The Cranford brothers, from left, Chris, Jay and Ross, are seeking to maintain their father’s legacy a year after founding the advertising agency Cranford Co.
One year after splitting with the company their father helped found and launching their own, the Cranford brothers still focus on their father’s legacy.
The trio — Jay, 49, Ross, 47, and Chris, 42 — said in a recent interview that they are using their experience and connections from decades in the industry to build their “garden agency” into a national presence.
The fledgling firm hasn’t yet moved into its office space in the Creative Corridor in downtown Little Rock, but has managed to build up its client list from zero to 41 and received several national awards while based in the youngest brother’s Hillcrest attic.
The brothers said the work they did at CJRW and what they’re doing now at Cranford Co. reflects their father’s vision of bringing creative, Madison Avenue-worthy work to Arkansas.
“I think that’s been our guiding inspiration from day one. It was a vibrant message in 1961 and it’s a vibrant message today,” Jay Cranford said.
A ‘Garden Agency’
Cranford Co. is billed as a full-service advertising agency, but remains a slim operation — there are only two other full-time employees besides the brothers. The “garden agency” model the company deploys requires a network of partners who can be tapped for various services, including public relations, media planning and buying, and interactive development.
“We use our expertise and our connections and relationships to bring in the people who we think will do the best job,” Jay Cranford said.
Chris Cranford, who has worked in film and video for about 20 years, said he felt that the company had a certain level of expertise in telling stories visually. His older brother agreed, noting that those stories could then be shared through social media to reach out to the masses at a lower cost than traditional television ads.
“I think it’s changing daily and there are more and more ways to make sure that you are getting the reach and the target audience. It’s going from broadcasting to narrow-casting. It’s a very effective, efficient way to get your message to the target audience you want to reach,” Jay Cranford said.
The brothers declined to elaborate further on their departure from CJRW last year, which they have said was largely tied to philosophical differences and a request to sign noncompete agreements, or the differences between the agencies. Instead, Jay Cranford said they wanted to “let our work and results speak for us.”
“There are no Cranfords at CJRW. I think we really are that living legacy and culture and that sense of excellence and getting results for our clients that our father instilled in us,” he said.
Chris Cranford said that the work they produced wasn’t dependent on their place of employment.
“I think that we were doing creative work there and now we’re not. Now we’re doing creative work on our own,” he said.
First-Year Clients
Ross Cranford declined to share a revenue figure from the company’s first year, but said that 30 of their 41 clients were paying clients that they worked with on a “consistent basis.” The others are nonprofits for which the company provides pro bono work and which include several neighbors in the downtown Little Rock area.
Carol Bevis, the deputy director of the Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District, said the district was so impressed with Cranford Co.’s ideas for the district’s Recycle Advantage program television ads that it decided to go with them instead of making changes.
“Both of their examples we felt like were so good that that’s what we wanted to use,” Bevis said.
She said she previously knew the Cranfords from their work at CJRW on the district’s curbside recycling program that started in 2012. She said she’s been pleased with the new company’s work on the Recycle Advantage project, which has a $150,000 budget, as well as a smaller project the company did for recycling bins at the Little Rock Zoo.
Jason Chacko, who served as chairman this year of the International Greek Food Festival, said the festival was working on a slim advertising budget of $18,000, but had a record attendance of about 30,000 people and sales improved about 30 percent compared with last year.
Chacko attributed the growth in part to videos produced by Chris Cranford that featured some of the vendors and the food they prepared. The limited budget prevented them from airing the videos on television, but spread across the Internet on social media.
The use of the videos online attracted a broader demographic, including younger people and “foodies,” Chacko said.
“It was such a new idea. We never even thought about that as a possibility,” Chacko said.
Chacko said he was selected to serve as chairman again for the next festival and that he “absolutely” plans to use the agency again for its marketing.
Beyond Year One
Going forward, the Cranfords said they are taking a particular interest in the state’s startup businesses. Ross Cranford said that there were lessons to be learned from their father’s earlier work, where he helped grow companies and grew with them.
“Cranford Johnson didn’t start working with Alltel when they were a Fortune 500 company. They started working with them when they were Allied Telephone & Telegraph,” he said.
Chris Cranford said he is particularly drawn to the startups with compelling stories, which can then be told through video.
“I know I’ve been in some meetings where they maybe say something like ‘We don’t have a lot of money,’ but they’ve got a great story, so you’re like ‘We want to find a way to help you tell that story and get the word out there,’” he said.
But the brothers said they don’t plan to limit themselves to only business in the state. They pointed to the three national American Advertising Federation ADDY awards they received for their work for the Museum of Automobiles to show they can compete with agencies around the country.
“I think we view our competition nationally. That’s our goal to be a national level agency,” Jay Cranford said.
The oldest Cranford brother said that June was the company’s busiest month and that they plan to keep looking for the latest technology to deploy and for new clients.
“We’re definitely feeling the economy growing and people starting new companies, wanting to advertise more. I think we’ve seen a lot of that energy locally, as well as nationally, so hopefully we can capitalize on that,” Jay Cranford said.
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