Now playing at BAM: branding and content creation.
A new Dumbo marketing agency has audaciously named itself “The BAM Connection,” despite having no connection to the famous Brooklyn Academy of Music, the iconic Flatbush Avenue sign for which has helped make the performing arts complex synonymous with the three-letter acronym “BAM.” The heads of the new company say its moniker comes from their surnames, and that they were never concerned about sowing confusion.
“That’s just how you name an ad agency,” said Rob Baiocco, the company’s chief creative officer. “People in our industry know us as Baiocco and Maldari. We’re proud of our reputation — we just know the names are long.”
Biaocco’s business partner Maureen Maldari echoed the sentiment, stressing that they like the Brooklyn Academy of Music but have no ties to it and never talked about the potential for getting lost in the Google results (as it happens, they don’t).
“We are The Baiocco and Maldari Connection,” she said. “Our discussion was about us.”
Baiocco and Maldari both worked for the global advertising agency Grey Worldwide before deciding to open up their own shop last year.
The duo chose Dumbo for the neighborhood’s innovative atmosphere, Baiocco said.
“The energy you find in Manhattan is a kind of frenetic energy,” he said. “Here it’s all creative energy.”
Baiocco still lives in Manhattan, but Maldari grew up in Marine Park and lives in Bergen Beach. She says she knew all along where she wanted the company to be located.
“I always knew that Brooklyn was the coolest place to be,” she said. “Finally everybody else knows it too.”
The BAM Connection boasts national clients such as the American Heart Association and the jeans company Wrangler, meaning many in its target audience have never heard of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Maldari pointed out.
“A lot of our reach is beyond New York,” she said. “And people outside of our area don’t make that same connection.”
Going forward, the pair hopes to collaborate with players in the Dumbo tech scene and to work with other borough businesses, they said.
Baiocco stresses that he does not want his business to be seen as the project of a couple of johnny-come-latelies.
“I don’t want to seem like a poser,” he said. “Half of this company is genuinely rooted in Brooklyn.”
The Brooklyn Academy of Music did not respond to requests for comment.
