Most First Avenue partiers dismiss the Wyman Partridge Building’s historic profile as just the home to savvy nightclub Envy. But the rising exterior, seven floors up, houses emerging advertising powerhouses Colle+McVoy with its subsidiaries PR firm Exponent and Chicago-based b2b creative Mobium in tow. There on a cold dry winter day, Clark Patrick Goebel with lawyer Ryan Ahlberg, met with ad executives in a conference room. Goebel wanted to know what became of his now infamous Unite Bike photograph but the execs allegedly balked, denied everything, and wished him good luck in court.

Suburban Escape

For 70 years Colle & McVoy was a suburban agency appealing to the consumerism of the 20th century and its roots in agrimarketing for Midwest farm companies. In 1994, it occupied a suite in Bloomington’s picturesque Normandale Lake Office Park near PR firm Weber Shandwick. After 12 years, things suddenly changed. CEO John Jarvis announced for the first time it was moving Downtown to which Bob Geiger of Finance and Commerce suggested they would “enjoy being close to other downtown ad agencies.” Just as the ink dried on the lease with Swervo Dev. Corp for the Wyman Building, former Director of Client Services Christine Fruechte ascended the throne of company president over Jarvis, the first woman to ever hold such an agency post in the Twin Cities. The applause was short-lived for he had hired the former Campbell Mithun youth division director only to be deposed by Fruechte and the board later in October of 2006 for reportedly creative differences. Jarvis went on and founded Giraffe.

The agency’s move Downtown and Jarvis’ dismissal was not unexpected. Colle+McVoy laid off workers, shrinking 25% in 2001, well before the recession. Amy Kamerick of MSP Business Journal attributed the company’s downsizing to the loss of a $25 milion dollar account from agrogiant Syngenta to competitor Martin/Williams. In a way C+M lost the very bread-and-butter account it once stood for in the region’s ad industry. In response, it purchased Chicago-based Mobium, a tech b2b firm with reported billings of $30 million, in 2004. Insiders guessed the acquisition was merely cosmetic, given that most of the firm’s employees were given pink slips at the end of 2008. Their spin-off of Colle & McVoy PR in 2005 into Exponent was more successful.

From Agri to Chic

In a freshly renovated space of Class-A office quality (C+M preferred no less), the agency quickly evolved and expanded in its work. The Star Tribune reported the company reached an “all year high” of sales at $26.3 million in 2008 and claimed interactive billings accounted for “30 percent of… revenue.” Fruechte called the agency “extremely fortunate.” However the clients didn’t seem to reflect this new social networking age given that the often touted accounts were Nestlé Purina and ESPN. The agency’s brass agreed. The year of their reported highest earnings was also the year Fruechte fired Creative Director Mike Fetrow who according to Media Bistro is credited for turning the ad agency into an interactive and creative powerhouse. His strides toward savvy and edgy clients didn’t go far. The summer before Fetrow’s ousting, Colle+McVoy landed a $20 million dollar account with the Propane Education & Research Council.

But the departure of the agency’s top creative didn’t seem to hurt the company’s fortunes or sway its owners. While the company was acquired for 80% stake in 1999, according to recent SEC filings MDC Partners now owns 95% of Colle & McVoy LLC. Under Fruechte’s watch, the agency landed major accounts starting in 2009 with local companies Caribou Coffee, Land O’Lakes, and just recently Explore Minnesota, the state’s tourism agency. Caribou Coffee might be ho-hum to locals but it’s the second largest coffee chain in the nation. Twin Cities Business editor Gene Rebeck took notice in March and eloquently summed the company’s “rhythm” when he said, “It . . . changed. Its brand DNA began to mutate.” But revenue posted for 2009 fell significantly to $21.4 million, placing it out of the top five. In March, OLSON, one of the big fives, stole the $7 million dollar Minnesota Lottery account, after C+M ran out of ideas. Despite tribulations, this month Advertising Age declared CEO Fruechte a “woman to watch” for her leadership at C+M. It claimed that “Colle & McVoy is now in its sixth consecutive year of year-over-year growth” and “interactive billings have doubled since 2007 and now make up 40% of the agency’s work.” Ironically, C+M took home two Webby Awards this year for YearbookYourself, the brainchild of Fetrow who was fired for being too creative. The wildly successful project for Taubman malls generated a 49 percent click-through rate and was purchased by yearbook giant Josten’s for an undisclosed amount.

No Photos Please

When Clark Patrick Goebel directly contacted Denver-based nonprofit Bikes Belong about the allegedly fraudulent use of his 2008 Unite Bike image in their People for Bikes campaign website, the director apologized profusely and told him he’d get to the bottom of everything. The next day, an executive at Colle+McVoy called Goebel personally for a meeting, except that Goebel had been attempting to contact C+M for weeks on end regarding the issue. Soon strange things happened on the PeopleforBikes.org website, the public noticed that photographs disappeared, wording was changed. Subsidiaries were contacted and asked to delete all files. Clearly, something was going on and after months of attempting a resolution, they went to court. Contacted by phone, PR spokesperson Jen Stack offered a precise “no comment” given the pending litigation and in response to questioning stated the lawsuit “was without merit” but could offer no more. Our spy at C+M also has no more details than what is currently known.

Over the phone, Goebel could not comment on the lawsuit but offered his position on why he decided to take on the ad giant. “It’s really about using myself as an example to allow other freelancers to see that it’s okay to stand up for yourself.” He says he personally knows other freelance creatives in town who have had a myriad of issues with other large agencies. People are afraid to defend themselves in fear of losing their business or the dreaded blacklist. Goebel is willing to take a stand and suffer the consequences to his own publicity.

AdWeek declared the advertising downturn “permanent.” With more creative agencies eliminating production staff in favor of outsourcing, freelancers are easily abused. Even among fellow freelancers, there are hard feelings because some are willing to be taken advantaged of, undercutting fellow creatives. Goebel insists he has held fast to his ethics and turned down work that wasn’t offered at a fair price. He also reports that while ad agencies might allegedly be fleecing their workers, more companies are bypassing agencies in favor of working directly with producers. Similarly the advent of YouTube millionaires means that a company endorsing a video can easily gain exposure without creative red tape.

As for Unite Bike which is not registered as any entity, Goebel says it’s a free event and all sponsors donate time or giveaway products. Emerging boutique creative shop Sevnthsin designed the website. He’s hoping it will become an organic visual movement where photographers and organizers sprout across all cities and simply become it’s “own thing” much like Critical Mass or flash mobs. For 2010, he hopes to involve 25 cities uploading photos simultaneously. Traveling and meeting with interested groups has certainly taken many costs. In a way he’ll be happy just to be mentioned one day as a founder.