When Jim Martin of Kansas City-based Griner and Schmitz, a 100 year-old supplier of surveying equipment, was looking for an advertising agency to launch his new GPS surveying network it took a reference from, of all people, his UPS driver to find a firm that would take on his business.
When Adams Dairy Bank of Blue Springs was entering only their second year of business during the height of the recession, bank CEO and president David Chinnery knew it would take a unique agency relationship to help him build a bank and a brand.
Both Martin and Chinnery found a perfect fit with the one advertising firm in Kansas City that embraces small, but growth-driven businesses, EAG Advertising & Marketing (formerly known as Entrepreneur Advertising Group).
In early May, EAG celebrated two milestones, its ninth year in business and successful service to more than 200 companies and entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes.
“Nine years ago we found what we thought was a real need in the market,” said Paul Weber, president of EAG. “There was a huge chasm between what small and mid-market companies needed from an advertising firm, and what most agencies would offer.” EAG and Weber have spent the last nine years closing that gap with what he likes to call, big-brand services in small company doses.
They come by city bus and walk in off the street, having passed the EAG sign at its former Screenland Building offices and their current Washington Street location, both in the Crossroads district. Some come having heard Weber speak at local small business incubators, some just wander in out of curiosity.
Even famed Kansas City entrepreneur Barnet Helzberg ventured in to the office one evening while attending a fundraising event in the Screenland building. The word “entrepreneur” on the door led Helzberg to ask what this business was all about.
For Martin of Griner and Schmitz, several calls to local advertising agencies resulted in few eager to help him launch his regional GPS network used by surveyors and engineers. Literally within minutes of venting his frustration to his UPS driver, a connection was made between Martin and Weber who, coincidently, had offices less than a block apart.
Chinnery launched Adams Dairy Bank in 2007 with over 150 local stockholders but little in the way of marketing support and systems. After a year in business he felt the bank needed an agency partner at the table, one that could implement big-brand strategies but in a small budget, small town way.
Today, EAG provides ongoing marketing support in the form of brand management, creative design, online and offline marketing and all other things that an in-house marketing department might do. “We expect to be treated like a marketing department down the hall from the owner, CEO or president,” said Weber. “To that extent, we are deeply engaged with our clients’ business in almost every aspect.”
According to Weber, only a small portion of EAG’s client base are true start-ups. The majority of EAG clients are family held businesses, sometimes in their second or third generation of family leadership. In addition to Adams Dairy Bank and Griner Schmitz, long-term clients include well-established Kansas City companies like; Livers Bronze, Midland Metal, Brookside Merchants Association, Brookside Barkery, Clinical Reference Laboratories and Sertoma International.
Weber is deeply ingrained in the small business community, and can often be found lecturing and mentoring at many of the small business incubators around Kansas City. He is also a small business coach for the prestigious Kauffman Foundation’s Entrepreneurial FastTrac program, which educates new venture businesses throughout the United States.
“At the end of the day, we still do what other agencies do,” said Weber. “We create branded advertising messages, we build websites and we drive business though direct and digital marketing. More importantly, we get things done for our clients that they otherwise might not get done with internal staff.
This year through May, EAG has worked with nearly 50 different companies in the capacity that Weber describes as a retail ad shop. “We have a lot of clients who pop in and out every few months for a brochure, a direct mail campaign or website update. It works well because we know their business already, and we can focus on being very efficient with our few employees.”
Also unlike traditional advertising agencies, heavy media budgets are the exception, not the norm. So while gross billing numbers may be lower than most other agencies, efficiency has led to strong profitability growth and minimal impact from client turnover.
“We don’t worry if we don’t hear from a client for a few months,” said Weber. “They simply have other things on their plate. It’s the nature of small businesses to be intermittent in some aspects of marketing and advertising.”
“Our business is a bellwether of the economy,” said Weber. “With so many business clients in so many different categories we can usually see trends that are an indicator of small business confidence in the economy.” EAG gross billings are up over 50% in 2012, a hopeful sign that small businesses throughout the metro are investing and growing again.
Small Business Miracles is the EAG tag line that greets visitors to its Crossroads office. “We don’t create miracles,” says Weber. “We bear witness to the miracle of entrepreneurship each and every day.”