Struggling Mid-Atlantic Design Firm Transformed by Marketing Expertise.

The challenge...

Revenues were steadily declining in a well-known Baltimore-based design firm. It was clear to all concerned parties that a new direction was needed. A direction that would not only maintain but grow client relationships and associated revenues. With a portfolio of brands that included Procter & Gamble, Black & Decker and McCormick Spice, there was a lot to lose. Of course the flip side was that the opportunities were huge. But who would lead them?

The solution...

I would lead them. The comforts of Utah (where I was born and raised) couldn’t hold me back from the opportunity of a lifetime – professionally speaking, of course. A design agency on the East Coast, with top-tier, well-know consumer brands, wanted to bring my family and me clear across the country  to shake things up??? I gratefully accepted the offer to fly out and assess the firm, their people, their work – to determine if it was something in my wheelhouse or not, and whether or not it would be in my family’s best interest to relocate.  

It was worth it – and within a year of arriving, the agency was on a completely new course. And within two years, the firm was delivering significantly improved agency services, and netting the highest profit levels in the company’s history. And those once-weary clients? The level of trust, confidence, reliance and loyalty had never been higher. As a result, new business to the firm catapulted, and the firm tripled its size in terms of employees and revenue. How did I do it? By doing what I do, with an opened-minded business owner, and accomplishing all of the following:

• Developed an agency-wide change management action plan, including top-down restructuring and a comprehensive new business development plan.
• Hired best-in-class talent to fill serious personnel gaps. Focused on re-establishing relationships with senior-level clients, which proved invaluable to not only keeping business, but growing it.
• Managed team of directors to enhance strategic marketing offerings, including new media solutions, mobile marketing, guerilla and retailer-specific initiatives.
• Developed a critical artwork production planning process for P&G (package design to execution) that resulted in an 18 percent artwork cost reduction in first year, solidifying a major client relationship.
• Brought more new business to the agency than it had ever experienced in its 24-year history and changed its course forever.