LBi Network agencies Starring Stockholm and Syrup New York have merged to form a new international boutique agency to be known as Syrup, which powered GE's sponsorship of the recent TED Conference.

The new partnership doubles the size of Syrup's existing resources and establishes a European headquarters in Stockholm. Having secured several high-profile accounts recently, this move allows Syrup to address the needs of their existing global client list more efficiently and collaboratively while keeping up with the growing demand for their creative services.

"We've done some innovative campaigns lately using mobile technology,"Rob Holzer, CEO of Syrup, New York. "In fact, today there is a project live in support of GE's sponsorship of the TED conference.

Syrup is global AOR for Puma Teamsport and DOW XLA, with a client list including Showtime, Hearst Media, L'Oréal, Issey Miyake, Coty Fragrances (see story), Sony Ericsson, Swedbank, Stadium, Viacom and GE.

"Visit http://www.ge.com/ted to see how people can interact via their mobile and Twitter accounts with an interactive installation on the ground at TED,"Mr. Holzer said.

"There are digital whiteboards set up and people are responding to GE's serious questions and thought-starters on improving the efficiency of our nation's infrastructure in order to better serve environmental improvements,"he said.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The TED Conference, held annually in Long Beach, CA, is the centerpiece of TED.

More than a thousand people now attend and the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world.

Many of the world's most creative minds headed to the annual TED conference last, and thousands of others participated in vital discussions this year via a GE-sponsored interactive whiteboard experience designed by Syrup.

TED and GE are collaborating to solve the world's toughest energy, economic and environmental challenges and embracing the latest technology to expand the reach of the conversation.

The GE Whiteboard Project, designed by Syrup and on location at TED, is focused on accelerating the creation of a sustainable economy through collaboration.

GE facilitated this collaboration through three days of digital whiteboard sessions at TED.

GE's challenge for this project was "How do we engage a two-way conversation with some of the world's brightest minds?

TED attendees collaborated at three state-of-the-art digital whiteboards at the conference, two in Long Beach and one in Palms Springs.

They also had the opportunity to join in the conversation by texting their ideas directly to the whiteboards via the Twitter feed.

Over the course of the conference, GE posted three questions via the whiteboard, one per day:

1) How can we reboot our infrastructure?
2) How can we engage, motivate and excite consumers to embrace a smart grid today?
3) How can we develop a "green" economy?

Finally, GE invited the general public to take part and share their ideas via Twitter and at http://ge.ecomagination.com/ted. These ideas were moderated and then posted.

Anyone was able to follow along and submit their solutions by starting their tweets with @GEatTED.

Each day GE asked a question of the TED audience allowing them to reply via tweet or by working with the visualizers at the whiteboard to draw their idea and send it to the http://www.ge.com/ted site.

This allowed the site to bring drawings, photos and tweets together to create a look into the whiteboard experience at TED.

"Mobile relates the project through the integration of Twitter,"Mr. Holzer said. "By integrating their technology, we were able to quickly and easily add users to the experience.

"Because so many TEDsters were twittering during the conference, we were able to search the tweets of our followers and aggregate them into both the site and the whiteboards,"he said.

Merger of mobile minds
With the merger of Starring Stockholm and Syrup New York, Syrup will serve as a new boutique agency under the LBi Network, providing LBi with an opportunity to manage client conflict.

While Syrup has considered various scenarios for growth, merging with Starring Stockholm in particular was a natural choice, according to LBi.

From the beginning, Syrup and Starring noticed similarities in their culture, services and type of clients.

While many Swedish agencies establish themselves in New York, Starring is bringing a New York agency to Stockholm.

Syrup spearheaded HopeActChange.com for Obama, and Starring worked for Fria Tidningen and http://hellofra.se.

For LBi, the merger is a strategic response to conflict within its client roster.

LBi was increasingly conflicted in a number of key sectors. The combination of Syrup in New York with Starring in Sweden creates an independent boutique agency with a mind to LBi's expansion strategy.

Clients of Syrup Stockholm and Syrup New York will now have access to the staff in both locations.

The two agencies both have backgrounds in interactive media. The Syrup offices aim to become a bridge between Europe, the Americas and other international markets.

Talks are already underway to bring crawfish eating contests to New York and hot dog eating contests to Stockholm.

LBi is a global marketing and technology agency.

The company employs approximately 1,600 professionals located primarily in the major European, American and Asian business centers, such as Amsterdam, Atlanta, Berlin, Brussels, London, Milan, Mumbai, New York, Paris and Stockholm.

At the intersection of the digital world, advertising and brand entertainment, Syrup is a global communications agency based in New York City and Stockholm.

Its goal is to create momentum and cultural relevance for brands, organizations, countries and individuals.

Syrup is an LBi agency company.

"This merger gives us increased capabilities to service our accounts that have needs internationally,"Mr. Holzer said. "It is also a fantastic conduit to the talent pool in Sweden, which is well-known for their fantastic design and digital skills.

"Beyond this, it allows LBi as a network to handle conflicting accounts better as our client roster expands internationally across different industries,"he said.