June 18, 2024 • 33 mins
Ethic Advertising Agency: Founded in 2014, specializes in paid advertising and the creative that supports it for the advertisers that are too big for a small shop and too small for a big shop. ($50k to a few million in ad spend). We provide in-house digital advertising (PPC/SEM, OTT/CTV, Display, Video Pre-roll, Native, Social Media, Google Grants, Digital Audio, etc...), media buying, media planning, and creative (video, animation, graphic design, audio, and website development) services. There are 15 employees. https://www.ethic-ads.com/
Qujam: Self-serve geofence advertising software with no minimums. We launched this brand in 2023. It allows anyone to easily run geofence advertising campaigns for display, OTT/CTV, and video pre-roll campaigns.
About Jeff: I knew I wanted to run an ad agency when I was in college. I spent nearly 10 years building the capital and skills at CBS TV, as a media buyer/planner, and some real estate investing to launch Ethic Advertising Agency in 2014. I authored a short e-book on the 9 Reasons Why Advertising Doesn't Work and I'm big on culture and core values in the advertising agency space having given talks around the subject at Ad Week and for the Media Association of Pittsburgh. I'm married with two children and a dog!
Qujam: Self-serve geofence advertising software with no minimums. We launched this brand in 2023. It allows anyone to easily run geofence advertising campaigns for display, OTT/CTV, and video pre-roll campaigns.
About Jeff: I knew I wanted to run an ad agency when I was in college. I spent nearly 10 years building the capital and skills at CBS TV, as a media buyer/planner, and some real estate investing to launch Ethic Advertising Agency in 2014. I authored a short e-book on the 9 Reasons Why Advertising Doesn't Work and I'm big on culture and core values in the advertising agency space having given talks around the subject at Ad Week and for the Media Association of Pittsburgh. I'm married with two children and a dog!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
And welcome in. This is theCEOs You Should Know podcast. I'm your
host, Johnny Heartwell, let's saya look to Jeff Swartz, CEO of
Ethic Advertising Agency. Thank you forjoining me. Yeah, thanks for having
me on, Johnny, So tellus everything we need to know about your
companies. Yeah, So, EthicAdvertising Agency we're kind of up on our
ten year anniversary. We are ahyper targeted specific advertising agency focused on paid
(00:27):
advertising, so a lot of digitaladvertising using a lot of different targeting elements.
But we're also an award winning creativeshop as well too, So not
only are we doing all the distributionof the media, but we're also producing
videos, animation, graphic design,website development and audio. What kind of
media do you utilize? Yeah,so we were heavy into digital, so
(00:47):
anything digital, video, banner ad, social media, pay per click,
even for pay per click, weget into Google grants, Google LSA,
so really anything where you're paying foreyeballs or clicks or results, that's our
space. But we also still getinto traditional advertising. We think that there's
a big resource at times, soradio, TV, out of home,
those kind of things. What makeswhat's the difference maker for you guys?
(01:10):
Appaired to maybe other advertising agencies.Yeah, so we like to specialize in
clients that are kind of this inbetween AD budget where they have enough of
an AD budget, maybe like upperfive figures to low million dollars to do
multiple things and have complexity to it, but they might not get attention from
the big shops because the big shopsare geared towards doing even bigger campaigns,
(01:34):
but they need more attention than justthe freelancer or maybe than the internal team
can actually handle as well too.So we kind of focus on that size
budget, and then we've invested heavilyinto our people and our technology, and
especially our processes and culture to ensurethat we have a kind of methodical process
along the way and make it anenjoyable experience for the brands that we work
(01:57):
with. You said you're coming,You're celebrating ten year anniversary. What's the
evolution, what's the history of ethic? Yeah, definitely like the garage bands,
that kind of grew up into anactual company. For me, I
knew I wanted to run an agencywhen I was about twenty in college,
so I spent about ten years developingmy skills in that space with CBS television
(02:17):
in Dallas and in Pittsburgh. Inbetween that I was a media buyer and
planner for like Church's Chicken and salesjewelry and just kind of developing the skills
that I needed that I thought thatI needed to launch an ad agency.
Launched it in September twenty fourteen,just myself at the time, I was
debt free. I needed a companyto make like seventeen five hundred dollars a
(02:39):
year to maintain the lifestyle like Iwas very you know, ten years of
prep work to kind of get thereand then, but I always wanted to
be bigger than me. I wantedto be something that grew beyond me.
And now we have fifteen people mainlyhere in Pittsburgh. We have a couple
of team members in like Ohio andTexas, in Colorado as well. But
(03:00):
we've really kind of evolved from oneperson trying to figure it out be all
things all people into having more nichefocus in the paid advertising, hyper local,
hyper targeting space, and the creativeshop as well too, and just
really developed their processes. As we'veadded more people, we've had to evolve
and change those things to just becomemore and more efficient over time. So
(03:24):
when you say one person, isthat one person you Oh, yeah,
that was just me. Yeah,that was me doing everything out of the
Like I got like an Ikia deskand like my old desk, and I
kind of set it up shop andI worked nights and weekends to get things
rocking and rolling and everything while Istill at CBS at katiek here and then
(03:45):
you know, I had my lastday on a Friday, and then on
Monday, Ethic was up and runningand gone. And it was one of
those things I was like, Iwas twenty nine years old. I got
engaged my wife less than a monthlater, and I knew that we were
going to you know, have kidspretty quickly, to try to have kids
and everything. And now we havetwo really great kids. And I was
like, you know, what ifit fails in a year after all this
(04:06):
work, that's okay. And that'sthe attitude I had with it. And
luckily for us, we had somereally good initial clients and then two years
later I was able to hire onmy first employee who's still with me and
everything. It was just one ofthose things where it was high risk,
but it ended up being high reward, not just financially, but more from
(04:26):
the emotion and the heart. Doyou remember your first client? Yeah,
So our first client was actually ourfirst flagship client. That was the one
that I still have a good relationshipwith. They are in the scrap metal
like junk cars kind of thing,and two months after I launched and we
were doing some stuff, scrap metaltanked and then so their ad budget went
(04:47):
away and everything. But then mynext flagship client that I worked with for
about five six years was Greenbrier TreatmentCenter and they were fantastic. I had
worked with them a little bit whenI was at Katie K and at that
time they needed somebody to kind ofcome in and help coordinate some things as
well too. So it was oneof those things where I experienced, you
know, some like excitement and thenall of a sudden, really quick low
(05:09):
and follow by really quick high aswell too and everything. So in an
advertising agency space, there's always upsand downs and everything. So you kind
of as you grow up in thisspace as entrepreneur, you start to roll
with the punches and understand, likeyou know, you're gonna have the highs,
you're gonna have the lows, andjust kind of enjoy the ride.
You know, ethic advertising. It'sa bit of an oxymoron, a bit.
(05:32):
It's almost like bitter sweet jumbo shrimpethic advertising. Not a lot of
people put those two words together.Yeah, I get asked that a lot.
A few years ago, I wrotean article specifically why I named it
ethic advertising, and there's a coupleof different reasons, but the essence of
why it's ethic is because I don'tthink it should be an oxymoron. I
(05:54):
think that it actually is something thatthat is is very logical to try to
go about generating leads brand awareness inan ethical manner as well too. And
the story behind it because as Iwas working nights and weekends, I had
a list about seventy five names,and I was really struggling out of everything
was setting up my business. Iwas struggling with the name most because I
(06:15):
wanted something that lived beyond me,and I wanted something that encapsulated what the
company was going to be all about. So I was working with the media
buyer who I had developed monthly rates, meaning you know, for the TV
station, you know prices, rateis going to cost X amount of dollars,
and I did it monthly to giveher the best possible price every single
month, and she was like,hey, Jeff, can you put this
(06:38):
in for quarterly? I can't.I don't have time to work on it
on a monthly basis. Is toomuch information. I was like, well,
your client's going to pay a littlebit more than they should because I
have to use the highest rate forthat quarter and everything. And I was
like, I remember being frustrated bythat, and like, hey, when
I launched my agency, like Idon't want us to be in that position.
That's kind of unethical. And that'swhen the light bulb went off,
and like, ethic advertising, keepus honest and everything, and have us
(07:00):
be aligned with that. The interestingthing that took me about a year or
two to really think about that situationwas that that buyer was not at all
unethical. She was put into aposition that a lot of ad agencies get
put into where they don't either haveenough time and resources to be able to
do everything at the highest level thatthey possibly can. So there's some cutting
(07:20):
corners and every industry has us aswell too. So that's where it kind
of dawned on me that the industry, and that's why people think it's an
oxymoron is kind of set up tobe a little bit, a little bit
tasked, like it's a little bithard for them to get to everything.
There's too much going on because we'redealing with intangible elements. We're dealing with
(07:42):
stuff that you can't actually touch andfeel. It's impressions, it's eyeballs,
it's you know, running media,those kind of things. So I realized,
Okay, so then if that's thecase, then I need to build
a culture and a system that's goingto allow people to try to have them
give give them as much time andoportunities to be really good at what they
do. And then that's why I'veput so much focus on, you know,
(08:05):
switching gears from being a advertiser andbeing good at that to being a
good entrepreneur and being focused heavily onculture and process driven elements. You talked
a little bit about culture. Howimportant is culture for you for your company?
For me, I put it asa top tier component of our company.
(08:28):
I actually firmly culture has always beensomething that's been important to me.
But being methodical about how we goabout it, developing with my team,
strongcore values, using them, youknow, not just something on our website,
something that we actually use in oureveryday speak. So we have efficiency,
quality, progress, respect, andkind boldness, which is just speaking
without a filter but come from aplace of helping the other person. It's
(08:52):
one of those things where I actuallyattribute a lot of our success to when
I started focusing on on culture asa methodical element that I needed to sit
down, think about and develop thestructure to allow it to really develop,
because I believe culture needs to beput into an environment and have some structure
around it in order to really kindof foster and grow. But then you
(09:18):
need the right people that are alignedwith it. So, like my core
value is our mission statement and somethings we believe in, I hire people
based off of that. I'm nottrying to find people that will I'm going
to have them adopt those things.I just want people that are already attuned
to that and it resonates with them. So that's a non issue and we
just keep on moving along by hiringthose same people. I'm assuming ethic or
ethics, yeah, is paramount foryour company. It is, it is,
(09:41):
And it's one of those things too, where with core values and the
name of our company are kind ofthe rules to the game that we're trying
to play, which is to havehappy, profitable partners through advertising creative means.
So if we break the rule,we can't win the game. So
if we break one of our corevalues, or we break our ethics and
everything, then it's like, hey, we're going to end up getting a
bit the butt for sure and everything. So those are the rules that we
(10:03):
kind of abide by. So that'swhy I focus on the core values.
But that's also why I named itethic advertising, so people can be like,
well, if I'm at this company, there's always an element in the
back of the mind that I haveto do the right thing. Forgive me.
You used a term that I'm notfamiliar with, but it intrigued me.
It was something like kind kind boldness, kind boldness. Okay, so
let me give you a scenario.And you know, you have some ad
(10:28):
agencies who may not be may notadopt the ethics that you have, who
will say anything to the client toget the sale. But you're doing kind
boldness and you're telling them the truth. Do you ever get bitten by that
the fact that you know somebody isgoing to be willing to fall for a
lie or maybe a story or somethingthat is a little bit more flashy,
(10:52):
but maybe not not exactly what theyought to hear. It's a great question,
I would say, I've never beenbitten by that. And the reason
why I say that and everything iswe've lost accounts or actually like separated from
accounts because it's not you know,because we're speaking our minds and trying to
do those things anytime that we actuallylike can do solid kind boldness, there's
(11:16):
a risk of not getting a pieceof business or losing out on that and
everything. And when that happens,I don't believe that's me being bit by
it. That's me having a shortterm like hurdle that we get, but
it has a long term gain becauseif we don't get that piece of business
and everything, but we spoke ourmind and more honest, then there's a
greater chance we're going to get thatbook of business later on if they end
(11:39):
up needing our services as well too, or at the very least we feel
good about it as well too,like we're not trying to deliver on something
that we don't believe in as well. So there are situations, you know,
of different degrees of like, hey, we don't think this is going
to work for you, and thisis why we really don't want to be
a part of it. There's alsolike, hey, we don't think this
is gonna work, but we cangive a shot and be the best.
(12:00):
This is what we think is goingto happen. And most of the time
we're right. But sometimes we're wrongand that's okay, and we're like,
hey, you were right. Youknow that this was actually a good idea.
And there's other times where it's like, you know, we actually lead
people down a better path just becausewe want to speak up and try to
have them, you know, dogood. I'm not a greedy CEO.
I've never been a greedy CEO.I want to build something that's bigger than
(12:20):
me as well too, and youjust need to make seventeen thousand and five
hundred dollars. But that was intwenty and fourteen. I lived in a
DUPLEXU as well too. So theother half was, yeah, I kind
of hope that your company has growna little bit. It has, yeah,
and compared to this into that we'vegrown tremendously. But I've never been
greedy and I've always reinvested. I'malso thirty nine years old. I've always
(12:43):
had a vision of being like Ihave a runway as well too, So
for me planting seeds helping people,it starts paying dividends, was my theory
at the beginning, and being tenyears into this, it's definitely crops are
sprouting up, different opportunities are comingup. Someone that I talked to five
years ago might hit me up withan opportunity as well too, so that
(13:03):
that's like compounded interests. So overtime, that's always been my philosophy,
and I'm actually reaping the rewards now, so I can only imagine what's going
to be like in five years andten years and everything of how that's going
to keep on compounding of just beingout there and being good and doing the
right things and stuff. So it'smore long term stability, and then the
money follows that as well too.So although I'm not greedy, I'm also
(13:24):
you know, I'm financially driven aswell too. Where if I can't have
a good culture and a good companythat people are going to want to work
at, if I don't pay them, if we don't aren't profitable, if
we aren't moving it forward as welltoo well, if you're not making money,
you're not making money for your clients, and ultimately that's what you want
to do, that's what you wantto accomplish, right, yeah, exactly,
all right, So some people don'trealize there's a difference between advertising and
(13:48):
marketing. Yes, is that somethingthat you guys work with clients with.
So we when I was first startingout trying to be all things all people,
I got into trying to do thingsmore than we probably should. And
as we've grown, as we've developed, we really get paid on the services
(14:09):
that were really really good at However, I've always had the philosophy and the
conversations and I try to instill itwith my team of going deeper into Okay,
well, if we're focused on theadvertising side of things, what's going
on with your marketing, what's goingon with your sales process, what's going
on with your business as well too, because it's all interconnected. And the
reality of it is is that advertising, if I'm gonna speak baseball terms,
(14:33):
advertising gets you at bats. Itdoesn't swing the bat for you, It
doesn't sure that he gets the contactand everything it can help with that and
ensure that you get a better battingaverage, but it gets you opportunities to
go to the plate and for yourmarketing and your sales team really to swing
or whatever your sales process is.So with that, we often look for
different gaps in the sales or marketingfunnel to be able to point it out
(14:56):
and be able to have those conversationsas well too, say hey, we
think this is going on. Wework with a lot of home improvement clients
and multiple times where they aren't pickingup the phone, well, you have
seventy percent chance or you're seventy percentmore likely as a home improvement client to
not get a customer if you don'tpick up the phone the first time because
they're off talking to the other person. So that's something that we keep a
(15:18):
finger on the pulse of, like, hey, is that happening, and
if so, we need to saythat, because ultimately, what if we
don't do that and they don't pickup the phone. What we've heard is,
hey, advertise is not working.I need to spend more, do
something else and everything. We're like, hey, just pick up the phone
and see what happens. And whenwe've done that, we've seen twenty percent
increase in people's growth of just givingthem a tip as well too, so
we will consult on that as partof it as more being kind of selfish
(15:43):
for us, because if they're notgetting sales, then they're going to blame
the advertising, even though it mightnot be the advertising's fault. But advertising
is really just to get you atbets and opportunities and build that brand awareness
for you. I think it's beenaround for ten years, which isn't a
lot of time, but when itcomes to advertising and the technology, it's
it's it's light years. Yea.So what had how what's the evolution of
(16:07):
Ethic when you started and what you'redoing now? How how have you evolved?
Yeah? So, and for forme, it's been an interesting time.
I'm categorized, you know as ageriatric millennial, so I'm I'm in
between of being someone who typed onelectric typewriter and then also you know,
had aim and and the and theevolution of the Internet and everything. So
(16:30):
when I was at the ad agencyin Texas in like five, I was
figuring out Google analytics and everything.But since I want and then, but
I was always heavily in like TVadvertising and traditional advertising. When I launched
Ethic, that's where I had alot of good experience of this strategy and
traditional but over time, digital wasdefinitely the place that we're going to go.
(16:52):
And that's something that I had knowna decent amount of, but that's
where I invested heavily into my knowledgebase and to you know, over time,
hiring people where we do digital advertisingin house, where we do you
know, we have somebody that's incharge of traffic and research for us as
well too, So we also arenot just evolving on how we reach people,
but trying to improve where you know, our targeting, trying to get
(17:15):
you know, in getting AI integratedand using all these tools. It's changing
so rapidly and there's so many optionsthat are out there that it's it's really
difficult to figure out the perfect mix. There's just too many opportunities. What
we have to figure out is what'sthe best opportunities that we can have for
our clients, and then how dowe always improve upon it, what do
(17:37):
we do better? So there's anelement of blending traditional breast practices of advertising
as well as the technology that's becomingavailable. Because so much technology evolves and
gets goes out there that a youknow, you can't afford to do everything
both financially and from a time elementto have every bell and whistle attached to
it. So you have to reallykind of go through and we do what
(17:59):
we call sprints to figure out,Okay, if we're going to look at
a live reporting dashboard, let's doa sprint, let's focus hyper on that,
get that figured out, and thenknow that in two years we're gonna
have to revisit again because the evolutionof it is of that technology is always
going to be changing as well too, So just about keeping up with it
and figuring out, okay, what'sthe best things in tools and resources that
(18:21):
we can use right now and stayingon top of those things in those education
but AI machine learning, like it'sjust there's so many elements that are part
of this. The targeting cabailities thatwe have. When I start talking about
we can target people based off wherethey've physically been down to sixteen feet and
the third party data, the firstparty data, and figuring out what people
are interested in, what they're searchingfor, and then retargeting based off of
(18:45):
those things. Like it, ittends to blow people's mind when they're not
in this space of learning all thesedifferent things and it just keeps on growing.
But then we also have to applythat ethic component where's that line for
some of this thing? So wealso focus heavily on privacy of people that
we're targeting, but also blend itwith what we want to be as efficient
and get the best results for ourclients as possible. So talking about tools,
(19:06):
tell me about QJAM. So withbeing focused on hyper targeting geofens advertising,
which I kind of just mentioned,is now geofence is basically targeting areas
right, hyper specific areas. Soit it has a couple of different components,
but essentially, if you think aboutGPS targeting, like you know,
(19:26):
you're traveling to a restaurant and youhave the map that you're following and everything.
So it uses that kind of technologyto be able to try to identify
that someone's been in a very specificplace like a building, not like a
ZIP code, but like down tolike that sixteen feet of accuracy estimated.
So what we found though in workingwith this technology for a long time is
(19:48):
we were having a lot of conversationsthat a lot of people out there were
like I want to use this,but I don't meet ethics minimums or I
want to use a credit card orI want to do it myself. Those
are some of the hurdles that wehad because we have minimums, we don't
accept credit cards as the agency,and we do do it for the people.
There's also things where people increase themargins too much and other options for
(20:14):
geofencing, their rates are probably alittle bit high and they don't have reporting
instantaneously sometimes. So there's like thesesix closed doors of geofencing that we identified,
and we're like, well, whatif we build technology on the best
geofencing tech that we use that justmakes it easy for anybody to get access
to it. So qjam was actuallyderived from identifying a need in the marketplace
(20:40):
from having hundreds of conversations about geofencingto develop a simple platform kind of like
LinkedIn or indeed job posting where ittakes you through the step by step process
or like kind of like Facebook boostedposts as well too, if anybody's familiar
with that. But basically anybody cango on or register, they can put
their credit card in from me,and they can then set up their own
(21:02):
geofence advertising campaign for display or bannerads as well as digital video ads.
Both OTT which stands for over thetop. That's like Hulu Roku commercials on
there and video perro ads which arekind of like a commercial that might run
before a online video on like ablog or a website and everything. So
(21:23):
we put the technology into the handsof these people that might be like,
hey, I have a good idea, I only need to spend one hundred
bucks a month on this, orhey, I'm not meeting the minimum spend
in order to get the technology theyhave, which is about ten thousand dollars
a month of ad spend to getaccess to the tech that we have that
this platform is built on. Soqjam was really derived from giving this technology
(21:45):
and this option to the people tosolve some of these problems that we heard
over and over and over again.And we're coming up on having this product
live for one year at the endof this month, and we've had four
hundred and ninety sign ups for it. Give me an example of what a
company that might use qjam. Sowe if you know, if you're a
(22:07):
business that knows where your audience isphysically, there's a benefit to trying to
set up a gofense around that locationand then target with thats so we've seen
success with B to B in likeindustrial, industrial tends to only care about
a few customers that are out there. They know where their offices are and
they can do that. It worksin restaurants as well too. You know,
(22:30):
if I'm a restaurant and I wantto go after people who are going
out to eat really close to me, we can you know, you can
use it for that. We've seenit be used by lawyers and laundry mats.
We've seen it be used by realestate agents as well too, trying
to go after neighborhoods that are inthere that they're trying to farm in their
territories. So there's a lot ofdifferent use cases for this. Automotive is
(22:52):
a really big one as well,too, trying to get people that are
on automotive lots, that your competitorsthat are maybe shopping for cars. So
if you you can kind of conceptualizewhere your audience is physically, then you
can set up a geofense to tryto have an extra layer of targeting to
that type of audience. All Right, Let's say I'm I love Mexican food,
I have a Mexican restaurant, andI'm interested in q JAM What can
(23:15):
that do for my business? Yeah? So you know, if I'm going
to think that as owner of aMexican restaurant, the things you can do
with that would be to set upgeofenses around maybe nearby restaurants as well too,
or maybe there is a you know, like a like a Hispanic based
grocery store that's nearby that would beanother place to potentially have that, or
(23:38):
even just if you're in a plaza, just geofens in the plaza because you
know that there's people that have beenshopping there as well too, and then
you can deploy display or video adsto those individuals to promote your restaurant.
But then you can also have likespecial offers, which often works well having
some kind of incentive or call toaction for that to drive more traffic to
(23:59):
your predicatar restaurant versus having to youknow, maybe buy a really expensive billboard
that's out there, so it's hyperlocal advertising to get that brand awareness up
and have people think about that.You can even extend it to local neighborhoods
or something like that as well too, So instead of doing like a one
mile radius or doing like a zipcode and everything, you can be like,
there's a neighborhood right behind me ofpeople, you know that have disposable
(24:22):
income. I want them to eathere. Let's go ahead and target those
homes. Gotcha? Tell me moreabout your team. So our team is
really derived of three pillars. Wehave our Accounts Success Team, which are
the faces to our clients. They'rethe people who are kind of the quarterbacks
(24:44):
for our client's campaigns and you know, helping kind of put all the pieces
together. Then we have our Mediadepartment, which they do traditional media buying.
They do all the in house digitaladvertising and our adopts and set up
in those kind of things, alongwith reporting and getting all the information that
(25:06):
we need both in house into ourclients as well too through our live reporting
dashboard. And then we also haveour Creative department as well too. So
for creative we're doing video production,audio animation, graphic design, and website
development. So with fifteen people,you know, each team is about like
three to five people. And thenI also have so from the entrepreneur standpoint,
I have a really fantastic accounting andHR individual as well to Caitlin,
(25:33):
so I have her helping me outas well too, which has been a
big asset bringing her on as well. So I have someone helping me out
with the ad inside of things.But that's kind of the structure of our
team, and I look for talentedindividuals that believe in our core values and
like to do good quality work andthat come to the table as team players.
(25:55):
We don't have office politics really.We work really efficiently as well too.
A lot of people will use theterm like operating as a family and
everything. We're definitely not that we'reoperating more as colleagues and friends. Families
can be dysfunctional. There's a arguingthat's going on there. You know.
For us, we have a lotof structure that's in there, and then
we have a lot of people thatare just attuned to the style of work
(26:18):
that we do. Have. Youalways had that entrepreneurial spirit, yeah,
So first time that I ever tappedinto it was probably in fourth grade,
selling soft pretzels and popcorn at lunchtimeand everything. So that was probably the
first kind of thing. Part ofwhat I did to launch Ethic and get
that free was so this would havebeen starting in like two thousand and eight.
(26:41):
Was the first time I bought aproperty and then leading up to twenty
fourteen, really probably even twenty fourteen, bought a duplex, renovated it and
rented it out, flipped the houseover, and craft and everything. So
I got into real estate investing alittle bit hyper educating myself on that as
well too and stuff. So thatis something that's always been kind of ingrained
(27:04):
with me. My grandfather was anentrepreneur. I have some other family members
that are entrepreneurs as well too thatI've kind of seen. But I've also
had family members that went the corporateroute and everything, and I did that
for a bit as well too,And definitely, you know, I had
a lot of great experiences with likeCBS and the bigger agencies and stuff,
but allow me to really figure outthe type of business that I want to
(27:26):
do. And like I said,I mean, I started this thinking,
if it's only going to be aroundfor one year, that's still a win
and accomplishment. I did everything Icould to make sure that it did have
longevity. And I want something againthat's going to last for a really long
time and still be a staple inour industry of culture and ethics and those
kind of things and stuff. Soyou know, for me, I've kind
(27:48):
of won this game already and everything, and now I'm trying to figure out
how to play that next game,that next level up and go after it.
What is the next level? Soit's a continuation that we're doing.
So, you know, for us, my mission is to probably double in
size over the next couple of years, but do it in the same manner
(28:12):
that we have still focusing on havinggood people working for us and taking care
of our customers and having to focuson the values and the culture and bringing
in more technology. So the technologycomponent, I think is something that I
see us leveraging other people's technology,like a lot of agencies, but also
(28:33):
continuing the development of our own technology. QJM is kind of a standalone service
that provides a niche market fill forthis kind of space and geofencing of taking
the leads that we can't actually serviceas ethic and having them go over there
so they can at least have agood resource there, or because it's so
(28:56):
automated, people that just find GEOjust find QG that they can actually become
a good ethic advertising lead. Soit's actually a good lead service. But
where I kind of see the futurefrom a technology standpoint is developing technology specifically
for ethic advertising to develop and intervancewhat we have going on, or the
adoption of other people's tech that wecan overlay into what we're doing as well
too. So I would say doublingin size over the next three years is
(29:19):
probably the next level that I wantto get to. All Right, So
it's apparent that you're a businessman.I mentioned that you're entrepreneur. You have
that spirit, but you also comeacross very creative. Is that also part
of you? Yeah, so,I mean one of the It's interesting too
because my background is traditionally in mediaand strategy, but my degree is actually
(29:44):
video and audio production. So Istarted out as a creative, but I
also always believed like blending those thingstogether and then trying to find and figure
out ways to solve problems in acreative manner that breaks the mold has always
been something that I love. Ithink that there's actually a big I'm dyslexic
and everything, so I view thatas a as a superpower for me because
(30:04):
it allows me to think differently andthink creatively as well too. So I've
always been able to do that.But I'm also I was that kid that
had a hard time reading, butI tested out of like math things.
So I have the analytical side ofthings, I also have the creative side
of things. That's allowing me tokind of look at it from both angles
and try to find some of theseopportunities and figure out things in a mathematical,
(30:27):
structured way while still allowing there tobe creativity. And I kind of
test that to the fact that thatI have this you know, this dyslexia
thing going on as well too,that that forced me to do that in
school and throughout, you know,my career kind of a superpower. I
love that. Yeah, yeah,how involved are you in the community?
(30:48):
What are some of your what aresome of your passions? So I actually
want to start this out of likeone of the things that for me personally
is I want to be like Iwant to get to a point, even
though I said that I'm not creatinganything, I want to get a point
of financial freedom where I spend moretime focusing on others and helping others than
myself. And that was always mybelief for a long time. And I
(31:11):
preface by saying this because I waslike, I gotta work harder, I
gotta work harder. And then Igot to a point I was like,
why am I waiting to help peopleand everything? And I've always been able
to be like I called open notepolicy. I'll talk with anything, anybody
about advertising and help them out.I don't care if it's the kid with
a lemonade stand, you know,to like a big prospect for us as
well too. So I've always donethat. But then I realized, hey,
(31:33):
like I shouldn't wait to help othersuntil I make it quote unquote.
So I came to that epiphany probablylike five years ago, and then I
started getting more involved with Paul Schoolfor here in speech I said on the
communication board for Animal Friends, I'vedone guest lectures at universities as well too,
So I'm looking for opportunities that allowme to take some of my area
(31:55):
of expertise and blend that to giveback. And it was one of those
things is that I didn't think Ihad enough time. I thought that I
had to grind out harder to getto that level. And it was really
kind of a neat moment. Andthen why I want to share this is
because if someone's in the same situationand thinking the same thing, it felt
really good to be able to say, Okay, I'm going to coach my
kids soccer team and get more involvedin the community and do some of these
(32:19):
things that I'm passionate about and findthe time to do that knowing, hey,
you know, maybe I need togive up some of this grinding time
at work to have some of thatbalance in my life and start giving back
now as well too. All Right, if somebody wants more information on ethic
Advertising or qjam, do you havea website? Yeah, ethics website is
ethic dashads dot com and qjam isqu jam dot com. Just qjam dot
(32:46):
com. It's just my kids' names, Quinn and Jamison mash together. Oh
that's awesome job sports CEO of EthicAdvertising and qjam and a CEO you definitely
should know. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. This has
been the CEOs you should know podcastshowcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy
part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communitieswe serve. I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank
(33:07):
you so much for loving
And welcome in. This is theCEOs You Should Know podcast. I'm your
host, Johnny Heartwell, let's saya look to Jeff Swartz, CEO of
Ethic Advertising Agency. Thank you forjoining me. Yeah, thanks for having
me on, Johnny, So tellus everything we need to know about your
companies. Yeah, So, EthicAdvertising Agency we're kind of up on our
ten year anniversary. We are ahyper targeted specific advertising agency focused on paid
(00:27):
advertising, so a lot of digitaladvertising using a lot of different targeting elements.
But we're also an award winning creativeshop as well too, So not
only are we doing all the distributionof the media, but we're also producing
videos, animation, graphic design,website development and audio. What kind of
media do you utilize? Yeah,so we were heavy into digital, so
(00:47):
anything digital, video, banner ad, social media, pay per click,
even for pay per click, weget into Google grants, Google LSA,
so really anything where you're paying foreyeballs or clicks or results, that's our
space. But we also still getinto traditional advertising. We think that there's
a big resource at times, soradio, TV, out of home,
those kind of things. What makeswhat's the difference maker for you guys?
(01:10):
Appaired to maybe other advertising agencies.Yeah, so we like to specialize in
clients that are kind of this inbetween AD budget where they have enough of
an AD budget, maybe like upperfive figures to low million dollars to do
multiple things and have complexity to it, but they might not get attention from
the big shops because the big shopsare geared towards doing even bigger campaigns,
(01:34):
but they need more attention than justthe freelancer or maybe than the internal team
can actually handle as well too.So we kind of focus on that size
budget, and then we've invested heavilyinto our people and our technology, and
especially our processes and culture to ensurethat we have a kind of methodical process
along the way and make it anenjoyable experience for the brands that we work
(01:57):
with. You said you're coming,You're celebrating ten year anniversary. What's the
evolution, what's the history of ethic? Yeah, definitely like the garage bands,
that kind of grew up into anactual company. For me, I
knew I wanted to run an agencywhen I was about twenty in college,
so I spent about ten years developingmy skills in that space with CBS television
(02:17):
in Dallas and in Pittsburgh. Inbetween that I was a media buyer and
planner for like Church's Chicken and salesjewelry and just kind of developing the skills
that I needed that I thought thatI needed to launch an ad agency.
Launched it in September twenty fourteen,just myself at the time, I was
debt free. I needed a companyto make like seventeen five hundred dollars a
(02:39):
year to maintain the lifestyle like Iwas very you know, ten years of
prep work to kind of get thereand then, but I always wanted to
be bigger than me. I wantedto be something that grew beyond me.
And now we have fifteen people mainlyhere in Pittsburgh. We have a couple
of team members in like Ohio andTexas, in Colorado as well. But
(03:00):
we've really kind of evolved from oneperson trying to figure it out be all
things all people into having more nichefocus in the paid advertising, hyper local,
hyper targeting space, and the creativeshop as well too, and just
really developed their processes. As we'veadded more people, we've had to evolve
and change those things to just becomemore and more efficient over time. So
(03:24):
when you say one person, isthat one person you Oh, yeah,
that was just me. Yeah,that was me doing everything out of the
Like I got like an Ikia deskand like my old desk, and I
kind of set it up shop andI worked nights and weekends to get things
rocking and rolling and everything while Istill at CBS at katiek here and then
(03:45):
you know, I had my lastday on a Friday, and then on
Monday, Ethic was up and runningand gone. And it was one of
those things I was like, Iwas twenty nine years old. I got
engaged my wife less than a monthlater, and I knew that we were
going to you know, have kidspretty quickly, to try to have kids
and everything. And now we havetwo really great kids. And I was
like, you know, what ifit fails in a year after all this
(04:06):
work, that's okay. And that'sthe attitude I had with it. And
luckily for us, we had somereally good initial clients and then two years
later I was able to hire onmy first employee who's still with me and
everything. It was just one ofthose things where it was high risk,
but it ended up being high reward, not just financially, but more from
(04:26):
the emotion and the heart. Doyou remember your first client? Yeah,
So our first client was actually ourfirst flagship client. That was the one
that I still have a good relationshipwith. They are in the scrap metal
like junk cars kind of thing,and two months after I launched and we
were doing some stuff, scrap metaltanked and then so their ad budget went
(04:47):
away and everything. But then mynext flagship client that I worked with for
about five six years was Greenbrier TreatmentCenter and they were fantastic. I had
worked with them a little bit whenI was at Katie K and at that
time they needed somebody to kind ofcome in and help coordinate some things as
well too. So it was oneof those things where I experienced, you
know, some like excitement and thenall of a sudden, really quick low
(05:09):
and follow by really quick high aswell too and everything. So in an
advertising agency space, there's always upsand downs and everything. So you kind
of as you grow up in thisspace as entrepreneur, you start to roll
with the punches and understand, likeyou know, you're gonna have the highs,
you're gonna have the lows, andjust kind of enjoy the ride.
You know, ethic advertising. It'sa bit of an oxymoron, a bit.
(05:32):
It's almost like bitter sweet jumbo shrimpethic advertising. Not a lot of
people put those two words together.Yeah, I get asked that a lot.
A few years ago, I wrotean article specifically why I named it
ethic advertising, and there's a coupleof different reasons, but the essence of
why it's ethic is because I don'tthink it should be an oxymoron. I
(05:54):
think that it actually is something thatthat is is very logical to try to
go about generating leads brand awareness inan ethical manner as well too. And
the story behind it because as Iwas working nights and weekends, I had
a list about seventy five names,and I was really struggling out of everything
was setting up my business. Iwas struggling with the name most because I
(06:15):
wanted something that lived beyond me,and I wanted something that encapsulated what the
company was going to be all about. So I was working with the media
buyer who I had developed monthly rates, meaning you know, for the TV
station, you know prices, rateis going to cost X amount of dollars,
and I did it monthly to giveher the best possible price every single
month, and she was like,hey, Jeff, can you put this
(06:38):
in for quarterly? I can't.I don't have time to work on it
on a monthly basis. Is toomuch information. I was like, well,
your client's going to pay a littlebit more than they should because I
have to use the highest rate forthat quarter and everything. And I was
like, I remember being frustrated bythat, and like, hey, when
I launched my agency, like Idon't want us to be in that position.
That's kind of unethical. And that'swhen the light bulb went off,
and like, ethic advertising, keepus honest and everything, and have us
(07:00):
be aligned with that. The interestingthing that took me about a year or
two to really think about that situationwas that that buyer was not at all
unethical. She was put into aposition that a lot of ad agencies get
put into where they don't either haveenough time and resources to be able to
do everything at the highest level thatthey possibly can. So there's some cutting
(07:20):
corners and every industry has us aswell too. So that's where it kind
of dawned on me that the industry, and that's why people think it's an
oxymoron is kind of set up tobe a little bit, a little bit
tasked, like it's a little bithard for them to get to everything.
There's too much going on because we'redealing with intangible elements. We're dealing with
(07:42):
stuff that you can't actually touch andfeel. It's impressions, it's eyeballs,
it's you know, running media,those kind of things. So I realized,
Okay, so then if that's thecase, then I need to build
a culture and a system that's goingto allow people to try to have them
give give them as much time andoportunities to be really good at what they
do. And then that's why I'veput so much focus on, you know,
(08:05):
switching gears from being a advertiser andbeing good at that to being a
good entrepreneur and being focused heavily onculture and process driven elements. You talked
a little bit about culture. Howimportant is culture for you for your company?
For me, I put it asa top tier component of our company.
(08:28):
I actually firmly culture has always beensomething that's been important to me.
But being methodical about how we goabout it, developing with my team,
strongcore values, using them, youknow, not just something on our website,
something that we actually use in oureveryday speak. So we have efficiency,
quality, progress, respect, andkind boldness, which is just speaking
without a filter but come from aplace of helping the other person. It's
(08:52):
one of those things where I actuallyattribute a lot of our success to when
I started focusing on on culture asa methodical element that I needed to sit
down, think about and develop thestructure to allow it to really develop,
because I believe culture needs to beput into an environment and have some structure
around it in order to really kindof foster and grow. But then you
(09:18):
need the right people that are alignedwith it. So, like my core
value is our mission statement and somethings we believe in, I hire people
based off of that. I'm nottrying to find people that will I'm going
to have them adopt those things.I just want people that are already attuned
to that and it resonates with them. So that's a non issue and we
just keep on moving along by hiringthose same people. I'm assuming ethic or
ethics, yeah, is paramount foryour company. It is, it is,
(09:41):
And it's one of those things too, where with core values and the
name of our company are kind ofthe rules to the game that we're trying
to play, which is to havehappy, profitable partners through advertising creative means.
So if we break the rule,we can't win the game. So
if we break one of our corevalues, or we break our ethics and
everything, then it's like, hey, we're going to end up getting a
bit the butt for sure and everything. So those are the rules that we
(10:03):
kind of abide by. So that'swhy I focus on the core values.
But that's also why I named itethic advertising, so people can be like,
well, if I'm at this company, there's always an element in the
back of the mind that I haveto do the right thing. Forgive me.
You used a term that I'm notfamiliar with, but it intrigued me.
It was something like kind kind boldness, kind boldness. Okay, so
let me give you a scenario.And you know, you have some ad
(10:28):
agencies who may not be may notadopt the ethics that you have, who
will say anything to the client toget the sale. But you're doing kind
boldness and you're telling them the truth. Do you ever get bitten by that
the fact that you know somebody isgoing to be willing to fall for a
lie or maybe a story or somethingthat is a little bit more flashy,
(10:52):
but maybe not not exactly what theyought to hear. It's a great question,
I would say, I've never beenbitten by that. And the reason
why I say that and everything iswe've lost accounts or actually like separated from
accounts because it's not you know,because we're speaking our minds and trying to
do those things anytime that we actuallylike can do solid kind boldness, there's
(11:16):
a risk of not getting a pieceof business or losing out on that and
everything. And when that happens,I don't believe that's me being bit by
it. That's me having a shortterm like hurdle that we get, but
it has a long term gain becauseif we don't get that piece of business
and everything, but we spoke ourmind and more honest, then there's a
greater chance we're going to get thatbook of business later on if they end
(11:39):
up needing our services as well too, or at the very least we feel
good about it as well too,like we're not trying to deliver on something
that we don't believe in as well. So there are situations, you know,
of different degrees of like, hey, we don't think this is going
to work for you, and thisis why we really don't want to be
a part of it. There's alsolike, hey, we don't think this
is gonna work, but we cangive a shot and be the best.
(12:00):
This is what we think is goingto happen. And most of the time
we're right. But sometimes we're wrongand that's okay, and we're like,
hey, you were right. Youknow that this was actually a good idea.
And there's other times where it's like, you know, we actually lead
people down a better path just becausewe want to speak up and try to
have them, you know, dogood. I'm not a greedy CEO.
I've never been a greedy CEO.I want to build something that's bigger than
(12:20):
me as well too, and youjust need to make seventeen thousand and five
hundred dollars. But that was intwenty and fourteen. I lived in a
DUPLEXU as well too. So theother half was, yeah, I kind
of hope that your company has growna little bit. It has, yeah,
and compared to this into that we'vegrown tremendously. But I've never been
greedy and I've always reinvested. I'malso thirty nine years old. I've always
(12:43):
had a vision of being like Ihave a runway as well too, So
for me planting seeds helping people,it starts paying dividends, was my theory
at the beginning, and being tenyears into this, it's definitely crops are
sprouting up, different opportunities are comingup. Someone that I talked to five
years ago might hit me up withan opportunity as well too, so that
(13:03):
that's like compounded interests. So overtime, that's always been my philosophy,
and I'm actually reaping the rewards now, so I can only imagine what's going
to be like in five years andten years and everything of how that's going
to keep on compounding of just beingout there and being good and doing the
right things and stuff. So it'smore long term stability, and then the
money follows that as well too.So although I'm not greedy, I'm also
(13:24):
you know, I'm financially driven aswell too. Where if I can't have
a good culture and a good companythat people are going to want to work
at, if I don't pay them, if we don't aren't profitable, if
we aren't moving it forward as welltoo well, if you're not making money,
you're not making money for your clients, and ultimately that's what you want
to do, that's what you wantto accomplish, right, yeah, exactly,
all right, So some people don'trealize there's a difference between advertising and
(13:48):
marketing. Yes, is that somethingthat you guys work with clients with.
So we when I was first startingout trying to be all things all people,
I got into trying to do thingsmore than we probably should. And
as we've grown, as we've developed, we really get paid on the services
(14:09):
that were really really good at However, I've always had the philosophy and the
conversations and I try to instill itwith my team of going deeper into Okay,
well, if we're focused on theadvertising side of things, what's going
on with your marketing, what's goingon with your sales process, what's going
on with your business as well too, because it's all interconnected. And the
reality of it is is that advertising, if I'm gonna speak baseball terms,
(14:33):
advertising gets you at bats. Itdoesn't swing the bat for you, It
doesn't sure that he gets the contactand everything it can help with that and
ensure that you get a better battingaverage, but it gets you opportunities to
go to the plate and for yourmarketing and your sales team really to swing
or whatever your sales process is.So with that, we often look for
different gaps in the sales or marketingfunnel to be able to point it out
(14:56):
and be able to have those conversationsas well too, say hey, we
think this is going on. Wework with a lot of home improvement clients
and multiple times where they aren't pickingup the phone, well, you have
seventy percent chance or you're seventy percentmore likely as a home improvement client to
not get a customer if you don'tpick up the phone the first time because
they're off talking to the other person. So that's something that we keep a
(15:18):
finger on the pulse of, like, hey, is that happening, and
if so, we need to saythat, because ultimately, what if we
don't do that and they don't pickup the phone. What we've heard is,
hey, advertise is not working.I need to spend more, do
something else and everything. We're like, hey, just pick up the phone
and see what happens. And whenwe've done that, we've seen twenty percent
increase in people's growth of just givingthem a tip as well too, so
we will consult on that as partof it as more being kind of selfish
(15:43):
for us, because if they're notgetting sales, then they're going to blame
the advertising, even though it mightnot be the advertising's fault. But advertising
is really just to get you atbets and opportunities and build that brand awareness
for you. I think it's beenaround for ten years, which isn't a
lot of time, but when itcomes to advertising and the technology, it's
it's it's light years. Yea.So what had how what's the evolution of
(16:07):
Ethic when you started and what you'redoing now? How how have you evolved?
Yeah? So, and for forme, it's been an interesting time.
I'm categorized, you know as ageriatric millennial, so I'm I'm in
between of being someone who typed onelectric typewriter and then also you know,
had aim and and the and theevolution of the Internet and everything. So
(16:30):
when I was at the ad agencyin Texas in like five, I was
figuring out Google analytics and everything.But since I want and then, but
I was always heavily in like TVadvertising and traditional advertising. When I launched
Ethic, that's where I had alot of good experience of this strategy and
traditional but over time, digital wasdefinitely the place that we're going to go.
(16:52):
And that's something that I had knowna decent amount of, but that's
where I invested heavily into my knowledgebase and to you know, over time,
hiring people where we do digital advertisingin house, where we do you
know, we have somebody that's incharge of traffic and research for us as
well too, So we also arenot just evolving on how we reach people,
but trying to improve where you know, our targeting, trying to get
(17:15):
you know, in getting AI integratedand using all these tools. It's changing
so rapidly and there's so many optionsthat are out there that it's it's really
difficult to figure out the perfect mix. There's just too many opportunities. What
we have to figure out is what'sthe best opportunities that we can have for
our clients, and then how dowe always improve upon it, what do
(17:37):
we do better? So there's anelement of blending traditional breast practices of advertising
as well as the technology that's becomingavailable. Because so much technology evolves and
gets goes out there that a youknow, you can't afford to do everything
both financially and from a time elementto have every bell and whistle attached to
it. So you have to reallykind of go through and we do what
(17:59):
we call sprints to figure out,Okay, if we're going to look at
a live reporting dashboard, let's doa sprint, let's focus hyper on that,
get that figured out, and thenknow that in two years we're gonna
have to revisit again because the evolutionof it is of that technology is always
going to be changing as well too, So just about keeping up with it
and figuring out, okay, what'sthe best things in tools and resources that
(18:21):
we can use right now and stayingon top of those things in those education
but AI machine learning, like it'sjust there's so many elements that are part
of this. The targeting cabailities thatwe have. When I start talking about
we can target people based off wherethey've physically been down to sixteen feet and
the third party data, the firstparty data, and figuring out what people
are interested in, what they're searchingfor, and then retargeting based off of
(18:45):
those things. Like it, ittends to blow people's mind when they're not
in this space of learning all thesedifferent things and it just keeps on growing.
But then we also have to applythat ethic component where's that line for
some of this thing? So wealso focus heavily on privacy of people that
we're targeting, but also blend itwith what we want to be as efficient
and get the best results for ourclients as possible. So talking about tools,
(19:06):
tell me about QJAM. So withbeing focused on hyper targeting geofens advertising,
which I kind of just mentioned,is now geofence is basically targeting areas
right, hyper specific areas. Soit it has a couple of different components,
but essentially, if you think aboutGPS targeting, like you know,
(19:26):
you're traveling to a restaurant and youhave the map that you're following and everything.
So it uses that kind of technologyto be able to try to identify
that someone's been in a very specificplace like a building, not like a
ZIP code, but like down tolike that sixteen feet of accuracy estimated.
So what we found though in workingwith this technology for a long time is
(19:48):
we were having a lot of conversationsthat a lot of people out there were
like I want to use this,but I don't meet ethics minimums or I
want to use a credit card orI want to do it myself. Those
are some of the hurdles that wehad because we have minimums, we don't
accept credit cards as the agency,and we do do it for the people.
There's also things where people increase themargins too much and other options for
(20:14):
geofencing, their rates are probably alittle bit high and they don't have reporting
instantaneously sometimes. So there's like thesesix closed doors of geofencing that we identified,
and we're like, well, whatif we build technology on the best
geofencing tech that we use that justmakes it easy for anybody to get access
to it. So qjam was actuallyderived from identifying a need in the marketplace
(20:40):
from having hundreds of conversations about geofencingto develop a simple platform kind of like
LinkedIn or indeed job posting where ittakes you through the step by step process
or like kind of like Facebook boostedposts as well too, if anybody's familiar
with that. But basically anybody cango on or register, they can put
their credit card in from me,and they can then set up their own
(21:02):
geofence advertising campaign for display or bannerads as well as digital video ads.
Both OTT which stands for over thetop. That's like Hulu Roku commercials on
there and video perro ads which arekind of like a commercial that might run
before a online video on like ablog or a website and everything. So
(21:23):
we put the technology into the handsof these people that might be like,
hey, I have a good idea, I only need to spend one hundred
bucks a month on this, orhey, I'm not meeting the minimum spend
in order to get the technology theyhave, which is about ten thousand dollars
a month of ad spend to getaccess to the tech that we have that
this platform is built on. Soqjam was really derived from giving this technology
(21:45):
and this option to the people tosolve some of these problems that we heard
over and over and over again.And we're coming up on having this product
live for one year at the endof this month, and we've had four
hundred and ninety sign ups for it. Give me an example of what a
company that might use qjam. Sowe if you know, if you're a
(22:07):
business that knows where your audience isphysically, there's a benefit to trying to
set up a gofense around that locationand then target with thats so we've seen
success with B to B in likeindustrial, industrial tends to only care about
a few customers that are out there. They know where their offices are and
they can do that. It worksin restaurants as well too. You know,
(22:30):
if I'm a restaurant and I wantto go after people who are going
out to eat really close to me, we can you know, you can
use it for that. We've seenit be used by lawyers and laundry mats.
We've seen it be used by realestate agents as well too, trying
to go after neighborhoods that are inthere that they're trying to farm in their
territories. So there's a lot ofdifferent use cases for this. Automotive is
(22:52):
a really big one as well,too, trying to get people that are
on automotive lots, that your competitorsthat are maybe shopping for cars. So
if you you can kind of conceptualizewhere your audience is physically, then you
can set up a geofense to tryto have an extra layer of targeting to
that type of audience. All Right, Let's say I'm I love Mexican food,
I have a Mexican restaurant, andI'm interested in q JAM What can
(23:15):
that do for my business? Yeah? So you know, if I'm going
to think that as owner of aMexican restaurant, the things you can do
with that would be to set upgeofenses around maybe nearby restaurants as well too,
or maybe there is a you know, like a like a Hispanic based
grocery store that's nearby that would beanother place to potentially have that, or
(23:38):
even just if you're in a plaza, just geofens in the plaza because you
know that there's people that have beenshopping there as well too, and then
you can deploy display or video adsto those individuals to promote your restaurant.
But then you can also have likespecial offers, which often works well having
some kind of incentive or call toaction for that to drive more traffic to
(23:59):
your predicatar restaurant versus having to youknow, maybe buy a really expensive billboard
that's out there, so it's hyperlocal advertising to get that brand awareness up
and have people think about that.You can even extend it to local neighborhoods
or something like that as well too, So instead of doing like a one
mile radius or doing like a zipcode and everything, you can be like,
there's a neighborhood right behind me ofpeople, you know that have disposable
(24:22):
income. I want them to eathere. Let's go ahead and target those
homes. Gotcha? Tell me moreabout your team. So our team is
really derived of three pillars. Wehave our Accounts Success Team, which are
the faces to our clients. They'rethe people who are kind of the quarterbacks
(24:44):
for our client's campaigns and you know, helping kind of put all the pieces
together. Then we have our Mediadepartment, which they do traditional media buying.
They do all the in house digitaladvertising and our adopts and set up
in those kind of things, alongwith reporting and getting all the information that
(25:06):
we need both in house into ourclients as well too through our live reporting
dashboard. And then we also haveour Creative department as well too. So
for creative we're doing video production,audio animation, graphic design, and website
development. So with fifteen people,you know, each team is about like
three to five people. And thenI also have so from the entrepreneur standpoint,
I have a really fantastic accounting andHR individual as well to Caitlin,
(25:33):
so I have her helping me outas well too, which has been a
big asset bringing her on as well. So I have someone helping me out
with the ad inside of things.But that's kind of the structure of our
team, and I look for talentedindividuals that believe in our core values and
like to do good quality work andthat come to the table as team players.
(25:55):
We don't have office politics really.We work really efficiently as well too.
A lot of people will use theterm like operating as a family and
everything. We're definitely not that we'reoperating more as colleagues and friends. Families
can be dysfunctional. There's a arguingthat's going on there. You know.
For us, we have a lotof structure that's in there, and then
we have a lot of people thatare just attuned to the style of work
(26:18):
that we do. Have. Youalways had that entrepreneurial spirit, yeah,
So first time that I ever tappedinto it was probably in fourth grade,
selling soft pretzels and popcorn at lunchtimeand everything. So that was probably the
first kind of thing. Part ofwhat I did to launch Ethic and get
that free was so this would havebeen starting in like two thousand and eight.
(26:41):
Was the first time I bought aproperty and then leading up to twenty
fourteen, really probably even twenty fourteen, bought a duplex, renovated it and
rented it out, flipped the houseover, and craft and everything. So
I got into real estate investing alittle bit hyper educating myself on that as
well too and stuff. So thatis something that's always been kind of ingrained
(27:04):
with me. My grandfather was anentrepreneur. I have some other family members
that are entrepreneurs as well too thatI've kind of seen. But I've also
had family members that went the corporateroute and everything, and I did that
for a bit as well too,And definitely, you know, I had
a lot of great experiences with likeCBS and the bigger agencies and stuff,
but allow me to really figure outthe type of business that I want to
(27:26):
do. And like I said,I mean, I started this thinking,
if it's only going to be aroundfor one year, that's still a win
and accomplishment. I did everything Icould to make sure that it did have
longevity. And I want something againthat's going to last for a really long
time and still be a staple inour industry of culture and ethics and those
kind of things and stuff. Soyou know, for me, I've kind
(27:48):
of won this game already and everything, and now I'm trying to figure out
how to play that next game,that next level up and go after it.
What is the next level? Soit's a continuation that we're doing.
So, you know, for us, my mission is to probably double in
size over the next couple of years, but do it in the same manner
(28:12):
that we have still focusing on havinggood people working for us and taking care
of our customers and having to focuson the values and the culture and bringing
in more technology. So the technologycomponent, I think is something that I
see us leveraging other people's technology,like a lot of agencies, but also
(28:33):
continuing the development of our own technology. QJM is kind of a standalone service
that provides a niche market fill forthis kind of space and geofencing of taking
the leads that we can't actually serviceas ethic and having them go over there
so they can at least have agood resource there, or because it's so
(28:56):
automated, people that just find GEOjust find QG that they can actually become
a good ethic advertising lead. Soit's actually a good lead service. But
where I kind of see the futurefrom a technology standpoint is developing technology specifically
for ethic advertising to develop and intervancewhat we have going on, or the
adoption of other people's tech that wecan overlay into what we're doing as well
too. So I would say doublingin size over the next three years is
(29:19):
probably the next level that I wantto get to. All Right, So
it's apparent that you're a businessman.I mentioned that you're entrepreneur. You have
that spirit, but you also comeacross very creative. Is that also part
of you? Yeah, so,I mean one of the It's interesting too
because my background is traditionally in mediaand strategy, but my degree is actually
(29:44):
video and audio production. So Istarted out as a creative, but I
also always believed like blending those thingstogether and then trying to find and figure
out ways to solve problems in acreative manner that breaks the mold has always
been something that I love. Ithink that there's actually a big I'm dyslexic
and everything, so I view thatas a as a superpower for me because
(30:04):
it allows me to think differently andthink creatively as well too. So I've
always been able to do that.But I'm also I was that kid that
had a hard time reading, butI tested out of like math things.
So I have the analytical side ofthings, I also have the creative side
of things. That's allowing me tokind of look at it from both angles
and try to find some of theseopportunities and figure out things in a mathematical,
(30:27):
structured way while still allowing there tobe creativity. And I kind of
test that to the fact that thatI have this you know, this dyslexia
thing going on as well too,that that forced me to do that in
school and throughout, you know,my career kind of a superpower. I
love that. Yeah, yeah,how involved are you in the community?
(30:48):
What are some of your what aresome of your passions? So I actually
want to start this out of likeone of the things that for me personally
is I want to be like Iwant to get to a point, even
though I said that I'm not creatinganything, I want to get a point
of financial freedom where I spend moretime focusing on others and helping others than
myself. And that was always mybelief for a long time. And I
(31:11):
preface by saying this because I waslike, I gotta work harder, I
gotta work harder. And then Igot to a point I was like,
why am I waiting to help peopleand everything? And I've always been able
to be like I called open notepolicy. I'll talk with anything, anybody
about advertising and help them out.I don't care if it's the kid with
a lemonade stand, you know,to like a big prospect for us as
well too. So I've always donethat. But then I realized, hey,
(31:33):
like I shouldn't wait to help othersuntil I make it quote unquote.
So I came to that epiphany probablylike five years ago, and then I
started getting more involved with Paul Schoolfor here in speech I said on the
communication board for Animal Friends, I'vedone guest lectures at universities as well too,
So I'm looking for opportunities that allowme to take some of my area
(31:55):
of expertise and blend that to giveback. And it was one of those
things is that I didn't think Ihad enough time. I thought that I
had to grind out harder to getto that level. And it was really
kind of a neat moment. Andthen why I want to share this is
because if someone's in the same situationand thinking the same thing, it felt
really good to be able to say, Okay, I'm going to coach my
kids soccer team and get more involvedin the community and do some of these
(32:19):
things that I'm passionate about and findthe time to do that knowing, hey,
you know, maybe I need togive up some of this grinding time
at work to have some of thatbalance in my life and start giving back
now as well too. All Right, if somebody wants more information on ethic
Advertising or qjam, do you havea website? Yeah, ethics website is
ethic dashads dot com and qjam isqu jam dot com. Just qjam dot
(32:46):
com. It's just my kids' names, Quinn and Jamison mash together. Oh
that's awesome job sports CEO of EthicAdvertising and qjam and a CEO you definitely
should know. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. This has
been the CEOs you should know podcastshowcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy
part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communitieswe serve. I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank
(33:07):
you so much for loving
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