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A L S O__T O D A Y
- - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K Should companies be permitted to monitor their employees' Net use? Weigh in on individual vs. corporate rights in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y America Online vs. the "Net nobility" Going once, going twice and growing like crazy Where's the rest of me? Showdown at the HTML corral The little operating system that could - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE - - - - - - - - - -
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RAZORFISH AMONG THE SHARKS | PAGE 1, 2
Razorfish has something no other Web design/interactive service firm possesses -- and something Razorfish shouldn't have in the first place: a visual brand. Designers aren't expected to drag their own styles across projects, but rather to enhance the visual identities and brands of their clients. But Razorfish Solutions has aggressively and insidiously imprinted its style on everything it touches, from its redesign of Time Warner's Netly News site (using a pea-green color and a font style for the logo that echoes Razorfish's own home page) to its full-page ads in recent issues of the Industry Standard that resemble rave posters even as they promote its strategic services. Dachis and Kanarick have devised the same plan as every content company that has come before: build a brand and then leverage it into anything that will sell. "T-shirts, games, detergent," said Kanarick. "We'll work on a network of toasters if it pays," said Dachis. The pair think they've found a way out of the eat-or-be-eaten strategy by sticking to their guns and using Razorfish Solutions to expand expertise at clients' expense, which Razorfish Studios can capitalize on later. "We're already doing it for clients, so why don't we do it for ourselves?" asked Kanarick, and to some extent, Razorfish Studios has. It released its first CD in April, "Polydemic," by the Brooklyn rapper Ticklah. A book featuring the work of photographer Danny Clinch, who's currently featured on Razorfish's in-house "Blue Dot" project, will be released this fall. And the true sign of would-be cool: Razorfish T-shirts and other logo-wear are forthcoming, said Kanarick. But neither Kanarick nor Dachis made any mention of profits from the Studios division. Of course, since they're not putting much money into the content, they can afford to be underwhelmed at first. "A lot of other companies put up a ton of money for their content. IVillage has burned through $50 million. The reason we're optimistic is because we haven't burned through that kind of money. Our expectations are low enough that we're excited when we sell 100 records. We're only in eight stores in New York." Jason Chervokas, industry observer and co-editor of news site @NY, thinks the Studios might just be a sideshow, or maybe the latest manifestation of Razorfish's fascination with media moguldom. "Personally, I'm skeptical," he said. "We've yet to find the business model for Internet content. For a company that's 40 percent owned by an ad agency holding company [the Omnicom Group, which also owns a large stake in Razorfish's rival, Agency.com], I don't know what kind of patience their investors have for something completely outside the core business." "Most of the companies that wound up being Internet service companies started out with the dream of doing content for themselves," Chervokas says. "And this being New York, everyone also has the secret dream of being media moguls. The people at the top still harbor personal feelings for media." But even if their strategy is right -- especially if it's right -- Dachis and Kanarick could see their Godzilla competition come back to haunt them. With iXL's 600-person staff (which dwarfs Razorfish's 150), the company need never pass up a client, Jacobstein argues. And as his company handles more and more of its clients' needs -- including writing copy, editing video and creating other types of content -- iXL may one day find itself in the same content-generating business as Razorfish, whether it wants to or not. With Agency.com, iXL, USWeb all munching on this market, what good will a logo T-shirt do Razorfish then? Greg Lindsay is the impassioned summer intern for Salon 21st, and is a contributing editor at Netly News. |
