|
|
|
Milestones: Brad4d
|
Business New Haven
11/24/2003
By: Melissa Nicefaro
|
Brad4d
100 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06510-3011
Phone: 203-789-1872
Fax: 203-789-1854
Web: www.Brad4d.com
Ownership: Will Bradford
Milestone: 25 years
Timeline: Twenty-some years ago, Will Bradford was trekking several times a week from his office in Ivorytown to Fort Lee, N.J.
Bradford's goal was to sell cars, but he was not a car salesman. His firm, Brad4d, handled advertising for Alpha Romeo and Bradford was ecstatic, although he admits it was somewhat strange for a little firm in Ivorytown to have a national carmaker account.
Then, in the early 1990s, Chrysler took over Alpha Romeo distribution rights from Fiat and brought in its own ad agency, Ross Roy from Detroit. As a result, Bradford lost the account. Like many in the advertising business in the early 1990s, Bradford had hit a bad time, but he hustled, did what he had to do and rose above.
Bradford prospected Connecticut's large manufacturing businesses and banks.
But then the market changed again.
"The number of banks and manufacturers advertising now as opposed to the number in 1991 is vastly different," Bradford explains. "The market has absolutely shrunk. With fewer banks and manufacturers, there are fewer bank and manufacturing accounts for ad agencies to get at."
So Brad4d's business changes frequently.
Over the past quarter-century, Brad4d has launched campaigns that have included advertising (print, radio and TV), public relations, new media, graphic design, identity development and database marketing, targeting local and statewide markets.
Bradford has four employees. That number has expanded and contracted with the economy over the years - he's had as many as 13 or 14, and as few as two.
"In a larger advertising agency, filters are generated between the client and the creative product, so what I wanted to do was to not have a bureaucracy or an infrastructure and I didn't want that to manage me," he says.
Bradford loves to write - he was once an actor - so his goal 25 years ago was to have the opportunity to write, see his words in print, persuade consumers.
"I didn't have much long-range vision of, 'Some day I'm going to own the world,'" he says. "It was really about, 'This is what I love to do: write and act.'"
Achievements and Accomplishments: Bradford's most significant achievement, he says, is staying in business over 25 years of drastic change in both the Connecticut marketplace and the advertising industry.
"The reality is that most advertisers who have decent budgets will go to New York or Boston and won't even consider Connecticut. In a sense, Connecticut is a non-market for an advertising agency," Bradford says. "The firms here are driven by a principal who desires to live in this part of the world. I don't know if it's driven by a profit motive as much as it's driven by a desire to live in a nice area."
Going to where the business is has also worked for Bradford. He moved the company from Ivorytown to New Haven, ostensibly to go where there was business. Today Brad4d has called the Elm City for almost ten years.
Looking Back on a Changing Industry: Change is the advertising industry's middle name. With change came technology - a double-edged sword, according to Bradford.
"The advertising world was much more free and fun 25 years ago," he notes. "There was a greater latitude in the creative area and a greater tolerance for risk by clients than there is now. Advertising by definition has become less effective in the last 20 years. Things that used to be fresh and different now are no longer fresh and different, and it's really getting tough to be noticed. People have tried to be fresh and different and it hasn't worked well.
"There are very few exciting landmark ad campaigns and that's really because clients aren't buying it. Agencies are as eager as ever to come up with a really cool idea and see it produced, but clients have become much more risk-averse," Bradford says.
While clients are less likely to take a risk these days, technology has presented itself with a huge risk factor.
"People are so saturated with messaging, whether it's cell phones or the Internet," Bradford says. "They really are not engaged by messaging. The whole ad business is not as fun or personal as it used to be."
Personally, technology has changed Bradford's job incredibly.
"We just did a TV spot and one of our team members e-mailed me six soundtrack selects and we were e-mailed some of the footage, so we instantly had that at the studio. When we finished the spot, we e-mailed it to the clients for approvals and what used to take two or three weeks. That process now takes a day and a half."
Technology has made the advertising business more immediate, but on the flip side danger lurks.
"You don't have much time to think about it, so for someone who's more junior in experience, it's a scarier time because it's 'Slam, bam - oh no, we forgot to put the telephone number in.' It's much more rapid and unforgiving," Bradford explains.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
