creative economy : Buzz

Advertising Age reports on Olson acquiring its first significant footprint outside of Minneapolis.

Olson is acquiring Chicago-based public relations agency Dig Communications. The combined company will now total more than 360 employees.Olson isn't going to make them all move to Minneapolis, though. Dig will be rebranded as Olson PR, with its employees remaining in their current office locations in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, and San Francisco.

"We've decided at this point in time our ambition is to continue to build the agency of the future as we see it and that isn't through a holding-company model," Olson President-CEO Kevin DiLorenzo explains to Ad Age. "Our next move will be similar. Mobile is an area where we have great interest and our clients have great interest, so that would be a smart next piece to put into the puzzle."

Advertising Age reports that U.K.-based brand strategy firm Naked Communications is opening a Minneapolis office.

The new shop is the company's first U.S. expansion since it opened a New York office in 2006. The local shop will be run by new partners Lisa Seward Perry and Amy Sheil.

"Naked sits outside [the traditional advertising agency], and we've always been sort of jealous of that," Seward Perry tells Advertising Age.

Naked's U.S. clients include NBC, Google, Planned Parenthood, and Johnson & Johnson.

The Star Tribune's Neal St. Anthony reflects on the legacy of the Sierra Bravo Corp.'s late CEO, Luke Bucklin.

Bucklin, 40, along with three of his children, were killed in a plane accident last month in the mountains of Wyoming.

Sierra Bravo Corp. and its Nerdery web-design business have been among the Twin Cities' fastest-growing companies in recent years. (We spoke with Bucklin in September after the opening of The Nerdery's Chicago office, and he joked then that the company's plans for global domination were well under way.)

"He always said if you do the right thing, trust people and spread the leadership, that the right things would happen," new CEO Mike Derheim tells St. Anthony. "We would succeed."

Also: "Remembering Luke" from The Nerdery blog.

If it seems like you can't swing a bicycle messenger bag in this town without hitting another artist or creative, it's because we're creatively dense.

Creative-class guru Richard Florida has been crunching geographic numbers over at The Atlantic lately. Last week, Florida took a look at the density of artistic and cultural creatives.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area ranks fifth overall, behind Los Angeles, New York, DC and San Francisco, when measured by the number of artistic and cultural creative workers per square kilometer.

The Twin Cities rank in the same place on Florida's list of creative "overperformers"--cities with the highest density of artistic and cultural creatives compared to what would be expect based on their population density.

Charts and graphs over at The Atlantic.

"Spiritual leader of 25,000 geeks." "Marketing genius." Now add CTO to those titles.

Tech blogger/consultant Graeme Thickens met up with Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens to talk about his new role as Best Buy's chief technology officer.

There wasn't any press release about the promotion. Stephens said he's rather have recognition when he has some results to talk about.

Find the 21-minute audio recording over at Thickens' blog.

The Twin Cities Thursday Happy Hours blog is soliciting nominations for the 25 Most Connected Twin Cities Business Professionals. Here's what founder Jeff Nolan has to say:

"I have been thinking a lot lately about the collaborative business environment we have here in Minneapolis/St. Paul and wanted to reach out to my network and beyond to find the 25 Most Connected Twin Cities Business Professionals."

Nolan asks readers to populate the comment section with the names of Twin Cities professionals who are constantly open to connecting, helping and developing relationships.

Read the TCTHH post and nominate here.

An "�ber-creative collaborative space," a daily blog, and creative awards for jobs well done are a few of the quirks that set Fast Horse apart from other marketing agencies, Minnesota Business magazine writes:

"'It's little programs like that that we're constantly using to keep our talent happy, and to push each other to try new things,' says [founder J�rg] Pierach, 'because that type of innovation ultimately moves the whole vision forward.'"

Read the Minnesota Business article here.

AgencySpy takes a look at the Twin Cities advertising scene and finds plenty of reasons for optimism: growth, the ascendancy of a new star, and the resurrection of a giant.

"Minneapolis is just now starting to see some movement after the layoffs and lock down that was 2009," writes Kiran Aditham. "Linkedin profiles are updating. Job boards are posting. Recruiters are calling."

Aditham notes the meteoric rise of Mono, whose fortunes we have looked at, as well as the return of a once-moribund Fallon to the top of its game.

"We all feared the mighty Fallon had fallen. Then they cleaned up at the local awards show, won Chrysler, traded it in for Cadillac and scooped up H&R Block with no pitch. It's safe to say Fallon is back."

Read the entire AgencySpy article here.

Advertising Age magazine has named Minneapolis-based Mono its "Agency of the Year" in the 11-to-75 employee category.

We wrote about Mono's recent growth last month. The firm produces in-store displays and other graphics for Apple. It's clients also include Macy's, Rolaids, Herman Miller, General Mills, Sesame Street, and Mrs. Meyers Clean Day.

AdAge said it's recognizing Mono "for believing that simpler is better":

"Its belief in no department heads, no hierarchy or separation between strategy and creative, design and advertising, or between traditional and digital media has led to great work for clients such as Mrs. Meyers Clean Day, EMD Serono and Blu Dot."

Read the entire AdAge article here.

Are revived art galleries a sign of emerging from the recession? The Soo Visual Arts Center, hit hard by the economic downturn, is back, reports the Southwest Journal:

"The smell of fresh paint was in the air in June as Greenberg, standing in the new SooVAC space, ticked off all the changes since the gallery closed temporarily in March: an expanded, more deeply involved board of directors; a new gallery manager to ease Greenberg's workload; a new resolve to build gallery membership and community ties; and the spinning-off of SooVAC's shop into a new, independent entity.

"Manufactory is planned to open soon in the former space of design boutique ROBOTlove that relocated in the spring to Northeast. Greenberg said her collaboration with collectible toy-maker Erin Currie and her husband, Dave, will operate like an 'old-school cobbler,' with goods for sale in front and the artists who make them at work in the back of the store.

"Marketing agency Zeus Jones will occupy the third and final space in Greenberg's building, setting up a confluence of creative energy near the Lyndale Avenue and West 26th Street intersection. Rob White, co-founder of the growing firm currently headquartered in the Uptown Row building, said 'artistic karma' drew them to the site."

Read the full article here.

The New York Times updates America on what's happening on one of the hippest streets in Minneapolis, 13th Avenue in Northeast: galleries, restaurants, a record store, and that indefinable urban vibe. Read the story here.

Source: New York Times