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Collaboration, competition, mark Communicade's first year.
When Frito-Lay went searching for a new interactive agency recently, two of the shops in Omnicom Group's Communicade new media unit-Agency.com and Red Sky Interactive-were interested in pitching the business. Getting in the door, given Omnicom's longtime relationship with the client, may have been the easy part. As young, entrepreneurial businesses, the more difficult part for the two agencies was probably how to impress such a major marketer.
The shops' membership in Communicade presented an informal solution. Agency.com chief executive Chan Suh and Red Sky chief executive Tim Smith had been discussing ways to work together almost since Communicade was formed by Omnicom in September 1996. Further, Agency.com's strategic skills, coupled with Red Sky's reputation for strong design work, seemed a fit that might win over Frito-Lay. Thus, the two shops are pitching the business together.
Whether or not Agency.com and Red Sky win the account (the review was still undecided at press time), the pitch is one of the most concrete examples of how life has changed in the past year for the six agencies that are part of the looselyorganized Communicade unit. Although Omnicom only bought minority shares in the shops ranging from 16 percent to 40 percent, the difference that Communicade shops feel in cash, connections and credibility has made its mark.
Not that the shops are willing to give all of the kudos to Omnicom. "Our business plan is on track," says Suh. "But [with Communicade] we've done it with a lot more finesse and elegance." In...