A number of Atlanta ad people, though, have followed their dream and established new ad agencies. Driven by the desire to do things differently, such shops as Ames Scullin O’Haire, ComGroup and Huey/Paprocki have opened for business in the past three to five years. Although their philosophies and approaches differ, they are united in the belief that they have hit upon a better way to run an ad agency.
These shops are housed in vastly different spaces: Ames Scullin O’Haire inhabits the top floor of a building downtown in Peachtree Center; while ComGroup’s offices are in a refurbished space in Midtown’s historic Biltmore Hotel; and over in Poncey Highlands, Huey/Paprocki are set up in an old ballroom. Though the working areas differ, the goals of each shop are the same: top quality work that effectively spreads the client’s message.
Eye on the Prize
Rather than miss the security and stability of an established agency, they relish being on their own. “There is no security at large agencies,” states Tony O’Haire, Managing Partner at Ames Scullin O’Haire. “That’s a fallacy. A big account goes and you’re out on the street.”
O’Haire, formerly a Media Director at top shops in Atlanta and New York, joined forces with John Ames, an account management veteran, and Patrick Scullin, a creative who had worked at a number of agencies to form their new agency in 1997. “It wasn’t a matter of leaving security,” O’Haire explains, “it was something I wanted to get done. It was for all the right reasons: to work closely with clients and keep the rewards within a set group of people.”
Like his partner, Scullin, who uses the title Creative Mercenary, felt the need to be free of a traditional shop. “I never felt happy or like I was doing exactly what I wanted to do,” he says. “It got to the point where my frustration with the business had nothing to do with clients. I could understand the client, but what I couldn’t understand was ad agencies, which had become the enemy. I decided I was virtually unemployable unless I did my own thing.”
Before starting their own shop in the fall of 1997, Ron Huey and Joe Paprocki both spent time as creatives in such renowned shops as Fallon McElligott, The Martin Agency and Ogilvy & Mather. “We both spent a lot of time in large agencies and worked on big brands,” says Paprocki. “When we moved back to Atlanta, we had started something of our own in the back of our minds. Taking the cultures we’d absorbed in those larger agencies and putting them to work for us on our own terms. We also have an entrepreneurial drive, and combining that with wanting to have total control over the creative product, it made sense to take that leap and start our own thing.”
Huey adds that they had a fallback position if things didn’t work out: freelancing. “If the big experiment failed, we could go back to what we were doing before we started, so there was a pretty big safety net there,” said Paprocki.
Jim Newbury, Vice President/Creative Director for ComGroup, says frustration with the typical agency structure led him to accept an offer from agency founder Gil Korta in 1998, joining the recently formed shop which focuses on technology and communications clients. “I did it to learn more about how the new economy was moving and embrace some of the integrated approaches of delivering a message that I didn’t feel the big agencies were doing,” he says. “They were still in the traditional modes of television and print as the only ways to communicate.”
Experience Counts
In their early stages, the agencies worked in minimal spaces and kept expenses to a minimum. The agencies were self-financed, and their founders waited until they were in the black before even contemplating talking to a bank for a line of credit.
“It all comes down to there are two ways to set up an agency,” says Huey. “One is to go out and get a big loan and get fancy equipment, a fancy place and look like a big-time agency and hope clients buy into it. Our philosophy always was that clients weren’t coming to us for leather couches and 40 inch TV screens, they’re coming to us for the work.”
While there is no master blueprint for starting an ad agency, the new shop’s foun ders could model their former em ployers. Reaching back in their experiences, they made decisions on which practices to follow and which ones to jettison.
Newbury says creating an enjoyable environment was high on his list. “Creatives do better work when they’re having fun,” he explains. “We try to have a loose atmosphere. The creatives hang out together and do things like go to museums or a new place to eat. It’s all about team building.”
While retaining the work ethic and focus he experienced at large agencies, Paprocki sought to eliminate the waste and inefficiency caused by too many layers in the chain of command. “The wires get crossed too easily when someone three bodies removed from you is trying to give you some direction and it never gets to you,” he declares.
Experience is the greatest teacher. Having respectively been in business for themselves for five and eight years, we asked B.A. Albert of MATCH, Inc. and Jamie Turner of Turner Fernandez Turner to reflect on what they’ve learned since setting up shop.Asked what her biggest surprise was, Albert responded: “One, that people are so willing to come to us for business. They love coming to a small company, even if they’re not entrepreneurial themselves, they appreciate it in other people. The other thing was (former boss) Bob Morrison was correct when he told us that we’d be doing everything. At one point [partner] Elizabeth [Baskin] was scrubbing out the toilet, and I remember thinking, ‘We are doing everything.’”
Turner says that the first year was not as hard as anticipated. “It gets hard the second year,” he explains. “The first year you’re in business, you call up all of your friends and let them know you’re starting an agency and ask them for referrals. I was pleasantly surprised and flattered that so many people came in and said, ‘Here’s an account that’s looking for an agency.’ I had more work than I could handle. The challenge is when you’ve exhausted your group of friends for referrals and you have to go out and knock on doors.”
In terms of the greatest lessons learned, Albert states, “You learn how to stretch and how to be a lot of things you didn’t know you could be. It’s trial by fire and it’s not as hard as you think.” Turner had to rethink how business is conducted. “Creative people tend to be a little bit naïve about why people are in business,” he explains. “I started an agency believing the reason you’re in business is because you have a passion for what you do. But, a lot of people are not in business because they love what they do, but rather to work their way up the corporate ladder or make a million bucks. Sometimes, those issues get in the way of honesty and integrity. I’ve run into people who were less than honest in their business dealings and I’ve gotten zapped.” Is it more challenging to open up a new ad shop in Atlanta in 2001 than it was several years ago? Turner feels it’s equally as hard. “It’s always going to be difficult.” He explains, “It takes hustle and salesmanship to get something going, but if you’re committed to making it work, it will.”
Calling All Clients
The first task faced by all the agencies was acquiring clients. The Ames Scullin O’Haire partners researched advertisers in standard directories at the library, made a list of every one they knew and worked the telephones. This brought in leads, and eventually a first account came in via a neighbor who went to church with a man who knew somebody.
“It’s never ending networking and planting seeds and meeting and greeting,” says Scullin. “The one nice thing about our collective experience is we don’t have to make up a lot of stuff. We can go in and show work that we’ve done. We’re a young company, but our experience is vast.”
Huey and Paprocki also made up a list of dream clients, particularly focusing on categories they wanted to work with like golf and internet providers. Although they acquired clients in these areas, success often stifled hunting for other new accounts.
“You get so busy doing the work, you don’t have time to actively pursue new business,” states Huey. “You fall mercy to whoever happens to call you. It’s great to have our clients referring people to us, but they’re not necessarily the kind of clients you’d approach.”
Huey has taken on the new business aspect of the business and devotes an hour or two of each day on that. The agency sends out a self-promotional booklet with current print work and case studies on effectiveness as well as bios and copies of recent write-ups to clients and prospective clients. Huey follows this up with notes and phone calls.
“We try to stay on their radar screen,” says Paprocki. “A lot of times, that leads to referrals or calls out of the blue.”
Scullin says that his shop engaged in guerilla marketing, sending out direct mail and gonzo letters designed to attract attention or pique someone’s interest. They promoted nationally, but tended to stay east of Mississippi, trying to attract clients within a day’s drive of Atlanta. All three partners participated in the search for new business and collaborated on pitching the agency to potential clients.
In its first days, ComGroup had no work to show potential clients, so Newbury says they created comp work, some for existing clients, to win new business. “As we got the new business and produced work for clients,” he says, “we were able to replace that comp work with real work. That process of getting new and better work was difficult.”
Like other unproven shops, the agencies were often called upon to do work on spec. “Unfortunately, I think it’s a necessary evil for a start-up company,” says Newbury. “You need to prove yourself. It’s a huge burden on the agency because it’s a lot of man hours that may or may not be realized. A lot of the stuff that’s presented as spec is often not produced, so if you don’t win the account, there’s nowhere you can bill those hours.”
Having a Heart Helps
When it comes to pro bono work, however, Newbury has a different opinion. “It’s very important in getting an agency off the ground, and it serves a role in the community,” he explains. ”The great thing about pro bono is that it’s win-win. You can do a great thing for someone and do something good for yourself. From my perspective, it’s stimulating for my creative people. It keeps them happy and involved in doing good work. Because of its very nature, pro bono allows you to stretch. Because you’re offering your services, the client can be more lenient with you about what is accepted. Therefore, you get to do your best work without committees and the things that tend to water the work down.”
A typical scenario for a young agency looking to make a name for itself is to use its pro bono work or assignments for smaller clients as a creative showcase to garner awards and recognition. “They’re important to reward your staff and give them a target to shoot for,” says Newbury. “The award shows are work that is judged by our peers to be superior. We need to meet that, if not exceed that. It’s a mark on the wall to shoot for, especially when you’re starting off.”
Is the Award the Reward?
Ames says, however, that the pursuit of hardware and recognition is overrated. “I don’t think clients particularly care,” he stresses. “I think the awards shows are the biggest joke going. If you get an idea and go do an ad and then find somebody willing to run it, that’s how you win. To creative people they’re important because it shows you’re doing great work. As an agency, I hope people continue to do it, because it gives us lots of room to talk to clients about things they really care about.”
Huey/Paprocki has helped its cause with impressive showings in the ADDY Awards. While admitting that a good-sized percentage of resources are devoted to entering award shows, Huey/Paprocki limit their involvement to such prestigious competitions as The One Show, the Communication Arts annuals and the local ADDYs.
“When you appear consistently in the national books, it shows that you’re doing work for your clients that cuts through the clutter,” says Paprocki. “Work gets into the national books that is breakthrough and fresh thinking. It’s not creative for creative’s sake.”
“We know the real reason to win awards is to recruit the best creative people,” adds Huey. “They’re only going to come to you if they know they’re getting in One Show and C.A.”
Identifying and recruiting talent is often the biggest challenge any agency faces. For start-ups, getting the talent they need to grow often requires finding people who are willing to buy into the founder’s vision.
“The thing we had to be sure of was that they had the entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to work in a small place,” says Ames of the staff who signed on with him and his partners. “If they wanted to work at a Burnett or an Ogilvy, they wouldn’t come to us.”
“Advertising in this region is a very small industry, and if you’re in it for a while, and if you’re moderately to wildly successful, people are going to know of you, if not know you personally. For people who were interested in knowing more about us, it didn’t take them more than two or three phone calls before they found someone they did know and respect who had good things to say about us as individuals and as an agency. It’s nice to know that your life’s work is reviewed in a positive manner by colleagues and peers.”
Having What it Takes
More than winning awards or hiring hot shot creative talent, the bottom line comes down to an agency attaining credibility from both its peers and the community at large. “You attain credibility a step at a time,” says Newbury. “You have to prove yourself and get results for clients. You have to keep pushing the work. You have small successes and you promote them. “
Over the years, the Atlanta ad community has taken knocks for not producing creative product on the level of such places as Richmond, Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon. An observer might note that those markets made their reputations thanks to independent shops pushing to establish themselves, rather than the branch office environment that existed here. Perhaps one of this city’s newer agencies will provide the vision necessary to explode the idea that Atlanta can’t be an advertising leader.
“Having lived in L.A. and Richmond, I got sick of people talking about how there were no good creative shops in Atlanta,” says Huey. “Most of the agencies here wan ted to have an excuse on why the work wasn’t that good. There were always some reasons. In the back of my mind, I felt that there were no good reasons. There are great clients here, and if you show them smart work that makes sense, they’ll buy it. In three years, we have a track record that demonstrates there are clients here who will buy good work if you show it to them.”