Las Vegas Based Virtual Ad Agency Opens Its Doors

The Hucksters, a Las Vegas based virtual" advertising agency, has opened for business.

Las Vegas, NV., (PRWEB) Sep 4, 2003 The Hucksters, a Las Vegas based advertising agency, has opened for business. The virtual" agency is owned by Peter Wood, a British advertising creative director known for producing high profile and sometimes controversial ad campaigns.

Billed as a streamlined, creative advertising agency operating without the bureaucracy or expense of traditional advertising agencies, The Hucksters promises a product that is more responsive, more timely and more targeted to the clients needs.

In a departure from the traditional advertising agency structure, The Hucksters does not employ account executives. Accounts are handled directly by the agencys art directors, copywriters and broadcast producer. As Wood explained, The internet has of changed everything, including advertising. We can now send a PDF to a client instead of an account executive."

The Hucksters offers not only a competitive edge but a creative one as well. Peter Wood made headlines in both Las Vegas and the UK with his campaign featuring a look-a-like of the Queen of England living it up in Las Vegas, a campaign that launched Virgin Airlines non-stop flights from London to Las Vegas. The campaign created controversy in the UK and several papers refused to run it.

He also made news with an outdoor campaign for the Excalibur Hotel and Casino on I-15 from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Consecutive billboards were designed to mimic Highway road signs and suggested that Camelot, not Las Vegas was the drivers final destination. The Nevada Department of Transportation however ruled that the billboards be removed for violating state laws.

The Hucksters range of services run the gamut from television commercials to magazine ads, from billboards to brand identity. Wood explained, We believe that advertising begins with recognition and recognition begins with an image. We are, first and foremost, image builders."

That philosophy is ingrained in The Hucksters. The company name comes from Frederic Wakemans 1947 pulp novel, the story of an idealistic adman who registers a lone voice of dissent amongst a chorus of agency yes-men.

I didnt want the name to sound like a traditional agency because were not a traditional agency," Wood said. Were basically a gang of creatives. And the name also pays homage to an earlier era and style of advertising. We tend to look to early American advertising greats like Bill Bernbach and Howard Luck Gossage, who knew that while advertising is the art of persuasion, it is not art; it is commerce," says Wood.

While the main office is in Las Vegas, The Hucksters also have creative staff working away on laptops worldwide.

"In the past, an art director and a copywriter shared an office," Wood explained. We share ideas over the Internet. By operating a worldwide virtual office, I can assign the creatives best suited to particular projects. And because of our ability to revolve creative duties among a diverse pool of talent, our clients never have to worry about the work becoming routine."

Peter Woods experience comes from outside of the virtual world. He was trained at the Royal College of Art and the School of Communication Arts in London, England. Wood was brought to the US by one of the nations top agencies, the Richards Group in Dallas, where he produced television for TGI Fridays. He also worked in Texas at Ogilvy & Mather, Houston, on the Shell and IBM accounts before coming to R&R Partners here in Las Vegas where he produced all international print advertising for the LVCVA, targeting visitors in France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Australia and the UK. Peter Wood also worked with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris on a TV campaign for the LVCVA, which won international acclaim.

And as for producing work thats sometimes controversial, Wood is unapologetic. As Bill Bernbach once said, 'If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic. And were no academics."