Entrepreneurial grads join international network for global reach and resources

Volume 16, No. 3, Spring/Summer 2001

Entrepreneurial grads join international network for global reach and resources

Alumnus named chair of organization assisting independent advertising agencies

Steve O'Leary '69 of The T&O Group in Irvine, Calif.

Three School of Journalism and Communication alumni, Steve O’Leary ’69, Rob Rosenthal ’80 and Al Moffatt ’80, have found challenges over the years in owning smaller advertising agencies in an atmosphere of multinationals.

O’Leary, of the T&O Group in Irvine, Calif., and the partners of Moffatt/Rosenthal in Portland, turned to membership in Worldwide Partners, Inc. for greater client leverage.

Worldwide Partners, Inc., based in Denver, Colo., is a global network of advertising agencies that includes about 90 member agencies. Roughly half of these are domestic members. Worldwide Partners allows shareholder agencies to have the global reach of multinational agencies, but the network differs from traditional multinational agency structure. Each agency retains its autonomy rather than being a branch of a headquarters.
Worldwide Partners sees each of its shareholders as "a true headquarters capable of being the lead agency in an international account." The network gives agencies assistance on everything from how to make changes within their own agency to how to launch a successful campaign in another culture. Membership also helps the agencies negotiate greatly lowered costs for services such as Jupiter research studies.

"It felt like, and still feels like, a pragmatic, utilitarian network with like-minded people."
--Al Moffatt

Worldwide Partners was founded in 1938 as American Advertising Agency Network (AAAN), as a means for five western U.S. agencies to share information on operations. After World War II, the network began to add agencies from abroad to its membership and became Affiliated Advertising Agencies International (AAAI). The network grew to become the largest network of owner-operated agencies. Steve O’Leary, who was initially drawn to the network because of its free sharing of information, was recently named chair of Worldwide Partners for the next 18 months at an annual meeting held in South Africa.

"Worldwide Partners is like a big fraternity, except more serious," he said. "Each of its members is a successful entrepreneur in their own right, yet we bind together to help each other. We share our successes and our failures, and as a result, we all gain from each other’s knowledge."

O’Leary likes the way member agencies work together. "The trust is probably the big thing that I see," he said. "Our business is so competitive, yet you see agency heads willing to share all the secrets to help each other."

His goal as chair for the next year and a half is to increase the visibility of Worldwide Partners and to strengthen its service to members.

"We are launching a branding campaign that we believe will make the network better known," he said. "We are actively seeking to expand the network to an even greater number of parties."

The Portland agency Moffatt/Rosenthal has been a member of Worldwide partners for four years. Collaboration with Worldwide Partners is one more step for the Moffatt/Rosenthal team, a partnership that extends back to classes at the School.

Al Moffatt ’80 and Rob Rosenthal ’80 of Moffatt/Rosenthal in Portland.

The Moffatt/Rosenthal team came to the network as a result of the pre-vious local Portland affiliate being bought by a larger agency. The affiliate lost its eligibility as an independent agency and passed along the Moffatt/Rosenthal name. "It felt like, and still feels like, a pragmatic, utilitarian network with like-minded people," said Al Moffatt. "Not a week goes by that, either through email or phone calls, we’re not corresponding with Worldwide Partners."

Moffatt said that affiliation with the network has paid off for Moffatt/Rosenthal. "They helped in terms of administrative things and in financial planning for the agency," said Moffatt. "They helped us in terms of potential mergers and acquisitions, with strategies of what has worked and what hasn’t."

Worldwide Partners recently announced a collective stock purchase of the company by its 90 shareholder companies.

"As an owner of Worldwide Partners, any individual agency can provide local, regional and global clients a new marketing communications model,"said O’Leary. "United, the Partners’ agencies have a world of experience."

FRONT PAGE

flash@jcomm.uoregon.edu