MARS Sets Up Temporary Offices After Fire
MARS Advertising Co. is operating from rented office space following an electrical fire last week that demolished its Michigan headquarters.
The staff of 250 has set up workspace in a facility about a half-mile from the MARS-owned building while damage to the site is assessed. No one was hurt.
MARS’ 50-plus computer servers were kept off-site and had been backed up the day before the fire, so no creative, account service or accounting work was lost.
“We lost about a half a day of e-mail, but everything else is up and running,” said MARS executive Steve Woods.
Half the office burned and the other half suffered extensive smoke damage. Part of the roof collapsed, Woods said.
CEO Ken Barnett heard about the early-morning fire on Friday and flew home from a family vacation that day. His mother, MARS founder Marilyn Barnett, also came to the building Friday to help. Chief administrative officer, Mark Jacobs, was vacationing in Mexico at the time.
The staff moved to rented space over the weekend, then met at a local hotel with MARS’ 15 other offices conferenced in by phone. Barnett, who had salvaged only his nameplate from his office, hung it on the podium to rally the staff.
MARS’ “Little Martians” daycare center for staffers was unaffected by the Feb. 20 fire and operates from a separate building next door to the Southfield, MI, headquarters.
The 31-year old advertising agency, which had operated from the Southfield site for 20 years, has 350 employees. The agency specializes in co-marketing, account-specific marketing, creative/media placement, Web marketing and strategic marketing development. MARS ranked 61 in the 2003 PROMO 100. The company’s 2002 net revenue was $23.8 million and its two-year growth was 19%.
