Media Agency Rockets to the Forefront
11/7/97
Triangle Business Journal, (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC)

By Renee Degross

Cary - Media Research Planning & Placement Inc. is by no means the hidden back-room group of a large advertising agency.

Instead, it's a full-service media agency that has seen billings skyrocket about 1,800 percent since 1992, including 127 percent jump from 1995 to last year.

No wonder MRPP is the third-fastest growing private company in the Triangle and has been on TBJ's Fast 50 three years in a row,

"I attribute this growth to the current trends of companies that are out-sourcing many services that formerly were handled by full-service advertising agencies," said President Sheila Hale Ogle.

Ogle founded the company 10 years ago after a 20-year career with Howard, Merrell & Partners in Raleigh, the state's oldest full-service advertising firm.

"I mirrored it after the media department at Howard Merrell," she has said.

Ogle worked alone in her home for six months before renting office space and hiring staff. Today, she employs 13 people, including her husband, Carroll, and they work in 4,000 square feet of office space in Olde Cary Commons in downtown Cary. She and her husband own the building with two partners.

Ogle works with a client's creative and marketing department, designing media plans that get a company the most for its money, whether they want seasonal media buys or full-fledged campaigns.

MRPP's staff works in teams, concentrating in four areas: planning, buying, coordinating the media plans, and promotions. The promotions staff, for example, is in daily contact with radio, television and newspaper reps, staying on top of sponsorshjps and opportunities for visibility.

Ogle also strives to provide her employees with flexible work schedules so they can "have the best of both worlds."

The firm's first two clients were Johnson's Jewelers and Jeffrey's Living and Family Rooms. The list now boasts names such as the Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau, North Carolina Credit Union Network, Storr Office Environments, North Carolina Wesleyan College, Plain Paper Solutions and Woodplay.

"Perhaps our greatest success story is that we do still have the first clients we ever got," Ogle has said. "Jeffrey's Living and Family Rooms is a small advertiser and a loyal advertiser."

Ogle moved the company last summer because she grew tired of paying rent, which she now collects from tenants such as the Cary School of Music and The Claiborne Collection.

She said the new office is three blocks from her home.