Ad agencies leave the nest, take flight

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In a rapidly changing advertising industry, location is not as important as it's been in the past. Just ask the owners of D.L. Media and The Team.|ret||ret||tab|

Both are advertising agencies that started in Springfield but left the city when they outgrew their office space. |ret||ret||tab|

"It doesn't matter where you're located anymore," said Jeff Johnson, president of The Team, "it's more about what collection of people you have and how they can grow business."|ret||ret||tab|

The Team moved to Ozark last July due to expansion and is now located at 5250 Towne Centre Dr., at the southwest corner of U.S. 65 and Highway CC.|ret||ret||tab|

Johnson said the decision to move was based on the fact that they are a regional company. |ret||ret||tab|

"Nobody cares whether it says Ozark, Nixa, Republic or Springfield on our letterhead," he said. "We're a regional agency and this is more of a regional location. Our clients get to us and we get to our clients via (highways) 65, 44 and 60."|ret||ret||tab|

Dianne Davidson, president and owner of D.L. Media Inc., also needed more space. She said the move last October from 2550 S. Campbell in Springfield's Old Towne Centre to 720 W. Center Circle Dr. in Nixa has had no effect on business.|ret||ret||tab|

"I'm not a business that needs retail traffic," she said. "Media salespeople will seek me out no matter where I go. This business is a professional service and has the luxury of not having to be at a retail type location to thrive."|ret||ret||tab|

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The price is right|ret||ret||tab|

Davidson said that she has doubled her space, going from 850 to 1,900 square feet, and is paying only 35 percent more.|ret||ret||tab|

"We'd outgrown our space, and I looked all over Springfield ... but I really wanted to stay south-side," Davidson said. "I saved a lot of money on rent by moving to Nixa versus similar quality space I could find in south Springfield. I've doubled my space without doubling my rent."|ret||ret||tab|

D.L. Media, which Davidson started four years ago when she purchased part of The Copeland Group, has five employees. Davidson said she shares office space with CorpraNET, a computer networking company owned by her husband Jim, his partner Dana Harding and four others.|ret||ret||tab|

Davidson said D.L. Media is a full-service agency for national and local clients. "We act as a buying service for them and act as an arm of their business their marketing partner," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Some local clients include Midwest Discount Brokers Inc., Trust Company of the Ozarks, Jim Stafford Theatre and The Yakov Smirnoff Show in Branson and Bill Roberts Chevrolet in Bolivar. Other clients, that are actually advertising agencies that DL Media performs creative and account services for, include Springfield's Young & Company and Sparlin Advertising Associates, Branson's Cindy Merry Marketing and The MBC Group, which has offices in St. Louis and Charleston, W. Va.|ret||ret||tab|

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Made to order|ret||ret||tab|

Cost was a factor in relocating for The Team, too, said Johnson, but he also credits technology with easing his agency's growing pains.|ret||ret||tab|

For the 5-year-old general advertising agency, the move to Ozark enabled it to create an entirely new office built to its own technological specifications. The management team of Johnson, Brad Oliver, Randy Rains and Jim Grundy formed a separate corporation, called Yukon Territories, that bought the land, constructed the 8,000-square-foot building and now leases it back to the agency.|ret||ret||tab|

Johnson said The Team employs 14, but the building has the capacity for 35 people. |ret||ret||tab|

"Since we were building office space from the ground up, we were able to wire (the building) to be technologically ready for the next 20 years ... as far as we can see," Johnson said. "That gives us a lot of advantages."|ret||ret||tab|

The advanced systems include servers, fiber optics and T-1 lines that give them state of the art communication abilities, he said.|ret||ret||tab|

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Virtual relationships|ret||ret||tab|

"Our primary means of communication with our clients is e-mail," Johnson said. He added that, instead of doing the old fashioned "draw up a story board ... and go show them the idea" presentations, The Team sends concepts and proofs online via portable document format (PDF) files.|ret||ret||tab|

Grundy, vice president of account services, added that another increasingly popular form of communication they're using is teleconferencing.|ret||ret||tab|

"That really gets you face to face without being there," Grundy said, "now you've got every advantage of being located in whatever city your client is located in. Even though we're doing a lot of our communication ... electronically, you can still build and we do build relationships that way. The need to physically hand somebody something is pretty much eliminated now."|ret||ret||tab|

That's true not only on the creative side, but also in the administrative and human resource department, Johnson said, especially with the newer companies that have a younger staff. He said it is common for prospective employees to e-mail their resumes, portfolios, CD presentations or Web site links. In fact, he encourages it.|ret||ret||tab|

"People who have their act together are showcasing that electronically," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

The Team's clients include Monett's Miracle Recreation Equipment Company their largest client, which according to Johnson is the world's largest manufacturer of commercial playground equipment Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., Radio 2000, Ozarks Open, SMS Athletics and Dentsply-Tulsa Dental.|ret||ret||tab|

With the latter company, Johnson offered an example of what technology has done for The Team. "For the first 15 months that we worked with that company we met with them twice face to face," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

He added that The Team last year did a $250,000 advertising and sales promotion program for Tulsa Dental and gave away a Porsche 911 as the grand prize. "We grew their business $6 million and we met with them twice for that program," Johnson said. "It's amazing."|ret||ret||tab|

In today's advertising industry, he added, "it's not so much where you're located or how big you are, it's how big you think and how fast you can move."[[In-content Ad]]