Mekanism

Mekanism was founded in 2000 by Tommy Means as a division of a San Francisco-based company named Complete Pandemonium.[6] Means saw the internet as a great potential storytelling medium that was not being utilized and believed there was opportunity for a company that focused its efforts there.[7] Accordingly, in 2003 Means spun off the company as an independent fully integrated creative production studio to develop branded content outside traditional television commercial channels.[6][8][9] Since then, Mekanism's core mission has grown, and they aim "to place the Web at the center of all advertising, exploiting it to make marketing cheaper, faster, and more effective -- across all platforms."[10]

In the years immediately following the agency's founding as a stand-alone entity, Mekanism added three key partners: Pete Caban as head of Digital as well as Strategic Development in 2003, Ian Kovalik as a director and Creative Director in 2003, and Jason Harris as an executive producer then President in 2005.[9][11][12] During this period, the agency began to develop its reputation for reaching young audiences and telling branded stories in off-beat ways that tended to go viral.[10][13] As much as 90% of Mekanism's work in those years came from other ad agencies (instead of directly from clients) looking to execute creative ideas on emerging media platforms.[14] They began receiving recognition for that work beginning in 2004 and 2005 with consecutive Cannes Golden Lion awards for campaigns on behalf of Napster and Sega, respectively.[6][14][15]

As a result, Mekanism's business increased twenty-fold; from $472,000 in 2003 to approximately $9.6 million in 2007.[5] In 2008, they opened an office in New York City to accommodate the growth.[5] With Mekanism's revenue increasing by orders of magnitude, so too were the number and size of their clients.[3][5][10] The agency has completed campaigns for such companies as Microsoft, Nike, Axe, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo, Nordstrom, Google, Muscle Milk, and GE.[16][17][18][19]

Soon after this period, Mekanism increased its focus on creating viral content and started working almost exclusively with clients directly.[14][20] For all intents and purposes, it was at this point they became a "full-service" agency; alternately referred to as "one part ad agency, one part production company" and "a hybrid of an advertising agency, production house, and multimedia content factory.[10][21] From 2008 to 2010, Mekanism's annual revenue numbers were $10.3-$12 million (2008), $18-$20 million (2009), $25 million (2010).[7][10][22] in 2011, Harris took over the CEO title from Caban to become President/CEO. In 2011, the agency created its first Super Bowl spot for Brisk Iced Tea starring Eminem.[1][14] It ended up as the No. 1 most-viewed video on YouTube after Super Bowl XLV aired.[14] In 2012, Mekanism launched a campaign for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals with Dan Harris from ABC’s Nightline featuring Harris's adopted cat, "Hovercat"; the video went viral and garnered over 1 million views, with Brendan Gahan, Mekanism's Director of Social Media, noting, "The internet loves cats and it was done for a good cause so it's great to see people rally around it."[23] In early 2013 Mekanism created the ad campaign “Youphoria” for the fashion retailer Nordstrom.[24]

Mekanism is also the Agency of Record for Method Home, Muscle Milk, Pepsi, Brisk Ice Tea, Amp Energy Drink, Art.com, and Virgin Mobile.[14][18][25]

In May 2010, the business magazine Fast Company published a profile of Mekanism, during which Harris claimed that the firm could "guarantee [they] can create an online campaign and make it go viral." The author challenged them to "prove it" with a wager whereby if Mekanism created a viral campaign for Fast Company, the author would document it for the magazine from conception to launch.[10] Mekanism pitched a number of ideas and Fast Company ultimately selected one—initially called the "Cover Project"—that came to be known as "The Influence Project."[35][36] The campaign aimed to name 2010's Most Influential Person by getting people to sign up, have their social networks click on their profile links and sign up themselves.[36] Participants would have their pictures appear in a photospread in the November 2010 issue and the greater their influence, the larger their picture would be.[36][37][38]

Social media critics were skeptical of the means and metrics with which Mekanism designed the project; calling it a gimmick and an "ornate marketing rickroll."[39][40][41] Despite the criticism, the project had 6,000 people sign up within the first 24 hours of the campaign's launch,and 30,000 people by the end.[35][36][37][42] Fast Company had 1.2 million visitors to the site and said that they "couldn't be more impressed with the response."[42]

Mekanism was retained by Pepsi to create buzz surrounding Beyoncé’s Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show for 2014.[43] The company asked fans to submit photos in different poses to compile into the video, creating the first fan-made halftime intro. The campaign collected over 120,000 user submissions generating over 5.5 billion impressions.[44]

Beyond awards for individual campaigns, Mekanism has won several awards for its achievements as a company:[3][27][49]