Dumbo luring marketing firms away from Madison Avenue

Digital marketing firms have been making a splash in Dumbo, with a growing roster of companies choosing the burgeoning former industrial area over the traditional advertising mecca that is Manhattan’s Madison Avenue. Among them are Spike DDB, Spike Lee’s Advertising Agency That Left Its Madison Avenue office for Dumbo last year, and Big Spaceship LLC, which has clients like General Electric and is also known for its recent viral marketing success with “The Most Awesomest Thing Ever,” which has attracted more than seven million page views since it hit the Internet last month. According to Carlos Menchaca, Borough President Marty Markowitz’s capital budget and policy coordinator, there are more than 60 digital marketing companies now located in Dumbo, which boasts cheap — though rising — rents and a suit-less culture. [WSJ]