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May 1, 2006

Exit strategy | Clint Pierce says the completion of the sale of his marketing firm to a larger company is part of a long-held plan

By Chris Churchill
Imagine starting a business in your garage. Imagine 16 years of sweat and tears to build that humble business into a major player in its industry, a company with $50 million in annual revenue. Selling the company at that point probably would leave many business owners as sentimental as a parent watching a child heading off to college.

Not so for Clint Pierce, founder and CEO of Pierce Promotions, a Portland marketing company now owned by Omnicom Group, a New York media giant with revenue of $10.5 billion in 2005. Pierce describes the recent sale of his company as simply the last, dispassionate step in the execution of a long-held master plan. "It was always our intention to grow the business and sell it," he says. "That's what entrepreneurs do."

Now occupying a headquarters on Free Street ˆ— much more spacious than Pierce's garage in Cape Elizabeth ˆ— Pierce Promotions' 220 employees work with retail clients such as Wal-Mart, Costco, and Gillette, organizing so-called "retailtainment" events and marketing promotions that attempt to boost product visibility by drawing a crowd. Remember former Red Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon taking a Gillette razor to his beard? That was a Pierce event. Ever strolled through Times Square and been distracted by corporate street theater? That, too, was likely Pierce.

Since Pierce founded the company in 1990 with his wife, Sue, more and more companies have decided that event marketing pays dividends, meaning steady growth for Pierce Promotions. At the same time, few in the industry seemed to realize how well spectacle sells product ˆ— especially in a world saturated with traditional advertising ˆ— and few were doing event marketing. But Clint Pierce sensed future growth likely was limited unless his company teamed with deeper pockets. Plus, he says he wanted the liability protection offered by a larger company, because on-the-scene marketing can be lawsuit-prone. "We were looking to be acquired," says Pierce, a native of the New York area. "And we picked the company we wanted to be bought by."

That company was Omnicom. Three years ago, Pierce agreed to a multi-year buyout for what he describes only as an "eight figures" amount. The deal is now winding down. (Pierce Promotions says the complexity of the sale caused it to be stretched over a three-year period.)

Pierce picked Omnicom largely because the company has a history of refusing to interfere with the companies it acquires ˆ— it buys success and doesn't mess with it. "They let you do your own thing, which is important to me," he says.

Omnicom ˆ— the world's largest advertising, public relations and marketing company ˆ—also comes with a massive list of clients it can send Pierce's way. Those clients already are sparking growth, and Pierce has plans to immediately add 55 jobs locally and about 100 more in coming years. That growth will force the company from its Free Street building, but Clint Pierce says larger digs will not mean a larger hometown. "Portland will still be the hub of the company," he says.

Although nearly 70% of its employees are based in Portland, consider the locations of other company offices: New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Bentonville, Ark. Scratch the final name, a nod to Wal-Mart's largesse, and it's a list of the major metropolitan markets home to the big companies that are Pierce clients. But Clint Pierce says the relatively remote Portland location has never been a hindrance. The city has a large pool of creative talent, he says, and out-of-state clients seem to like the location. "Our clients have always responded positively to the fact that we're in Maine," he says. "It has a cool factor to it."


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