Modernista! was a creative and communications agency based in Boston, Massachusetts. The agency represented

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

, Product (RED), the

National Park Foundation The National Park Foundation (NPF) is the official charity of the National Park Service (NPS) and its national park sites. The NPF was chartered by Congress in 1967 with a charge to "further the conservation of natural, scenic, historic, scientif ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

, Food Should Taste Good, Chug,

Sophos Sophos Limited is a British security software and hardware company. It develops and markets managed security services and cybersecurity software and hardware, such as managed detection and response, incident response and endpoint security s ...

Jack Wills Jack Wills is a British clothing brand founded by Peter Williams (businessman), Peter Williams and Robert Shaw in Salcombe, Devon, in 1999. History Peter Williams (businessman), Peter Williams and Robert Shaw founded the brand in 1999. Willi ...

, Boulder Digital Works, Doc to Dock,

Stop Handgun Violence Stop Handgun Violence is a Boston, Massachusetts-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to reduce and prevent injuries and deaths caused by firearms in the United States. The group advocates personal responsibility, public awareness, s ...

, the

Art Institute of Boston Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1909 to educate teachers. Originally founded as a women's college, male students were admitted beginning in 2005. History 1909–1998 The ...

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

, and

TIAA-CREF The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA, formerly TIAA-CREF) is an American financial services organization that is a private provider of financial retirement services in the academic, resea ...

. In its later years, the agency increasingly focused on interactive design. It also involved itself in other types of creative projects, including

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

s, magazine redesign, and alternate reality gaming. According to co-founder Gary Koepke, the agency modified its business model and operated less as an advertising agency than as a creative

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

History

Modernista! is now closed. The agency was launched in January 2000 by Gary Koepke and Lance Jensen, both from marketing/advertising backgrounds. Jensen left the company in December 2010 and now works for

Hill Holliday Hill Holliday (HH) is a marketing and communications agency based in Boston, Massachusetts with offices in New York City and Greenville, South Carolina.

. In October 2000, Modernista! was appointed agency of record for General Motors’

HUMMER Hummer (stylized in all caps) is an American brand of Pickup truck, pickups launched in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. Although discontinued in 2010, Hummer returned as a model under GMC (automob ...

, and in 2006 it was named the agency for GM’s

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

. The relationship with both brands ended when GM went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

in 2009. Following this, Modernista! revamped its organization and became much more focused on digital marketing and communications than it had been.

Activities

According to Bruce Horovitz, writing in the November 4, 2008 issue of

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

, Modernista! was known "for linking music from often obscure artists with compelling visuals in its TV spots." In the print arena, one of the agency’s most visible projects involves the display of advertisements for the Stop Handgun Violence gun-control organization on a 252-foot-long billboard erected along the

Massachusetts Turnpike The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially the "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a controlled-access toll road that runs concurrently with Interstate 90 (I-90) in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It the longest Interstate Highway in Massachu ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Digital projects include web sites and microsites for Sears, HUMMER, Cadillac, Nickelodeon, Boulder Digital Works, Product (RED), the National Park Foundation, and the Art Institute of Boston. In efforts outside traditional advertising, Modernista! created music videos for

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

("Slow Burn," 2006) and U2 ("Window in the Skies," 2007) and designed computer visuals for concerts by trance DJ

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (; born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Ma ...

. In 2008, the agency redesigned

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

magazine. It has also done strategic planning consulting for the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

. In 2010, the agency produced an alternate reality game leading up to season five of the ''Dexter'' TV show. In January 2004, Modernista! was named "Regional Agency of the Year" by Adweek.

Controversies

In March 2008, Modernista! gained attention for a redesign of its own

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

, which now displayed only a small red navigation menu overlaid on the upper left corner of social-site pages that contained information about or from Modernista!, including

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

, and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. With each new visit to www.modernista.com, one of these social sites was chosen at random to provide the agency’s "launch page." In addition to the social sites, the agency’s blog page could appear on a random basis. In effect, outside of its blog, Modernista! referred visitors exclusively to

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

to learn about the agency."Ad Agency Gets Web 2.0! Can It Be True?," in AttentionMax, March 28, 2008, http://www.attentionmax.com/blog/2008/03/ad_agency_gets_web_20_can_it_be_true.php . See also "Modernista Dismantles Site, Trusts the ‘Net to Share Its Ethos," in Marketing Vox, March 19, 2008, http://www.marketingvox.com/modernista-dismantles-site-trusts-the-net-to-share-its-ethos-037421/ {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714035941/http://www.marketingvox.com/modernista-dismantles-site-trusts-the-net-to-share-its-ethos-037421/ , date=2011-07-14 . At one time, this "siteless site" (which won a Webby award in 2009) could utilize the

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

entry for Modernista! as a landing page. Wikipedia’s

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American List of Internet entrepreneurs, Internet entrepreneur and former Trader (finance), financial trader. He is a Founders of Wikipedia, co-founder of the non-profi ...

asked Modernista! to stop using its Wikipedia article in this fashion. Following this, Wikipedia implemented technology that made it difficult to make such use of an entry, and the Modernista! site stopped routing to Wikipedia.

References

Advertising agencies of the United States Marketing companies established in 2000 Companies based in Boston Economy of Detroit