Anomaly

Like everyone else in the business, we've been hungrily watching agencies dip into the world of intellectual property. We just spoke to the Brooklyn Brothers about their dabblings in intellectual property. We also spoke with Richie Grantham whose agency, Sarkissian Mason, is deep into digital IP.

Now, we see that Adweek has spoken with Anomaly who has long made IP a cornerstone of marketing for their agency. Anomaly has launched their latest spin-off business, i/denti/tee, which allows consumers to put the lyrics of their favorite song a eco-friendly t-shirt. With every purchase, buyers receive a code to download any 10 songs of your choice for free on iTunes. Not bad. This might actually work out.

Other Anomaly projects include: a shaving cream launched with Target, a mobile commerce application called ShopText and a partnership with Le Bernadin super chef Eric Ripert. The traditional side of the agency's business include Converse and like everyone and their mother, Coke. Still, money man for the shop Carl Johnson calls these new businesses a stock portfolio, that has helped the agency recruit talent, clients and allowed their billing structure to shift to a percentage of sales. In this economy, it's probably best to mix up the revenue streams, no?

Whether you hate or love the agency, you've got to give them props for going out on the limb and working this IP angle and like hard.

More: Ask An Expert - Digital UK Vs Digital US

Okay, okay. We get it. And in case you don't, read the words of Anomaly's Johnny Vulkan from Boards:

"If you look back historically large agencies used to produce highly entrepreneurial deals for their clients and invent properties and products. All these things are coming around again. These aren't new ideas, they're just things that perhaps fell out of vogue as agencies and clients grew bigger. A conservatism sets in that only gets shaken up when economic shifts happen or technology changes radically. For the last 30 years we might have been able to say it's [about] TV, radio, or posters. Now the answer can be anything."

More: Anomaly Adds Design Director Kevin Lyons, Loses Others

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I sat down with this fine chap, Mr. Johnny Vulkan of Anomaly this morning for tea (well coffee actually). How to best describe this "company" can't be done in one sentence, but I will say that the folks there have got something going on.

In the four years since its inception (by Carl Johnson), Vulkan said Anomaly has not stopped growing. But the growth is organic, atypical in some ways and traditional in others (although that's my take). The structure is well planned and ad hoc all at once. That's because Anomaly is absorbed in advertising culture (all the best aspects, said Vulkan) without being an ad shop. How so? Find out after the jump.

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Last week, the rumblings that Anomaly had laid off some bodies were filtering through the Agency Spy psyche. And yet, today, the shop has announced that they've taken on a bigwig... of sorts. Anomaly has taken on design director Kevin Lyons who was working at Urban Outfitters as creative director. Agency co-founder Carl Johnson told Creativity that Lyons will bring a "real world perspective" to the shop's design initiatives.

Lyons, oh-so humbly chimed in with: "I am the balance between creativity and the practical application of creativity." You can check out Kevin's website, here.

Fast Company has released their annual "50 Most Innovative Companies" list and Anomaly is the only ad agency to be represented. Anomaly comes in at twenty-four with the opening line of:

"There's a body lining on the floor - no actual flesh, just the crime-scene white-tape outline of a 6-foot-tall man frozen in a mad dash. "Here it is, death of the old advertising model," smirks Jason DeLand, a partner at Anomaly, pointing at the floor of his company's Soho loft space. "Shot as he was running out."'

AKQA is number 48. Nice.

"Which is why, after five consecutive years of profitability, AKQA is one of the most dangerous global forces in the ad industry. While ad holding companies and tech firms spent billions in 2007 to snap up digital shops, AKQA fended them off, opting instead for a $250 million investment from private-equity firm General Atlantic."

The rest of the list is as you would expect: Google is number one, Apple, two and Facebook, three. Nintendo is ten. They deserve it. Method, the eco-friendly cleaning product company, comes in at sixteen. In 2005, the company brought in $15M, but by 2007, they were up $100M. Whole Foods is thirty six and on and on.

We love these new additional broadcasts spots in the Converse campaign coming from Anomaly. These national TV spots will be airing on MTV, VH-1, CW and Comedy Central and so on.

These are little gems of genius for the misanthropic teenagers and disaffected adults longing for the days of Kurt Cobain, Fugazi, and The Melvins. Converse and Anomaly are clearly angry at the asininity on the airwaves. And goddamnit, so are we.

Creative Director: Mike Byrne
Creative/Partner: Richard Mulder
Creative: Lindsey Lanpher
Creative: Ian Toombs
Head of Production: Andrew Loevenguth
Acct. Person: Stephen Corlett

Business Week asked Anomaly's Johnny Vulkan to give an end of year round up for their advertising industry. We suggest giving the whole thing a read (dude isn't a bad writer), but here's our highlights:

"This year hasn't been a wonderful one for advertising professionals—unless your business is advertising conferences entitled "The Future of Marketing"—but 2007 will prove to have been a remarkable year for the marketing profession in general."

"The money hasn't disappeared; it's just that some of it is being invested in places other than "traditional" advertising—primarily in products and services themselves. The creativity that was once the preserve of advertising has surfaced in rapidly expanding research and development departments at a new generation of creative innovation businesses."

"Where we used to advertise 'at' people, technology now creates more opportunities for people to answer back—not just to the advertisers themselves, but to everyone."