William Morris Launching Agency 3.0 With Amp'd Founder Adderton
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
William Morris Agency is launching a new branded content and marketing division, called Agency 3.0, working with former Amp'd Mobile CEO and founder Peter Adderton. The division, which will operate as a separate company, has most of the creative team behind Amp'd's critically acclaimed content services, and has signed on *Qualcomm* and *Clearwire* as clients, we have learned, though the company refused to confirm these clients. Our sources also say that WMA is going to invest as much as $3 million into the venture over time, though again, the company refused comment on any amount.
Other executives in the new company include Greg Johnson, former founder of Interpublic's Emerging Media Lab, who will head the company's practice addressing consumer brand companies and traditional agencies; Steve Stanford, the former CEO of Icebox, and former COO of Amp'd, who will head the company's practice in the entertainment industry; Scott Anderson, former creative head and co-founder of both Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile, who will lead the creative and design team at Agency 3.0. A total of about 20 employees are in the new company. WMA is the joint owner of the company, along with Adderton as the key executives...the new company will be based on of WMA's Beverly Hills headquarters.
Essentially the new firm is part ad agency, and part strategic and operational development firm which is working with corporate clients and brands, and will help in "designing, implementing and monetizing" their online and mobile assets, as Adderton told me earlier today. This is also in keeping with WMA's strategy of diversifying beyond its core agency business, as it did with the new Mailroom Fund, a new film financing venture, and more such initiatives to come, as WMA CEO Jim Wiatt explained it to me in the same interview.
Considering Adderton's controversial background with Amp'd Mobile, this new company will certainly be heavily scrutinized, and remains to be seen if it can move beyond the conceptual idea of reinventing the traditional agency model into something more concrete, both on the product as well as the business model side.
By Rafat Ali