About this episode

Rick Milenthal discusses building and sustaining a full-service independent agency focused on integrating media to create brand love.

Welcome to Agency Business. Rick Milenthal , chairman and CEO of independent agency, The Shipyard , joined Brian and Olivia for a conversation about building and sustaining a full-service independent agency — with major operations in Columbus, Ohio and San Diego — around the philosophy of "engineering brand love" through the integration of paid, earned, and owned media. Rick shares how The Shipyard has grown to ~450 people by bringing together best-in-class talent across creative, media, PR, and experiential disciplines rather than treating them as separate businesses. He discusses the agency's sweet spot serving mid-market clients spending $50–$100 million, why he sees a significant greenfield opportunity in media buying for that segment, and how he thinks about acquisitions as talent acceleration rather than traditional M&A. Brian and Olivia also dig into the appointment of Nancy Hall as the new U.S. head of WPP Media, Havas' agency acquisition in Germany, the $220 million DHS media campaign and the political agency world it surfaced, and how agencies navigate clients or campaigns that staff find ethically fraught. The Agency Business podcast is part of the Marketecture…

People in this episode

Hosts: Brian Wieser, Olivia Morley

Guest: Rick Milenthal

Topics covered

• agency growth
• media buying
• brand love
• client services
• acquisitions
• marketing strategies

Keywords

• The Shipyard
• Rick Milenthal
• media buying
• brand love
• agency growth
• marketing
• acquisitions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Shipyard, WPP Media, Havas, DHS

Places: Columbus, Ohio, San Diego

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