Barton F. Graf 9000

With a career that has spanned agencies such as BBDO, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and TBWAChiatDay, and produced award-winning work for the likes of Skittles, Starburst, FedEx and Snickers, it was two years into his last network job as CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi New York that Gerry Graf decided to go it alone.

With the recession having killed off many of the entrepreneurial plans in the networks, last year Graf decided to ditch his original idea of waiting for a founding client before launching his own shop, and instead took the advice given to him by Mark Waites of Mother, “Sometimes you have to get a divorce before the girls start calling.”

And the decision paid off. Graf put his money where his mouth was, opened up Barton F. Graf 9000 – named after his father and the BFG9000 gun from video game Doom – and in less than a year the shop has been creating content for Kayak, Diageo and Pinnacle Foods. And bolstering the agency’s creative credentials that bit further, ex-W+K creative Eric Kallman, half of the duo behind Old Spice, recently joined the shop as executive creative director.

“Nobody has to look at your advertising anymore, watch your commercial or go to your website, so it’s all about making something that people want to go and seek out,” explains Graf of Barton F. Graf 9000’s approach. “So any idea or creative has to be good enough that people want to share it, so the level of creativity has to be the best in the world – not just because it’s about being creative, but because it’s a simple fact that creativity is a tool, and it has to be like that because there are a million different people trying to talk to you today. Creative is at a premium now, as you have to have a great idea otherwise you won’t get noticed.”

That focus on ideas runs through the agency’s research, strategy and planning process, before crafting an idea that gets people talking. Down the line Graf is also hoping to expand his horizons outside of advertising – but for the short term he’s got one goal, “I would like this place to be known for kick-ass, fantastic ideas.”

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