Pulling it through.

Every agency talks about how 360 they are. Integrated. Holistic. Surrounding the consumer at every touch point. Brand experience. Idea immersion. I'm getting bored just typing about it.

Very few actually do it well. Better said, very few clients allow agencies the latitude to do it well. Plenty of great ideas die on the table early in the process. Once the client-agency relationship really gets solidified, great ideas become good ideas, then OK ideas, and eventually we stop offering any ideas beyond the client "ask" because getting shot down and shrugged off gets old.

Somehow, Crispin pulls it through more often than most. It's not magic. Part of it is simply the fact that Crispin attracts the more fearless among the otherwise rational, pragmatic, fearful crop of clients. Those looking to push the envelope and take risk, even if it means a heated debate with their boss or standing up for the fact that there's no quantifiable ROI, it's just a great idea.

So naturally, that's what they create and that's what their clients buy. I'm sure a lot of great ideas still die on the table, but some interesting ones manage to survive.

Like this one for Old Navy, which includes TV and assorted "traditional" ad elements, along with an online 'booty reader', which encourages women to upload pictures of their booty and get denim style advice from a talking fortune teller.

How many women will actually do it? Probably not a ton, but the more important point is that everyone who goes to Old Navy's website will see this and will instantly get the message -- Old Navy's got jeans for every body (or, every booty, as the case is here). It's telegraphic.

Who doesn't have a difficult time finding jeans that fit just right? And what jeans company doesn't try to convince us they have the perfect pair? Right, so this is a pretty common proposition.

But the twist here is that Old Navy makes it possible to get educated before spending hours at the store, picking every fit off the table, wrestling with the fitting room and so on. All from the comfort of your couch and computer. Enter the store armed with a little more info than you would have otherwise. Save some time. Leave satisfied.

This is just a quick, interactive way to make the point and have a little fun with it. I don't think there's anything incredibly brilliant about the idea, frankly, but it's brilliant to see an agency still willing to go there and a client still willing to buy it.

Shocking as it may be, 90% of clients out there would be too gun shy to approve something that encourages rear end uploads onto their website. They just would.

So, ON STRATEGY and a fine extension.