TBWA Opens Think Tank on Advertising for Digital World

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For most of us, the words “think tank” bring to mind antiseptic rooms full of brainy types pondering complex issues through statistical prisms before issuing profound statements.


Leave it to TBWA Worldwide the ad agency behind the cutting-edge ads for Apple, McDonald’s and Adidas to create a think tank where the goal is disruption.


The giant advertising agency, which is under the Omnicom Group Inc. umbrella, has opened a Media Arts Lab in Los Angeles. The lab will function as a kind of for-profit think tank in the fragmented media landscape of the Digital Age.


“Media Arts is a philosophy that puts all the ways a brand connects at the center of what we do. It requires a deep understanding of how audiences digest media and the various crafts we can use to tell brand stories,” said Lee Clow, chairman and chief creative officer at TBWA Worldwide. “Grounded in disruption, Media Arts is informed by what I see as the new planning, including the areas of Audience Planning and Connections Planning.”


In keeping with the lab’s freethinking style, Apple will function as its core client. Two top executives on the Apple account, James Vincent and Duncan Milner, will serve, respectively, as president and executive creative director for the Media Arts Lab.


On a practical level, the Media Art conceit brings together media planners, account managers and creative types in one office. It’s a retro strategy that goes back to a time before large conglomerates divided media buying and message creation into separate sciences, often handled by different agencies.


MA also involves connecting with consumers as often as possible via new and old media technologies. TBWA has developed a lucrative business based on its pitch of delivering “disruptive ideas” for clients such as Absolut, Michelin, Nissan, Samsonite and Sony PlayStation. The mantra of “disruption” refers to ways to cut through today’s communication clutter, and it dovetails with the lab’s goal of functioning as “a place for experimentation for new ideas about connecting people with brands.”


The Media Arts Lab will be located at 12539 Beatrice St. in Playa del Rey, across a parking lot from the main TBWAChiatDay building at 5353 Grosvenor Blvd. The lab’s new home will be renamed the Jay Chiat Building. The think tank will share the building with Gehry Partners LLP, the architecture firm of Frank Gehry.



Chinese Riddle


Archer Entertainment Media Communications’s Asian initiative is a puzzle inside an enigma wrapped in a fortune cookie.


The Los Angeles-based start-up and Pink Sheet issue, which has never produced, distributed or exhibited film or TV programming, has announced it has an iron-clad, 30-year contract with China to upgrade more than 100,000 theaters for digital use. The venture also claims to have rights to build malls, theaters and Web sites in China and India.


Archer chairman Michael Selsman says China was eager to make the deal because the country wants to combat piracy, a growing worldwide problem. “When China joined the World Trade Organization (two years ago), they made piracy a priority,” he said.


Selsman said the company, which is listed on the Pink Sheets, raised $15 million and was given an additional $25 million by the Chinese to launch. Archer, in turn, forged deals with China Film Group, the largest and most influential state-run film enterprise in China and Prestige Asia for public relations.


China, with a population of 1.3 billion, is an attractive target for media firms but one of the toughest markets to crack. News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch and Viacom Inc.’s Sumner Redstone have been attempting for years to bring media to billions of Chinese viewers. Concerned about Western influence and economic inroads, Chinese laws are strict about how many foreign films are allowed into the country for distribution. This year China banned “The Da Vinci Code,” for example.


Selsman maintains that the reason Archer has the inside track with the Chinese government stems from “high-level contacts in China,” but he refuses to identify any of them. “At this point, I can’t mention any names,” he said.


The only name that does surface is current board member and former tennis star Vijay Armitraj, who apparently is on track to become co-chairman with Selsman.



Ebony Goes Home


Johnson Publishing Co., the world’s largest Black-owned publishing company and owner of Ebony magazine, has signed a licensing deal to produce bed and bath accessories. Santa Monica-based TurnerPatterson brokered the agreement.


Under the deal, textile manufacturer Dan River Inc. will work with Ebony and TurnerPatterson to design bed linens, comforters,

bed skirts, and shower curtains. Ebony Home will feature two tiers of collections: Ebony Classics for mid-tier and upscale stores and Ebony@Home, a line for mass retailers. The products are scheduled for a spring 2007 launch.


While Ebony Home will build on the company’s long history and expertise in marketing to various demographics of the African American market, the licensing division plans to develop products that appeal to a broader cross section of Americans.


“The products will have cultural influences which will resonate with the African-American consumer yet have universal appeal,” said Debra Turner, chief executive of TurnerPatterson. “While we plan to incorporate aspects of our reader’s culture in developing the Ebony Home brand, we also seek to broaden the definition of African American tastes. Our plan is to design products that appeal to a wide range of consumers.”


The launch comes at a good time for the African-American consumer. The Selig Center at the University of Georgia estimated Black purchasing power at $761 billion last year, with California claiming $54 billion.



Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237, or at [email protected]. Staff reporter Dan Cox contributed to this column.

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