project da vinci finally has a name

After going by Project Da Vinci for what seems like forever, having a short detour into Synarchy territory and going back to Da Vinci while the mess was cleaned up, WPP has found an official name for their built-for-Dell agency: Enfatico.

Apparently enfatico, while not moonlighting as the name of an ad agency, is a musical notation that means play each note “with emphasis” or “emphatically.” Presumably, that is how they are going to do their advertising. Emphatically.

Not content with choosing an obscure word to name their agency, the muckety-mucks at Enfatico want to actually add a definition to the word. If all goes well your Webster’s will soon have a secondary definition of enfatico reading something along the lines of “a new standard for integrated marketing, insightful creativity, and collaboration in the client-agency relationship.”

At least that is what Ken Segall, global chief creative officer, hopes. Or says he hopes. He may be kidding.

That said, Enfatico is a huge improvement on Synarchy…and I here that they’re still hiring if you’re interested.

project da vinci finally hires a ceo

WPP’s agency for Dell may still be unnamed, but at least they have a CEO. Torrence Boone, formerly president of Digitas, Boston has taken the reins according to Ad Age…I know what you’re saying and, yes, I understand that you may not trust Ad Age’s reporting after they jumped the gun on the Synarchy name, but Adweek reported it as well so you know that it’s true.

Boone said he was attracted by the chance to play a leading role in developing a new agency that’s “built-to-spec, with an ambition to redefine the client-agency relationship.” I say that he was attracted by the chance to make a hefty chunk of the $4.5 billion that Dell is expected to be spending on the agency relationship because, let’s be serious, there is no way that this agency is even close to redefining the client-agency relationship.

On a positive note, Mr Boone has a great advertising name and HighJive will likely be happy with this hire, and for good reason.

On a negative note, Mr Boone joins an agency that has managed to hire only half of its project complement of staffers, was weeks late in naming the CEO and still doesn’t have a name.

You win some and you lose some, I guess.

synarchy isn’t final name for davinci?

A commenter on my earlier post about the reports that WPP’s dude-we-won-the-Dell-account Project DaVinci has been renamed Synarchy is convinced that Synarchy is not the final name.

Apparently, it is but one of a few names under consideration, and noting how well-received Synarchy was I can’t wait to hear some of the other options.

In the best journalist tradition, I have contacted DaVinci’s PR flacks and hope that they can do half of my work for me.

Stay tuned.

wpp’s new name for project davinci

WPP’s new agency created just for Dell, the former Project DaVinci, has been officially named Synarchy…noting the vague similarity to anarchy and having the tickle of a memory from a history class long ago in my head I looked up the word to see what it meant, exactly.

The short definition is “rule by a secret elite.”

If that doesn’t just define most ad agencies, especially huge, faceless and leaderless conglomerations like Project DaVinci/Synarchy, then nothing does. In the case of Synarchy, which does not have a CEO yet, the elite that is running the place is even more secretive than usual…which is making recruiting an issue.

Anecdotally, a number of people that I know were willing to keep an open mind about the place pending who ran it (advertising is all about your connections, and if your guy is on top then it makes sense to fall in with him). But there is nobody running it. So they are staying on the fence. As are, based on the challenges Synarchy is having in staffing out, a lot of other people.

So who are the cabal in charge of the synarchic Synarchy?

Living up to the awful name, it’s a secret.

(There are additional meanings to the word, including a connection to European fascism through Vichy France. Which is nice.)