IT ON BACKWARDS!

A colleague of mine asked me to think about how the advertising style for products like the Snuggie, or Sham Wow, or Old Glory Insurance works. Honestly, I tried for maybe twenty seconds before I came to the conclusion that there are only four types of people who buy these products.

1. The person with more money than they know what to do with. (See: Wall Street CEO)
2. People purchasing a gag gift.
3. The extremely gullible.
4. The extremely stupid.


Demo one is too small, and they usually spend their money on Ferrari collections. Now demos two through four are a huge portion of the US economic market. This leads to the short term success of these products. However, the dumb, gullible, and lazy shopper have short attention spans and soon enough it's on to the next ridiculous product. Then the only place you'll find a Snuggie is at your local Good Will Superstore.

The only product like this that has actually had staying power is the Chia Pet, but I chalk that up to the countless and ever-changing things/people we want to see green hair grown on.

Let me end with this...If Billy Mays were modeling the Snuggie in the spot, I might not find it so irritating. His beard makes me jealous. That just gave me a thought...a Billy Mays Chia Pet! I'm going to go run and copyright that idea or something.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments section.

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The internet is personal again.

I am no expert in social media. I know some things about Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, but I personally refuse to join in on the party. What good does having thousands of online friends do? "Well that's the point Jason, it's for keeping up with people you've lost touch with," my wife claims.

"I lost touch with them for a reason!" I say. "I don't care to keep in touch with them!" (Sorry to those of you out there this might apply to.)

McDermott recently attended a seminar on technology and social media, and one of the nuggets he shared really struck a chord with me. He said, "Social Media and online networking is making interaction with your clients much more personal and one on one. Gone are the days of shotgun advertising."

Wait. I always thought the rise of the internet and its effects on globalization is the reason we have lost personal connection in the first place. I mean, have you experienced customer support lately?

If I have to wait another hour to talk to "Jack" from India, only to get disconnected, I'm going to have a stroke. I yearn for the days when customer service was friendly and personal.

But, McDermott insists these new tools can bring that back. It can help us relate to clients, keep our finger on the pulse of their consumers, and even network with new potential clients.

When the internet and social media was first introduced it was a novelty (Electronic mail? Neat!). It quickly evolved into an unbridled information-attack, constantly feeding us videos of people getting hit in the privates, porn, and junk mail.

Further evolution has brought us networking tools that create a precision that was formerly non-existent when dealing with the Web. These tools enable us to track consumer opinion, react and up sell to the newest trends, and build more relationships in real time, from the comfort of our own desk. This kind of personal service and real time information gathering can pay big dividends in the ad world.

Now I'll never condone spending hours Facebook stalking (sorry Mrs. Stern) or using Facebook to help you stalk. But, maybe I will consider building my professional network online.

I mean, it can't hurt right?



--Jason Stern, Project Manager

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