The Colling Media Story
After many years in traditional media sales, Brian Colling felt many of his client's businesses would grow faster by including digital channels in their marketing mix. So, in 2009 Brian started Colling Media in his apartment kitchen.
And from that day Brian's mission was to create an advertising agency that delivers better advertising results using traditional and digital media, in what he dubbed, "Tra-Digitial" marketing.
Since then, Colling Media has blossomed into a full-service agency solely focused on advertising results uniquely customized to grow businesses.
Why I Changed My Life’s Purpose to Helping People Succeed
When I started Colling Media, I just wanted to be the best at advertising. I wanted to be the best at driving sales for the companies that work with us and be the best advertising agency in the world. Our company mission was “Better Advertising Results.” As impressive as that sounds, it ended up producing mostly self-centered energy. For one, it was egotistical to suggest we could “one-up” every company's advertising results. And second, it didn’t make us a caring company. Chasing better advertising results made us good at a lot of marketing tactics. Which, if you’re hiring an ad agency, doesn’t sound all that bad.
My company's real mission and my life's purpose is helping people succeed. We care about ALL of the employees in the companies who work with us. We care about employees and their families beyond “what did you do for me today?” We care about the customers of the companies we work for too. Since changing our mission, and my purpose in life, I’ve seen some fantastic changes. Now our clients call us for more than when ad results are up or down. We are building deeper connections. Our relationships go beyond job titles and the roles we have as a client and an advertising agency.
Helping people succeed doesn’t just mean business goals or making someone more money. I engage in conversations offering job or career advice, business development opportunities, and personal growth. Because success means different things to everyone, the help I offer takes many shapes. For one of our clients, success is figuring out how to spend more time in Peru donating medical services to children in need. That moves me and is a mission I can get behind.
"Better Advertising Results" was great for small wins. Helping people succeed is excellent for big wins. I have made it my mission, and my company's calling, to build stronger relationships by helping people we work with succeed - in the ways they define success, not how we define success.
So why did it change? I realized what drove Colling Media, and it wasn’t just “Better Advertising Results." The mission to be the best and deliver "Better Advertising Results" treated some of our relationships poorly; it made us think in terms of sales only. Focusing on results only made us feel more like a vendor rather than the right business partner. It also had us merely engaging with decision makers of companies. In the long run, obsessing on delivering better advertising results made us short-sighted and selfish. I realized it’s not really who we are or who we want to be. "Better Advertising Results" doesn’t encapsulate the most significant aspect of who we are in our hearts and the agency's ability to genuinely care.
- Brian Colling
2018 TIM Award for Search Marketing (PPC) Campaigns
2018 Best Workplace Culture
2018 Best Large Advertising Agency in Arizona
Colling Media is a Phoenix, AZ-based, award-winning full-service advertising agency providing advertising strategy, digital advertising services, and media buying services. Our proven system helps identify your brand, your marketing message, and your product or service value proposition. It then dials in your target audience, what drives them, and how to impact purchase decisions for choosing your company's product or service.
While advertising your competitive advantage to your target customers, we monitor critical metrics and track those metrics tied to your business goals. Constantly evaluating results allows for real-time optimization and improving campaign performance.
Because no two businesses are the same, we focus on results uniquely customized to your business.
