New Breed of "Ad Agency"

From Contagious Magazine:

"A new company named crayon was launched this week by a group of marketing bloggers: Joseph Jaffe, author of the Life After the 30-Second Spot (blog can be found at www.jaffejuice.com), co-hosts of the PR podcast For Immediate Release Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson (www.forimmediaterelease.biz), and podcasting music pioneer CC Chapman (www.cc-chapman.com).

The company’s definition eludes traditional marketing categories: in Neville’s words, ‘We’re neither an agency nor a consulting practice as is traditionally defined. What we are is whatever you want or need us to be. I like to think of us as a true mash-up that combines the best in traditional and new thinking about marketing, advertising and PR.’

The company aspires to be a 100% Web 2.0 venture, one that claims to be the world’s first New Marketing company, one whose focus is unambiguously set on the world of blogs, virtual worlds, podcasts, and experimental marketing.

crayon will be both a virtual and a real company: one of crayon’s claims to fame is to be the first company to launch simultaneously in Second Life and the real world (see image facing for a look at their office). ‘Second Life symbolises the thinning line between the real and virtual worlds,’ says Joseph Jaffe, a.k.a. Divo Dapto in his avatar form. ‘With our team located in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, California and England, Second Life emerged as the perfect way for us to complement our dispersed geographic presence to meet and interact, not only with each other but also with our clients, vendors, and partners.’"

Here's their Second Life Office:



It's a great example of the speed of change and the fact that the possiblities of doing exciting projects that span the real and virtual worlds are not just a flash in the pan.

Convergence.