Agency Spy

Pat Fallon has spoken! “I don’t want the day-to-day, 24/7 any more,” said the sixty-one year old. “I want to pull it back a little bit.” Fallon is to become the chairman emeritus of his agency, as the shop becomes part of the SSF Group headed by Kevin “I’m A Brand” Roberts. Fallon opened the shop in 1981 with the idea that creative was key and that the agency would  “outsmart the competition than outspend them.” The Minneapolis agency might remind one of Droga5 when it launched, winning praise and  accolades quickly for campaigns like the “Perception/Reality” print spot for Rolling Stone (see below).

“The biggest thing Fallon did was legitimize off-Madison Avenue advertising,” said Russel Wohlwerth, principal at ARK/AAI advisors. “They completely set up an agency that was thousands of miles away from the industry center and proved you could be world class.”

By the mid-80s, Fallon was flying high with accounts like United Airlines, Miller Brewing and McDonald’s. In 1998, Fallon hired David Lubars, which brought forth a new creative spurt full of new technologies, video games and pushing creative boundaries. As well all know, in 2004, things started to fall apart. Lubars’ bailed and other creatives and client followed suit from BMW to Citi. Adweek even goes on to point a finger at Paul Silburn for his “divisive personality and management style”, which “clashed with the agency’s culture.”  

Fallon admits that, “I’ve made a couple of bad calls or not the best calls on creative leadership. I think when you do that and you’re a creative agency, that’s a pretty costly decision.”

However, these two quotes below perfectly sum up a 26-year run for Fallon, which many agencies could only dream of having:

“Pat built one of the seminal creative agencies in the country and it stayed that way for a long time,” said BBDO North America vice chairman and CMO Mark Goldstein, who spent 11 years at Fallon.

“All you have to know about Fallon is the people it produced,” said John Gerzema, a former managing partner, international at Fallon, who spent 12 years at the agency.

Tip of that hat to Pat and a heavy round of applause.
Read the whole Adweek article here.

More Fallon Coverage: Part One: Why Fallon Is In The Shitter  

Or, Part Deux: Why Fallon Is In The Shitter 

Update: More Bodies Drop Including Pat’s  

Or, Update: Kerry Feuerman, Bill Westbrook And The Shitter