SOS in the Press
The Work That Made Me: John Kovacevich
August 27, 2024
Little Black Book
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The creative director and founder of Agency SOS looks back on the influence of David Ogilvy, working with future princesses, and his recent work for Element[AL]
Agency SOS marks anniversary with new spins on its theme song
June 14, 2024
Little Black Book
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Agency SOS re-released its theme songs to celebrate its third anniversary.
Element[AL] Wines Debuts Aluminum Bottle, Sustainability Campaign
March 25, 2024
by Fern Siegel, Media Post
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Element[AL] Wines isn't positioning its product in a conventional way.
For starters, it claims to be the world’s first aluminum wine bottle — in the shape of a traditional wine bottle. The focus is sustainability, reducing the wine industry’s carbon footprint. Aluminum bottles are easy to recycle, lightweight, thereby reducing shipping costs, and shatterproof.
Plus, its ad campaign “Welcome to AL,” launching today, has "no vineyard shots," said John Kovacevich, creative director at Agency SOS, which handled creative and media for the campaign. “No dirt-covered hands holding grapes or sun-kissed gourmet picnics. This is an entirely new way to wine. It needs a campaign as fresh and modern as the product itself.”
Element[AL] Wine Welcomes You to an Aluminum World
March 25, 2024
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If you’re going to disrupt the wine industry with a first-of-its-kind brand, your launch campaign needs a new playbook, too.
Element[AL] Wines just introduced the world’s first aluminium wine bottle in the shape of a traditional wine bottle. It’s a product innovation many years in the making, one that has significant sustainability implications for the industry.
The advertising campaign, which launches March 25th, doesn’t look like your traditional wine campaign, either.
Kodak Moments Frames Personal Stories, Promotes Old-School Style
November 13, 2023
by Fern Siegel, Media Post
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Kodak is a name familiar to any baby boomer who owned a camera.
While digital camera competition and technology altered the company’s fate, it continues to provide commercial digital printing products and services, motion-picture film and still film. The latter is distributed via its new owner, Kodak Alaris.
But the company that George Eastman built still cares about the power of imagery.
Kodak Moments has released a new campaign — “Let Your Home Tell Your Story” — targeting Gen Z and millennials to promote its line of frames, canvases and decor offerings.
Kodak Moments highlights power of printed pictures in new videos
November 11, 2023
by Gary Pageau, Dead Pixels Society
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Kodak Moments has launched a series of videos centered around the value of displaying printed photos in the home. The “Let Your Home Tell Your Story” series of videos features vignettes of how printed photos displayed in the home cam make special moments last longer. The subjects range from a pair of best friends getting matching tattoos to a father and daughter playing guitar together, to a skate crew, to friends on a camping trip. The spots will run across connected TV, social, and digital platforms.
According to a blog post by San Francisco-based Agency SOS that created the campaign, “You experience a moment differently when it escapes your social media feed and makes its way into your home,” said John Kovacevich, Founder and Creative Director at Agency SOS. “When we developed the campaign, we noticed how emotional people got when they told us the story behind a framed photo on their mantle. These spots celebrate that feeling—the way a physical framed moment brings a special energy into a room and helps you tell your story.”
Why Kodak Moments Wants You to Take Your Memories Beyond Your Social Media Feed
November 7, 2023
by Little Black Book Online
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'Let Your Home Tell Your Story' from Agency SOS invites you to frame and display beloved moments in your home to make your space come alive
Kodak Moments has released 'Let Your Home Tell Your Story', a new campaign to capture Gen Z and Millennial consumers and promote its line of frames, canvases, and decor offerings.
From a pair of best friends getting matching tattoos, to a father and daughter playing guitar together, to a skate crew, to a group of friends on a camping trip—the 30- and 15-second spots showcase a wide range of relatable life moments that people tend to want to hold onto. When displayed at home, they spark stories that are told over and over again.
How to find a new job in marketing or advertising
October 31, 2022
by LinkedIn News
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Kovacevich said the job search can be frustrating because so many factors are outside your control. He suggests taking as much action within your control as possible.
“Create content that demonstrates your jobs, whether you have an official assignment or not,” Kovacevich said. “I know a designer that would redesign a logo every week and post it on their LinkedIn channel. I know a writer who created a content series on Instagram… Just choose a channel and create stuff. And if you do that and you promote them, those side projects are just as likely — maybe more likely — to grab the eye of a prospective employer than hitting ‘apply’ to a bunch of random jobs.”
Agency SOS goes theme song crazy
July 11, 2022
by SF Egotist
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Last year when Agency SOS opened their doors, they knew they’d get the same question over and over again: “What does SOS stand for?”
So they preemptively answered the question with an ear-worm, slow-jam theme song. (Short answer: it stands for a lot of things.)
This month, they hit their one year anniversary and to celebrate, they decided to double down on their jingle and released a whole bunch of new cover versions, including a love ballad, country ditty, and a hard AF metal version.
You can hear them all at https://www.agencysos.com/themesong and even vote for your favorite.
Agency SOS rejiggers its jingle for its first anniversary
June 16, 2022
by Kyle O’Brien, Adweek
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When Agency SOS launched a year ago, the team shared a theme song to explain what the “SOS” in “Agency SOS” stood for. To celebrate the agency’s first year in business, the team put together a whole bunch of new versions of it, ranging from country to bossa nova, love ballad, metal and more, as well as a follow-up to the original.
Agency SOS helps Ooma deliver business phone bliss
May 23, 2022
by SF Egotist
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Small business owners have plenty to worry about these days. What if their business tech could be a source of calm instead of a source of stress? That’s the idea behind a new campaign from Ooma Inc, a smart communications platform for businesses and consumers.
In a series of three 15-second ads, small business owners float in their office and ask the viewer, “Looking for business phone bliss?” Each spot highlights a different Ooma benefit: business apps that make you mobile, features that free you up to get more done, and tools that help you build stronger relationships with your customers. Each ad ends with an invitation to “find small business calm at ooma.com.”
“The campaign is a light, fun way to remind business owners that their communication tech doesn’t need to be a hassle AND to help them remember the Ooma name,” said Agency SOS Creative Director John Kovacevich.
“When you say ‘Ooma,’ it’s very calming,” said Kovacevich. “Try it. Really stretch it out. ‘Oooooooooooooma.’ It feels good, right?”
Ooma puts people in zen-like state for the Monday Stir
May 2, 2022
by Kyle O’Brien, Adweek
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Small business owners have plenty to worry about these days. But what if their business tech could be a source of calm instead of a source of stress? That’s the idea behind a new campaign from Ooma, a smart communications platform for businesses and consumers. In a series of three 15-second ads, small business owners float in their office, zen like, and ask the viewer, “Looking for business phone bliss?” The ads were created by San Francisco Agency SOS and produced by Little Moving Pictures.
New agency opens with their own theme song
June 18, 2021
by SF Egotist
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When a new ad agency is born, the name always sparks curiosity. Are the founders putting their surnames on the door? Are they going the metaphor route? How about a funny nonsense word that projects fun and creativity?
A new agency in San Francisco has landed on the name “Agency SOS.” And they have a theme song to explain why. The agency is the brainchild of San Francisco creative director John Kovacevich, who held creative roles at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Duncan Channon, and FCB West, as well as many years as a freelancer.
SOS will offer traditional advertising services as well as consulting and training. “We want to help the people who build brands, whether that’s a brand manager, an in-house creative shop, or even another creative agency,” says Kovacevich. “Think there’s an opportunity for a small strike-team that can pop in on projects, solve problems, and then pop out.”
“Or I might be horribly wrong and I’ve just made a terrible mistake,” says Kovacevich.
Wednesday Stir: A new agency jingle leads today’s roundup
July 23, 2021
by Kyle O’Brien, Adweek
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A new agency has opened in San Francisco, Agency SOS, started by former Duncan Channon executive creative director John Kovacevich, who launched his new venture with a somewhat nonsensical song about many phrases that use the letters SOS.
SOS will offer traditional advertising services as well as consulting and training. “We want to help the people who build brands, whether that’s a brand manager, an in-house creative shop, or even another creative agency,” said Kovacevich in a statement. “Think there’s an opportunity for a small strike-team that can pop in on projects, solve problems, and then pop out.”
The Autotune Is The Message: Agency Launches Via Its Own Jingle
July 1, 2021
by Joe Mandese, Media Post
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At a time when audio advertising and "sonic branding" are trending in the ad biz, agency vet John Kovacevich has launched a new shop for a song. Literally, with a theme song (hear it here).
As he explains in the heavily auto-tuned, tongue-in-cheek explanatory audio (and video), "When you name your agency SOS, people want to know what it stands for."
The song's lyrics offer up plenty of variants, but mainly the song explains it exists because when your logo is "Agency SOS," it might look to some people as "Agency Sauce."
"Who knew the acronym had so many marketing meanings: sell our stuff, share our story, shape our strategy, etc. But with this catchy little bop, it might also be "song of summer," Kovacevich explains, adding, "See what we did there?"
Kovacevich, a long-time agency creative director who held top roles at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Duncan Channon, and FCB West, as well as many years as a freelancer, obviously knowns how to get people's attention, and in the end, that's most likely what the San Francisco-based startup really stands for.
“We want to help the people who build brands, whether that’s a brand manager, an in-house creative shop, or even another creative agency,” he explains. “Think there’s an opportunity for a small strike-team that can pop in on projects, solve problems, and then pop out.”
Five reasons why I’m opening my own small agency
July 9, 2021
by John Kovacevich, AdAge Contributor
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Three years ago, I pulled in “my shingle” from my freelance business to take the executive creative director job at San Francisco ad agency Duncan Channon.
It’s been a great run and I’m incredibly proud of the work that we’ve done together, including new business wins and great campaigns for SweeTARTS, Black Forest gummies and fruit snacks, InnovAsian Cuisine, Knotel, and others. (Though, I suspect my real legacy will be the pre-pandemic move from Keynote to Google Slides.)
I’m grateful to the Duncan Channon team for treating me so well and to our clients who gave me new insight into the struggles of modern marketing.
Now, I’m making the (incredibly stupid?) move to leave a great full-time job and hang the shingle out, once again.
I realize that my ability to give this a try comes from a place of enormous privilege. So many families struggled to get by over the last 18 months. There’s something a little vulgar about walking away from a good job.
But it’s time to give this a try. Here are five reasons why (and here is my theme song).
1. Coronavirus
This is probably an all-time understatement, but a global pandemic that changed everything about daily life was a wake-up call for lots of people, me included. It certainly changed the calculus about what’s important and how/where people want to work.
It was a blessing that my work so easily pivoted to remote. For the most part, my job did not change all that much. Parts of it got worse (miss being on production!) and parts of it got better (don’t miss that daily commute!) But it was an eye-opener; it changed my thinking about how to define team, collaboration, and work culture.
It was an eye-opener for clients, too. They now realize that great work can come from creative people working from home and may not require a fancy office with kombucha on tap.
2. I'll be dead soon
I turned 50 during the lockdown. Milestone birthdays make you take stock. How do I want to spend the last chapter of my career?
Having my own place has been a dream for a long time. Growing up, both sides of my family had their own business (farming on my dad’s side, dry cleaning on my mom’s side.) After 30 years of working, I feel like I finally know enough and have a clear vision for how I’d like to spend my remaining work years.
I want to build something. From scratch. I want to be part of a small team of superstars that wants to stay a small team of superstars. I want to construct a way of working that delivers great work, provides enormous value to clients, but also maintains a healthy perspective about work’s role in your larger life.
If you harbor a desire to start your own thing, at some point you have to ask, “What am I waiting for?” (Or, more accurately, “Why am I so scared to take the leap I know in my heart I want to take?”) When you run out of excuses, it means you have to give it a try.
3. Client empathy
After fifteen months of Zoom calls, my empathy for my clients is through the roof. Working with people from their homes, via video, is weirdly…intimate. I feel like I’ve gotten to know my clients better than ever before.
Your average brand manager is navigating new levels of complexity and chaos, especially in the light of the pandemic. I’ve realized that a lot of agency standard-operating-procedure is a waste of time — clients need less complexity, not more.
I’ve also worked at enough agencies to realize that it’s almost impossible to change them. So if you want to work differently, you have to build that different way of working from scratch.
4. Hubris
I mean, let’s call it what it is, right? You don’t start a new agency unless you think you have a better way of working. That’s equal parts brave and stupid.
I have friends who have started their own agencies and, to a person, they all say the same thing: it’s a hell of a lot harder than it looks (and it looks pretty goddamn hard to begin with.)
And yet…
I think the post-pandemic shake-out presents enormous opportunity for a new playbook. We’re going to try a “do it for you, do it with you, teach you how to do it yourself” model that feels well-suited to the moment. We’ll work directly with brands, in-house creative teams, and even other agencies. We’ll solve problems (even if we’re not the solution.)
5. Impact
This was one of the reasons I left my freelance life and moved to DC back in 2018. There’s only so much you can do as “an agency of one.” You need collaborators to make a real, long-term difference on a brand or in an organization.
So, while our start may be modest, the desire is to make a real impact on people’s lives. Not in an abstract “increasing shareholder value” sort of way (although that’s important too.) But in a highly personal way, with a focus on the individuals we work with and for.
In this model, “impact” is solving a problem for a brand manager so they can spend more time with their kids.
It’s making sure a superstar performer is well-compensated for the quality of their output, not just the hours they clock.
It’s pointing a potential client to another agency because they can help them more than I ever could, helping them both succeed.
It’s about crafting a way of working that supports the rest of your life, not the other way around.
Will it work? No idea. But I’m excited (and terrified) to give it a try.
Want to learn more about small agencies and the challenges and opportunities they face? Buy your ticket for the Ad Age virtual Small Agency Conference & Awards Aug. 2-4, the only conference of its kind. A list of speakers and the agenda can be found at AdAge.com/saca2021.
