From Acquisition to Scalable Growth
Context
Boston-based Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos had recently expanded into the industry’s largest and most competitive market through their acquisition of New York-based Altschiller & Company. HHCC’s expectation was not only for the new office to compete with larger, more established New York shops – but that we would grow aggressively and sustainably.
Why Me
My mix of agency experience, consulting work, analysis, and client judgment fit the moment. I was comfortable sorting through competing inputs, clarifying priorities, and moving work across clients, account teams, creative teams, and external partners.
My Role
I joined as a freelance consultant and, following multiple new business wins, was invited to join the agency full-time. As we grew the agency, my role expanded: Media Planning Supervisor, Associate Media Director, and ultimately Vice President, Associate Media Director. Meanwhile, my mandate expanded beyond strategy and planning to agency leadership, client strategy, new business onboarding, hiring, team development, workflow improvement, and cross-functional coordination.
Solutions
We focused on three pillars to support and sustain our growth: talent, strategy and operations. That meant hiring, training and mentoring an entirely new and diverse team. We also strengthened planning discipline through improved research, market intelligence, and targeting analysis. Finally, we developed and implemented innovative systems agency-wide, including operational best practices, client onboarding protocols and first-ever data management systems.
Outcomes
Blue-chip, new-business wins and ongoing growth included:
Priceline: executed Priceline’s first fully-integrated, multi-channel campaign
Dun & Bradstreet: investment grew from ~ $2M to $29M over two years
Omnipoint (T-Mobile): expanded from 4 markets/$14M to 14 markets/$50M
Minolta - embraced our new targeting strategy, driving dramatically improved ROI
Internally, new data management systems improved workflow efficiencies by ~ 30%.
Within three years, the Hill|Holliday network was acquired by the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG).
Professional Growth
This is where I learned to build teams, coach talent, and manage performance and expectations. This is also where I learned to build a team that makes the entire organization better.
Those lessons have stayed with me: that winning the work matters - and with new-business wins and growth comes operating pressures. It’s not just important to grow - it’s just as important to develop the capacity to sustain that growth.