Today we’d like to introduce you to Stanton Kawer.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Stanton. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started at Blue Chip as its third employee in 1988. We were an advertising agency without any creative, media, or public relations departments. It was unrealistic for us to think that we could compete with the larger, more established ad agencies, so we spent a lot of time researching and identifying what areas in marketing and sales were being underserved. We discovered that ad agencies at the time were really focused on brand awareness, the consumer and national ad campaigns. They didn’t focus on the places where consumers purchase their brands. We invested in creating best-in-class marketing to the sales area and we launched our agency oath “uniting brand to sales.” It was our recognition that branding can happen anywhere along a shopper’s path-to purchase—in grocery store aisles, and today on mobile devices.
We grew and ultimately beat the competition by understanding our roles not just as marketing partners; but, as business partners. A similar scenario presented itself five years later in the pharmaceutical industry. We applied the same principles to clinical trial marketing and patient recruitment as we did for brands at grocery stores, helping pharma companies’ complete trials and submit their new compounds and devises for FDA approval. The success of these two practices, working on behalf of the world’s biggest companies such as Procter & Gamble and Merck, changed everything for us. We became recognized leaders in those two industries; and, it helped transform us into a world-class integrated company.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I don’t know if it is a smooth road for any company or individual. Anyway, what’s so fun about ‘smooth?’ We have had fun, and made this a fulfilling experience for our employees. And today we can gratefully say we have earned enough success and perspective to recognize that we should be proud of what we have built. Today we focus a lot, at nearly 400 employees, on how we bring improved process and structure while also maintaining our entrepreneurial, independent spirit of the start-up we were. As leaders who helped to build this company, we are learning how to let go of our roles to allow young talent take the reins, while also not being completely separate from the work we love so much. We are focused on our people, which is at the core of our mission: To give incredible people the opportunity to make a difference. So we always struggle with how we give 110% of our efforts, while also maintaining a healthy life outside of work.
Please tell us about Blue Chip Worldwide.
Blue Chip Worldwide is a full-service, independent, marketing agency. We provide brand marketing for our clients. In addition to consumer advertising and marketing, we also specialize in patient recruitment, clinical trial marketing, late-stage observational research, and health economics from our Continuum Clinical division. And, we specialize in Shopper Marketing from our Blue Chip Marketing division. What sets us apart is that we are close to 400 employees and we have provided our work in approximately sixty countries this past year. We offer the same scale and arguably better strategic and creative work that our publicly-traded competitors offer. Being independent we only answer to what is in the best interest of our clients—not shareholders. There are very few privately held organizations like ours in the country.
I’m proud that we have grown over 250% for the past five years, yet we are a thirty-five-year-old company. I’m proud of the awards we have won, which recognize the quality, creativity and effectiveness of the work we do. I’m proud of the clients we represent.
But, above all else, I’m proud of the people that choose to work at Blue Chip. Our mission is to give incredible people an opportunity to make a difference. And, in turn, I am so very grateful that our incredible people have given Blue Chip an opportunity to make a difference.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I used to have a lot of different answers to that question. But, today? My answer is I wouldn’t change one thing. Each success and failure has contributed to the secret of our success. One never knows what type of business or culture they are cultivating until some time has passed. Ultimately, we found that we were different, and we were better. I always share that we are terrible forecasters. Our goals always change.
Business—like life—isn’t tidy. It is fluid. The only thing that is static is the commitment to being a healthy company. And, by healthy I mean how we behave, how we offer clarity and accountability for ourselves and our clients. How we treat one another as colleague and friend. How we stay both grateful and ambitious. The revenue follows a healthy company. These realizations are the result of a long and fascinating journey. I couldn’t comprehend doing it differently. It has all been a great gift.
Contact Info:
- Address: 650 Dundee Road, Northbrook, IL 60062
- Website: https://bluechipww.com/
- Phone: 847-418-8000
- Instagram: bluechipww
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluechipww/
- Twitter: @bluechipww
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