• by John Capone , September 9, 2010

If you haven't heard of the social media-PR agency mash-up Elastic (it describes itself as doing "digital word-of-mouth"), well, then, you just don't get out to the fly-over states often enough. The St. Louis-based agency is spinning off from its parent company Osborn & Barr, a 22-year-old Midwest-based marketing services agency catering to some of the country's largest agriculture companies (O&B describes itself as "agriculture and rural America's biggest advocate").

Elasticity, as the name implies, seeks to straddle new and old media with platform-agnostic approaches for clients such as Monsanto, Capital One, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Toro, and the American Mustache Institute. If that last organization is unfamiliar to you, it should at least give you a clue to Elasticity's approach, which is often humor-based, and ever so slightly off kilter.

"We can't thank O&B enough for the opportunity they've given us," said Aaron Perlut, Elasticity managing partner (who addends "chief nuclear mustache grooming specialist" to his title ). "It's allowed Elasticity to quickly build a successful agency." It's worth noting that in addition to growing a stable agency that they feel can now stand on its own, all the partners -- Dan Callahan and Brian Cross round out the group -- have also grown impressive mustaches. These mustachioed gents are now able to buy a controlling interest in the company they launched in 2009 as a subsidiary of O&B.

"A combination of O&B's changing needs and Elasticity's emerging ability to be self sustaining provided an opportunity for this transition," Michael Turley, O&B chief executive officer, said in a statement. Both companies said they expect to see continued growth in 2011.

Elasticity will have new digs in downtown St. Louis to grow into. And they can't help but point out that their base city is home to the world's largest mustache, the Gateway Arch.