The Notch Video co-founders aim to disrupt the creative sector with their latest venture.

By Justin Crann, originally posted in Strategy

Industry veterans Ian Buck and Yotam Dor are launching a new, disruptive venture together – and this time, they’re moving into the ad consultancy space.

Perhaps best known as the duo who launched Notch Video more than a decade ago, Buck and Dor have made disruption something of a calling card. With Notch, they pioneered a new content model that attracted the attention of Publicis, which acquired the brand. They then moved on to launch CoStudios, a similar project for IPG, from which they departed this month.

Now, they’ve launched BaD Mktg – an acronym standing for Buck and Dor – to meet a need they’ve spotted over their decade of partnership.

“We’re at the tipping point [for marketing] with a lot of big changes impacting the industry, including COVID, AI and even TikTok,” Buck tells strategy. “And in the 10 years we’ve been working together, all we have seen is more marketers slowly figuring out that in order to get different results, they need to do things slightly differently.”

That’s where BaD comes in, acting as an “additive service” on top of the creative agency, which Buck says is best able to handle the bigger ideas and “giant things that take six months to do,” such as brand repositioning.

The startup abandons the “old agency model” that operates in silos, with dedicated teams for account management, strategy, creative and production.

Instead, says Buck, BaD’s two-person team – it is launching with Buck and Dor alone, supported by a network of creatives that can be brought in on a project basis – wear all of the hats, with expertise across all four areas.

The goal is to deliver quality content on much tighter timelines, allowing brands to be much quicker in their messaging and to reach people across a wider array of platforms. It’s a pitch that has quite a bit of appeal, as BaD is launching with several foundational clients that it will be announcing in the coming weeks, Buck says.

“Our clients are being asked to do more with less while operating under super-tight timelines,” explains Buck. “We remove the friction and put our clients back in control to develop content that delivers results.”

The model capitalizes on modern realities, including the pool of talented filmmakers making the best use of today’s technologies and who have expertise in specific areas of content creation, such as for TikTok over TV.

“We’ve developed a unique process that combines top-notch strategic and creative thinking with a vast network of fully vetted, talented content creators,” says Dor. “Our goal is to deliver the right work our clients need, while captivating audiences with highly crafted and thumbstopping creative storytelling.”

Source: https://strategyonline.ca/2023/10/12/ian-buck-and-yotam-dor-are-breaking-bad/