Call McAllister, headmaster of the erstwhile Wexley School for Girls for 15 years, is back with a new independent agency and even more expansive ideas.
According to an Adweek story, the new agency will be called The Paper Crane Factory and initially will have offices in Seattle and Silicon Valley, working mainly with companies “at the front end of their existence…where the opportunity to do game-changing work is happening at a much earlier stage.” He also is looking at possible offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and London.
With all the discussion about the future of the agency/creative model (see QwkQiz results from last week), it’s worth nothing that Cal said he plans on “taking a more lean and digitally focused approach with his client base and building more around equity with partners, as opposed to the traditional agency model.”
“The billable hour, I think is broken,” McAllister said. “The fact is, the way agencies make the most money is by putting more people on jobs and having it take longer. This is precisely what clients don’t want now. We’re focused on taking clients who are willing to pay part of the fee in equity, so that our wins are their wins and their wins are our wins.”
The new agency will rely on freelancers early on, but has plans to begin staffing up as business evolves. “There’s terrific talent in Seattle, and we have a reputation for having great creative thinkers,” Cal said. “At the same time, to be good in San Francisco and London, we need people who understand those markets. But it’s time to spread the Seattle creative vibe to new markets and brands.”
The agency name comes from the Japanese tradition of senbazuru, the folding of origami cranes for support and good luck on a new venture. Cal said he was recently in Japan and saw senbazuru everywhere and was struck by “the attention to detail.” “In working with early stage companies, in a way, we’re putting together paper cranes for them to wish them well on their journey,” Cal said.
In an email to MARKETING publisher Larry Coffman, Cal wrote: “Of course, Japan wasn’t the first time i saw paper cranes. I was honored to perform the wedding ceremony for my old partner at WONGDOODY, Pam Fujimoto, and my friend (former GIRVIN designer) Jeff Lancaster. Her family made stings and strings of cranes at the ceremony. It was beautiful, both in person and in spirit. It‘s something I’ll obviously never forget”
Cal also let us know that he’s currently working out of a crowd-share office and looking to purchase office space in the next few months. His www.papercranefactory.com website is under construction. Meanwhile, Cal’s new email address is cal@papercranefactory.com.