This month Inc. magazine ran a piece on "Wexley School for Girls", an advertising agency that prides itself not being an ad agency. (The video depicted here on the left is a campaign for Corbis's new mobile/video service). The 22 employee strong company is the creator of some of the most original marketing and publicity stunts that traditional agencies shy away from. Take for example the campaign they ran for Microsoft's VMware product (admittedly a boring product): Wexley sent a team of actors to the VMworld conference at the Venetian in Vegas dressed as hotel staffers who handed out cards knocking Microsoft's competition. The backside of the cards had $1 gaming chips glued on. The idea was so successful "a frenzy broke out and one attendee stole an entire bag of fliers and chips". The commotion even got them thrown out of the hotel...
The agency has been doing a bang up job at understanding their clients and target audience and building campaigns that target niche audiences rather than play to the masses in traditional advertising. An example of their creative flare (and keen insight?) is a piece they produced for Nike's short film competition themed around "You are faster than you think". Wexley teamed up with (the then yet to be famous) Jared Hess (who had just shot a film called Napoleon Dynamite, now a cult phenomenon) and produced their winning entry "Winner take Steve". Check it out:
Wexley School for Girls
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