If you’re familiar with Joe Jaffe, author, former agency guy, Jaffe Juice blogger and Crayon founder, then you know the man is passionate and has a lot to say about whatever’s on his mind. And he’s got quite a lot to say about his new venture, Evol8tion, an “innovation agency” that aims to bring the agencies of Madison Avenue together with the early stage technology startups of Mountain View in order to orchestrate “brand soul mates.”
What the hell does that mean? It mean that Joe firmly believes technology does and will play an important role in the future of advertising and that the fusion of creative ideas, story-telling and technology can make anything possible.
Positioning Evol8tion, Jaffe said, “The startup lives in the epicenter of technology-inspired innovation. But brands are often not brought into the picture until the startup is so far downstream in the process that it’s too late to influence direction, partner or truly innovate.”
Commenting on his perception of the relationship between brands and technology startups, Jaffe added, “Startups are dominated by technology and finance, but instead of ending on Madison Avenue’s doorstep, what if we began with the business problem, brand truth, and consumer insight, and worked backward into development and funding? We believe that by collaborating upstream, significant learnings, growth and accelerated pathways to success will be inevitably realized.”
Evol8tion’s first product is MatchMaker, a database of early stage startups which Jaffe will use to help brands connect with technology companies.
And, of course, there’s a blog. It’s called…wait for it…Madison and Mountain View.
Back in the day when agency search firms reared their heads acting as middle men for brands seeking an agency, many people scoffed at the idea. Why in the world would we need such an entity? Jaffe’s offering could be said to be analogous. Will he succeed? Is he filling a hole? WIll his firm help “marry” technology firms with brands?
