A few conversations lately have turned to the same question: how did those independent agencies that we all admire go from being small/start-ups to being the big-time leaders we know now? These also happen to be the agencies that have taken cities that aren’t traditionally known for advertising and put them on the map in the ad world.

Name them with me:
Minneapolis? Miami? Portland? Dallas? Richmond?

I’ve always been fascinated by this, and, being the book worm that I am, have researched it from time to time. There are some common points of focus they shared at the time they were incubating, and the stories are both fascinating and inspiring. Over the next few days, I’ll post stories about these agencies we admire and pepper in some of my own experience with b&a. We’ll start with the most important and the most obvious, first:

Turning Point #1: Do. Great. Work. Every. Single. Time.
This is obvious. It’s painfully clear that this is what our focus should be. But the CP+B’s, the Fallon’s and the Goodby’s of the world really did just that. They took even the smallest of campaigns, the most miniscule of budgets, and they made them GREAT. The ideas were worthy of buzz and praise. The work actually worked for the client.

In Juicing the Orange, we learn that Fallon used what it calls Creative Leverage with even its first client, a local barbershop called 7 South 8th for Hair with zero money for production (yeah, barbershop with no budget for hair models or even a photographer). The campaign centered on the unexpected: instead of the typical fashion ad, the campaign featured pictures of famous people with bad haircuts. Now, 28 years later, you can see the idea behind the campaign is a fantastic one primarily because we can all relate to the truth it gets at: no one wants a bad haircut. A great example of doing great work, even with no budget.

More to come . . .