By Dixon Galvez-Searle
In his 18 years at DDB Chicago, Paul Brourman worked in an office perched high above the shores of Lake Michigan. Last November, he decided
to really get his feet wet by opening his own agency, Sponge. The small shop was built using a flexible roster of freelance talent and the desire to work with clients both on a deeper level, and at a much earlier stage.
Visiting Sponge’s office on the Near West Side of Chicago is a much different experience than passing through the security gates at DDB Chicago. But Brourman’s business model has attracted a steady stream of work, so much so that a physical expansion is already in the works. SCREEN sat down with Brourman to talk about his new agency and its habit of soaking up clients.
SCREEN: What inspired you to open a shop of your own, and how did you come up with the idea for Sponge?
Paul Brourman: Looking at the industry and where things were going over the last several years, it just seemed that there was a better way. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it had to be built from scratch. It couldn’t have any shackles [and] it couldn’t have any barriers. I decided to go ahead and take that leap knowing that I had to literally build every aspect of it.
[Sponge is] about taking down the walls between brand, product development, and any other activities that are typically told to play in separate fields. The idea is that Sponge is going to put the ultimate talent to the task, even if it means pulling talent from different disciplines.
Every client that we work with has an extremely unique structure of talent and that wouldn’t be possible, typically. You might have a few variations, but not to this extreme. That’s why we call it Sponge – the notion of absorbing all of that talent from various areas into one unique space.
After you had developed your idea, what was it that allowed you to get Sponge off the ground?
We got a call from Patrick Dempsey – “Dr. McDreamy” – and his racing team, wanting to make a pitch to Macy’s. Based on that activity, we got an opportunity with [model management firm] IMG. They asked us to do two projects involving brand development for their star talent. It went from there into a combination of advertising in somewhat non-traditional forms, some interactive projects, and even a packaging project that we just recently won.
There are certain areas that we will not get into, but we don’t try to limit ourselves too much. The idea is that we want to partner with our clients a lot earlier, help them create value, and create new revenue through the partnership. It’s not like we want to come along at the tail end of the process and say, “We’ll just do your ads.” We want to get in early [and] say, “Here’s where you might exploit new potential with your brand assets that you already have.”
I can see people comparing your business model to in-house advertising and marketing, which doesn’t always result in great work.
Unless you’re Apple. They go out, but they do a lot [of work] in-house to keep that synergy. It is rare because a lot of the time clients struggle with their own internal issues that work against consistency.
I think we are all craving more consistency from the product’s identity. If we’re involved from the front end to the back end, then we can help ensure that consistency.
But that’s a long journey. Product development is usually a two-year cycle. We’d like to shorten it a little bit. We’d like marketing to get in earlier, and even take some of the risk out by testing the full experience earlier. That’s down the road, but it’s a model that we’d like to put to action soon.
Can you compare the environment at Sponge, which is a small agency, to your experience at DDB, which is one of the largest?
It’s vastly different. I’m in an entrepreneurial world now, [which is] highly flexible. It moves, I’d say 20 times faster in terms of the model itself and the flexibility versus [DDB’s] very distinct framework. It’s the things that you often hear about entrepreneurs. You do a lot more yourself, and I’m not above that.
After 20 years on the corporate side it’s actually re-invigorating for me. I feel like we can solve business problems and challenges in a much more imaginative way. We don’t have to go and ask 20 people for permission.
You’re not the only former DDB creative to open his own agency in the last year. Small shops seem to be popping up all the time.
I think there’s a movement happening, and it’s exciting. I’m really excited for Vinny [Warren of The Escape Pod] and for Don [Pogany of Sticky], and the guys that are doing it. There’s plenty of open space out there and everyone has their own model, so no one is bumping into each other too much. I think it’s pretty cool.