Principal: Eric Mower, chairman and CEO; Greg Loh, managing partner for PR and public affairs
Ownership: Independent
Offices: US: 7
Revenue: $11,887,278
Headcount: US: 62
Eric Mower + Associates snapped its two-year streak of double-digit growth in 2013, posting a slight revenue drop due to an uncertain economy and client cutbacks. The upstate New York-based firm reported revenue of about $11.89 million last year, down slightly from $11.91 million the previous year.
"There’s still a degree of tentativeness in the economy," says CEO Eric Mower. "Clients are not spending with the degree of confidence they had historically. There’s a lot changing; the foundations of technology keep shifting and making them unsure where to put their money."
Eric Mower’s key wins in 2013 included Domtar Personal Care, New York Petroleum Council, Credit Association of New York, and GE Idea Works. It lost Hofmann Hot Dogs and Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority. Its long-running work with Kodak was also downgraded to managing the Kodak Alaris document imaging account. It previously handled PR for the graphics, entertainment, and commercial films group and the digital printing and enterprise unit for more than a decade. About 30% of its clients are on a retainer.
"We’ve been with Kodak for many, many years, and we were one of a number of agencies it employed for many years," says Mower, adding that the firm "had a strong emotional connection" with the brand. "We are still a Kodak agency, but the company continued to morph into something different – and that affected the volume of work it did with the agency."
Of its four practice groups, the firm saw the largest growth in b-to-b PR, driven by its work creating content-driven and social media programs. The top three services used by clients were social strategy, monitoring, and management; content strategy and development; and reputation management and public affairs.
While it did not add any practice areas in 2013, it did launch three specialty practice groups: financial, healthcare, and energy and sustainability.The firm’s senior hires in 2013 included Katie Butler, director of the EMA Insight unit, and Jonathan Brown, digital strategy director. The number of staffers at the firm held steady at 62, with no senior executives leaving. Overall staff turnover was low at 10%.
Promotions at the agency had a distinctly digital flavor last year, with Erin Shampine named digital strategy director; Greg Weyman appointed director of search engine marketing; and Tonya Creamer named search marketing supervisor. Lisa Huggins was promoted to CMO.
