Who Needs Another Agency?

Maybe it’s crazy. There are more than 120,000 advertising/communications agencies in the USA, and a few years ago I started another one. Why? Who needs it? Not everybody. But we’re not for everybody. Let me explain.

Our clients are a select group of C-level executives (often Chairman/CEOs) at mid-sized companies. Their organizations are too small to warrant the attention of the most senior executives at large, global agencies or leading consulting firms, but they usually need more strategic support than most “creative shops” can provide.

The World’s First C2C Agency

Having spent most of my career at the C-level, running a global agency network and then the world’s largest marketing association, I intimately understand the unique challenges of C-level executives: How important real objectivity is… how little time C-level executives have to either explain the details of their business and organization, or manage a myriad of partners… and how frustrating it is when “experts” want to sell ideas as opposed to addressing the confounding issues the C-level executives and their organizations are confronting.

That’s part of the reason I created Rung-UP, an agency that provides C-level support to C-level executives — but it’s not the only reason.

We live in a post-advertising world — a world riddled with unending disruption. The best business solutions are usually not new communications; they’re at minimum part of a much broader strategy: the invention of a new product… the birthing of a new brand… the creation of a unique go-to-market strategy… the construction of a different organizational structure… the reworking of a pricing model… the application of new technology, etc. And if these more substantive answers are to be provided, C-level executives need a different kind of partner.

How does Rung-UP do it?

We provide a depth of support to a handful of companies and nonprofits. We don’t spread ourselves too thin. We won’t ever be the world’s biggest agency, but we are the best partner for the organizations we serve.

We’re business strategists and creative people who conceive, implement and do. Our clients usually engage us to help unearth creative solutions to complex problems, e.g., launching a business or a brand, turning around an organization, or catapulting a company’s financial performance. We then execute across a wide spectrum of communications: Brand/business building, PR, web/online marketing (social media, content development, video, display, SEM), print, direct marketing/mail, and collateral for B2B, B2C and nonprofits.

Rung-UP doesn’t have layers of staff — there are no endless, laborious, and expensive games of telephone between account folks, project folks, creative folks, developers, and tech teams. Our in-depth understanding of our clients’ financials, data, customers, and organizations eliminates the need for countless meetings, endless brief-writing and creative reviews, and unnecessary collaboration with ancillary partners that our clients no longer need. That is how we operate with extraordinary speed and efficiency. 

So…who needs another agency? Could it be you?

Lawrence M. Kimmel is CEO of Rung-UP, the first agency custom built for C-Level executives at mid-sized organizations. He can be reached at Hi@Rung-UP.com.