Media: All about ... Strategic media agencies.

Does Village Green really have anything fresh to offer?

The advertising world has been hot with talk of a recent start-up. Oddly enough, it revolved around senior management from Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R breaking away to go it alone. There's been less talk surrounding the formation of an independent media agency called Village Green.

It will be a new agency led by the Starcom directors Andy Roberts and Adam Bishop, alongside Jane Kesley, the erstwhile head of Emap Advertising's cross-media solutions team, who left the media owner last year to launch her own consultancy, XmC.

They might be experienced operators who are hoping to offer clients 'more effective brand solutions by engaging consumers through content' but they look set to face the same struggles experienced by others who have attempted to launch their own media agency in recent years: the might of the media planning and buying networks and clients who take some convincing to hire an independent.

While not being the biggest names in the media world, the trio have strong backgrounds in content and sponsorship, and issued the following claim on launching: 'We are a company that makes advertising content strategies happen. Strategies that effectively close the traditional space between advertising and editorial and seek to drive greater value through higher consumer engagement.'

So Village Green will be working on non-traditional spot activity, such as sponsorships, promotions, events and ad-funded content. This accounts for 10 per cent of adspend, according to the founders, but has the potential to rise to 20 per cent.

The question is: are they best placed to achieve this? Media, and even ad agencies, have realised they can grow revenues from these sources, so competition will be fierce. Village Green has given itself a fighting chance to bring in revenues by offering execution as well as the ideas, but cynics argue it will face a struggle because media agencies are better placed to offer these types of solutions as they can be more easily integrated into an advertiser's general media activity.