In vintage 1985, ad agencies were ad agencies. Though sizes varied, most were set up pretty much the same way. As a scrappy young account exec, I ladder-climbed from small independent shops to multi-merger conglomerates. I learned a few (million) things along the way, chief among them how not to run a marketing company. I also experienced an epiphany—Rigid job descriptions in corporate memo-mentality environments just weren’t my style.
The road to entrepreneurialism beckoned and, a third of a century later, I haven’t looked back. When I first introduced the Consortium agency concept, it was an enigma. The ad community didn’t believe it was possible to function without titled staff in structured departments. Fast forward and many companies have followed suit. Our once unusual structure is now considered the epitome of efficiency.
At the beginning of our journey, advertising was in its heyday. Times have changed since then…a lot. Luckily, so have we. Except for our brand name. These days, traditional advertising is only one of a multitude of marketing techniques we deploy to generate exposure and sell-through. The time had come to take action and reinvent The Advertising Consortium.
Announcing the birth of A Consortium. One “A” replaced fourteen letters in our name, including superfluous “the” and limiting “advertising.” This single initial symbolizes our All-encompassing Array of Action marketing mechanisms (and also doubles as a service rating!)
Now our brand has evolved to match our true capabilities, while staying true to our Consortium origins. Though it all started by swimming upstream against the tide, A Consortium, Atypical Marketing in Action, has finally arrived.