Many of us in the Australian ad industry work at companies with dead foreigners’ names (or initials) on the front door. At Ogilvy, where I work, David O. is still an inspiration. I’d like to think Bill Bernbach gets his due at DDB. But names like Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Foote Cone & Belding, and Tragos, Bonnange, Wiesendanger, Ajroldi have sunk into advertising’s primordial alphabet soup.
Perhaps in response to the randomness of these names, Australian agency founders increasingly choose business names other than their own, even if they’re the brand they’re selling. As a result, the agency names listed in the AdNews online directory provide an interesting window into how we want to be perceived. Here are some noteworthy trends:
We like to get our hands dirty. Advertising is no place for the effete. We’re more ‘mongers’ than ‘artistes’ as demonstrated by names like The Boiler Room, Bulldozer, The Armory, The Mill, The Project Factory, Hard Hat Digital and The Works. Workhouse Advertising in West Leederville, WA sounds like it’s doing its heavy lifting as some sort of Dickensian punishment. The Reactor, in Melbourne’s Richmond district, is even willing to brave the inevitable meltdown jokes.
We’ll take good care of you. Sydney’s Ward6 suggests intensive brand medicine. Other agencies appear to specialise in psychological care, although at MAD Design in Sutherland, NSW and The Creative Asylum in Balwyn, VIC, it’s not clear if they see themselves as carers or patients.
We’ll give you a buzz. There’s no mistaking this at the Abbotsford, VIC offices of product design agency Buzz, but it’s certainly implied at Adrenaline, Tequila, Triple Shot Creative and Binge Advertising and Design. Darlinghurst’s Pusher has an appropriately psychedelic website, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing intentionally hallucinogenic happening at The Glue Society in Surry Hills.
We’re a healthy choice. Nourish Brands, Juice, MILK Digital, Hydrate Communications and of course Spinach promise essential brand nutrition, while South Melbourne’s The Media Kitchen can presumably dish it all up.
We may be hotshops, but baby, it’s cold inside. In what may be the strangest trend in the otherwise temperate world of Australian advertising, we are home to Eskimo Design, Digital Eskimo, Iceberg Media, icemedia, Igloo and Tundra. I’m not sure what inspired these arctic appellations. Perhaps an abiding appreciation of white space?
Gordon McNenney
Content and Communications Director
DTDigital
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.