Tim Smith of Chemistry on AOR vs project work, the Atlanta United campaign launch

The President of Chemistry, Atlanta talks about being named Ad Age’s small agency of the year -  twice, the challenges with client agreements and the most successful campaign launch in professional sports history. Full shownotes and transcripts at www.creativeouthouse.com/podcast

Transcript:
Rudy Fernandez:           Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In this episode of Marketing Upheaval, I spoke with Tim Smith, President of Chemistry in Atlanta. Chemistry was named Ad Age's best small agency two out of the last four years, and we talked about that.

Rudy:               We also talked about what's not working with a lot of client agency relationships and new business, and we talked about the most successful launch in professional sports history and what we all can learn from that.

Rudy:               Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.

Earcon:             You're listening to Marketing Upheaval from Creative Outhouse.

Rudy:               Hey, thanks for listening to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Tim Smith, President of Chemistry in Atlanta. Chemistry won Ad Age's Small Agency of the Year in 2016 and 2018. They do great work and have some powerful case studies, including the most successful sports franchise launch in history, according to ESPN and Sports Illustrated. We're going to talk about that. Thanks for joining me, Tim.

Tim Smith:        Thanks for having me.

Rudy:               So I know you worked at a lot of big shops and big brands and stuff, and then you worked on Super Bowl spots and everything, and now small shops.

Rudy:               Well, first of all, why did you do that? Why did you go from the big agency, big budget to small shops?

Tim:                 Yeah. So I started really right out of school, jumped right into the deep end and went to BBDO New York. Now, that was all big stuff, big budgets. I thought, "Wow, this advertising gig's amazing. We have huge budgets, and flying around, fancy hotels." It was fantastic.

Rudy:               I only get to hear about that kind of stuff.

Tim:                 Right. Sadly, I got to experience it just long enough to miss it. So it was great. Well, I always wanted to live in the South, so I kind of would go to a big ad market, come back South. Got to a big ad market, come back South.

Tim:                 Then an opportunity came up to be a creative director in a small shop, so I had the ego to believe that, wow, this small shop, they've got a few clients and I've done all this big stuff, I can certainly make them big, that's not going to be a problem. Found how difficult the struggle was. So we did some good stuff. We won a lot of business and stuff, but it was on a totally different level from all the ones I was used to. But I really liked it.
More at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/09/18/tim-smith-of-chemistry-on-aor-vs-project-work-the-atlanta-united-campaign-launch/

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