The 15,000-square-foot Glastonbury office that Cashman & Katz currently calls home is a far cry from where the integrated communications company started 17 years ago.
That’s when the firm’s president and CEO Tony Cashman was working out of the bowels of a small Manchester apartment with his longtime partner Edward Katz. After leaving a sales position with a local television station at age 25, Cashman began to chase a dream, trying to make it on his own in a profession where reputation means everything.
“I remember getting a lot of work done in those days because I was always near my desk,” Cashman joked. “It was a humble start, but it was also a lot of fun.”
Since then, Cashman & Katz has grown to become one of the largest players in advertising and public relations in Greater Hartford. And as many communications firms are seeing declining revenues amid the economic downturn, Cashman & Katz is coming off its best year ever, Cashman said.
Revenue for the company increased 22 percent in 2008 and annualized billings, a key industry gauge, jumped from $33 million in 2007 to $40 million in 2008.
Nationwide, ad agency revenue only grew by 3.7 percent last year, according to Advertising Age, a New-York-based industry magazine.
At the same time, ad agencies across the United States shed 6,100 jobs in 2008, and are expected to post revenue losses in 2009, Advertising Age said.
In contrast, Cashman & Katz added five positions in recent months and is currently slightly ahead or even with last year’s earnings pace, Cashman said.
“Flat is the new up in this economy,” Cashman added. “Most companies right now aren’t on that type of pace.”
Recent success is partly due to the company’s ability to pick up two key clients last year including Pocket Wireless, a wireless company that recently entered the state, and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.
But more importantly, Cashman said the company’s integrated approach to communications and midsize staff is what attracts most clients, especially in a down economy.
Cashman & Katz is an intergrated communications firm, meaning it offers a combination of advertising, marketing and public relations. Providing each of those services gives it a competitive advantage in the marketplace because it creates a one-stop shop for clients, Cashman said. Being a midsize company with only 25 employees also makes them more affordable, he added.
“I think the agencies that are midsized and truly integrated and are diversified with both consumer and business-to-business clients are holding their own right now,” Cashman said. “In Connecticut, though, there aren’t many agencies that fall into that category. You either have two or three large ones that are reinventing themselves to find niches and stay competitive, and a few midsize agencies like us that have found a sweet spot providing value with less overhead and senior staff involvement.”
That’s one of the qualities that attracted the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center to the company, according to Martha Schall, vice president of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Foundation.
Before hiring Cashman & Katz in 2008, Schall said the hospital had not advertised for a number of years because they didn’t see it as a critical mission. But a recent survey found that the public didn’t clearly understand that the medical center was solely devoted to children and that it was losing market share to competitors.
“We wanted to reintroduce ourselves to the marketplace and the value that Cashman & Katz gave us is what drew us to them in the beginning,” Schall said. “They were the right size firm for us.”
Cashman & Katz now provides TV, radio, billboard and transit advertising for the medical facility and developed the hospital’s new tagline “Giving children the care they deserve.”
“They are the only hospital in Connecticut totally dedicated to treating and understanding children, so we wanted to make sure that they conveyed that message,” Cashman said.
Cashman & Katz is well known for its popular TV commercials for the Connecticut lottery, which it directs and produces.
Cashman now runs the company by himself after he bought out his long-time partner Katz last year.
Katz is now a communications consultant with Katnip Marketing in Westport and he is also developing a rock musical play and radio show.
Both said the split was “amicable.”
Cashman said he plans on keeping the company’s name because of the reputation it has developed over the years.
He’s also concentrating on solidifying other business segments, including CT InFocus, a market research facility which Cashman owns but operates separately from the communications company.
Cashman said that has been one of his fastest growing businesses of late and it offers clients a focus group set up where they can test products, ideas and their messaging.
“It’s a growing business because in this economy, people need to take the gusseting game out of marketing,” Cashman said.
