Ask any two
people in adland what they know about Rothco and those that have an opinion and
are happy to share it will inevitably answer differently. One might mention a
successful below the line agency, a reputation earned in the agency's formative
days. Another response might be: “Oh yeah, aren't they're the crowd that won
AIB?”

Pose the
question to two of Rothco's founders, Paul Hughes and Patrick Hickey, both of whom insist they speak for
each and every one of the crew on the Rothco payroll, and they will be
unequivocal. Rothco is “an ideas brand”. From day one, it was to be all about
ideas. So what's new? What's the big idea? Let's start at the very beginning.

It was the
mid-Noughties. Hughes, Hickey and Patrick
Ronaldson had worked in Saatchi & Saatchi, Des O'Meara & Partners and
Irish International. They had enough of the same old, same old and wanted to
make a name for themselves. They planned something different, something new.
They stacked up their savings. They thought of a name.

Rothco came
about after an exchange of ideas and several pints of Murphy's. They had come
up with “fabulous names like Custodian and Reach”. There hanging on the wall
was a print of a painting by the Latvian-born abstract impressionist Mark Rothko
and… your reek ahh! Agency name sorted, the job now was to nail down some
clients.

Rothco
served firstly in lining up introductions. Some people thought there could be
links with Rothmans cigarettes. No harm. It was whatever they did down the
road, rather than the agency title, that would define the brand. There was no
rationale behind Rothco. It was an idea, the first of many.

PLANE TALKING Aer Lingus sought to maintain its image of Ireland's best loved airline for all round service, while at the same time Rothco had to be conscious that travellers want to pay as low a price as possible these days and so try and keep in line with Ryanair charges.

The credo from
the start was that Rothco would always be bigger and more important than anyone
who worked in it. That explains why anyone who does go on the record and speaks
about the agency and what it stands for remains anonymous, including the
agency's fourth owner, Richard Carr.
Everyone subscribes to the same ethos.

Rothco's
birth marked the start of a journey. The road ahead would define the brand and
earn a reputation. Work done for clients would lead the way and personalities
would not even notch a cameo. The idea was to get a stream of good work out
there for clients and potential clients
to recognise. They now feel their aim has been achieved to some extent.

The agency
was at first considered strong on below the line campaigns, sales promotions in
particular. Winning bagfuls of awards for the likes of Coca-Cola and getting
coverage in Marketing as a result
went some way to feeding this perception. More recently, its advertising work
for Aer Lingus, AIB and the Crisis Pregnancy Agency has shone.

It is easy
for people to put an agency into a box. But Hickey insists Rothco has not
changed a smidgen since the day it opened its doors. Yet having to pitch for
every promotion was less appealing than a long-term advertising contract.
Advertising got them to the top table and they would have been foolish to
ignore the fare set before them.

Profits and
morale were to benefit. They had got the message across to clients that they
could influence every aspect of their branding, as Rothco stood for everything
they had intended – from new product
development to each facet of marketing communications above, below and through
the line. It is this form of power they are keen to nourish.

The
business reported billings in 2006 of €7.5 million and last year the fee income
amounted to €10.5m.This year they project a total of €16m. Those figures do not
include print buying and the agency out-sources its media. The intention is to
build something tangible and in keeping with the ambitions which the agency had
from the start.

“None of us
are business experts,” Hughes said. “We didn't come into this with master
degrees in business management. It has a momentum and we've got a goal of where
we want to get to. Whether it's the best creatives, the best suits, the best
planning, the best of anything… it all takes time. But we've learned how to
build these things.”

Rothco has
its brand mantra as a trade mark. Every client they work with, they try and get
them to adopt the brand mantra proposition to reflect what they stand for
internally and externally – get to the core, the truth. In AIB's case, it is
whatever success means to their customers and the internal version of that is
for AIB to facilitate customer success.

Unlike the
cobbler's children who go barefoot, Rothco has its own mantra. ‘Ideas that grow
business' is on the wall. It is part of everything they do and they point to it
when questioned about what differentiates them from other agencies. Ideas is
what they believe in and if they were any more passionate about them they would
be making porn movies.

“People in
the business might remark about awards we've won,” Hickey remarked. “But we
don't care. But we do care about what clients and potential clients think of
us. So the ‘Ideas that grow business' mantra is something that we have to live
up to every day.” The IAPI AdFx gold award they won for Aer Lingus ‘Low Fares,
Way Better' means a lot.

The agency
did a campaign for the Health & Safety Authority (HSA) on farm safety last
year. The strategy adopted by the government-sponsored body over a decade was
reversed by not presenting the downside of the work they did. Instead, they
presented older, happy farmers with grandkids and enjoying life to the full in
TV, radio and print. Rothco got a call from the client to say that fatalities
were down by over 30 per cent year-on-year. While they did not pretend for one
moment that the ads were responsible for the better results, Rothco were
chuffed to get a call from the client and hear that the ads had gone some way
in helping to raise the profile of the HSA among the public at large.

The
agency's management have no plans to follow Cawley Nea by selling out to an
international network. Nor would they be seeking any non-equity alignments.
Hickey said they have not noticed any disadvantages from being totally
independent. It has not limited them or meant that business they sought has
been outside their control – so far.

FIELD GOOD FACTOR Rothco created a print and broadcast campaign for the HSA where they turned the image of farm accidents on its head and created a more positive profile of Irish farmers.

While
Rothco clients include such well-known Irish brands as AIB and Aer Lingus, they
also handle Hibernian (soon to become Aviva), Birds Eye, Fruice for Coca-Cola
Bottlers, Starbucks, Currys, Visit Britain and Murphy's for Heineken Ireland.
The agency does pro bono work for
Autism Awareness and FrontLine protection of human rights.

They like
to do things differently at Rothco. Rather than organise a Christmas party in
December, they host a beano early in the new year where clients, suppliers and
media are sent out a blank canvas and paints with a party invite to their New
Year bash. The idea was that guests paint a picture and their art is on display
in the agency on the night.

This year,
they hosted a celebration in the Courtyard restaurant in Donnybrook where a
first-class night of entertainment featured comedian Neil Delamere and singer
Jack L. In a bid to encourage a good work-life balance, time is set aside each
week for yoga and pilates. Every Thursday
at lunchtime, they play a game of football with suppliers in Belfield.

Rothco has
done well, so well they must now move to bigger premises. On the day of this
interview, we sat around the boardroom table while an agency team met in the
corridor. The building's open plan spaces are worked to the limits. Chalk
boards and stick-ons hosted ideas and quotes, an escape from the sardine can
their growth has spawned.

It is a
good complaint to have. While Hughes and Hickey remain reluctant right to the end
of the interview to have quotes directly attributable to them, the last words
act as a reminder of what advertising is really about these days. “A lot of our
business is leg work, it's hard graft.” Who said that? Suffice to say, that's
how Rothco read it.