BRAIN GAIN
Creativity makes a comeback in Memphis.
It has been a busy year for the guys at Loaded For Bear.
Well, not quite, seeing as how the Memphis-based boutique branding and marketing agency hasn’t even been open a year. More like 10 months, but it has felt like much longer for the principals at one of the hottest new firms in the Mid-South.
It just seems longer because the young creatives at LFB tossed around the idea of setting up shop together for years before finally taking the plunge and doing it. And now that they have, strategy director Joel Halpern and his team of mostly native Memphians say they believe that their collective decision to move back to the Bluff City and launch a startup is happening in the right place at the right time.
The group — Halpern, interactive director Brent Booth and co- creative directors Michael Carpenter and Julian Timberlake — exemplifies an expanding professional creative community in Memphis, one that took a hard hit after the economic free fall of the last few years.
Every member of the LFB team grew up in or lived in Memphis in the past, but moved away to pursue creative opportunities in cities around the country and across the globe.
“I’ve known Julian since high school, and it was always my dream to open up a shop here in
our hometown,” said Halpern. “I was in New York and working in the advertising industry, but eventually I came home. There’s something happening in Memphis these days, and I think the city is primed for a creative rebirth.”
Ever since social scientist Richard Florida pounded home the economic importance of young professionals in his widely read 2004 book, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” cities throughout North America have taken stock of their urban ambience.
Florida contended hightech firms and a host of other enterprises employing young professionals could be the new economic backbone of America in an era of manufacturing decline and relatively low service-industry wages. But he also said cities needed to be livable and likable to attract this new generation, a notion that helped inspire an urban boom in bicycle trails, refurbished parks and gentrified entertainment districts along the lines of Cooper-Young, South Main and Overton Square in Memphis.
On Richard Florida’s scale, Memphis was lacking in the quantity of professionals — 25 percent of the 550,000 workers a decade ago, a deficit he linked to limited innovation and technology in local businesses. Since then, returning professionals like Halpern have sensed a new spirit.
Just how many are in the metro area isn’t readily known. One narrow report counts 28,210 individuals in 2012, up about 16 percent in a decade. The numbers are part of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ surveys of architects, engineers, lawyers, scientists, artists, designers and media personnel employed in the metro area. A sign of the professional renaissance appears in LFB’s rise.
Halpern started the agency from his home, but within three months an expanding client list necessitated a move to a commercial space in the Cooper-Young community. Accumulating a portfolio of national campaigns, Halpern entered some of the agency’s work in the annual ADDY competition sponsored by the Memphis chapter of the American Advertising Federation and walked away with a silver award and tied with design firm Simple Focus for the People’s Choice honor.
The recognition reinforced Halpern’s conviction that returning to the Bluff City was a wise choice. This year’s ADDY competition also encouraged local industry members about the state of the Memphis creative community.
One indicator of the local industry’s improving health is the number of paid entries for this year’s ADDY contest, said incoming AAF Memphis president Penelope Huston Baer. The organization handed out 72 gold and 76 silver ADDY Awards in February — up from 63 gold and 68 silver in 2012 — and for the second consecutive year local submissions for the contest were up, with 615 paid entries.
The measurable turnaround began last year, when AAF Memphis reversed a five-year downward spiral of paid ADDY entries by reaching 540, up from 500 in 2011. In 2010 there were 561 paid entries, down from 637 in 2009. There were 639 in 2008, 830 in ’07 and 943 in ’06.
“It’s encouraging from a client’s perspective and also from an agency’s perspective because clients are starting to spend more money on marketing campaigns and agencies are hiring more people to do the work for them,” said industry veteran Doug Carpenter who launched his latest creative firm in 2010 with two staffers and now employs 10. “I feel like things are getting better, and it’s certainly different from a few years ago.”
More work for local creatives is encouraging, but much remains to be done, said J. D. Graffam, founder of Simple Focus, a design firm that’s based in Germantown and that recently opened a second office in Portland, Ore. For starters, he said Memphis must train and attract more skilled creatives.
Graffam began his firm in 2009 as a solo operation. By the time the company celebrates its fourth anniversary this August, at least a dozen people will be on his payroll. But a problem he regularly encounters is the lack of qualified web designers and developers in Memphis.
“Memphis is known for barbecue and blues and that’s great, but we don’t have such a good reputation to outsiders as a green city or one that promotes diversity,” Graffam said. “We need to do more to attract hip, young creatives. I’m always looking for the right kind of talent to fit in with our mindset and in a way, we’re searching for pink elephants. They’re rare anywhere, but they’re even scarcer in Memphis.”
Still, many are optimistic.
Before the economic downturn, venerable agency archer>malmo had grown to a peak staff of 120, said the firm’s CEO Russ Williams. Then 2008 swept in, bringing waves of economic uncertainty. Some local ad agencies closed — such as Chandler Ehrlich that had been around for more than 30 years — while many others like archer>malmo continued to operate, but with fewer employees.
“We knew we had to come out more competitive on the other side of the recession, and after a while we started building back up,” Williams said. “We came out of that period more differentiated and we added to our creative team. Now we’re hitting record personnel numbers.”
Today, archer>malmo counts about 140 employees and Williams expects that number to keep growing. One recent hire, Naomi Bata, is a Chicago transplant recruited to head the company’s public relations department and Williams wants to double the division’s size within five years.
“There’s a mindset at this agency that’s different, and it reflects something exciting about this city,” Bata said. “There’s a breadth of talent in Memphis and at archer>malmo, and I want to continue promoting a culture where creativity is appreciated and rewarded. I think that will attract more young professionals and generate a stronger creative community here.”
Also expanding is Sullivan Branding, a large agency created when cS2 advertising acquired Thompson & Co. in 2011.
Since the acquisition, company CEO Brian Sullivan has orchestrated a growth strategy that has included adding six employees in the first six months of 2013. The hires brought the company’s total to 50 workers at its Memphis base and 20 in its Nashville office, with more expected by year’s end.
“It’s definitely a good time for us and so far this year business is up 15 percent,” Sullivan said. “From what I’m hearing, it’s also a good time for the Memphis creative community as a whole. There’s a friendly atmosphere of competition here, but it’s also a larger collective of people who actually get along very well and it’s an exciting period for all of us.”