AN AGENCY OF ONE’S OWN: Carlson Draddy scopes out success with a personal touch.

Clients are on a first-name basis with Carlson Draddy & Associates. Most think of the Westport, CT, agency as either “Bonnie” or “Sue.”

Credit the personal touch that founders Bonnie Carlson and Sue Draddy bring to account service. The four-year-old agency topped $4 million in revenues last year, posting steady growth on a diet of event and kids marketing primarily for packaged goods clients. The shop blossomed in ’99, winning assignments from Vanity Fair Intimates, American Express, and Eagle Foods. (Wins so far in 2000 include Johnson & Johnson and mail.com.) Event marketing services expanded, and the agency picked up more work from Armstrong (co-marketing) and Tic Tac (a loyalty program).

Long-time client Nabisco boosted assignments after a rigorous review pared its roster from 15 agencies to six. Carlson Draddy handles Nabisco’s kids marketing, including a back-to-school tie-in with `NSYNC and a summer Blue’s Clues tour that includes Blue-shaped Teddy Grahams.

“They get it,” says Nabisco vp-marketing Allan Falvey. “Strategically, they’ve put us on a lot of right paths, with promotions that make a logical statement and not just an emotional statement.”

Highlights this year will include the Love 2K Tour for Unilever’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter – a.k.a. “the Fabio brand.” The hunky model helped kick off the tour on Valentine’s Day, sending a giant inflatable greeting card for consumers to sign, a romance-ologist who gives tips on love, and sampling crews to festivals and events in eight major markets.

Carlson Draddy staged another hunk-fest for Vanity Fair to build awareness for the client’s mid-scale Vassarette brand. Mass merchandisers sell so many of the No. 1 bra brand that consumers often think it’s a private label. The Access Tour paired Vassarette with Cosmopolitan magazine’s “All About Men” issue. Male models in Humvees hit concerts, beaches, and sporting events to rouse young women’s interest in – well, underwear. Consumers who filled out a survey (for Vanity Fair’s database) got a spin at a prize wheel to win Cosmo doodads and tickets to local events. A free CD with each $15 purchase drove tour oglers to stores.

“Carlson Draddy takes a personal stake in the success of my program,” says Rhonda Harper, Vanity Fair’s vp-marketing.

When signage wasn’t up to snuff at one site, Carlson had a bigger sign printed at the agency’s expense. “They make it better without nickel-and-diming it,” Harper says. “Bonnie is constantly taking the pulse of business trends so she can staff to the trends that matter to my business.”

The shop’s signature telescope isn’t for boy-watching, however. It symbolizes Carlson Draddy’s “power of insight,” gleaned through experience: Half the staff has been in the business 10 years or more. “We don’t just take an assignment and execute it,” Carlson explains. “We ask a lot of questions, challenge ideas, offer alternatives.”

Lipton Tea used the agency last year to launch fruit-flavored tea bags with a strawberry-shaped hot air balloon that toured 30 markets and samplers who dressed in fruit costumes a la Fruit of the Loom.

Lipton parent Unilever dropped assigned agencies when it restructured in ’97, but marketing director Barbara Thoen hired the shop after re-aquainting with Carlson, whom she met at a conference months before. “They do some very standard stuff for us – FSIs, cross-promotions – and some very interesting stuff,” Thoen says. “They’re strong on planning and creative execution.”

The agency helped create the U.S. Tennis Association’s Red Star Rewards loyalty program for 240,000 amateur-player members. Draddy spearheads the year-old program. “We were understaffed, and relied on them to manage the effort for us,” says vp-marketing Pierce O’Neil. “They’re very buttoned-up and detail-oriented.”

Carlson and Draddy met at Comart, the now-defunct New York City shop where Carlson was president and Draddy headed up the Independent Judging Organization division. Carlson worked at General Foods, Lever Brothers, and Nestle Foods before joining Comart. Draddy, whose father co-founded D.L. Blair (“He’s the `D,’ she says.), worked at that shop for 10 years before joining Comart. She left to join Clarion, but stayed in touch with Carlson.

“Growth will be their challenge” says Vanity Fair’s Harper. “When you’re that good, how do you scale up and keep your culture and quality consistent?”

Would-be buyers have courted Carlson and Draddy, but the two won’t sell. “We like being independent,” Carlson says. “We can be faster, more flexible, and we don’t have to justify our investments or worry about client conflicts.”