• by Adam Herman , June 5, 2003

Like the mythological Phoenix that rose from the ashes, Salt Lake City's integrated communications agency boede&partners was born from one of the Internet's most famous crash and burns, marchFIRST.

Established in the spring of 2001, boede&partners was formed through an acquisition of assets of the Salt Lake City office of marchFIRST, the agency that was going to revolutionize the online advertising business, but burned through its millions and was history in just one year. Boede&partners' lineage is actually a series of reincarnations. The agency was originally known as the Martha Felt Group when it was founded in 1995. In 1998, MFG was acquired by international consulting firm USWeb/CKS, which was itself acquired in 2000 to become marchFIRST.

"In the spring of 2001, the heads of the local marchFIRST offices learned that the agency was going to file for bankruptcy in two weeks," said David Boede, president of boede&partners. "Although this was painful news, we also saw this as a great opportunity because the Salt Lake City office was one of the few offices that was actually succeeding at the time for marchFIRST. So with a week to go to survive, we negotiated to buy out the assets and contracts from marchFIRST, and started our own agency. During the buyout, boede&partners retained every client and employee, which I think is a testament to the agency's strong client relationships and dedicated personnel."

Boede, whose marketing career spans more than 20 years, has worked with some of the world's most prominent high-technology companies. Prior to founding boede&partners, Boede was a partner at Euro RSCG DSW Partners, serving for 11 years as worldwide brand director on the Intel account. During Boede's tenure, Intel grew from a $5 million account to one with a budget of over $200 million. Boede also helped create the renowned "Intel Inside" co-branding strategy. Seeing the possibilities of the Internet, Boede decided to "give the Internet a spin" by jumping over to the Salt Lake City office of USWeb/CKS just as this agency was merging with Chicago-based Whitman Hart to form the ill-fated marchFIRST.

Although boede&partners began when the Internet bubble was bursting, they have defied the odds by increasing both staff and billings over the last two years. Their original 40-person staff is approaching 60 employees. Capitalized media billings, which were $20 million at the time of its launch in 2001, leaped to $50 million in 2002 and are projected to be $60 to $70 million by the end of 2003, according to Boede. "The key to our growth is to be flexible and to think in holistic, untraditional terms," said Boede. "An old traditional approach is 'make an ad to solve a problem,' but this alone won't do it. We look at things beyond ads. To solve problems, we use all marketing channels and processes such as integrating sales databases with web analysis, CRM, loyalty programs, and interactive marketing. We do much of the below the line stuff that traditional agencies don't consider."

Boede, who has worked in San Francisco and Paris during his marketing career, finds great comfort in coming home to Salt Lake City, feeling there is a distinct benefit to having his agency located in a city better known for Mormons than modems. "Salt Lake is a small community but it has rode the tech wave for 20 years, with home-grown companies like WordPerfect and Novell," said Boede. "At our agency, we place a real premium on intelligence and thinking, and there is a lot of top-level talent in this city to choose from."

Two clients who should be pleased with boede&partners business solutions are Unisys and Microsoft. These two companies were in a formidable battle with UNIX for the minds of IT decision-makers when they asked boede&partners to turn things around. Facing heavyweight competitors like Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Dell, and IBM, Unisys was less familiar in the server environment. Microsoft needed to leverage its strength at the desktop to gain more marketshare in the data center environment.

Boede&partners challenge was, within a limited budget, reach a global audience of IT leaders and convince them that the answer to their UNIX problem was a solution that combined Unisys' world-class high-end servers and Microsoft's innovative and ubiquitous software. This Unisys-Microsoft alliance would create a powerful alternative for running server applications.

Boede&Partner's strategy was to tap into the frustrations of IT executives over the sprawling complexity of their server environment, and the lack of options for high-end data centers. They developed a simple and high-impact visual concept to quickly communicate the complex message without overtly attacking the competition. To surround the target and drive response, they developed a multi-touch worldwide marketing program using both print advertising in CIO, Information Week, Network World, Network Computing, and CIO Insight, and rich media banners and sponsorships on Tech Republic, C/NET, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune, New York Times, and MSN. Additional marketing support included direct mail and email, telemarketing, collateral support, Web landing pages, and database infrastructure.

The results were impressive. Unaided awareness increased 23 percent within the target market. There were more than 8 million hits to the campaign website Ð WehaveTheWayOut.com Ð which generated 26 million online impressions, 12,000 new contacts, and 2,500+ new Unisys e-community members.

Boede&partners provides website and integrated application development, strategic consulting, eCRM initiatives, email marketing, online promotions and events, research, creative execution, and online advertising planning and buying. Clients include international accounts Manugistics, ClearOne Communications, Mercator, Microsoft, and Unisys, and U.S. accounts Children's Museum of Utah, Network Associates, NeuBond, and Plantronics.