Every marketing agency starts somewhere.  From the 2,000-employee multinationals to the four-person boutique shop, every agency begins at the same starting point – one or two people committed to a common vision.

OLE, an independent, full-service Hispanic advertising agency out of New York City, has covered a lot of distance from its starting point, since opening its doors two years ago.  They have managed to collect a list of blue-chip clients across a wide array of industries, including Target, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, La Costeña and the American Bible Society.  They have built a reputation for creative excellence and strategic intelligence.  Along the way, their annual billing has exceeded $3 million.

Agency Founders Javier Escobedo and Paco Olavarrieta will be the first to tell you that their success is no accident.  It comes from great risk, an enormous effort, as well as insightful creative and strategy.  Add some confidence, experience and electric personalities, and you have an agency on the rise.

“It’s a combination of things,” said Escobedo, OLE’s Managing Partner.  “We’re seasoned business professionals – (Olavarrieta) from the agency side, and (I come) from the client side.”  In a marketplace where experience isn’t enough, OLE’s appetite for success helps the agency build business.  “We are hungrier – but (our hunger is driven by our) passion and experience.”

Escobedo and Olavarrieta, who each have 20-plus years of experience, have built reputations that help open the door for major client pitches.  Once they’re in the room, it’s the ideas, energy and vision that bring home the business.

“The feedback we get from clients is that they choose us because of our enthusiasm and our charisma,” said Olavarrieta, the agency’s Creative Partner.  “They choose us for our drive – and for the brainpower that shows in our work, on the creative and the strategic side.  They know we deliver the goods.”

OLE: Staying Ahead of the Competition

The number of competing Hispanic-owned agencies is rising quickly, but according to Escobedo, the growing need for Hispanic marketing expertise can support the growth.  In fact, general market agencies have increasingly gotten into the game over the past few years, buying up smaller, independent shops.  The top brass at OLE isn’t worried.  At the end of the day, it’s quality, not quantity, that will separate the leaders from the followers over time.

“There is a big need for good agencies – no matter who owns them,” explained Escobedo.  “There isn’t a big eagerness to hire someone just because of his or her ethnicity.  They need to get a job done, so they’ll hire who they think gives them what they’re looking for.”

“There are very few really good agencies that are strong both creatively and strategically,” continued Olavarrieta.

With Olavarrieta heading up the company’s creative effort and Escobedo leading the strategic and development endeavors, OLE has both ends of the creative/strategic spectrum covered quite well.

“We pride ourselves on being a strategic partner,” said Escobedo.  Like any other agency, OLE works with its clients on all annual plans.  However, they stay involved in the long-term planning as well – sometimes laying down strategy looking five to ten years ahead.  “We have a team specifically for (that type of long-term planning work).  Our clients know that.  They come to us for that.”

It’s Time to Wag the Dog

Getting deep into the mix with client strategy can be a challenge for some ethnic agencies, as the general market agency gatekeepers often try to preserve that realm for themselves.  For OLE, staying in front of the client has not been a big issue, and their general market counterparts have been, for the most part, fully supportive of their need to be at the table.

“We share all of our clients with general market agencies, except for the companies in Mexico that only cater to Latin American consumers,” said Escobedo.  “We’re use to partnering with (general market agencies) – bouncing ideas off of one another.”

Solid agency partnerships are not only good for the marketing firms involved, but clearly beneficial for the clients.  When agencies share client work, the brands they represent receive superior support.  This is equally important on the creative and strategic ends of the business.  OLE, its agency partners, and its clients all seem to embrace this concept.

“We don’t ever (have problems with agencies keeping us out of the creative loop).  It would be a disservice to the agencies and the clients,” said Olavarrieta.  “Very few agencies have a credible Hispanic component.  (General market agency partners) see our success as their success, and vice-versa.  No one has shot us in the back.  Well, not that we know of,” joked Olavarrieta.

That’s not to say, however, that ideas don’t migrate from one agency to another.  Occasionally, ideas that come out of OLE end up driving the umbrella marketing campaigns they work on.

“We just presented a campaign to a major client, and they just loved it,” said Olavarrieta.  “The client gave the ideas to the general market agency and asked them to rethink the overall campaign.  It was a case of the tail wagging the dog.”

“The client doesn’t care where a great idea comes from – they care about great ideas,” said Escobedo of sharing client business with other agencies.  From the client point of view, finding and selecting the best idea is just good business.

Things can get complicated, however, when two Hispanic agencies share one client – a situation OLE prefers to avoid. 

“We don’t share clients with other Hispanic agencies.  Some clients have more than one (Hispanic agency), and it becomes cut-throat.”

Competing on a Higher Level

With its rapid growth, OLE finds itself going head to head with agencies several times its size in recent business pitches – and that suits them just fine.

“It’s great, and it’s about time,” said Olavarrieta.  “Clients are realizing that it’s not about size – anybody can come up with a great idea.  Even big clients are slowly starting to assign accounts to smaller agencies on a project-by-project basis.  They’ll pitch every project to four or five different agencies.  For us, it’s great.”

The situation is not unique to OLE.  Across the industry, many smaller, independent agencies are walking away with large client projects as clients look to tap into new creative and strategic resources.

“In the past, there would have been no way we could compete with 200-person agencies,” said Olavarrieta of the industry shift.  “Now, we’re still a small agency, but we rank number 37 in Ad Age’s rankings.  It’s exciting.”

“When big agencies see smaller, independent agencies in the top rankings, they start to worry,” continued Escobedo.  “They think – these guys are going to kill us with their ideas.”

According to Olavarrieta, agency size plays a much smaller role than the quality of the people you have working there.  “It’s really the people,” he explained.  “How many times have you seen a creative partner leave an agency, and then the agency’s business falls apart?  Then, wherever the creative goes, the new agency begins to flourish.  When you’re on top, it’s the people (who keep you there).”

While larger agencies may benefit from some level of operational efficiency, that shouldn’t close the door on the smaller agencies.  From a client perspective, an advertising agency is only as small as the work it provides.

“For a particular client, you can still have the same number of people servicing a given piece of business,” said Olavarrieta.  “There are just fewer people and clients at the agency.  But the client doesn’t need to feel the difference.”

Walking the Long-Term Path

Escobedo and Olavarrieta have walked different paths to arrive at the point where they now stand, but their union is a powerful and effective one.  For each, it has been a long road of discovery, challenges and a lot of risk.

“Curiosity got me started in the marketing business,” said Escobedo.  “I got my undergrad degree in actuarial sciences – applied math and statistics.  It was very analytical.  By my third year, I was thinking, Man, this is really boring.  But I finish what I start, so I kept on until graduation.”

When Procter & Gamble came to his campus recruiting marketing talent, the decision was quickly made.  Escobedo moved from working for P&G in Mexico to working with Microsoft in Miami, FL, focusing on the Latin American market.  His successes continually moved his career along, until he moved to Microsoft headquarters to take over marketing for MSN in the United States.  It was not a good move for Escobedo.

“I lost my edge,” admitted Escobedo.  “The Hispanic market is what I know best.”

Escobedo found himself working for Univision, the world’s leading Spanish-language network, in New York.  This is where he met his business partner to be, Olavarrieta.

“It was how we dealt with our mid-life crisis,” joked Olavarrieta.  “They say, when it comes to your mid-life crisis, you can change your car, your wife or your job.  Well, we live in New York, so we don’t have cars.  Our wives said No Way!  The only thing left to change was the job.”

To hear them talk about their business partnership, it sounds a lot like a marriage.  Anyone who has ever created an agency knows that the commitment required is almost at that level.

“It started with friendship – we were friends before we were partners,” said Escobedo.  “We knew one another’s quirks.  We knew what we were getting into.  As a result, it’s been fun working together.”

Olavarrieta’s first attempt to start an agency was much different than his current effort with OLE.  While initially very successful, there were some important ingredients missing to sustain long-term growth.

“We were just a bunch of creatives,” explained Olavarrieta.  “We didn’t have the entrepreneurial mentality.”

The effort eventually landed Olavarrieta in Miami, working with VRN as a creative director.  After much success there, they offered him a full partnership, leaving him with an important decision to make.

“I came to a crossroads,” said Olavarrieta.  “I had to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  It came down to curiosity.  It was now or never.”

Escobedo and Olavarrieta decided to take the gamble.  As is the case with any entrepreneurial effort, the transition has not always been a comfortable one.

“At first, you’re like a fish out of water,” said Olavarrieta.  “You don’t know if you’re going to be successful.  In the beginning, you want to survive – pay rent, eat, and keep the lights on.  Then, you realize you can survive.  Then, you start to take the next step.  You (start to) have competition.  You ask yourself, what do I need to do to become the best?  That’s where we are now.”

Javier Escobedo and Paco Olavarrieta have proven that the decision to build their own agency was a wise one.  Three million dollars later, the gamble has paid off.  They’re building business based on excellent client and agency partner relationships, effective and innovative long-term strategy, and strong, breakthrough creative.

The End