START-UPS: Earthshaking Developments

AGENCY EXECS LEAVE THEIR NESTS TO LAUNCH SEISMICOM.

“We believe it’s time to shake things up in the promotion industry,” says Bill Carmody, to explain the name of Seismic Communications, a new promotions agency he just launched with two partners.

San Francisco-based Seismicom is an “integrated marketing promotions company” aiming to bridge the gap between the online and off-line worlds. “Dot-coms are doing everything by the seat of their pants, and traditional agencies aren’t moving fast enough,” says Carmody, who left his job developing new media for Manhasset, NY-based Marden-Kane to start the company. His partners are David Flaherty and Kathy Mitchell, who had been creating interactive promotions at Chicago-based Flair Communications’ San Francisco office.

“Our focus is not to just find ways to do a Web promotion or an in-store promotion, but to use traditional media to drive Web traffic, and use the Web to drive store traffic,” Carmody says. “A lot of companies aren’t communicating very well between groups.”

Seismicom will focus more on establishing working relationships with traditional promo shops rather than pitching individual clients. “You can get 10 or 20 clients from a single agency,” Carmody says. It will also target dot-coms, and offer their traditional needs back to agencies. The agency began signing clients last month, and announced deals with two Internet business-to-business companies, – Indianapolis-based Broad Daylight and iProperty of Santa Clara, CA – and AvantGo, San Mateo, CA, a pioneer in delivering information via hand-held computer devices.

Carmody says he had discussions with his employers at Marden-Kane about an in-house venture, “but the three of us ultimately decided to take the risks and see what happens on our own.”