A Whole New Breed Of Advertising Agency: The Brandon Agency

“What’s good for our clients, is good for us.”

Founded in 1959 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., The Brandon Agency is a full-service, fully integrated advertising agency filled with talented, passionate, fearless, hard-working, caffeine-charged, idea-generating, fun-loving, late-night working, client-focused marketers who love what they do.

The company has a media agnostic approach to problem solving with a premium on big thinking and taking the path less travelled. Most importantly, the company likes to keep score and invite accountability and measurement into everything that we do. We constantly strive to uncover the next big idea that will deliver big results for our clients.

In conversation with the executives

Why was the company set up?
We didn’t set out to be visionaries. We simply weren’t satisfied with the way things were. In our digitally dominated world, clients need more — more ideas, more collaboration, more of a strategic soul mate.So we’ve tossed out old-fashioned methods and are aggressively reimagining the agency model and what it means to be a business partner. We started making waves in Myrtle Beach almost 60 years ago. Since then, we’ve sparked an advertising revolution and continued to fan the flames across the United States and overseas.

How successful was your first project roll on?
Our first project was for a Myrtle Beach-based hotel management company that wanted to increase their occupancy and revenue per available room (RevPar) leveraging paid search. Rather than building nine different campaigns (one for each property), we created an aggregate portal site for all of the properties in the client’s portfolio and then developed a paid search campaign that effectively intercepted Myrtle Beach vacation search intent.

What do you feel are the reasons behind your product popularity?
We pride ourselves on being strategic business partners that deliver revolutionary business building ideas to our clients. We do not offer cookie-cutter services but work to create a partnership that provides revolutionary business building ideas. When they are successful, we are successful. We are a trusted and proven group of differently thinking ideators. As a digitally-minded, fully integrated national firm, we’ve built a team of smart, results-obsessed experts who consult, advise and deliver successful results. We have more to offer than a traditional ad agency, that’s what our clients love about us. We are highly competitive, entrepreneurial, and want to grow and need to win.

How do you and your company contribute to the global IT platform and society at large?
We believe in the “lean” philosophy and approach to our clients and their businesses in a variety of ways. We support both open-source and proprietary projects that allow us, and teams like us, to continue to grow and sustain. We encourage and support involvement in our greater industry-specific communities and organizations through speaking engagements, conference attendance and knowledge sharing online.

Are there any trigger factors that have played key roles in shaping your organization’s road map?
Since we existed prior to the birth of the internet, we have to start with that. We were early adopters. In the early days of the internet, we developed software solutions for our clients by way of interfaces and booking engines to help them transact in real time. The key trigger in shaping our existence from then on has been consumer behavior and how they use technology.

Do you have any new products ready to be/getting ready to be rolled out into the market?
While we don’t have specific details on new product launches at this time, we’re very proud of our constant urge for more and better as it relates to our ability to mine data at the service of our clients. We strive daily for sharper clarity, and provide increasingly insightful data that both yields results and filters out the metrics that only serve as noise.

Meet the Master Duo

Cecil Brandon, Founder: After serving in the U.S. Army as a 1st Lieutenant in the Korean War, Cecil graduated from Davidson College in 1958 with a business degree. Cecil moved to Myrtle Beach in 1959, and became a partner in his advertising and sales company, presently known as The Brandon Agency.

With responsibility for planning and producing the organization’s marketing and advertising efforts to attract more visiting golfers to the Myrtle Beach area on golf package vacations, Cecil has been associated with Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday since its inception in 1967 as its Executive Director. In 1982, Cecil was honored with the South Carolina Tourism Award for his success in attracting visitors to the state and served on the Congressional Tourism and Caucus Advisory Board, appointed by Congressman Robin Tallon, to attract international visitors to the coast. Additionally, Cecil has served as a board member of the Council of Myrtle Beach Area Organizations, founding member of the Board of Anchor Financial Corporation, member of the Chicora Rotary Club, and served as an Elder of the First Presbyterian Church.

Scott Brandon, CEO: No one knows this business like CEO Scott Brandon. Born and raised in Myrtle Beach, Scott attended Davidson College, where he majored in economics, and the University of South Carolina, where he received his Juris Doctor. He practiced law with Bellamy Law for four years, but found no passion in it. That’s when, in 1993, his father Cecil Brandon gave him work at a little growing company called The Brandon Agency, which grew into South Carolina’s largest independently owned advertising agency.

Always the innovator, Scott has been at the forefront of many trends, including the use of social media in advertising, email database capture strategies for clients, customer relationship management tools, and the development of specialized digital marketing services through TBA’s sister company, Fuel Interactive.

“We don’t do ‘work’ because we love what we do. We play, have fun, create and deliver great results. That’s why we are GOOD FOR BUSINESS.”