Brian Brooker tells Liz French how this company encourages multiple disciplines to work together toward a common goal.

Traditional marketing companies don’t mix well. A few departments may come together on a project or two, but they ultimately head back to their segregated corners and resume their specific duties. In fact, departments are often run as divisions of a larger company and are separated by walls, a floor, several blocks, or even a few hundred miles.

But according to Brian Brooker, CEO and chief creative officer of Barkley, an independent, full-service marketing firm, silos hurt the creative process and the final product. He explained that when marketing companies run their departments as separate divisions with their own P&Ls, they create internal conflict. To reach financial targets, each division may be at odds with the company’s mission. But Barkley takes a different approach: it’s organized into disciplines, not departments, which allows everyone to work together to develop campaigns that enhance clients’ brands.

Brian Brooker

Not only did Barkley knock down its silos, but it guaranteed they’ll stay down when it implemented an ESOP in 1997. “I’ve worked at companies that are not employee owned, and I can sense a difference. Here, people don’t feel like they need to be on the executive team to have an impact on the company,” Brooker said, adding that the change in status prompted Barkley to call its employees “partners.”

Wanted: fresh ideas
Since Brooker became CEO four years ago, he has put a premium on fresh ideas and expects them to come from all disciplines, which include advertising, PR, cause marketing, mobile marketing, sponsorship, event marketing, design, media, motion graphics, direct marketing, loyalty programs, and interactive.

To aid in the creative process, instead of presenting assignments inside defined parameters (“this client needs a TV spot”), they are presented as a general problem that partners are encouraged to work together to fix. As a result, “we get ideas that are richer than if we only thought in terms of TV execution,” he said.

Barkley comes up with campaigns that not only inspire people to take action (buy a pair of jeans, donate to a cause), but are also entertaining. Brooker explained that many companies split their budget between attractive branding and hard-driving messages, which results in a disjointed campaign. “But we’ve found a way to incorporate both into one communication.”

Take the Sonic TV commercials for example: two improv actors representing the average consumer are filmed ordering food at a Sonic drive-through. They are presented with a handful of scenarios that they act out—no scripts involved. Their antics are entertaining, but the message (buy food at Sonic) gets through loud and clear.

Of course, there is a fine line to walk. Barkley can’t blur the lines between disciplines so much that partners become generalists and lose their edge. “You have to keep what makes each discipline special—insight, knowledge, and skill—intact. But we want everyone working together as much as possible so they impact the whole company with their ideas,” Brooker said.

Creative juices
Barkley isn’t just encouraging interactive behavior with words. On November 1, 2006, the company moved to the former TWA building, which had been sitting dormant for more than two decades, in Kansas City, Mo. Before making the move, Barkley worked with architecture firm Gensler to create a space conducive to the free flow of ideas. Brooker said that some partners come up with their best ideas while working alone in a private corner, while others like to confer with a group in a wide open space. To accommodate varying preferences, the building was designed with more than 60 “thinking places.”

“In the old building, we had six,” said Brooker. “The space for individual work stations is a bit less than it was before, but the concept space is so much greater, and people have quickly adapted.”

The CEO explained that the company’s 300 partners fit on three of the building’s four floors, and there is still room to grow—just not into the top floor, which is dedicated to client concept rooms. For instance, at any time, partners working on a project for Sonic, the company’s largest client, can visit the Sonic room to brainstorm. The room is designed to resemble a Sonic location, and partners can write their ideas on the wall. Other clients, including Blue Bunny, Build-A-Bear Workshop, and Cellular One, have dedicated rooms as well.

“When you walk into one of our concept rooms, you are in the mindset to work on that client’s business. It has been a great help breaking down silos. People come up with a lot of spontaneous ideas up there,” said Brooker.

Being located in the former TWA building allows the company to spread its toes and underscores Brooker’s business philosophy: every idea has an expiration date. “It reminds us every day that we have to keep coming up with fresh ideas or we could go the way of TWA.”

To keep the creative juices flowing, Barkley shuts down for two days every year to allow partners to attend a creativity symposium. The company brings in speakers, including industry experts and those who are not directly related to marketing but have creative ties, including the inventor of the multi-dimensional board game Cranium, Richard Tait.

“It fills the creative wells and gets everyone thinking in fresh ways. This is why we appreciate being an independent firm: it is not cheap, but we feel it is important so we do it every year. Our partners appreciate it.”