When Tom Fugleberg joined
OLSON,
he was one of three employees at the Minneapolis-based ad agency.
Thirteen years later, that number has skyrocketed to more than 375--well more than double the company's head count at the beginning of 2010.
Following the acquisitions
last year of Denali Marketing and public relations firm Dig
Communications (see our coverage
here and
here), 2011 has begun with a
steady stream of new creative directors.
Fugleberg, now executive creative director,
downplays growth as a byproduct of success in an industry that has
changed dramatically since his early days.
"We were born in age
when we thought advertising was going in a very different direction,"
says Fugleberg. The traditional ad is now just one tool in the box,
alongside newer platforms and strategies such as public relations,
mobile and social media, customer relations management, and more.
The
result is a talent pool working holistically, says Fugleberg--a
"protean company" focusing on brand communities, "built to follow
wherever they'll be next, however they are going to connect next," he
says.
Fugleberg cited OLSON's
Bauer Hockey campaign, which began with the "brand anthropology" that is "at the core of every move we make," he says.
"Before
we did anything creatively, we lived with hockey-crazy kids everywhere
from Minneapolis to Moscow," says Fugleberg, "to understand them and how
they interact as a community."
At the heart of that community
is not NHL and Olympic superstar Sidney Crosby, he explains, but "the
17-year-old varsity captain" and the hockey moms that know all too well
the ubiquitous aroma of hockey equipment celebrated in OLSON's
best-selling "smell my bag" t-shirt campaign for Nike/Bauer.
Even
in the new ad world, however, traditional measures of success still
count. Fugleberg notes the agency's 22 Effies in the past nine years
among its accolades. In 2010, OLSON added the Minnesota State Lottery,
Boston Scientific-CRV, Discover Boating, Naked Juice, IZZE Sparkling
Juice (among other "wins") to the dozens of clients on its roster.
Source: Tom Fugleberg,
OLSONWriter: Jeremy Stratton