-By Brian Morrissey, Adweek

Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton hopes to put his experience building a mobile phone service brand from scratch to use building a new kind of agency.

Adderton has joined two executives from Boost and Greg Johnson, a former director of Interpublic Group's Emerging Media Lab, to launch Agency 3.0, which will work with technology firms to develop consumer brands and conversely help consumer companies embed technology in their offerings.
 
"We're tying to put something together that's attacking the next generation of what an agency should look like," said Johnson, who will serve as president of brands and agencies.
 
William Morris, the Hollywood talent agency, is backing the company with an undisclosed investment.
 
Steve Stanford, formerly vp of marketing at Boost and co-founder of Amp'd Mobile with Adderton, said the experience of building the Boost brand pointed to the need for a SWAT team that could create brands from scratch, working on everything from identity to user interfaces and marketing strategy.
 
"There was no one place that had all the skill sets we needed," said Stanford, who is Agency 3.0's president of content and entertainment. "We had to work with a variety of agencies. Some were great at making communications. Or doing strategy. But we found we were more innovative than our agencies were."
 
Agency 3.0 executives said the shop has clients, but they declined to disclose them. Other partners include Scott Anderson, former creative head of Boost, who will serve as chief creative officer.
 
A typical engagement, they said, would be for the 15-person team to work with a technology company like Cisco to build a consumer brand after years of operating as an infrastructure provider.
 
It also plans to work with companies to create branded entertainment by tapping into William Morris and Stanford's connections as the creator of ICM's digital media group.
 
"Historically, the brands have been the last guys to the table and fund these [media] companies," Anderson said. "We'd like to help brands be at the front of the line. We want to help them own a piece of their digital future."
 
As for the name, Johnson said it's a "working title" that could change, but it was meant to represent how the company wants to evolve the agency model.
 
"We've brought together skill sets that don't just generate demand but help to build businesses," he said. "We're trying to take complex stories and build products and bring them to market in unique ways."