September 8, 2003- Long before they planted the seeds that became Velocity Sports & Entertainment, the founders of the Wilton, Conn., sponsorship agency knew what they didn't want the company to be.

As the victims of too much office politics, inflexible policies, entrenched bureaucracies and parent companies more concerned with selling clients additional services than servicing their accounts, the four men decided from the beginning that crafting a singular corporate culture was paramount.

So even before drawing up a business plan, founding principals David Grant, Alex Nieroth, Mike Reisman and Bob Wilhelmy drafted a cultural manifesto in the spring of 1999 that they still measure themselves against with the adherence and regularity most companies reserve for financial results.

The two-page document is elegant in its simplicity, addressing the question basic to any workplace: So, what kind of place is this?

It specifies a balance between work and family, so that sometimes a Little League game is more important than work. It's a blueprint for an organization with few titles, profit sharing for all employees and a sense of camaraderie more akin to a civic or fraternal organization than a corporation.

Four years later, Velocity has lived up to those ideals. But more important, it has done so while quadrupling in size to more than $9 million in revenue this year, multiplying its employee count from 15 to 60 and winning shoot-outs against its biggest competitors.

That growth includes agency-of-record assignments for Gillette and Citizens Bank - for which Velocity negotiated the naming rights deal at the Philadelphia Phillies' new ballpark - and came largely during a period when almost all agencies were suffering from the marketing budget cutbacks that preceded 9/11, a year prior to the general U.S. economic malaise.

Impetus for growth

As much as any other factor, the catalyst for Velocity's foundation was a series of client conflicts that forced a predecessor agency, Clarion/Performance Properties, to lose some of its biggest clients.

In 1998, Clarion's parent company, DMB&B, forced its agency to resign the Sprint account, then its biggest client, because of a relationship DMB&B St. Louis had with industry competitor Southwestern Bell. That was irritating enough, since Sprint was a six-year client and Clarion's biggest. But when DMB&B lost its Southwestern Bell business within a matter of months, the matter became especially troublesome. Later, a DMB&B agency with UPS ties objected to Clarion's work for FedEx, and those servicing some Ernst & Young business raised questions about Clarion's work for IBM.

"It really started to smell, so we thought it would be good for everybody if we got out on our own," said Grant, a former NBA Properties sponsorship executive and one of four principals (along with nine Clarion employees) who bolted the agency and made up the majority of the group that formed Velocity in 1999. You have to start with the leadership when trying to ascertain why Velocity has fared well during lean times for most agencies. Its principals are a good blend of smarts and experience that rivals any agency or property rights organization. And then you must take note of the corporate culture, if only because the agency expends so much effort ensuring that it is sticking to its bedrock values.

"We've all heard forever about how in this business, people are your greatest asset, so if we believe that, we'd better take care of them," said Reisman, expounding on the Velocity mantra of "people-centric/client-centric."

Clients agree.

"It's a family atmosphere there that helps their morale, and that, in turn, helps them concentrate on our business'" said Tim Lynde, manager of sponsorships at Home Depot, which gave both Velocity and Octagon new business after a review that ended in May. "They understand how to ask the right questions, and it's always more of a 'we thing' than a 'you thing' with them."

Velocity handles the marketing for Home Depot's title sponsorship of the new 85-acre multisport facility in Carson, Calif., along with some other youth marketing efforts.

Get a life

While Velocity's expertise in sponsorship marketing can't be ignored, perhaps it could counsel other start-ups on how to ferment and grow an inclusive culture that seems to foster loyalty and good results.

"From our first meeting, we wanted this to be about people and a fun place to work," said Nieroth, who started his career as a brand marketer at Procter & Gamble, a company synonymous with bureaucracy. "So we've worked hard at not becoming too corporate."

That carefully constructed culture manifested itself concretely in elements like a rec room in the middle of the office where employees can putt, play pop-a-shot, race slot cars and throw darts.

There is also the "Get a Life Fund," available to any employee, which encourages balance between work and home and has funded employee programs such as gym memberships, yoga instruction, martial arts, a religious retreat, golf lessons and pottery classes.

Another example of the company's emphasis on life experiences over office functionality is the fact that in the agency's original Westport, Conn., headquarters did not even include enough room for everyone to park. But rather than worry about that fact, the company founders took advantage of the facility bordering on the Saugatuck River and had a canoe for staff to use during down time.

Client-centric

Aside from the kinder, gentler corporate culture, Velocity's success must also be traced to the fact that it could open its doors with two brands as renowned as FedEx and IBM. FedEx has been with Reisman-associated agencies for more than a decade, and the overnight delivery company notes the benefit of stability.

"Because of their continuity, they live and breathe our brand as well or better than some of our employees," said Brian Philips, FedEx vice president of U.S. marketing. "What sets them apart is that they are a marketing agency that happens to specialize in sports and entertainment sponsorship, as opposed to a sports and entertainment agency that dabbles in marketing."

Velocity handles FedEx's NFL, golf, Orange Bowl and sports venue title rights.

Sponsorship consulting remains the agency's core expertise, but it also offers promotional execution, retail marketing, event marketing and customer meetings, entertainment/hospitality and, since the acquisition of Sponsorship Research International in 2001, measurement and valuation services.

Since Velocity isn't beholden to a parent company's revenue goals or a requirement to sell services of associated agencies, clients view the agency as an extension of their own marketing department.

"It never feels like there is this wall with an agency opinion and a client point of view," said Rick Singer, IBM's director of worldwide sponsorship marketing. "They are smart, very strategic and, with them, I never lose sleep worrying about whether something's executed correctly."

No surprise, then, that IBM has been using Velocity or an associated agency since 1986. Current duties include negotiating and implementing IBM's recent NFL deal, along with sponsorship of the PGA Tour and tennis's Grand Slam events.

'This is a blast'

Not being beholden to a corporate marketing conglomerate has helped Velocity win clients and attract new talent. Harlan Stone had 1,400 people reporting to him as CEO of IPG's Momentum Worldwide, but he left a year ago to join Velocity so he could do more of the work that first attracted him to the business.

"In the big agency/holding company world, there's not much of a fun factor, but this is a blast," said Stone. "With the exception of [principal and de facto CFO] Bob Wilhelmy, none of us spend more than 10 percent of our time on administration. We [principals] have the luxury of not having to deal with that. And, of course, that means the principals can focus on clients instead of administration."

Likewise, John Von Stade joined from rival Connecticut agency Millsport early this year, bringing Eli Lilly's Cialas erectile dysfunction drug account with him.

"Velocity's independence was a big selling point," he said. "When you work for an agency owned by a parent company, it's always about the bottom line, so you can lose sight of clients very easily."

With less pressure for revenue from above, the agency can be more selective about pursuing new business. Over the past two years, that has included work for eBay, Activision and American Film Institute.

Of course, all that care and feeding of the work environment won't mean much if Velocity is eventually swallowed by a marketing conglomerate like Omnicom, Interpublic Group, WPP or Publicis.

While Velocity is one of the few that's hiring, many can't picture the agency growing bigger than 100 employees. Velocity is on track to be the biggest agency in its niche within the next two years, yet to a man, the agency's principals insist it is not for sale.

"I get calls every week," said Stone. "But we're very comfortable and happy the way things are, and I don't see things changing."

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