In mid-2007, Rick Milenthal saw the writing on the wall to where his industry and the economy were headed.
“Even before the recession was official in name, we had a major challenge on our hands,” says Milenthal, president of Engauge. “Recessions, invariably, turn marketing expenditures into a discretionary expense, often to the detriment of the long-term growth of brands.”
So Milenthal and his team reinvented Engauge that year, emerging with a vision of a new kind of agency.
Milenthal was named one of 2010 Smart Leader honorees by Smart Business and Blue Technologies. We asked him about how he faced that challenge, what Engauge does to innovate and the importance of giving back to the community.
Give us an example of a business challenge you and/or your organization faced, as well as how you overcame it.
In late 2007, clients were slashing budgets and within our industry, competitors were losing accounts and cutting staff. We were ready, though. In mid-2007, we reinvented ourselves, emerging with a vision of a new kind of agency – one focused on results and measurement, unafraid to embrace untraditional forms of advertising, such as mobile, digital and social media. With this new structure, what has been an economic headwind for most agencies has been a tailwind for Engauge.
