We are celebrating 20 years in business this week with a big party at our Tennessee office and you are invited. Our event begins at 4pm on Thursday and will last until whenever. The party will offer a glimpse of who we are today, but our history can really be summed up in two words..creative energy.
Great work begins with a vision that still remains. To be a nationally recognized advertising, marketing an public relations firm within the markets we choose to enter. We have achieved our vision and still pursue it based on exceptional creative and the energy to help our clients achieve their marketing objectives. The vitality that makes us who we are is driven by the people who choose to be part of our organization. In the beginning, it was just a handful of people and one client. Today, there are about 20 of us with more than 60 active accounts.
In 1992, we were in the back rooms of a building that had been converted from a Western Sizzlin steakhouse into a training center for a one-of-a-kind nuclear plant. Our organization was the public relations department of a company that produced uranium fuel for submarines and aircraft carriers for a nuclear naval force pledged to control the Soviet Union in the midst of something called the Cold War. When the Soviets buckled and the Berlin Wall came down, no one knew that the results would include the formation of an advertising agency.
As the U.S. no longer had an ‘evil empire’ to contain, the U.S. Navy ramped down uranium fuel production. That meant that the company we worked for would reduce its workforce from 1,500 to 300 people almost overnight. I was told that my staff would be laid off and our team dissolved. I countered that with a small investment of cash, I could turn my team into an independent ad agency. With a big gulp and a lot of faith in our capabilities, Creative Energy was born.
Teresa Treadway, my wife and our vice-president of media, and I are the remaining members of our original crew. Our company has launched or continued the careers of more than 100 people. We’ve renovated three great buildings from cobwebs and years of disuse into beautiful and vibrant facilities that still remain. Our brand strategies and creative communications have grown the businesses of scores of extraordinary clients. The fire in our bellies to serve more clients with even better plans and creative has never been stronger. Today, we are living our vision and I could not be happier in knowing were we have been and where we are headed.
To every employee and every client that have been part of our history, I say thank you. For today’s employees and new clients (some that we picked up just yesterday), I say welcome aboard and enjoy the ride. We offer you what we have offered all along…Creative Energy.