• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, January 7, 2015

San Diego-based ad shop AdEase is remaking itself as a cause-focused agency. As part of the makeover it is changing its name to Civilian. Also as part of the redo, the agency is adopting a .agency domain name.

Donuts added .agency as a Generic Top Level Domain name option about six months ago. The agency believes that it is the first --  or at least one of the first ad shops to utilize the new domain category.

The shop’s cause-focused endeavors have increased over a period of years. Agency founder and CEO Stacey Nelson Smith calls the makeover effort “a case of brand identification catching up to agency identity.”

Smith launched the agency in 1999. She was employee number 1 at launch. She has overseen its growth to a 35-employee business with $20 million-plus in annualized billings. At launch the firm built a reputation serving retail clients in the San Diego region and then expanded its scope to serve other B-to-C and B-to-B clients as well a growing a number of government, not-for-profits and other cause related organizations.

“Increasingly we were partnering with clients dedicated to making meaningful change and we find it incredibly gratifying and fulfilling,” said Smith. “Our brand identify wasn’t just failing to effectively communicate who we are -- it had reached a point where it was actually working against us because what we do now isn’t easy. We are solving large, complex problems that take time and involve a multitude of stakeholders.”

The agency appears to be part of a trend of shops that are transitioning from the way  agencies traditionally work to a more cause related focus.  As reported earlier this year in the New York Times, an agency holding company named Collegium is dedicating its  entire group to cause- related efforts.

Colleagues of Smith’s -- notably Trisha Blake, managing partner and vice president of media at the agency -- urged Smith to pursue the cause-related direction for the agency. “The Civilian brand begins the conversation on the right foot, Blake said. “Our old identity just put us a step back at the start because it was such a disconnect from what we are and represent.”

Case in point--The Los Angeles Zoo. An Ambitious award winning campaign about the zoo’s new rainforest exhibition which was profiled in the The New York Times and elsewhere. The shop also created an app to help deter suicides as well as a paint care awareness campaign.

“It’s a challenge for companies like ours to find agencies like Civilian,” said Paul Fresina, senior director of communications and operations at Paintcare. “This move to clarify the agency’s identity through rebranding is … appropriate  and part of a larger and welcome trend inside the industry.”

This story has updated and corrected. A previous version wrongly reported that Google operates the .agency domain. The company that operates it is Donuts.