Naked Communications faces the sad fact that being clever doesn’t make money any more

Hi Mumbrella this article is not very well considered and typically sensationalist and negative. Getting Naked to remove thinkers, (transition from thinkers to makers), is a strong move as it now aligns with Enero’s corporate strategy.

I think an interesting comparison in this category is Nota Bene, a communications strategy agency founded by Pete Vogel in South Africa slightly before Naked was born. Their solution when faced with the same business problem was to become a strategically driven, full service media agency and sell to WPP. If you look at their success since, it was an infinitely better decision than Naked’s…

I think this is an accurate and insightful summary.

@Not thought through – I think that’s Tim’s point, ‘aligning with Enero’s corporate strategy’ has recently proven to be how agencies die not prosper. A unique brave agency position offering something different is what shakes up the industry, not doffing one’s cap to the parent holding company.

Thinkers to makers? In the truly creative world, we need Both Thinkers and Makers, that they should be able to work together is the blissful wish of all who seek to create in a rich and exciting way.

It is really sad, and sadly very true. Naked pre-Photon / Enero was the best agency in the world. There was a genuine belief that we were doing something different, better and useful. We attracted the best talent, the best briefs and produced the best ‘unbiased’ product.

Now it’s sadly apparent that Naked is just interested in making things. I guess that’s what happens when a bias towards bottomlines instead of brilliance occurs and when fear and finance determine the future.

So long you wonderfully ‘disruptive misfits’ – it was a pleasure to serve along side you.

Long before Enero, Naked’s Australian founders saw the need to shift from ‘thinking to making’, as early as a year or so after they opened their doors. What I don’t think they saw until much later was how quickly this would subvert their own – at first genuinely unique – business model.

When they were just ‘thinking’, the Naked founders were able to partner with clients, media and creative agencies alike. And they did so successfully as a truly ‘channel agnostic’ strategic consultancy that was happy, at first, to be paid for its thinking and leave the making to everyone else. But then they got greedy.

They saw the $ they were missing out on that were going through the media and creative agency coffers, often initiated and amplified by their own strategic thinking, and decided it was time to get into the making game themselves.

Only problem was, they’d already introduced themselves to those very same clients, media and creative agencies as a complementary and collaborative – not competitive – agency partner. Oh, and the one other problem was, they weren’t nearly as good at making as they were at thinking (and selling).

Either way, as soon as they started competing for those making dollars themselves, the game was up. Who wants to collaborate with someone who’s constantly trying to cut everybody else’s lunch?

Matt, Adam and Mike were the first to see the writing on the wall for Naked. Enero are the last. Truth is, the Naked model died when those three founders all jumped ship. Enero are just hammering the last couple of nails into the coffin.

“Like those rare non-scumbag financial planners who aren’t being bribed by the financial services companies they recommend, a client could actually get a better return on the marketing investment.”

Love the way you write, Tim.

@Naked ambition – I think the writing was on the wall a year after they launched. Not because they did not have external success, which they did, but for the reasons you state. It was clear their business model was not scalable or sustainable. Hence the lure of $ initially from the experiential space was too great to ignore and why quite early on relationships with the likes of Telstra and Unilever became much more project based.

This is not just a Naked issue but one for all strategic comms agencies. The fact is that unless you implement you will not be sustainable. Rightly or wrongly marketing clients do not identify the value of standalone ‘strategy’, certainly not at a scale large enough to sustain a multi-person/multi-office business over the long term.

Did that girl ever find her jacket?

Naked going from “thinking” to “making” is a case of post-rationalisation which Adam F would be better at explaining. When all the thinkers leave, left are people who aren’t capable of it. And whoops, all of a sudden “doing” and “making’ is the new thing.

Look how well they’re doing that at the moment. Great people create great work regardless of what spin they put on it…

come on, we are all pretending that Naked was this shining symbol of creativity and genius… fact is that left the business long, long ago, Naked had become a caricature of its “brilliant misfits” positioning, dropping the former and becoming the latter.

While i agree in the brilliance of the individuals, working together Naked had become an aging rock star – overweight, a wee bit arrogant and still intent on busting up hotel rooms. Far from the collaborative spirit that had ignited them, they had taken a position against most creative and media agencies and didn’t want to play nicely with anyone (they were far to clever and important).

As a result of their missfit, they stopped making money. If a holding company could afford to own an agency for its attitude and PR value, then fantastic, but again lets be honest Enero cannot. Besides, if they had that kind of cash, there are plenty of organisations or models and invest in to champion and test new thinking, Naked wasn’t set up for it and they failed to innovate.

I think the story here is far less the damage created by Enero and far more a warning for agencies to continue to innovate and not get complacent (something that coincides as founders begin to lose interest)

a real shame because naked were a lone independent voice that now is sadly lacking from our industry

There are a few independent thinkers left out here, Zuni being one of them. We’ve spent the last 5 years working closely with clients using thinking around the digital space to drive innovation, exceptional business outcomes and great results, primarily working with their internal teams and other agencies.

The interesting thing is that because most of our work is focused on business outcomes and new products and revenue streams for businesses, rather than cool creative campaigns, so we seldom hit the radar of the award shows or create cool case study videos. (although a campaign we did with DAN last year was a finalist for 5 Effies) But we do continue to offer channel neutral, execution neutral thinking that adds value and drives business outcomes.

So don’t give up on independent thinking just yet!

“Can it be that it was all so simple then,
Or has time re-written every line?”

Get over it, they had their time in the spotlight. And then a little boy shouted out, “The Emperor has no clothes!”

Makers who think.
Thinking makers.
Anyone wanna buy my model?

The problem with Naked was they believed their own bullshit.. It probably needed more thought.

Hey Diana, please, a little more naked insight, some deeper research and greater thinking, Barbara Streisand and at a stretch Gladys Knight.

Naked ‘made’ a global strategy led business pre Enero. That’s pretty makey.

Love the creative on the annual report.

Hopefully the ‘makers’ will give the reboot Naked needs.

That all of these guys ended up back at traditional agencies is a pretty fair indicator as to why Naked failed. Looking and acting like misfits is not the same as being one.

If they were true to what Naked was about then they would be off doing things entrepreneurs do.

In fact 99% of all people that worked for Naked Sydney did exactly the same thing. It was all a bit of a sham to make some cash off a promising business idea from another part of the world.

HI Fake Pioneer

Im sure most people have moved on from this discussion, and are letting the good people currently at Naked get about their business.

However, just want to say that all three of us who you are talking about are again in non-traditional agencies, and having fun playing with and hopefully breaking the established and traditional models that exist.

Mike is heading up the media arm of Havas, an agency fast merging the lines between several communications disiplines.

Mat was CEO at UM and openly declared he’s changing the busines to beyond a media agency to something else. His new role is global creative and strategy officer at mediabrands – is in itself a model busting role

And I’m with C&P an agency with aspirations to be a global independent creative:media agency network – i.e. a model we’ve created.

So be a pessimist and a dick if you must, but do so with the knowledge you’re incorrect.

Adam

PS please – if you respond have the decency to identify yourself. Why wouldn’t you – unless you’re not proud of your actions?

Great retort @adam ferrier