“ A few words about Adage ”
Before having to create our own startup, media, advertisement or marketing oriented company, in Ad discovery and creativity Lab, we were asked to take a look at some already existing marketing companies, as presented and ranked by AdAge, for the year 2018. Our task was to pick a company from the “A-list”, conduct some research about it, its work, its values and vision, and present our foundings to the rest of the class.
First of all, let’s say a few things about AdAge Agency. AdAge, since 1974, does an annual analysis of advertising and marketing-services agencies and ranks them, making an “A-list”, according to their creativity, business strategy and/or transformation, and this ranking is based both on US and worldwide revenue.
Having a look at the “A-list” of 2018, we were able to collect some information about the top companies of the year and their work, but also about the ranking process itself. According to the editor’s letter, the ranking procedure is usually fun to do, but this year, allegations of inappropriate behavior in the working place, aka sexual harassment, around “big players” of the advertising industry, had the team “think and rethink this batch of A-listers”, and apart from the agency culture (finances, creativity, new business acquisition, strategy), decide to award companies/shops who dismissed people accused of this inappropriate behavior, no matter how important they might have been for the company. In addition, this year’s plan was to show and embrace the role of women in these companies, who are hard-working and changing the rules in the industry.
The agency our team chose from this list, positioned at the 7th place (while in the 2017 A-list it was on the 9th place), is called Laundry Service.
Laundry Service is a full-scale media company and content studio, that has already worked with big brands, like Nike, Fox, Amazon, Adobe, Beats and more and is located in an old coffee warehouse building in Brooklyn with modern, industrial architecture that offers a great view and a fascinating experience to the customers. It moved there in 2017, and has already outgrown its initial plan of 42.000 square foot. Being active seven years, last year the company increased its revenue by 63 percent, was acquired by sports sponsorship and management giant Wasserman and its head count grew by 44 percent.
Company’s priorities include “cleanliness” of their services (which actually explains their name too) and being able to offer their clients creation and distribution at the same place, so that they don’t get lost and waste time trying to figure out one piece of content.
During the years, Laundry Service has evolved from being a social media or digital agency, that a few believed in, into being a company that helps clients form their strategy plan in the marketplace and has gained their trust.
Laundry Service’s main target is not to gain huge amounts of money, they aim to be creative, make outstanding ads with a worldwide depiction, and that’s why they have recruited some famous instagram photographers from all around the world, to help them boost the instagram profiles of their clients.
They are not afraid to take risks, just like they did with Burnett Collective that finally decided to part ways with them, cosing big account losses, which they fortunately managed to eclipse with other successful cooperations with companies like Sephora, J. Crew, Celestial Seasonings, NBC Sports, Nike and Foot Locker.
Being creative and aware of their power, they continue their job by using their losses and/or failures, to keep growing and expanding. A great example for every company in the marketplace, and not only!
Want to explore and learn more about Laundry Service? Make sure to check their website!
