Thursday, June 10, 2010

Jon Bond's "New" Advertising Services Model

From the original Ad Age article...
"Four months after departing Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal and Partners, the New York agency he co-founded in 1987, Jon Bond -- backed with some $100 million in financing -- is setting out to build a new marketing services entity to rival Kirshenbaum's owner, MDC Partners, and other holding companies, according to several industry executives.


The entity is being dubbed a "cooperative" to prospective partners and touted as an alternative structure to the current advertising and marketing holding-company model. Mr. Bond is said to have met with some 80 to 100 marketing services firms and tech outfits , in the U.S. and in Europe with a range of specialties. People familiar with the situation said Mr. Bond has raised $100 million from multiple resources and has invested his own money into the venture, too
."

Interesting that Ad Age is touting this model as new. I do not think the concept of a cooperative in this industry is new, but perhaps having an ex-conglomerate executive proceed with serious capital investment and getting national ink upon announcement is.

Independent agencies and boutique studios that are smaller, but put out high quality work have worked within this structure for years. Personally speaking, my digital studio, The Basement, has worked as a co-op partner, maybe in not so many words, with regional agencies, marcomm firms and social media shops (some independent and some not) for the past three years. This was also the model I recommended implementing at my old shop.

My hats off to Jon Bond for pursuing this model, because as we all know, those that try to be all things to all people tend to be good at a few things and perform malpractice at the rest.

I will be interested to see how this works for Mr. Bond.

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