Steve Laughlin stumbled into his first entrepreneurial venture at age 11 with a family of white mice, a little red wagon and a handmade sign reading: “White Mice, 10 cents each.”
Even as a kid, Laughlin, co-founder and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based marketing communications agency Laughlin Constable, was learning the principles behind business investments and the power of advertising firsthand. He launched his childhood business after a few trips to the pet store with his dad eventually resulted in a growing troupe of mice.
While Laughlin had his sights set on getting a dog, his parents wanted him to prove he could care for one by looking after a smaller animal first. On their first trip to the store, Laughlin’s father threw out $1 to buy him one pet mouse, which he accidentally “loved” to death, he said, as he held it tightly on the car ride home, overcome with excitement.
Upon their return to the pet store to quell Laughlin’s grief, the owner sold them two mice for the price of one. That transaction multiplied in a matter of weeks.
The Laughlin family, who lived in the Chicago suburb of Homewood, Ill., “had mice coming out of our ears,” Laughlin said.
So he hitched an old aquarium housing the mice onto his red wagon and wheeled it around to neighbors and classmates, exchanging his rodents for dimes.
“That was my first shot at anything entrepreneurial that might allow me to make money,” Laughlin said, adding that he was able to return his dad’s initial $2 investment within a couple months.
Since that first venture – and that first advertisement promoting his mice – Laughlin has become a creative legend whose name is known well beyond Milwaukee. His career as an advertising and marketing executive, which spans nearly 40 years, has produced an agency with four office locations, about 235 employees and a client roster that includes corporate giants such as Harley-Davidson Inc. and McDonald’s.
His career also has generated countless awards, many recognizing Laughlin Constable’s marketing projects and others saluting the agency as a top workplace.
Laughlin’s personal accolades include the American Advertising Federation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, induction into the Wisconsin Advertising Hall of Fame, and now, the 2015 BizTimes Bravo! Lifetime Achievement Award.
The honor from BizTimes Media “brought back a flood of memories” of the many people Laughlin has had the good fortune to work with and learn from, he said.
“I think more than any one thing, this award gives me an opportunity to realize how much I owe the many people who either pushed, helped or contributed to some measure of success,” Laughlin said. “We all work with other people. This is a business award, and nobody ever does it on their own in business. Business is a team sport, and we’re just all blessed by the people we’ve surrounded ourselves with or we’re lucky enough to work with.”
Fighting for a chance
Laughlin’s path to launching his own marketing communications agency began with a college course in advertising that sold him on the industry. As a business major at Drake University, he took an elective course in advertising taught in the journalism school and discovered a discipline that tapped into the emotional drivers behind why people do business.
“And I was really excited by the creativity of all that,” Laughlin said.
He graduated with $12 in his wallet and plans to marry his college sweetheart, Marge, who hailed from Milwaukee. After college, Laughlin moved to Milwaukee, where Marge had lined up a job. Laughlin migrated to the city without knowing anything about it or its business community, living in a spare bedroom at his future in-laws’ home as he figured out the first chapter of his career.
Within weeks he secured a job as a programmer analyst with JCP Logistics, which belongs to J.C. Penney Corp. Inc.
“And I was off to the races doing exactly what I didn’t want to do,” Laughlin said.
He spent the next two-and-a-half years developing a creative portfolio for advertising so he could break into the business.
After a slew of agency interviews that did not go his way, Laughlin said he learned how difficult it was to get a job at an ad agency without any experience. His first shot at an industry writing gig came at a local agency with a large base of agricultural clients. The creative director interviewed him on a Friday afternoon and offered up polite, complimentary feedback on his work.
Laughlin, eager to muscle his way into advertising, made the creative director a proposition that set forth the rest of his career. Admitting that he would be taking a chance on someone who had never worked in the industry, Laughlin asked the director to give him the worst assignment at the agency – a project he would not want to give any of the writers on staff. Laughlin said he would take it home over the weekend and bring his completed piece back the following week, and if the director saw any glimmer of potential in his concept, he would agree to work at the agency for modest compensation. If the arrangement panned out over six months, they could then negotiate a salary, Laughlin proposed.
The assignment Laughlin spent that weekend perfecting required him to write an ad for Berg barn cleaner parts, farming equipment that scrapes cow dung off the floor and then collects it to be used for fertilizer. His headline on the ad read: “Let Berg do the job you don’t like.”
By the end of the next week, Laughlin had a job offer from the agency with a salary comparable to that of its receptionist.
He built up a year of experience at the agency before working for a few other agencies, including Cramer-Krasselt. From there, Laughlin ventured into business for himself with a group of partners that included Matt Bernstein and Dennis Frankenberry, both of whom lived in the same Brown Deer apartment complex as Laughlin.
Success out of the gate
The three-way friendship among Laughlin, Bernstein and Frankenberry laid the foundation for the 1976 incorporation of Frankenberry, Laughlin, Bernstein & Persa Inc. The agency’s name evolved as its ownership group evolved, finally becoming Laughlin Constable in 1992. The agency has retained that name ever since, even after the retirement of partner John Constable in 2002. Constable, whom Laughlin met at an agency early in his career, remains a member of the company’s board today.
The original agency relied on a team of five – three full-timers, a freelance art director and a receptionist position filled by Laughlin’s pregnant wife.
Seven weeks after opening its doors, the agency won its very first account: Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Electric, now known as We Energies.
That account, which Laughlin and his partners had nabbed over Cramer-Krasselt, was “monumental” for the agency, Laughlin said, as it granted the team instant credibility and stocked its workload right away.
“We were lucky beyond our wildest dreams,” Laughlin said of the victory.
Little more than a year after it was founded, in 1978, the agency landed the account of Oshkosh B’Gosh Inc. Constable also joined the agency that year. Together, the leadership teams at the agency and Oshkosh B’Gosh transformed the company from one known for its work wear, such as painter’s pants and bib overalls, into a household brand revered for children’s wear.
At the time, Oshkosh B’Gosh was a pioneer in creating cute children’s clothing, largely thanks to the ideas and intuition of Douglas Hyde, now retired chief executive officer and chairman of the company.
Upon winning the business of Oshkosh B’Gosh, Laughlin originally conceived the slogan, “The Genuine Article Since 1895” and proposed the idea of “reinforcing the rural roots, work ethic and wholesomeness associated with middle America,” he said.
The concept hung on an “anti-trendy, authenticity positioning strategy,” Laughlin said.
When Oshkosh B’Gosh started to carve out more of a focus in children’s wear, the tagline “A pint-sized version of the Genuine Article” emerged.
“It resonated immediately,” Laughlin said, particularly among the company’s target audience of mothers and grandmothers.
To garner more attention for its children’s wear, Laughlin said he “nervously suggested” Oshkosh B’Gosh take a huge gamble and spend more than half its budget in one day sponsoring the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and capturing the interest of mothers, grandmothers and kids who would be tuning in to the festivities.
“For one day at least we were as big as McDonald’s,” Laughlin said.
That innovative approach to growing a following of consumers speaks to the agency’s strength in coming up with fresh ideas, staying on top of market trends and reinventing brands, Hyde said.
The creative team continued to form new ideas on ways to recast the brand’s advertising while still honoring its history and reputation, according to Hyde.
“They found fresh ways of packaging that main message,” Hyde said.
The agency headed the majority of Oshkosh B’Gosh’s advertising and promotions for about 25 years.
Business relationships rarely last that long, said Hyde, who credits Laughlin and his team as key contributors to his company’s success.
“They were very instrumental in the whole process,” Hyde said. “They were vitally important to the growth and the success of the company. And Steve was at the heart of that.”
Competing on the national stage
Another major client win in the early days of Laughlin Constable came in 1981, when the agency beat out a well-known national advertising firm, Grey New York, for the business of Stevens Point-based Sentry Insurance.
That client relationship reinforced the strength of Laughlin Constable at the time and boosted its confidence in its ability to play on a national stage, Laughlin said.
Today, Laughlin Constable’s national client portfolio includes A&E, Master Lock, American Red Cross, Food Network, Kleenex, MillerCoors and United Way.
And while Laughlin Constable has maintained its headquarters in Milwaukee, it has also established offices in Chicago, New York and New Jersey.
The agency considered adding offices to its operations fairly early on in its history, particularly in other parts of the Midwest or on the East Coast. Agency executives sought locations they could access easily from Milwaukee and locations with time zones that would not complicate business, according to Laughlin.
The first expansion came in 1998, with the opening of a Chicago office as Laughlin Constable acquired advertising company N.W. Ayer. Ten years later, the agency introduced operations in New York as it completed a merger with New York-based Partners and Jeary. In 2012, as Laughlin Constable acquired Filter Advertising, which had offices in Red Bank, N.J., and Manhattan, it put a stake in the ground in New Jersey.
Also included in Laughlin Constable’s history of acquisitions are Chicago-based B2B marketing agency Mobium, facilitated six years ago, and Milwaukee-based Zeppos & Associates in 2012.
Evan Zeppos, former owner of Zeppos & Associates, said selling his business to Laughlin Constable was one of the best decisions he ever made, “especially with Steve’s track record as an industry leader and a very well respected member of the business community. (Laughlin) has an incredible creative mind and is always looking for new and better ideas. He has created a great culture at the agency, and it’s a wonderful place to work. From my perspective, while there are a lot of good agencies in town, selling to Laughlin Constable meant I was joining forces with the best of the best.”
Laughlin attributes much of Laughlin Constable’s continued growth to its ability to integrate communications both online and offline. The agency opened its doors as a traditional advertising agency, quickly adding public relations to its menu of services, and proved nimble enough to embrace digital marketing technologies and strategies in the mid-1990s.
The goal was always to be able to seamlessly take advertising and messages into any space, Laughlin said, so the agency assembled a strong digital team of back-end and front-end developers who could handle digital platforms such as websites, e-commerce and social media.
“It’s just second nature for us,” Laughlin said. “We’re an integrated agency, and I think that’s really driven our growth the last five years.”
At least half of Laughlin Constable’s revenue is now generated through digital marketing communications, according to Laughlin.
While traversing the Great Recession, Laughlin Constable’s survival hinged on its diverse group of clients, all of whom survived, Laughlin said. Spending levels were cut, but the agency preserved strong relations with its clients because of its independence and its ability to absorb some of the blows.
“Like everybody else, the profitability suffered immensely, but luckily we had strong employee loyalty and strong client loyalty,” Laughlin said. “When you’re comfortable working together, you kind of push through those tough times together. There was no magic formula.”
An eye for the future
As Laughlin Constable competes for projects and clients on a national scope, one of its particular strengths rests in its “independent spirit,” Laughlin said. The agency has remained very independent throughout its history and, though small, has had enough experience in enough markets to give it a “global perspective,” he said.
From Laughlin’s vantage point, the agency brings “the scrappiness of a smaller independent company” to the equation for clients while it is also able to think broadly beyond the narrow confines of one community.
Remaining independent also has helped Laughlin succeed in balancing his personal and professional life, a value he touts in the workplace as part of its corporate culture.
“We have always tried to be an award-winning, creative company,” Laughlin said. “We want to be known as a place for great ideas. But we take enormous pride in working to be a great place to work.”
Laughlin’s sons, Pat and Jon – both of whom are creative directors based in Laughlin Constable’s Chicago office – recall their father maintaining personal and professional balance as an active parent and executive.
Despite Laughlin’s unpredictable work schedule and frequent business trips, Pat said he clearly remembers his dad being home to play catch, coach and watch baseball games, and sit down for family meals.
“He was always there, and that’s pretty amazing,” Pat said. “I don’t know how he pulled that off.”
The Laughlin brothers, who aspire to carry their father’s creative momentum forward long-term at the agency, admire him just as much for his visionary approach to leadership in an industry that is rapidly evolving.
“I really think our father was at the forefront of embracing technology and ushering in the digital age faster than a lot of other agencies, and I think it’s really positioned us well in the last few years,” Jon said.
Keeping a pulse on the trends of the future while grooming the firm’s next generation of leaders consumes much of Laughlin’s focus these days.
His advice to those leaders? “Be committed. Be committed to your work the way you’re committed to your life, and be committed to your life the way you’re committed to your work, and try not to get those things out of balance,” Laughlin said.
“I think there’s something great about commitment,” he added. “When you’re committed to something, and you feel it’s committed to you, life can be just wonderful.”
Laughlin joins impressive ranks
Steve Laughlin will receive the 2015 BizTimes Lifetime Achievement Award on Wednesday, May 20, at the BizExpo, to be held at the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee.
Laughlin will join an elite class of past recipients of the award, including:
- Gary Grunau, real estate developer and president of Grucon Group LLC
- Michael Cudahy, founder of Marquette Electronics and philanthropist
- Sheldon Lubar, founder and chairman of Lubar & Co. in Milwaukee
- Fritz and Debra Usinger of Usinger’s Famous Sausage
- Richard Pieper Sr., chairman of PPC Partners Inc.
- Stephen Marcus, former CEO of The Marcus Corp.
- George Dalton, former CEO of Fiserv Inc.
- Robert Kern, former CEO of Generac
- Joe Zilber, former CEO of Towne Realty
- Harry Quadracci, former CEO of Quad/Graphics Inc.
To register to attend the luncheon, visit www.biztimes.com/bravo.
