40 Strangest Agency Names, and Where They Came From
November 18, 2011 by Kevin Michael Gray
The power of a name. It's what people know you as and who you become. It's almost like a insightful utterance into the future... and oftem times it's the simplest easy to remember names that are the best names! Names like apple, coke, coffee bean. Today's featured article talks about names as it pertains to the advertising agency world. Read more below:
If you were launching a new agency today, what would you call it? A group of young social-media marketers in Paris recently went with Kids Love Jetlag, which joins sister agencies Hello, Sunshine and Furious Monkeys as part of France's eccentric Fred & Farid Group. Since hearing about this new shop, we've been thinking a lot about oddly named agencies. Some, like Razorfish and David & Goliath, have become so mainstream, they no longer register as strange. Others, like StrawberryFrog and Barton F. Graf 9000, will probably always seem quirky. So, as an exercise in hilarity, we've compiled a ranking of what we consider the weirdest agency names in the advertising business. Check out the list after the jump, then let us know your picks for pre-eminent peculiarity in the comments. (Image above via Alan O'Rourke on Flickr.)
Taxi40
Location: International, based in Canada
Explanation from the site: "We believe a small team of experts should drive every piece of business—as many as can fit in a cab."
Odopod39
Location: San Francisco
Explanation: Reportedly named for Godzilla's island of Odo and the idea of a compact team, or pod.
Bonehook38
Location: Portland, Ore.
Explanation: "I wanted to strip what we do down to the bare essentials," founder David Burn tells AdFreak. "We go out and fish for our dinners, in order to survive. Additionally, I was hoping to convey my love of the Pacific Northwest and native culture."
Big Spaceship37
Location: New York
Explanation: In a 2010 interview with iMedia Connection, founder Michael Lebowitz said he liked the name Spaceship for its sense of exploration, but he wanted to add a word, since Spaceship.com was already taken. "We settled on 'Big' primarily because it's inclusive; there is room for everyone on a big spaceship, and it has notes of a mothership."
Droga536
Location: International, based in New York
Explanation: Reportedly named for the label that founder David Droga's mother would stitch into his underwear when he was a child, to clarify which sibling it belonged to.
