Anomaly: a ‘’new model’’ agency
Advertising is a crucial part of growing and sustaining a business. No matter how good a brand is, its success is largely dependent on its marketing. Advertising agencies are deemed to be the backbone of the advertising industry. Their role is to develop, enhance the image of, and sustain a brand in the market. Οne of the agencies that have stood out over the last few years, first in the USA and then spreading out internationally, is Anomaly.
Who is Anomaly? Philosophy and well-known clients
Anomaly is an ‘’anti’’ advertising agency founded in 2004. It was established by former TBWA global COO Carl Johnson and five partners. Jointly headquartered in New York and London, and with offices all around the world, the agency was created to be a change agent for an industry desperately clinging to legacy models and outdated ways of thinking.
It offers product development, interactive marketing, media strategy and design, public relations and advertising services. At the beginning, Anomaly tended to focus on smaller, often more offbeat brands but the agency moved into the big time at the end of 2009 with the capture of the European marketing account for Sony (until 2012). Other international clients have followed. Some of the most renowned of them are: Diesel, Google, IKEA, Lego, Nike, The Coca-Cola Company and more.
Why Anomaly? Competitive advantages
Anomaly is not your typical advertising agency: there are many ways in which Anomaly is different from the status quo. The company believes that its competitive advantage is about a back-to-the-basics approach: solving its clients’ business problems using whatever means it can. That can be in communications, media, marketing tactics or none of the above.
As a result, while a typical agency will view a client’s needs through the lens of its own core capabilities and fixed resources and will arrive at a solution using these capabilities and resources, Anomaly, while being more than capable of doing “traditional communications,” is not ideologically or infrastructurally compelled to follow this, because its business model permits it to manifest its capabilities and choose the resources through the lens of the business issue.
As Johnson says: <<From Anomaly’s inception, we realized intuitively that, in order to succeed, we needed to create an entity that was, literally, an “Anomaly” — something that deviates from the norm or from expectations>>.
Significant awards and titles
In 2016, the agency won all 14 new business pitches for which it competed, earning the title of Agency of the Year from AdAge, one of the most important titles in the Advertising Industry, and it was also distinguished as a Creativity Innovator.
Moreover, it was #24 in a Fast Company article titled “The World’s Most Innovative Companies“ and mentioned in Ad Age magazine (#4 in 2016 ‘Agency A-List’ report and #7 in 2015 ‘Agency A-List’ report.)
Anomaly also won ‘Brand of the Year’ at the Designer Toy Awards for the agency’s Mighty Jaxx venture and the Gold Media Effies for Converse and ‘Keep a Child Alive’ Foundation.
The agency has also been honoured with a few less conventional accolades as well, such as being named one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2016 for hmbldt, plus two Emmy's for a television series, all of which the agency created and co-owns.
Team: Δήμητρα Κ., Rigo Pelidis, Theodora Fokaeos
Instructor: Betty Tsakarestou
