by EP Bob Nelson
2012 is off to a great start and I am truly optimistic about the future. Our many loyal clients keep coming back, and business is expanding within our core group of agencies. We’ve got a terrific spot on the Super Bowl courtesy of Pepsi, Joe Pytka, and TBWA\Chiat\Day LA. We’ve rekindled a great collaboration with director Baker Smith, and we’ve made our first inroads with talented new clients at new agencies (for us), such as mcgarrybowen. Our friends leave happy, and they keep coming back.
I’m not surprised. When I was an agency producer I WAS one of those repeat clients. There was never a question about Johnnie’s talent or the quality of QuietMan’s production. But, when I arrived a year ago, QuietMan was coping with a recent name change that was creating confusion in the market space.
A year ago my ‘elevator pitch’ was entirely focused on the 2010 rebranding of the company. Several years earlier, QuietMan had gone independent, relocated offices, changed names (remember Semerad? Probably not), changed sales representation, and, in my opinion, had lost its top-of-mind awareness in the process.
So when my friends learned I was coming here, the response was generally: “QuietMan’s a great company. What have they been up to?”
The first order of business was to create a montage of QuietMan classic work. Sure, agencies want to know “What have you done lately?” but it’s hard to walk away from a legacy of 100 Super Bowl commercials, two Emmy’s, a Cannes Grand Prix and a Grammy. We needed to showcase our current work, and connect it to our heritage.
The second task was to get the word out: “The QuietMan brand is back, and the talent behind it never went away.”
We incorporated traditional marketing, PR and social media channels to raise brand awareness. For me, there has been endless one-on-ones: personal notes to friends, breakfast meetings, lunches, and meet-and-greets. Not just with advertising agencies, but with editors, production companies and directors. QuietMan has touched a lot of careers and a lot of products over the past 17 years. If we could just remind people that we were out there – as an independent company – people would come.
The third task was to expand our range of offerings. Many clients are looking for one-stop shopping. We are now routinely shooting live-action. We’ve added a fabulous new lead designer and work in-house with a group of talented freelance editors. We’ve pulled off a number of high-end shoots in the past year, and it’s been fun and rewarding being on the set. While Flame-based, high-end special effects will always be one of our core strengths, QuietMan has become very much a diversified production, post, animation, and design company.
Culturally, QuietMan is unique amongst our competition. We are not multi-national, and we don’t market based on numbers of workstations. We are a family, and our structure is more like a pyramid. Johnnie is a brilliant artist, but behind the scenes there is a family of designers, 3-D artists, Flame artists and producers who are crafting the company’s product. Johnnie, Carey, and I watch EVERYTHING. Our names and our reputations are part of everything we do, and we don’t let work out the door until it’s right. This is very personal, and our business is all about relationships. We help our friends because we care about them – as people, as artists, and as marketers.
The task for this year: capitalize on our successes, look after our friends, do brilliant work and have fun doing it.
The rest will follow.
The moment we've all been waiting for! Judging for Poems in Motion begins today and runs until May 23rd at 5 pm EST.
All of the eligible submissions appear in the group's video page.
Votes are limited to one per person, and you may only vote for one video.
To vote, click the heart-shaped 'Like' button on the right-hand part of the video.
We're looking forward to seeing who wins! Post to our Facebook page if you have questions!
