I came across this article on FastCompany about re-Branding, Crowdsourcing, and Devo (The '80s Akron, Ohio art band of the flower pot hats). Most important was the revelation in the YouTube video that Devo's ad agency will use focus groups to help the band determine every decision it makes going forward, including even the vocals, style, and instrumentation on any given song.

According to Mother, the NYC ad agency who have 'supposedly' opened an LA office just to represent Devo (Supposedly?), "The office is very small and experimental in nature, a collaborative experiment ... We're testing a new model, a soup-to-nuts virtual office environment, where people share ideas and unite digitally. Los Angeles seemed to be the perfect location to do this; not only is it hard city to commute in, and where both the band and Warner Bros are located, it is also a town where it's sometimes hard to tell what's real and what's fake, what's fact and what's fiction. And this is part of the project."

A dose of Los Angeles reality? Yup! Without trying to sound too 'devolved,' I do agree that Los Angeles is the mecca of crowdsourcing. Besides, where else can you find a 'cast' of thousands?

Let that be a lesson for those East Coast agencies who should use us as their 'virtual' partner in Los Angeles and Orange County. You don't really need to have an 'office' presence to have a presence. All you need is an audience, albeit one who listens.