Moderne Communications is a non-traditional communications agency that has recently been named a Top 100 Agency for the 9th year in a row. Joe Mastrocovi, President, sat down with us to discuss his company.
I founded the company in the late 80’s. I was previously the publisher of Nightlife Magazine in the late 70’s and 80’s, and t
hat got the company into the event world. Originally we were Moderne Promotions. The company started in nightlife events and quickly grew all across the country with a broad range of event types. Then in the late 90’s, I developed another arm of what is today Moderne Communications, called Moderne Mosaic. Moderne Mosaic was our own media network. We started with a couple thousand Neighborhood stores in Chicago and it has grown to over 100,000 media networks today, spanning coast to coast. In 2006, we developed our third arm called Moderne Interactive, which brought us into the digital and interactive world. Soon we realized we needed to bring our three arms under one name. In 2007 we formed Moderne Communications. Today, we offer over 66 non-traditional marketing, experiential, media and interactive services. Our motto is “non-tradition is our tradition.”
What do you consider Moderne Communications’ expertise in 2016?
We try to bring our 60-odd services under four umbrellas. The first bucket is experiential. The second is non-traditional media, whether place-based or things like our guerilla/street media. Our third is our integrated planning. Today, we do everything from planning, to strategy, to execution. But we’re also bringing digital to the table, we’re bringing interactive, and a lot of other cool stuff. Our fourth bucket is technology. We are very proud of our old school roots, but we’re successful because we surround ourselves with brilliant 20 and 30-year-olds. We’re definitely at the forefront of technology in a lot of different ways. So those four buckets are what I consider to be our expertise.
Tell us a little more about technology. Can you give us an example of how you use it in your events?
One example is Pavegen. They are our technology partners in the UK. Pavegen has a floor tile that when walked on, produces green, clean energy. Recently we did a program with Sunglass Hut where we produced a 30 foot by 30 foot dance floor using Pavegen’s tiles. We took the dance floor on a 24-stop concert festival tour across the country. People would dance on the floor and it would produce energy. As the sun in the real world was setting, we raised the synthetic sun powered by those dancing on the Pavegen floor.
So other than doing incredible events, what makes Moderne Communications stand out from other non-traditional communication agencies?
We care. We’re independent. We have a good internal model here that we hold to. We envision what we want the case studies to look like before we do it. Our networks give us the ability to promote brands at a grass roots level and then by ZIP code. The n
etwork has been growing and doing good things for us for 20 years now. We also have a great network of Market Managers that span from coast to coast. From these dozen market managers, we can activate 85 markets basically overnight. Some of our Market Managers have been with us for over 20 years, and they intimately know each market. When you’ve been around for 30 years, and you take good care of your people, you develop some great relationships. When you combine the new world with the best of the old school and my market managers, you can’t fail.
We see that you have been a Top 100 Agency for 9 years now. What makes you a Top 100 agency?
Consistency. And the fact that we have exciting new things every year, meaning both exciting clients and exciting events. We’re always creating new jaw-dropping events that exceed expectations. It’s consistency, caliber of events, jaw-dropping execution, and nice people to work with that make us a Top 100 Agency.
We are a humble company, yet proud that we can compete with the biggest experiential and OOH companies in the world. To be a Top 100 Agency 9 years in a row is something that we hold very dear to our hearts. We always strive to be different, and above all, we service the heck out of our clients. And, we have some great people here. We’re not a large organization, but we have dedicated people. We’re constantly bringing in new talent, and we’re going to continue to grow for years to come.
Check out Moderne Communications profile to learn more!
