Young at Heart
You gotta think like a kid.
That’s an oversimplification, of course, but it pretty much sums up the way Irvine, CA-based Strottman International operates. A former VP-marketing at Mattel, Ken Strottman founded the agency 20 years ago to fill the void that was then kids marketing. “This is a niche that did not exist, it was really created,” says Strottman.
While most agencies host focus groups, Strottman makes kids fully part of the creative process. More than 100 children participate in Strottman’s Kid Engineers program, meeting every four to six weeks in the agency’s Irvine and Atlanta offices.
Kids weigh in on campaigns, offer product ideas and participate in field studies, such as traipsing through grocery stores with headbands and hidden cameras to let clients witness how kids shop in real time. “We involve the target audience all the way through the campaign process,” says Senior VP-Strategic Business Development Ron Coughlin.
Strottman complements Kid Engineers with GateKeepers, a panel of moms and dads. Strottman convinced Arby’s to retool its kids meal program to appeal to moms with a “Smart is Cool” theme that delivered double-digit sales increases.
Strottman enjoyed its own performance gains with revenue up 23.7% to $8.1 million in 2002. The agency beat out 150 other agencies for the Cendant Hotels account last year. “This is an agency that leads by senior management and they get involved with projects on a daily basis,” says Cendant Senior Director of Strategic Alliances Steve Tyburski. “That’s not something we often find.”
That’s not child’s play, either.
