The company
OpenAd.net is an online platform for the buying and selling of advertising, marketing and design ideas. It is a new kind of service to the marketing industry, and provides a place where brands and creatives from around the world can meet and do business.
OpenAd.net offers a new way of working - for brands on the lookout for fresh, tailor-made creative solutions, and for creatives who aspire to work internationally. OpenAd.net is the world's largest creative department, and one that is built on a fierce belief in creative freedom that pushes at the constraints of geography and hierarchy. For OpenAd.net, the idea is the thing.
OpenAd.net does not act as an agent for buyers or sellers; it is up to the creatives how they present their work, and up to brands to decide whether an idea fits their existing communications strategy.
OpenPitch, where brands pitch for new ideas tailored to their specific requirements, is already well established and has been used by several big brands, including MTV, Mercedes-Benz, lastminute.com and FHM. From December 2005, brands will also be able to buy ideas from the Gallery, a gallery featuring fresh, unbranded ideas from creatives across the world.
OpenAd was founded by Vital Verlic, an award-winning creative director. He began to think of ways in which creatives and brands could be matched more directly, without middlemen to limit choice and without the restrictions imposed by status, corporate hierarchy, office politics and geographical location.
The first version of OpenAd.net went online in May 2003. Since then the number of registered creatives has grown to over 6,100. The first pitch competitions were held in February 2004. Mercedes-Benz were among the first brands to use OpenPitch, challenging OpenAd.net creatives to come up with ideas for an A Class ad campaign.
The last 18 months have been dedicated to introducing the OpenAd concept to various markets around the world, including India, several of the new EU countries, Latin America and the UK. OpenAd.net has been present on the British market for a mere nine months but has been particularly successful there; a number of UK-based global brands have already held pitch competitions on OpenAd.net, including MTV UK, FHM and lastminute.com.
In March 2005 OpenAd.net and the Creative Business section of the Financial Times joined forces to organise the 'World's Toughest Briefs', a series of six pitch competitions on a variety of challenging themes. Through its association with the FT, OpenAd.net has managed to expand its creative database and promote itself to business decision-makers from around the world, while readers of the FT have been able to follow this new 'creative business' as it unfolds and develops.
