World's First New Marketing Company, crayon, Launches Simultaneously in Real and Virtual Worlds

October 26, 2006 | 12:00 pm

NEW YORK, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- crayon, the world's first dedicated New Marketing company, is open for business from today in the real world and, simultaneously, in Second Life, the three-dimensional online digital world. The company's official launch takes place today at its Second Life headquarters, crayonville Island.

crayon is a different kind of company that integrates the best of the consulting, agency, advisory, thought leadership and education worlds -- a mash-up, in new marketing terms.

"The world has changed, but marketing, advertising, and public relations have not," said Joseph Jaffe, author of the best selling book Life After the 30-Second Spot (Wiley) and crayon's President and Founder. "There is no question that the influence organizations can achieve through traditional marketing, advertising and PR is fading fast."

crayon will help marketers, advertisers and public relations professionals better understand the tremendous changes, challenges and opportunities in today's dynamic and complex world of fragmented attention, increasing consumer control and hardening attitudes towards marketing communication.

"We're not interested in reams of data that says the world has changed. We get it," said Maarten Albarda, Director Media & Communication Innovation, The Coca-Cola Company. "crayon is not only focused on talking about what comes next, but moreover putting the ideas and promises of new marketing into action."

crayon helps marketers and communications professionals make sense of the profound changes in order to connect the dots between the burgeoning new approaches and possibilities available to them.

"For the last five years, I've been building a solid thought leadership base and conversations around New Marketing," said Jaffe. "I've spoken to countless Chief Marketing Officers and, based on their unified frustration with the status quo and eagerness to 'get to the future ... first,' it became obvious to me that it was time to scale up and help marketers win through new marketing."

Roy Spence, President and Co-Founder of full-service marketing communications agency GSD&M agreed.

"Joseph has yet again taken the industry to a whole new level of thinking, putting the ideas from his book into action with the launch of crayon," Spence said. "His contention is that the revolution has already ended and from this revolution there has emerged what he is calling the New Marketing Model. We could not be happier to be partnering with him, working together to amplify, extend and enhance new marketing for the benefit of our clients."

Some of the new marketing approaches offered by crayon include social media such as blogs, podcasts, RSS and wikis, experiential marketing, long form content, consumer generated content, open-source marketing, virtual worlds, gaming, mobile, and non-paid media digital solutions.

crayon Spans Globe, Spectrum of Experience

"crayon's commitment to New Marketing is part of its operating DNA," said Jaffe, who runs one of the industry's most influential marketing blogs (Jaffe Juice), has one of the world's leading marketing podcasts (Across the Sound) and is a Second Life resident (Divo Dapto).

To build a strong foundation of new marketing practitioners, he reached out to some of new marketing's most influential, including C.C. Chapman (a music podcasting pioneer and a constant evangelist for independent artists around the globe); Neville Hobson (a leading European influencer in social media communication for business); and California-based organizational communications veteran Shel Holtz, author of Public Relations on the Net and Corporate Conversations. Already on board in New York is Chris Trela, an entertainment industry player who has been instrumental in negotiating and structuring key sponsorship, film, television and celebrity endorsement deals. Gary Cohen, a financial services veteran previously with Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust Company, serves as crayon's CEO. In addition to creating the infrastructure of this organic/shape-shifting company and an ingrained culture of joint ownership, responsibility and accountability, Cohen will focus on developing a new services business model and compensation scheme which pivots on delivering bottom line results for clients.

Rounding out the team based in New York are communications planning consultant Francis Anderson and crayon members Aaron Greenberger and Michael Denton.

A Second Life Presence with a Twist

While some established companies have set up secondary outposts in Second Life, crayon intends to use the virtual world as its primary base of operations.

"Second Life symbolizes the thinning line between the real and virtual worlds," Jaffe explains. "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." crayon also maintains a traditional website at www.crayonville.com (the same name as the Second Life island) for those not ready to make the transition to crayonville Island. "At the end of the day, this is about integration," assured Jaffe. "Welcome to the 'AND economy,' where conversation and transformation reign over communication."

About crayon

Founded by Joseph Jaffe, author of Life After the 30-Second Spot (Wiley), crayon is a different kind of company that specializes in New Marketing for a New Consumer. It integrates the best of the consulting, agency, advisory, thought leadership and education worlds -- a mash-up, in new marketing terms. crayon focuses on helping its clients identify, evaluate, implement, integrate and measure a bold mix of alternatives to traditional marketing, advertising and public relations into their existing plans and programs, in order to:

    * Amplify, extend and enhance relevance, experience and value through
      bold, alternative and non-traditional approaches
    * Join the conversation
    * Create disproportionate positive business impact

crayon is structured as both a global and a remote company. Recognizing that the single biggest differentiator in a creative and strategic-driven business is that of talent, crayon brings the right people aboard, irrespective of their physical locations, with a primary presence in the virtual world of Second Life to conduct its business, presentations, brainstorms and pitches.

crayon's clients include The Coca-Cola Company, as well as Omnicom's GSD&M.

For further information, visit www.crayonville.com or crayonville Island in Second Life.