Category Archive

And who can forget “Pop-Up Video”? The influence of that VH1 series from the 1990s can still be seen today in unexpected places like the commercials for Kozy Shack pudding on the video screen at Shea Stadium, which offer pop-up factoids about landmarks in the New York area.

Porter Novelli, a leading public relations agency, is popping up on the list with a pop-up agency inside its halls, staffed by younger employees who have spent the summer creating campaigns for clients with fledgling businesses to promote.

The entrepreneurial pop-up is named Jack & Bill, after Jack Porter and Bill Novelli, who joined forces in 1972 to found Porter Novelli, an agency now owned by the Omnicom Group with 100 offices in 60 countries.

Eight Porter Novelli account supervisors and account executives — average age, 26 — have been responsible for Jack & Bill, running the agency on behalf of five clients that are receiving free services from the pop-up.

“We have an agency filled with millennials, with a need to feel empowered,” says Lisa Rosenberg, partner and managing director of the Porter Novelli New York office, referring to the demographic group, also known as Generation Y, born between 1982 and 1994.

“This was an idea they were tremendously excited about,” she adds. “And as a senior manager here, it’s exciting to see the strength of our young people.”

Ms. Rosenberg estimates the expense of the Jack & Bill project for Porter Novelli at more than $150,000 — an economical sum for a summer’s worth of publicity generation that generated its own share of publicity.

One goal of Jack & Bill is to help paying Porter Novelli clients, current and potential, learn about the parent agency’s services that are centered in the new media.

“It’s showcasing our digital-media expertise,” Ms. Rosenberg says, “what we have in our repertoire that we may not always get to do for bigger clients.”

So Jack & Bill has a microsite, or special Web site ; a blog; and a channel on YouTube.

The pop-up agency also has presences on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

A decision was made to concentrate Jack & Bill on clients in the fashion field, reflecting that many of the younger Porter Novelli employees work on accounts in areas like “fashion and style and art and culture,” says Erin Osher, a partner at Jack & Bill who is an account supervisor at Porter Novelli.

“It was really the chance of a lifetime,” says Ms. Osher, who has worked at Porter Novelli three years, “to create an agency with the support and help of a big organization.”

To give Jack & Bill’s pop-up life an appropriate end date, the work to be done by the staff members for their clients would culminate with the annual Fashion Week that took place last week in various venues across Manhattan.

Jack & Bill and its clients found each other in a way that turned upside-down the traditional pitching process for selecting a public relations agency. (Or maybe it was pop-up-side-down?)

Instead of several agencies being called in by a client to make presentations, which lead to one agency being hired, the partners of Jack & Bill asked potential clients to come in and audition to win the pop-up’s free services.

Underlining the emphasis on the digital media, Jack & Bill spread the word about the audition — held on July 15 and 16 in TriBeCa — through Web sites, blogs and other nontraditional outlets.

“More than 150 people showed up for the casting call,” Ms. Osher says, which was also chronicled as it took place on the Jack & Bill Web site and blog as well as through Twitter and the other digital means of dissemination.

“We were taking photos on iPhones, which were sent to Flickr, and doing live blogging,” she adds, “and we invited others like PR Week, Huffington Post and People to live-blog.”

The winners of the free services from Jack & Bill have been drawn from several aspects of the fashion business.

In women’s apparel, the selection is Aira, a company started by two sisters, Karen and Annie Lin. They are showing a collection for the fall along with a “sneak peek” at spring 2009.

Kalyn Johnson, a former lawyer, was chosen for her work as a fashion stylist. Her company, Style by Kalyn Johnson, offers wardrobe makeovers and styling sessions for individuals and groups.

There is a model, Christopher Fawcett, a 22-year-old from Aurora, Colo., who moved to New York about a year ago to break into big-time modeling.

One fashion item, jewelry, is represented twice. One is Dannijo, a line created by two sisters, Danielle and Jodie Snyder. The other is Badgley Sneed Designs, a collection from two long-time friends, Lynne Badgley and Jan Sneed.

If the name Badgley rings a bell, it is because Lynne’s son, Penn, is an actor who has a lead role in “Gossip Girl,” the buzzed-about series on the CW network. (Ms. Sneed is his godmother.)

Asked to recall the Jack & Bill selection process, Ms. Badgley laughs. “I spent years auditioning with him,” she says, referring to Penn, “and all of a sudden the tables were turned. Now I knew what he felt like.”

Mr. Badgley accompanied his mother and Ms. Sneed to the audition, bringing with him a co-star, Blake Lively, who plays his girlfriend on “Gossip Girl” and, as they say in the gossip columns, is seeing him off-camera, too.

The presence of the young actors drew considerable attention for Jack & Bill as well as Badgley Sneed Designs; the coverage included E!, people.com and Us Weekly magazine.

“Every other contestant asked: ‘What are they doing here?’ ‘They make jewelry, too?’ ” Mr. Badgley, smiling broadly, says about his appearance with Ms. Lively.

“I was going for moral support,” he adds, although he recognizes that “my support could be helpful as well.”

Badgley Sneed Designs has since added a “Gossip Girl” necklace to its offerings; mixed among the stones are pieces composed of the letters “xoxo,” as in the sign-off used by the narrator of the series.

Ms. Sneed, whose day job is executive vice president for corporate communications at MPG, a media agency owned by Havas, praises the young staff members of Jack & Bill for their help during the summer.

“They’re great kids, really smart and really tech-savvy,” Ms. Sneed says. “They know what’s out there and how to use it.”

That was echoed by Mr. Fawcett, who points to coverage he received after working with Jack & Bill that includes “Model Tracker,” a feature on The Cut, a well-read blog about fashion on the Web site of New York magazine .

“I thought you had to be really famous to have P.R. representation,” says Mr. Fawcett, who learned about the Jack & Bill audition for clients from a friend who forwarded a report from a blog.

“I didn’t really expect it,” he says of winning, because “being in the industry teaches you not to expect things.”

“I’d like to thank them,” he adds, referring to the Jack & Bill team members he worked with. “They really do make me feel like a star.”

The Jack & Bill partners wrapped up the pop-up project with a party as Fashion Week got under way on Sept. 8. All their clients were present, along with friends and family, other Porter Novelli employees, reporters, photographers and bloggers.

“Jack & Bill may live on after this,” Ms. Osher says, to assist “emerging talent needing help to get off the ground.”

The Jack & Bill partners, in addition to Ms. Osher, are: Claire Buxton, Alyson Campbell, Erin Crumpacker, Erica Lichtenberger, Richard Small, Lauren Szczerba and Emily Zanovich.