The Big Olson/Lacek Deal

Saw the news today that Minneapolis agency Olson has merged with Denali Marketing. A very big and wild deal. It reputedly makes Olson one of the top 10 independent agencies in the country and the biggest full-service agency by headcount in the Cities.

Those who have deeper insight of the ad/marketing industry can debate how well this partnership might work. But I think it makes perfect sense. That’s based solely on my knowledge of the two main men involved, John Olson and Mark Lacek.

I can’t claim to know either of them really, really well. If I did, maybe I could have dropped a knowing hint of the impending deal in the feature article on Denali in TCB’s June issue. (It's still a good story, though.)

But having written feature articles on both gents and having reconnected with them recently, I feel I can at least blog about it. (Full disclosure: I like them both a lot.)

The thing that strikes me is how similar they are, in many ways. John and Mark started out on conventional career paths—then fairly early on, went off and followed their own paths. They’re both easygoing, ambitious without being pushy, curious about how the world works, and excited by the why-not and what’s-next. They both have a taste for creative disruption. Both live largely in their right brains.

Not that either of them is a spacy dude living in a mental world far distant from our own. Both have clearly had real-world success. Right and left brains have their connecting cables. But both would ascribe a great deal of that success to business partners who’ve given them the time, space, and freedom to think and envision. In Mark’s case, it’s Peter Brennan; in John’s, it’s new Olson CEO Kevin DiLorenzo.

That Olson/Lacek visionary-thoughtful nexus is compelling, though I’ll admit I don’t always comprehend their thinking. Most of that is me: Though I write a fair amount about marketing and advertising, my dark secret (maybe no secret to some readers and most interview subjects) is: I don't quite get marketing.

I have the basic ideas of it, sure. But dig a little below the surface, to discussions of planning, strategy, and analytics, and I can only smile and nod and otherwise assume an affable mask of feigned understanding.

I just think the people in the business have good stories to tell (and attractive offices to visit). And the marketing industry is evolving in ways that are very central to how business is adjusting in the current “"great reset”.

I talked to John a few months back for TCB’s “200 Minnesotans You Should Know” feature. He said that “our ability to know things based on numbers and data and metrics is going to be so enhanced that we can’t continue to ignore it. There are companies with incredible success dealing just with numbers, just using algorithms.” He foresees new ways that analytics and creativity will combine and mutate. No, I didn’t quite get it, no fault of John’s. But I suspect I will have a clearer idea soon.

The little agency that John started in the late ’90s with the idea of seeing things a little differently—Olson saw how brands needed to become communities, before the rise of social media and customer anthropology—is now the biggest indie in town. And now Mark, one of the pioneers of loyalty marketing—and who’s taken the idea far beyond frequent-flyer miles—is on the agency’s board. So now: what’s next?

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Comments

[M.P.]

Why not mention Margaret Murphy, new President of OLSONdenali?