Holding companies in battle of odd names It's a dire time for agency names. While some still slap the founders' names up on the door, others are getting creative, with mixed results. Let’s pause for a moment to remember Synarchy, the trial balloon for WPP Group’s Dell agency. That name was quickly shot down by blogs. WPP settled on Enfatico, which I guess is at least cheery. Publicis is rolling out a new ad platform thingy it’s calling VivaKi. It almost makes you want to put an exclamation point on the end. According to Maurice Lévy, the name is a combo of “viva,” meaning “life,” and “ki,” apparently meaning “energy flow.” How do you feel about it? —Posted by Brian Morrissey

June 25, 2008 in Morrissey | Permalink

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Worst ever agency name: PRACO in Denver just renamed itself "Vladimir Jones"

Posted by: | Jun 25, 2008 10:48:37 AM

I get the meaning behind the name VivaKi, but still think its a little strange. However, I really dig the logo. I think it was smart they used the Publicis sun lion logo to emphasize that VivaKi is very integrated with agencies across the holding company, and not off on its own.

Posted by: Brandon Zeman | Jun 25, 2008 11:17:16 PM

Any name that requires knowledge of both Spanish and Japanese to understand the meaning is asking a bit too much of its audience. The end result seems to sound like something you'd find on a Greek lunch menu...
Why are we so focused on making our audience strain to understand our brands? (Unless, of course, we actively work in the languages represented in our names... If VivaKi is big in Spain, Mexico, and Japan then this is a beaut!)

Posted by: Tate Linden | Jun 26, 2008 7:11:11 AM

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