Willow St. Opens Agency with a Very Different Attitude
It’s not exactly a traditional ad agency. It’s not exactly a production company. It’s not exactly a social media company. So what is Willow St. Agency?
“Clients are looking at the marketing challenges they face, and they can’t quite figure out who can help them address all their needs,” said Larry Johannes, partner at Willow St. “We’ve brought together all the key resources they need to be successful in a blended marketing environment and put them all under one roof.”
That blended environment, says Johannes, involves traditional advertising, digital marketing, online events, search, guerilla tactics, sports marketing and more to reach consumers in a seamless way within a splintered media environment.
“The one thing all brands need is more interesting and targeted video content,” said Jim Sykora, chief creative officer and partner at Willow St. “Clients need ten times the digital content they needed only a few years ago and yet production budgets have remained mostly flat.”
To address this increased need for video content, the heart of Willow St is built around a cinematic-quality production unit and a robust post-production department with video editing, graphics and audio rooms. The idea is to take a client from concept to screen, relying very little, if any, on outside resources.
Willow St. is also building a staff that is uniquely qualified to fulfill this mission. “If you talk to kids coming out of school, most of them have a wide skillset. In order to put together a portfolio, you’ll find art directors that edit or animate, writers that direct, developers who understand audio and account service people that can manage social media. We’re trying to tap into that spirit and create teams that can take more ownership of a project from end-to-end,” said Sykora.
It is an idea that is already proving attractive to clients. “This is an agency that is built for the market today,” said Rex Holloway, Executive Vice President of Product Development for Uniden America, who was one of the first clients to tap into Willow St. “We of course still need great package design and advertising, but our products have to also come to life with video content for Amazon and other online outlets. Efficiency is one thing, but the bigger benefit is how the messaging connects across all these platforms to drive sales and deliver the brand,” he added.
Launched in September of 2013, Willow St. is a full service agency and content creation company that combines the disciplines of digital and traditional advertising. Founded by partners Jim Sykora, Larry Johannes and Scott Howell, all longtime veterans of the Dallas advertising community, the agency is located in Deep Ellum, Texas. For more information, contact info@willowstagency.com
