New agency Erich & Kallman launches in San Francisco
Here’s an interesting new agency with a pedigree, in the agreeable climes of San Francisco. Former Crispin Porter+Bogusky president Steven Erich and Goodby Silverstein & Partners ECD Eric Kallman are teaming up to launch Erich & Kallman.
Both have considerable pedigrees: Erich (below right), who joined CP+B in 2004, becoming president in 2014, has also worked at The Martin Agency and TBWA\Chiat Day. At CP+B he was closely involved with Burger King’s ‘Subservient Chicken’ and American Express’ ‘Small Business Saturday,’ two of the most famous US campaigns of recent years.
As well as Goodby, Kallman has worked at Wieden+Kennedy HQ in Portland, Barton F. Graf and TBWA\Chiat Day in New York. Campaigns include Old Spice, Skittles’ ‘Touch’ and ‘Bears’ and Ragu’s ‘Long Days of Childhood.’ The two met, it seems, when Erich tried to lure Kallman into joining CP+B.
The two say: “The work we’ve done our entire careers has solved problems and grown business, but more than that it’s made people talk about brands when they weren’t talking about them before. The most economical and effective way to solve problems and grow business is to make work that people remember, talk about and share.”
Quite so. The agency business needs newbies with pedigrees and America’s West Coast seems, at the moment, the most fertile ground for them.