Modernista! was a creative and communications agency based in Boston, Massachusetts. The agency represented Sears, Showtime,
Product (RED)

Product Red

Product Red, styled as RED, is a brand licensed to partner companies such as Nike, American Express , Apple Inc., Starbucks, Converse, Bugaboo, Penguin Classics , Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark and Dell...

, the National Park Foundation

National Park Foundation

Chartered by Congress, the National Park Foundation is the official charity of America’s nearly 400 national parks. Funds contributed to the Foundation are invested directly into the national parks...

, Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

, Food Should Taste Good, Chug, Sophos

Sophos

Sophos is a developer and vendor of security software and hardware, including anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, network access control, encryption software and data loss prevention for desktops, servers, email systems and other network gateways....

, Jack Wills

Jack Wills

__NOEDITSECTION__Jack Wills is a mid-range British clothing brand aimed at university students. The fashion label uses the brand and registered trademark "Jack Wills – University Outfitters" to reflect the heritage and inspiration behind the brand....

, Boulder Digital Works, Doc to Dock

Doc to Dock

Doc to Dock is a Brooklyn, New York-based 501 non-profit organization that sends donated medical supplies and equipment to hospitals and clinics in Africa and Haiti. It was founded in 2005 by cardiologist and medical professor Bruce Charash....

, Stop Handgun Violence

Stop Handgun Violence

Stop Handgun Violence is a Boston, Massachusetts-based 501 non-profit organization that works to reduce and prevent injuries and deaths caused by firearms in the United States...

, and the Art Institute of Boston. In the past, Modernista! has created marketing campaigns for clients such as General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

, TIAA-CREF

TIAA-CREF

Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund is a Fortune 100 financial services organization that is the leading retirement provider for people who work in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields...

, Napster

Napster

Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...

, the Gap

Gap (clothing retailer)

The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...

, Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...

, MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

, and Converse.

In recent years, the agency increasingly focused on interactive design. It also involved itself in other types of creative projects, including music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

s, magazine redesign, and alternate reality gaming

Alternate reality game

An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....

. According to co-founder Gary Koepke, the agency modified its business model and operated less as an advertising agency than as a creative think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

.

History

Modernista! has recently closed its doors. The agency was launched in January 2000 by Gary Koepke and Lance Jensen, both from marketing/advertising backgrounds. Jensen left the company in December 2010.

In October 2000, Modernista! was appointed agency of record for General Motors’ HUMMER

Hummer

Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...

, and in 2006 it was named the agency for GM’s Cadillac

Cadillac

Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...

. The relationship with both brands ended when GM went bankrupt

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 in 2009.

Following this, Modernista! revamped its organization and became much more focused on digital marketing and communications than it had been, although it stresses that it remains "medium agnostic."

Activities

According to Bruce Horovitz, writing in the November 4, 2008 issue of USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

, Modernista! is known “for linking music from often obscure artists with compelling visuals in its TV spots.” In the print arena, one of the agency’s most visible projects involves the display of advertisements for the Stop Handgun Violence gun-control organization on a 252-foot-long billboard erected along the Massachusetts Turnpike

Massachusetts Turnpike

The Massachusetts Turnpike is the easternmost stretch of Interstate 90. The Turnpike begins at the western border of Massachusetts in West Stockbridge connecting with the Berkshire Connector portion of the New York State Thruway...

 in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. Digital projects include web sites and microsites for Sears, HUMMER, Cadillac, Nickelodeon, Boulder Digital Works, Product (RED), the National Park Foundation, and the Art Institute of Boston.

In efforts outside traditional advertising, Modernista! has created music videos for David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 (“Slow Burn,” 2006) and U2

U2

U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

 (“Window in the Skies,” 2007) and has designed computer visuals for concerts by trance DJ Paul Oakenfold

Paul Oakenfold

Paul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...

. In 2008, the agency redesigned BusinessWeek magazine. It has also done strategic planning consulting for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...

. In 2010, the agency produced an alternate reality game leading up to season five of the Dexter

Dexter (TV series)

Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...

 TV show.

In January 2004, Modernista! was named "Regional Agency of the Year" by Adweek.

Controversies

In March 2008, Modernista! gained attention for a redesign of its own website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

, which now displayed only a small red navigation menu overlaid on the upper left corner of social-site pages that contained information about or from Modernista!, including Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, Flickr

Flickr

Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...

, and YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

. With each new visit to www.modernista.com, one of these social sites was chosen at random to provide the agency’s “launch page.” In addition to the social sites, the agency’s blog page could appear on a random basis. In effect, outside of its blog, Modernista! referred visitors exclusively to social media

Social media

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...

 to learn about the agency.

At one time, this “siteless site” (which won a Webby

Webby Awards

A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....

 award in 2009) could utilize the Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...

 entry for Modernista! as a landing page. Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....

asked Modernista! to stop using its Wikipedia article in this fashion. Following this, Wikipedia implemented technology that made it difficult to make such use of an entry, and the Modernista! site stopped routing to Wikipedia. In September 2010, the Modernista web site was completely redesigned.