"When Jam Handy Owned This Town..."

"Online" - The Big Idea - March/April 1996
by Bayard Saunders

"Online? Interactive?! We were doing interactive and going online back when Jam Handy owned this town!!!" In this new business where anyone is lucky to be fifteen minutes ahead of anyone else, the true number of "years of experience with new media" is sometimes stretched in pursuit of legitimacy or bragging rights. But the truth is that the interactive business in the Detroit creative and advertising agency community is relatively new compared to the rest of the world, and has been driven, sometimes without the support of senior management, by the heroic efforts of a few pioneers like Len Wanetik of Consumer Market Analysts/Affina (affina.com), Jim Jonah of Ross Roy (www.rossroy.com:2000), Jane Wolfson (formerly with Bozell - http://www.poppe.com/poppe/pt2-about_bjke.html), Jeff Scott of C-E Communications (www.cecom.com), etc.

One pioneer, indeed known as the "godfather of interactive" in Detroit, is Roland Sharette (currently Director, Interactive Resources, J. Walter Thompson). "Currently" because JWT is, at this writing, in the midst of some reorganization, and his title may change, though not his value to the organization. Roland came to JWT from the Deputy Directorship at the Michigan Council for the Arts, bringing with him a wealth of experience as a director, producer and performer in this region. It was in his role as "liaison" to the New Media Research office at JWT/New York, where he was instrumental in moving the office to Detroit after WPP Group's acquisition of JWT in 1988, and forming JWT/OnLine.

JWT/OnLine, took the early lead in developing a presence for Ford (www.ford.com) with the commercial services, Prodigy (then TrinTex - www.prodigy.com), CompuServe (www.compuserve.com) and Genie (www.genie.com). They experimented, as did many agencies, with the VideoText and ViewTron technology. They developed the prototype for the Ford Simulator (and Ford Showroom) software, which was a model for early interactive "freeware." And Roland has been a speaker on the international lecture circuit, often quoted in the media.

Recognizing the importance of developing "institutional memory" and learning creative lessons from these early forays, JWT's "Graphics Park," a separate-entity digital production facility, at this writing under the direction Gordon Shukwit, was created to help develop interactive communications for Ford (www.ford.com), Kodak (www.kodak.com), Kraft, Citibank (www.citicorp.com), FTD (www.ftd.com), Monroe, Bosch, Goodyear (www.goodyear.com), the U.S. Marines (www.usmc.mil), etc. This has helped Creative Directors and Artistic Directors and Account Executives avoid some of the long, sloping education curve necessary to develop expertise with the interactive aspects of the new media. Graphics Park was the model for many agencies' development of interactive operating support units.

And yet, vendors outside of Michigan are certainly more respected by most Michigan clients and agency management than agency operating units and vendors here. This is true and unfortunate for so many areas of our business - creative, production, talent, design, etc., but it is especially tragic in new media, because of the high-caliber of talent here. JWT Worldwide announced a strategic partnership with Magnet Interactive Group (www.magnet.com), an interactive production company, in addition to their internal resources here.

This situation is not unique to JWT and Ford. Most agencies and companies are embracing outsourcing due to the cost of investment to develop internal resources. But unless the outsourcing is a true long-term strategic alliance between an agency and a vendor, with clear incentives for communication among the allied entities, and clear creative direction, this short-term strategy not only harms the quality of the message, it fuels rejection of the emerging technology by the public.

We must invest in ourselves. Buy Michigan! Make no mistake: world-class quality interactive work is being done in Detroit, and certainly online. Some of the most interesting work is coming from the affiliations developing between Creative Directors at local agencies and internet service providers like The Online Marketing Company (metroguide.com), Michigan BizServe (bizserve.com), The Internet Factory (www.netfactory.com), Netrex (www.netrex.com), RustNet (now Digital Realm Technologies - www.rust.net), 22nd Century Communications (www.22cent.com), etc. We will be reviewing this work in future issues, and closely watching the evolution of the interactive communications industry in the motor city.

Bayard Saunders is President of the Michigan Internet Association. Visit him online at http://bizserve.com/bayard or send E-mail to: bayard@bizserve.com

To get on-line call:

• America Online - (800) 827-6364
• CompuServe - (800) 848-8199
• Prodigy - (800) 776-3449
• Michigan BizServe - (313) 761-8742
• Microsoft - (206) 882-8080
• Netcom - (800) 501-8649
• Greater Detroit Freenet - (810) 691-7077

From: David Latcha (dlatcha@fe3.rust.net)
To: "Bayard Saunders (bayard@bizserve.com)

Mr. Saunders;

After reading the latest issue of The Big Idea, I feel the need to 
correct your article. First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is 
David Latcha, and I am managing director of Graphix Park, a division of 
JWT. Gordon Shukwit, who, you said, was the director of Graphix Park, is 
actually the Manager of Interactive Technologies. 

Graphix Park New Media was constructed after it was realized that there 
is no good resource for interactive creative in the midwest. We do not 
limit ourselves to the Internet or on-line services, we look at 
interactive as a medium comprised of different facets and each facet has 
the ability to service our (JWT's and GP's) uniquely and differently.

However, Graphix Park is about total electronic production, the 
elimination of walls between in-house studios, creative and production 
and the freedom of creative to flex and be creative. Our motto is "The 
Playground for the Imagination." And because of this total production 
resource, the agency creative does not look upon us as being a tool, but 
as a partner.

If you would like to learn more about Graphix Park, it's philosophy and 
it's charter, please let me know...