Most Brand Development + Advertising
Where: Aliso Viejo
12-month sales: $31.8 million
Two-year growth: 790%
OC workers: 15
Business: advertising agency
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Aliso Viejo-based Most Brand Development + Advertising can thank its top client for its creation.
Cofounder and President John Most said he never had any intention of opening his own advertising agency.
“It’s odd because I always thought I’d be running a New York agency by now,” Most said.
In 2004, the former executive vice president at Newport Beach-based O’Leary and Partners decided to move on after eight years at the ad shop.
He had been looking at heading up agencies in New York and Dallas when he got a call from the marketing director at the National Association of Realtors in Chicago.
“They called saying we heard you left and still wanted to work together,” Most said. “They suggested I open my own agency.”
With a $20 million account at the ready, Most set out to start his agency.
“I was very fortunate,” Most said. “I’ve seen a lot of guys venture out on their own and start with no business or very small accounts.”
He still had to stretch. Most said he took out a second mortgage on his house and maxed out every credit card. The agency opened in 2004 with four workers including Most and wife Jodi.
“We operated without any income for something like eight months before that first check arrived,” he said.
Most since has expanded his work with the National Association of Realtors, taking on media buying duties for the group a couple of years ago. Previously, Most Brand handled the creative side of the Realtors account. A Baltimore ad shop was in charge of placing ads.
The Realtors group spends on average about $40 million on advertising a year on national, state and local marketing initiatives.
The consolidation of the account was a major boost for the agency, coming at a time when most agencies have seen clients slash budgets.
Most Brand ranked No. 4 on the Business Journal’s 2009 list of fast-growing private companies with sales growth of 790% for the two years through June 30.
For the 12 months through June, Most Brand had sales of $31.8 million, up from $3.6 million for the same period in 2007. It also ranked on the Business Journal’s Best Places to Work list last month.
Most said he started his agency to be different than ones he’d worked for.
Ad agencies have a way of bringing people on board, chewing them up and sending them packing after the work was done, he said.
Most, who had worked for several New York, San Francisco and Orange County agencies, said he was tired of the cycle.
“When I was an account executive in New York, I’d tell people my job was to create the environment for my people to do their best work,” Most said. “I said that when I was 25 years old, and I’m still saying that as an agency owner.”
Most Brand’s Aliso Viejo offices were designed by employees for employees for a cozy atmosphere.
The creative team has its own little corner with couches and a white board.
“We wanted a place that was comfortable because if you think about how many hours you spend at work, it really needs to be a place you want to go to,” said Joel Tarman, senior vice president and creative director at Most Brand.
It’s not unusual to find workers brainstorming or playing “Guitar Hero” to blow off some steam. Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co.’s Wii have replaced the usual ping-pong and pool tables of many ad agencies.
“It’s more of a high-tech way of doing what we used to do,” Most said.
Most has spent the past five years recruiting people, including hiring Elias Dawly, the agency’s director of media services.
Dawly had worked for Hyundai Motor America in Fountain Valley and Kia Motors America Inc. in Irvine, handling the automakers’ combined $500 million media budgets.
Elias was instrumental in landing media buying for the Realtors account, Most said.
“Once we hired Elias to come in, the National Association moved the rest of the business with us,” Most said.
The National Association of Realtors remains as Most Brand’s primary client.
“We’ve kind of become known as a real estate agency,” Most said.
The agency is coming off a $14 million advertising campaign for the Realtors group to increase awareness of the federal $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, which is set to expire in November.
The association is putting about a third of its budget behind the campaign, committing $14 million to spread the word about the credit and to push for its extension.
“It’s one of the biggest campaigns they’ve launched in recent years,” Most said.
Most’s challenge now is in not being pi-geonholed as a real estate agency, he said.
“It’s funny, we have more food and automotive experience than anything else,” Most said.
The agency is going after new accounts, according to Most.
“We want to do what every agency secretly or publicly says: 10 really good clients,” he said.
