Connect with execs from Axios, The New York Times, Paramount and more.
For agencies, invention is the new innovation. It’s now not enough to be up on the latest technologies and tools. Any agency worth its stripes is stocking up on 3-D printers and getting into the business of making.
This is, in part, what is driving the trend in agencies attempting to bring products to market themselves. Anomaly has long believed in this model, and agencies like BBH and Rockfish have also tried to go the product route. Digital shop Huge a year ago went this route with the creation of Huge Labs.
Six months of frustration nearly capsized the effort early on, Huge CEO Aaron Shapiro said during a talk at the Digiday Agency Summit in Miami. The problem: Huge tried to do the labs initiative on the side. That’s tough to pull off in client-service organizations where billable client work will always come first.
“You quickly learn client works always wins and products never get built,” he said.
Since then, it has incubated two startups — a ‘“reddit for corporations” called Honey and event-marketing tool Togather — that are now separate companies trying to make it on their own. Huge provides the startups work space, infrastructure and client connections, but it acts as an investor.
“These are real companies,” he said. “We think that model – where they’re much more independent rather than side companies – is much more successful.”
Watch the three-minute clip of Shapiro’s thoughts on Huge Labs below.
More in Marketing
How Bandit Running is expanding internationally while staying hyperlocal
Bandit’s focus on core running communities has helped it grow enough to start expanding outward.
Criteo is subject to a takeover bid, further proving private equity’s continued interest in ad tech
Vista Equity and Quinti Capital place a 50% premium on stock, raising questions over where the PE firms see value.
Dentsu strikes Meta deal to build plumbing for mass influencer activation
Top CMOs are assembling armies of creators, but many lack the infrastructure required to get the most out of them. A deal between Dentsu and Meta aims to fix that problem.