There was a time when an agency's name on the door meant something specific: that the person whose name it was had built the place, and probably still walked its halls. The name was a handshake, a promise, a bit of provenance. But provenance, it turns out, can curdle into burden.
The agency formerly known as White64 — named for its founder, E. James White, and the year he hung out his shingle — has rechristened itself Worst Kept Secret, a name that sounds less like a law firm and more like a positioning statement. Which is, of course, the point.
"It's not a very exciting story," said Kerry Beutel, the agency's president, of the old name. "It really felt like it represented our past and not who we are today."
The rebrand gained momentum after Matt White, the founder's son, retired last year. Clients, Ms. Beutel said, had begun describing themselves as "the best kept secret" in their categories — a phrase the agency recognized as a complaint dressed up as a compliment. (You do not, generally, want to be a secret in the marketing business.)
Worst Kept Secret is not alone in its nominal reinvention. Barrett Hofherr became Optimism BH earlier this year. Brownstein Group is now Born and Raised. Sullivan Higdon & Sink, a name that could have belonged to a Midwestern haberdashery, became Signal Theory in 2019 — and reports that revenue has risen nearly 40 percent since then.
The trend reflects a broader anxiety on Madison Avenue: that a founder's name, however distinguished, may now communicate age rather than authority.
"When you feel that your name is not helping to differentiate you in the market, and when the equity it has isn't the good kind of brand equity, but maybe the stagnant kind — that's probably a time to think about rebranding," said Stacie Boney, president of Hanson Dodge, an agency that has, for the moment, kept its founders' names intact.
Brian Kessman, a consultant who advised on the White64 rebrand, cautioned that new names carry their own risks. "The first pitfall is when an agency brands itself on points of parity," he said — claiming to be "full service," "integrated," "results-driven," or, that perennial favorite, "fun to work with."
The irony, of course, is that agencies are in the business of telling clients how to present themselves to the world. One might think they would have figured this out sooner.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Why some agencies no longer put their founder at the center of their sales pitch — starting with a name change | Campaign US"