New firm of "misfits" aims to modernise advertising

Former vice president of content services at Mozilla, Darren Herman, has launched his own holding company. Herman envisages his company will take on heavyweights such as WPP, Omnicom and Publicis by offering more modern marketing and advertising solutions, and will be staffed by similarly-minded "misfit" professionals who are looking to move with the rapid changes occurring in the advertising industry.

by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 24, 2016

Former Mozilla VP of Content Services Darren Herman has big plans and big goals. You see, he wants to take on the likes of WPP, Omnicom and Publicis and he's launched his own holding company to do so. You know, sort of like Preston Tucker taking on GM.

A self-described "refugee from Madison Avenue," Herman wants to bring on advertising professionals (misfits and overachievers, he says) who are a bit fed up with their current gig and to serve clients who can't get what they want from current holding company offerings.

Of the launch, Herman told Business Insider, "I believe the time is right to build a modern marketing and advertising organization. We now have modern marketers in the c-suite and they require modern marketing solutions. If you look at the available at-scale options they have, they certainly are not modern both in output and infrastructure."

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Chief among the reasons he's launching the new holding company -- which, by the way, he doesn't see being a global brand's agency of record for at least five years -- is because people hate ads and are downloading ad blockers.

The firm, which has an advisory council of 30 CMOs, will seemingly be backed by an ad tech company who Herman says has given a firm commitment of support. Seemingly unimpressed by Publicis buying SapientNitro, Herman says holding companies just can't cut it when it comes to supporting the growing digital needs of today's marketers.

But a new holding company with no name and no employees sure can!