AKQA
Encyclopedia
AKQA is a creative agency
specializing in interactive marketing
. The privately held company has offices in London
, San Francisco, New York
, Washington D.C, Amsterdam
, Berlin
, Shanghai
and San Salvador
, totally roughly 1,000 full-time employees.
The book The On-Demand Brand quotes AKQA’s CEO Tom Bedecarré: “There are a lot of advertising people who want to hang onto the past, want to hang onto 30-second television commercials and full-color magazine ads. [But] you [now need to] have software engineers and technology people as part of the creative team if you want to connect with what people are doing.”
From 2001-2003, building on its identity as an all-round “ideas-led” agency rather than a strictly digital practitioner, AKQA began undertaking work that also had a significant offline component.
In 2004, a New York office to increase its access to East Coast
clients and talent..
In 2006, AKQA Mobile was launched as a specialist division.
The same year, AKQA also created the Future Lions in collaboration with the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
. The annual competition challenges university-level students to "advertise a product from a global brand in a way that couldn’t be conceived five years ago."
2007 was a year of expansion. New offices were opened in Amsterdam and Shanghai, SearchRev was acquired and turned into a dedicated search engine marketing practice, and revenue grew 45%.. Despite aggressive acquisition of digital agencies by advertising holding companies, AKQA remained independent and private as General Atlantic
replaced Francisco Partners as the new majority stakeholders.
A Berlin office was announced in January 2010 and opened its doors in June 2010.
, AKQA created the free “Real Racing GTI” games app (released on October 15, 2009). It became the #1 app in 36 countries, with over 4.3 million downloads. Users could find nearby dealers using the GPS function, and within days of the app’s release dealers were reporting sales directly linked to the game.
Fiat eco:Drive; If you own a new Fiat 500 (or one of a few other models), an AKQA-devised setup called eco:Drive collects your real-world driving data on a USB stick you plug into the dashboard. When you plug that stick into your computer, a proprietary algorithm analyses your gear changes, acceleration and braking habits and calculates your eco:Index – a scoring of your carbon footprint. It then offers advice to improve your driving style and quantifies how much good you’ll do for the environment, and how much money you’ll save in the course of a year, with the increased fuel economy you’ll achieve by adopting the program’s suggestions.
AKQA had previously been named Revolution’s Agency of the Decade (for 1997 to 2007).
When Advertising Age’s Creativity magazine created its inaugural Interactive Agency of the Year award (2006), it gave it to AKQA, recognizing the agency's “global culture, creative hires and technological muscle.” Said the magazine’s editor, Teressa Iezzi, “We thought AKQA embodied the spirit of the big-idea-first approach.”
Creative agency
A creative agency is an advertising agency that specializes in the creative work of creating advertisements / commercials, and may leave the buying of media space and time to a specialist media agency....
specializing in interactive marketing
Interactive marketing
Interactive Marketing refers to the evolving trend in marketing whereby marketing has moved from a transaction-based effort to a conversation. John Deighton argued that interactive marketing features “the ability to address an individual and the ability to gather andremember the response of that...
. The privately held company has offices in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, San Francisco, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Washington D.C, Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and San Salvador
San Salvador
The city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador...
, totally roughly 1,000 full-time employees.
Philosophy
Since its creation, AKQA has stated its company values to be: Innovation, Service, Quality and Thought.The book The On-Demand Brand quotes AKQA’s CEO Tom Bedecarré: “There are a lot of advertising people who want to hang onto the past, want to hang onto 30-second television commercials and full-color magazine ads. [But] you [now need to] have software engineers and technology people as part of the creative team if you want to connect with what people are doing.”
History
AKQA Inc. was founded in 2001 as a merger between AKQA New Media (London), Citron Haligman Bedecarré (San Francisco), Magnet Interactive (Washington, DC) and The AndInc (Singapore). The new company took a $71 million investment from Francisco Partners and formed a strategic alliance with Accenture..From 2001-2003, building on its identity as an all-round “ideas-led” agency rather than a strictly digital practitioner, AKQA began undertaking work that also had a significant offline component.
In 2004, a New York office to increase its access to East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
clients and talent..
In 2006, AKQA Mobile was launched as a specialist division.
The same year, AKQA also created the Future Lions in collaboration with the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France...
. The annual competition challenges university-level students to "advertise a product from a global brand in a way that couldn’t be conceived five years ago."
2007 was a year of expansion. New offices were opened in Amsterdam and Shanghai, SearchRev was acquired and turned into a dedicated search engine marketing practice, and revenue grew 45%.. Despite aggressive acquisition of digital agencies by advertising holding companies, AKQA remained independent and private as General Atlantic
General Atlantic
General Atlantic is a private equity investment firm. The firm invests through growth capital injections, control buyouts, industry consolidations, build-ups, recapitalizations, and PIPEs...
replaced Francisco Partners as the new majority stakeholders.
A Berlin office was announced in January 2010 and opened its doors in June 2010.
Notable work
Volkswagen 2010 GTI car launch; the first car launch in history to be done without any paid media, and the first to happen in Apple’s iTunes Store. Based on an engine by Melbourne developer FiremintFiremint
Founded in 1999 by CEO Robert Murray, Firemint is a developer and publisher of video games based in Melbourne, Australia. Originally an independent company, in May 2011, Electronic Arts announced the acquisition of Firemint Pty Ltd for an undisclosed sum, making it an in-house studio for EA...
, AKQA created the free “Real Racing GTI” games app (released on October 15, 2009). It became the #1 app in 36 countries, with over 4.3 million downloads. Users could find nearby dealers using the GPS function, and within days of the app’s release dealers were reporting sales directly linked to the game.
Fiat eco:Drive; If you own a new Fiat 500 (or one of a few other models), an AKQA-devised setup called eco:Drive collects your real-world driving data on a USB stick you plug into the dashboard. When you plug that stick into your computer, a proprietary algorithm analyses your gear changes, acceleration and braking habits and calculates your eco:Index – a scoring of your carbon footprint. It then offers advice to improve your driving style and quantifies how much good you’ll do for the environment, and how much money you’ll save in the course of a year, with the increased fuel economy you’ll achieve by adopting the program’s suggestions.
Awards and recognition
Between 2005 and 2010, AKQA garnered more than 100 industry awards, including at least one agency of the year award every year. In 2010, AKQA took home Agency of the Year for the second year running at the Revolution Awards and Agency of the Year awards from New Media Age and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In 2009, the company won five separate agency of the year awards, a feat unprecedented in the communications industry.AKQA had previously been named Revolution’s Agency of the Decade (for 1997 to 2007).
When Advertising Age’s Creativity magazine created its inaugural Interactive Agency of the Year award (2006), it gave it to AKQA, recognizing the agency's “global culture, creative hires and technological muscle.” Said the magazine’s editor, Teressa Iezzi, “We thought AKQA embodied the spirit of the big-idea-first approach.”
External links
- Interview with co-founder and chief creative officer James Hilton on how the word ‘relevant’ has guided AKQA for more than 13 years.
- Growing Business meets AKQA's founder and chairman Web pioneer Ajaz Ahmed reveals how he built the £73m turnover creative agency big brands use to reach out to the Internet generation by "taking a stand against 'multimediocrity'".
- Feature article in Campaign by Ajaz Ahmed on neuroplasticity, cultural activism, and the inexorable and beneficent rise of video gaming.
- AKQA on Facebook (the company's official and exclusive newsfeed)