Mid Men

You need an advertising agency for your product or service. Odds are, you get a dozen agency sales calls a week, but how do you decide which one to hire? 

While one of the giant shops like The Richards Group, TracyLocke, Publicis, or TM would, barring conflicts with existing clients, be glad to have an account as small as half a million dollars, there’s always the small fish/big pond argument—a legitimate consideration no matter how heartily the big agencies deny it.

So, why not consider an independent, mid-size agency instead?

For this article, we’ve defined mid-size agencies as those billing between $3 million and $84 million annually. We’ve also limited the list to independents—those not owned by larger holding companies. And we’ve taken their word about revenues; these days, it’s tricky to assess billings anyway, because they’re based on varying combinations of commissions, fees, and markups on outside services. Besides, fudging to maximize your agency’s size is a tradition as old as advertising itself, so take the numbers with a grain of salt. What can’t be fudged is the work itself, and that’s the primary basis of our impressions.

Based on industry data, tips from experts, and agency web sites, we visited each of the featured agencies, met the principals, took the tour, and looked at the work. Highly subjective methodology to be sure, but, in the end, most advertisers choose their agencies—at least in part—on those same criteria.

PROTERRA/EN VIVO

J.D. Garza, En Vivo’s CEO

“We’re not a typical Hispanic agency,” says En Vivo CEO J.D. Garza. “We pride ourselves on multicultural marketing on a sophisticated level.” Indeed, Hispanic advertising has come a long way from the days—not all that long ago—when advertisers would simply take whatever ads they were running in English and translate them, often rather stiffly, into Spanish. 

Danny Sanchez, CEO of a second Hispanic agency, Proterra, continues the thought: “We find out whom we’re talking to, and then we speak their language.” Proterra principal Lisa de Leon picks up the thread. “This means more than English or Spanish; this means applying classic advertising principles to reach the market by age, income level, and every other demographic measure,” she says. Concludes creative director Jesse Diaz: “We start with human truth and then drill down into ethnic considerations, and then we execute the work in Spanish, English, or any combination or dialect in between.”

To put this approach into action, the agency leaders have staffed Proterra and En Vivo with people who, like themselves, have come both from established local Hispanic agencies and from non-Hispanic shops.

The history of the two agencies is a little confusing, combining the industry-wide rough and tumble of agency acquisitions and divestitures with the somewhat internecine dynamic within the subculture of minority advertising. After many buyouts and buybacks involving larger agencies and gigantic holding companies, the two Addison-based firms are, once again, independent. Proterra has capitalized billings of  more than $17 million annually and employs 24 people, with one running an outpost in Houston. En Vivo has three employees and bills about $3 million.

Proterra’s ad for Visionworks.

Proterra specializes in traditional, digital, and direct advertising for such clients as American Airlines Center, State Farm Insurance (Texas Zone), and AT&T Broadband. “We’re essentially an acquisition and retention agency for clients with consumer brands,” says Sanchez.  “We help our clients find and keep Hispanic customers.”     

“En Vivo offers a special focus on promotional and experiential/events work, including sports, music, entertainment, trade shows, and retail/in-store,” Garza says.  Current En Vivo clients include Mars, Lowe’s, and Time Warner Cable.

Proterra’s CEO Danny Sanchez, front and center, with members of his team.

FIREHOUSE
 

You‘ll know whether Firehouse is the agency for you the minute you enter its industrial modern building. The space, designed by the architectural firm Gensler & Associates, is a pretty good metaphor for the agency and its work: open, contemporary, and friendly. 

“At parties, everyone always ends up in the kitchen,” says Mark Hall, president and founder of the agency, referring to the layout of his office space. Sure enough, the agency, with $29 million in capitalized billings, has a kitchen/lounge located right behind the receptionist and it’s the first thing one sees after stepping off the elevator.

“We encourage constant and varied interaction among our people and our clients,” Hall says. It’s a theme reinforced by the seemingly random assignment of work spaces, in which the agency’s current complement of 26 people are not segregated by job function or by accounts worked on.

The group’s ad for Maggiano’s restaurant.

All of this contributes to the remarkable consistency of the advertising that comes out of this 11-year-old shop, which is run by Hall, creative director Tripp Westbrook, account manager Greg Goyne, account planner Steve Smith, and bean counter Doug Miller. This consistency is prominently on display in a promotional video that the agency created for itself. “Who wrote that?” we asked when it was over. “We all did,” replied Westbrook.

“You really speak with one voice,” we ventured.

 “That’s the idea.” 

Every agency preaches the importance of the brand; these guys live it. From the ads that line their walls for clients like Nokia, Centex, and restaurant chains Maggiano’s Little Italy and Brooklyn’s Pizzeria, through the unerased notes on their conference room white board, the brand is at the center of their thinking. “We aim to control the dialogue that surrounds your brand,” says Westbrook. “Your brand will be defined. The question is, by whom?” 

A singular example of this approach is the agency’s work for Pointe West, a Galveston Island vacation-home community developed by Dallas’ Centex Corp. Don’t think of Galveston as the ideal location for a beach home? Precisely. Firehouse deftly pirouetted, branding the location as The Secret Coast and stressing the development’s geographical convenience without mentioning its precise whereabouts. The campaign won a prestigious Effie Award from the American Marketing Association in 2007.

According to Hall, Firehouse also serves as “mistress” agency for Sonic Corp. of Oklahoma City, creating such recent promotions for the drive-in chain as “Luck of the Straw” and “Even Sweeter After Dark.” (As the term implies, a mistress agency does the work that the main agency—in this case, Kansas City-based Barkley—can’t provide quickly or economically.)

Left to right: Doug Miller, Steve Smith, Mark Hall, Tripp Westbrook, and Greg Goyne.

SLINGSHOT LLC

The agency’s memorable ad for Frymire Services.

“Your wife is hot,” smirks the billboard, adding, in smaller letters, “Better get the A/C fixed.” This work for Frymire Services may perhaps be offensive to people with puritanical values (and to those who hate cheesy puns), but it’s impossible to ignore.

The woman maniacally pulls fistfuls of tickets—first at the butcher counter and then at the dispenser at Dave & Buster’s. She wears an expression of such demented glee that she has long since shaken the earthly bonds of mere happiness and has ascended to some ecstatic rapture. Does this make you want to have a beer with her at D&B?  Depends on what you’re into, but you’ll notice the commercial for sure.

The agency’s memorable ad for Joe’s Crab Shack.

Joe’s Crab Shack wanted to appeal to customers of varying demographics. The agency responded with TV spots that—as it describes them—depict “the most unlikely of friends having a great time at Joe’s.” Indeed, a table of male buddies includes a priest, Satan, and various straight and kinky pranksters, while the high-jinks at the women’s table—which mostly involve passing food back and forth—are embodied by a grandmotherly woman, a spike-haired but loveable teen, someone who just might be a nun, and an individual who kind of resembles RuPaul. It’s all set to a music track inspired by “Happy Together” by The Turtles—changed just enough to avoid legal action by the copyright owners.

The point here is that Slingshot LLC is not about subtlety. As with Firehouse, you’ll get a pretty good sense of who it is on your first visit to the agency. And, also like Firehouse, Slingshot features cool industrial space, having reclaimed an old West End warehouse. The result appears a little Dickensian, but—as with drinking with the D&B woman—to each his own. The important thing is that it’s hard to argue with success and, with $84 million in capitalized billings in 2007, Slingshot appears to be bringing down its share of Goliaths.

“We’re the next-generation agency,” says CEO Owen Hannay. Our work is evenly divided between traditional and digital media, and we’re all about convergence between the two.” 

Other clients include Greyhound, Brown-Foreman brands—including Jack Daniel’s and Finlandia (for web design and promotions)—ConocoPhillips, Mission Foods, La Madeleine, and Verizon.

Slingshot does much of its online production in-house, which can provide a significant financial benefit to the agency and, under certain circumstances, to the client.  The look of this work, created by Slingshot’s excellent web designers—often with images supplied by clients like Jack Daniel’s, who’ve spent generously on superb photography—is top-notch.  However, much of the agency’s TV production borders on amateurish, about at the level of some local nightly newscasts: HD only looks better if the people and products photographed look (and perform) better to start with.

Examine Slingshot’s work thoroughly, from strategy, through concept, to execution.  What you see is what you’ll get, and if you feel that your brand fits, you’ll likely not be disappointed.

From left to right: Gordon Law, David Coats, Karen Stanton, and Owen Hannay.

RUCKER & CO.
 

Doug Rucker is a very gifted copywriter. At The Richards Group (to be hired as a writer or art director at Richards is—in itself—evidence of talent), he oversaw Chick-fil-A’s iconic “cows” campaign for seven years and worked on numerous other accounts, including The Home Depot, Trane air conditioning, and Central Market. After leaving Richards, Rucker founded R&D ThinkTank with account representative Jan Deatherage. There, he did some unforgettable outdoor and TV work for Medical City. With headlines like “Grab life by the ventricles” and “Your health is always on our cerebral cortex,” the billboards caused congestion on the freeways and in the hospital’s admissions office.

When the R&D partnership cratered (happens all the time in the ad business), Rucker came up with the idea of a virtual agency. Working from the comfort of home, he can call upon all of the talent he’s collaborated with over the years, bringing in the best personnel for each job, while keeping overhead low. In this group are a number of people who’ve also honed their skills at Richards, including art directors P.J. Jones and Greg Malphurs, copywriter David Culp, brand planner Karen Dougherty, and brand advocate Susan Overman.

It’s working. After 18 months, Rucker & Co. is claiming billings of $5.2 million.

At the moment, the young agency appears to be on a hot streak with financial clients, including Wizetrade, which Rucker & Co. rebranded from its former name GlobalTec Solutions. Online, radio, and cable TV advertising touts the proprietary algorithm that helps Wizetrade clients choose which stocks to buy and sell. Rucker & Co. also works with Cardinal Capital Partners, a local real estate company that does complicated lease-back deals with big-box stores all over the world. According to Rucker, Cardinal has a market limited to about 1,500 brokers, bankers, and investors. “This enables us to reach them all online with a highly targeted e-mail campaign,” he says. “Our creative stands out because the category is so boring.”

The agency also has clients in more interesting categories, including Booker T. Washington Arts Magnet School, for which Rucker & Co. has created a film aimed at attracting qualified students from throughout the area, and Duckbill Design, which makes money clips (when you’re virtual, you can take on clients with duckling-size budgets).

Rucker says he’s also been doing preliminary work for The Center for Texas Music, a project planned for Dallas’ Arts District. “It will be sort of along the lines of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland or the Jimi Hendrix Experience in Seattle, featuring all Texas music,” he says.

Left to right: Karen Dougherty, Susan Overman, Doug Rucker, and Greg Malphurs.

RD&F ADVERTISING INC.

TV ad for Cirro Energy.

If you’ve seen it, you’ve been revolted by it. A multi-generational family enjoys what used to be called Sunday dinner in these parts. Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, pie, iced tea. Suddenly an unbridled id, disguised as a fat, bald guy in an open work shirt, forces his way into a seat and, with manners that would shame a sow, gloms most of the food. He even takes Jell-O from a baby in her high chair!

If you’ve seen it, you also remember it and remember that the spot’s message encouraged you to switch to Cirro Energy. Never mind that a fair percentage of you likely vowed, simply out of disgust, that you would never make this particular switch. Never mind that many of you didn’t even make the connection that the socially challenged star of the spot represented not Cirro, but utility giant TXU.

Print ad for Cirro Energy.

“Utility advertising is a very low-interest category,” says J Frederick (that’s what his mom named him), a principal and creative director at the agency. “You only think about it when the bill comes and, at that moment, you’re angry about it.” The mind works in mysterious ways—especially during summer, the height of the “switching season.” You’re angry at TXU, but the name Cirro pops into your head. If you’re going to switch, Cirro has just become a leading candidate.

It’s working and has helped make RD&F, according to Frederick, the Southwest’s fastest-growing agency specializing in growth marketing for smaller companies like Cirro.

“Fortunately, most of our advertising is in categories that allow us to be a little more, ah, graceful,” says Jimmy Richardson, a principal and creative director at RD&F. “For example, our work for Methodist hospital is always warm and positive. We talk about the results and not the process.”

Indeed, at a time when advertising for many hospitals looks like it was written by teams of doctors (it often is, to the detriment of their own sales), Methodist speaks clearly about the patients it has cured, all under the sentimental theme, “Methodist—Where life shines bright.”

The agency’s creative range extends well beyond the infuriating and the sweet. It’s also got some pretty strong contemporary humor going on on behalf of Verizon Yellow Pages, cute kids for Best Maid Pickles, and straightforward talk for Nokia.

According to Mark Davis, principal and head of client and media services, the $25 million agency has made a commitment to further growth by adding a full-time, in-house media planning and buying department. Says Richardson: “We’re stewards of our clients’ brands, a responsibility we take seriously even as we have a ball doing the work.”

Left to rigth: J Frederick, Mark Davis, and Jimmy Richardson of RD&F.

OTHER MID-SIZE AGENCIES TO CONSIDER

In no particular order, selected from recommendations by industry professionals and observers:

The Marketing Arm
MasonBaronet
mundayMorning Creative Group
SullivanPerkins
Square One
Launch
Encircle Marketing, formerly PGC
LEVELTWO
imc2
Calise and Sedei
OneFastBuffalo