Momentum Worldwide
Heading the No. 1 agency, Chris Weil (CEO since October 2003) is bent on building cohesion among acquired shops worldwide, and decentralizing management. Creative (such as the GPS Coke Sweeps, at left) was based in St. Louis and now spans from Atlanta to Amsterdam. The Creative Mix program sends top art directors and writers to offices abroad; quarterly creative meetings foster global idea-swaps.
Aspen Marketing Group
The No. 5 shop went AWOL from the ranking in 2002 and 2003 to right its management and solidify its network of acquired shops. That turnaround brought in new investment in November 2004, and sent Aspen shopping to round out its disciplines. It bought SRI Analytics (customer lifecycle modeling) in March 2005 and is still shopping for a Hispanic agency and shops with financial services and pharma clients.
The Marketing Arm
This newcomer sprang onto the ranking at No. 6 via a two-year growth rate (770%) driven mostly by acquisition: Parent Omnicom Group folded three shops into Marketing Arm (USM&P, Davie-Brown and Millsport, which keep their own names) and then formed a fourth unit, Promo Link. “We’re a New Age, jacked-up promotions agency,” says CEO Ray Clark. The consortium went from 35 staffers in 2002 to 315 last year.
Arc Worldwide
Our No. 25 shop has a new leader (worldwide CEO Nick Brien) and a new structure: “solutions providers” act as clients’ main contact to tap resources across Arc’s four disciplines (promotions, interactive, direct marketing, shopper marketing) in its 42 offices. All came into play for the launch of United Airlines Ted (above). But merging has a messy side, too: Arc sent Continental Airlines and General Mills to Publicis siblings to avoid conflicts, and lost Gateway and Starbucks when they dropped sister ad shop Leo Burnett USA.
Active Marketing Group
No. 43 has an inside track to reach athletes: Parent company The Active Network handles registrations for Little League teams and local parks & rec classes. Its two “applications services” (event registration, and parks & rec management) give the four-year-old shop access to targeted audiences during athletic events. That’s how Active wooed McDonald’s Corp. to sponsor grassroots soccer leagues, and helped Clairol sample products during cheerleading competitions (below).
Red Peg
A competitor by any other name is better than a competitor of the same name. Just ask No. 23 RedPeg, formerly Momentum Marketing (or Little Mo, as it’s been known on the street). CEO Brad Nierenberg took the new name, fittingly enough, from the board game Battleship. Will it score a direct hit? We’ll see in the 2006 PROMO 100.
Take note:
Full-service agency execs complain when specialty shops elbow into the Top 25. Hey, we just follow the money — and industry trends. Take ePrize (No. 3), whose bread and butter is online games, and National Tour (No. 21), a mobile marketing specialist. These vertical shops aren’t used in a vacuum: The best work is always part of a brand-building integrated campaign. Which disciplines will get bigger portions of 2005 and 2006 budgets? Watch the branded entertainment and shopper marketing fields, as well as guerilla marketing shops, sports specialists and youth marketing experts.
Then there’s the b-to-b work: trade shows, employee incentive programs, sales force campaigns — they’re getting as polished as consumer promotions.
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