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Zero Gravity Business: Grey New York

Guest post by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: What happens when a New York ad agency’s creative team is booted out of their posh offices and moved into a 70’s style sea of ugly earth toned cubicles?

Zero Gravity Business: Grey New York

What happens when a New York ad agency's creative team is booted out of their posh offices and moved into a 70's style sea of ugly earth toned cubicles? That's exactly what happened at Grey New York - a leader in advertising since 1917. The agency had become a bit stale - until the new creative chief, Tor Myhren, came along.

Sensing the need for a big shift - Myhren took Defy Gravity to a whole new level. He uprooted his team from their status quo digs. No more posh offices. They moved to the 2nd level of a ~30 year old building - featuring brown cubes.

To introduce the move and to motivate his team - he shot a kickbutt music video singing his own version of "Nothing Compares to Two." Two being the new floor for the company's creative home.

CHECK IT OUT IT'S A MASTERPIECE!

The shift in office space was only the beginning.

As the internet and creative media really took off, Myhran took a sharp turn right into the vortex. He moved production in-house, allowing Grey to create spots more quickly and at lower cost.

So began the age of DIY at Grey - and the creative spirit flourished.

You know their work. Like the famous E-Trade babies. Rumor has it they have a feature film in the works. Wow. Then there's the thousand-frames-per-second Phantom HD spots for the NFL and the mega-viral video "Obammcain" ad for the presidential election. Tor's team is awesome!

In the past two years, Grey New York has become a multimedia powerhouse. In 2009, as ad spending decreased by 11%, the agency's operating profits were up 44%. In that same year they won 17 new accounts, including BMW, DirecTV, Ketel One vodka, and the NFL.

There are all kinds of ways to shift - away from the status quo and toward high-velocity growth. It simply takes Gravity Defyin' thinking.

I'd say Tor's a master. :)

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Article Tags: business growth, creative team, gravity, grey new york



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