Letter From our Managing Partner

Have you ever worked with a company that gave you the best price and the biggest promises, and you came out the other end disappointed? What about the company that showed you a brilliant creative portfolio, but ended up not collaborating correctly and you ended up with work that you didn’t feel reflected your goals or the brand image? Maybe you’ve worked with an agency that wouldn’t allow you to pay media directly and then you found out they were embedding additional commissions on top of their contractually stated fees?

 

Unfortunately, these horror stories are all too common in the advertising world – especially as of late – and it’s giving agencies both big and small a bad name. There are myriad reasons why such things happen in the agency model, and while it’s far too much to go over here, if you stop by for a beer, I’d be happy to delve into the depths of those conversations.

 

When the partners at Axiom decided to start this endeavor, we adopted a “marketing consultancy” approach vs. the tarnished agency method – a tacit acknowledgement of the Accenture’s and Deloitte’s of the world, whom were seeing much greater success by implementing their proven consulting methodologies to the advertising and marketing industry. Working for and by the client’s side in collaboration is not just a drastic step outside of the traditional “agency mindset”, it’s a paradigm shift in the industry – moving the attitude from transactional relationships built with only the bottom line in mind, to the goal of a symbiotic relationship; truly understanding the client’s business needs and working side by side with them on creative and innovative solutions.

 

When we started to really pursue the best way to set up our own shop for sustainable success, we realized that historically, all of the strong, long-lasting, admired companies share similar traits. They were institutionally creative: they allow employees to work on personal projects, come up with off the wall solutions to business problems, and promote reinvestment in R&D. Additionally they were systemically innovative, pursuing new ways to move the company forward, searching for previously unthought-of solutions.

 

Here’s a good bet to win drinks from your friends: do you know 3M stands for? Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. Not what you were thinking? Their first business was a mine that was a bust – but it did get them to own a huge amount of sand. In danger of going out of business, they pushed their employees to voice ideas on how they could right the ship. The outcome? The invention of sandpaper. Years later, during a portion of the day set aside for employees to pursue their own projects, a scientist at 3M accidentally invented a glue that didn’t stick as well as it should but was reusable and retained its stickiness. A colleague applied it to placeholders that kept falling out of his research books . . . and Post-It notes were born. Although these things happen by accident, they only happen when the business model encourages creativity and innovation.

 

When we looked at the advertising and marketing space, we saw that agencies (particularly in the media space) had moved in the opposite direction by adopting the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality….even in the face of the percolation of Moore’s Law, the growth of digital advertising, and rapidly changing mediums to reach consumers. This drives lack of transparency, low trust, and high client turnover (and not many referral clients). This lack of awareness, lack of initiative, and lack of any risk-taking whatsoever is a poignant moment in marketing history. That is how we came to be, and what drove us to build Axiom from the ground up – to address these issues. Our client’s testimonials speak volumes, and are something we are extremely proud of.

 

Creativity, Innovation, and Technology are the three legs of the marketing stool. The stool will fall with any one removed, and your ability to reach your consumers will falter. Whether it is media buying, logo design, website development,  virtual reality, eSports, or any other discipline we work in: we promise to treat you as a partner, to listen to your business problems and goals, to collaborate with your internal team, and to utilize technology, creativity, and innovation to produce novel marketing and business solutions.

 

Welcome to Axiom – Let’s Create + Innovate!

 

 

Brian Lenihan

Founding Partner