It's an ad, ad, ad, ad world. That is, unless you ask the advertising community, which increasingly prefers to think of itself in terms of "marketing." As executives continue to grasp the possibilities in new and emerging media, the advertising industry is reinventing itself.

Even as agencies grapple with the challenges posed by new media, they're moving from creating communications to creating experiences. Savvy advertising executives no longer see their target audiences as passive media users, but rather active media co-creators. "Interactive advertising" is the industry's buzz term.

Several Seattle-based agencies are forging new strategic ad campaigns as the evolving field of online media creates new niches and new opportunities.

• One agency has developed an eclectic online community of basketball fans whose attention is coveted by a major cell phone provider.
• Another has embraced a process it calls "hyper-localizing," developing expertise about regional media outlets so its national clients don't have to.
• Another agency calls itself a little agency "that can do anything" by adapting and restructuring its internal staff to meet the needs of the client.
• A fourth has channeled the Northwest's trailblazing cultural history, infusing it with a nose for basic human truths and satire, resulting in a multi-media campaign with skyscraping results.

These companies differ in size, approach and product, but they share a pioneering spirit in their strategies for capitalizing on the new and continually evolving media environment. As emergent technologies present complex new issues, they see happy challenges.

Playing Ball with 'Additive Content'

Garrigan Lyman Group's T-Mobile/NBA campaign

The Garrigan Lyman Group's evolving, three-year campaign for the T-Mobile/NBA co-sponsorship has been a three-way partnership. The agency first seized on the fact that T-Mobile's phones and services are created for the same demographic to which the NBA appeals. From this fundamental understanding, the agency designed the partnership's website (www.t-mobilenba.com). Heavily loaded with exclusive content, the site's branding efforts then generate interest in T-Mobile for hoops fans looking for a wireless provider.

"The whole point of this is to develop a community of NBA peers," explains Rebecca Lyman, principal at GLG. "It's a complete overlay of [T-Mobile's] demographic. They have great products and services to support that demographic, so it's a way to engage those folks in a very ongoing, two-way street." The campaign must deliver content that the league itself cannot; namely, an online, interactive community, distinct from the league's own and bolstered by "additive content" as the drama of the regular season builds toward the playoffs.

The campaign thus provides T-Mobile with "a way to inject their brand into e-commerce play," says GLG's chief creative officer, Bryan Cummings. "Play" is the operative word here. Along with skits featuring NBA stars Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley, the site offers a smorgasbord of interactive content - quizzes, polls, a blog from a "roving reporter," a discussion forum - most of which is available even to casual visitors. Registered users enjoy the added benefit of personalizing their content and entering instant-win games.

Besides growth - users bring more users into the community - the website enjoys additional visibility on television and at retail outlets. T-Mobile further plays an active role on-site at specific teamfocused sponsorships and during All-Star weekend, the playoffs, and other NBA and WNBA events.

"We have strong R&D here, and we really focus on delivering a cutting-edge, immersive environment," Lyman says. "But everything we do, no matter what vehicle it was originally intended for, it ends up on the Web."

The relationship between GLG and the NBA makes a kind of historically grounded sense. When the Goodwill Games were held in Washington in 1990, Tim Garrigan and Rebecca Lyman met while producing the closing ceremonies with music producer and Seattle native Quincy Jones. "We got a bunch of work from that," Lyman remembers, "so we freelanced out of our cars for a bit." The two then founded the Garrigan Lyman Group in 1993, and the company has since expanded to include offices in New York and San Francisco.