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Agent of
Change
Clifford Franklin
President and CEO of FUSE
By Pam Droog
Clifford Franklin, president and chief executive officer of FUSE,
has never been one to take the predictable route to get results.
After earning a B.S. in economics in 1986 at the University of Kansas,
the North St. Louis native got into advertising through sales. First
Franklin sold copiers, then he became a brand manager in the automotive
aftermarket.
“That’s typically the path a lot of African Americans take to get
into advertising, because it can be a pretty polarizing industry,”
he says. “I knew that’s where I wanted to be, but I had to take
the long route to get there.”
As a brand manager, Franklin worked with ad agencies, and in 1993
he started Final Phase Marketing with his wife, Sharilyn, also a
brand manager in the pharmaceutical industry. The company name,
he explains, derives from delivering total marketing services, the
final phase of meeting a client’s objectives.
“We did almost the opposite of what agencies normally do,” Franklin
says. “Usually you start an ad agency and then evolve into integrated
marketing.”
However, from the start, “I saw we were being locked into the minority
marketing genre,” Franklin says. “We knew we were much more than
that.”
FUSE was founded in 1997 as an affiliate company of Final Phase
Marketing, with the focus on building clients’ brands through advertising.
The mission of FUSE is to “become the first great minority-owned
advertising agency defined only by the quality of its work,” Franklin
says. Its name represents the fusion between multicultural and so-called
general market advertising. “FUSE is an agency of change,” he notes.
Although based in St. Louis, specifically in the old Globe-Democrat
building, most of FUSE’s clients are out of town, such as Kentucky
Fried Chicken, Harrah’s Entertainment, and SBC Communications. Others
include the Missouri Division of Tourism, McCormack Baron, Coca-Cola,
St. Louis Cardinals, Adam’s Mark Hotels & Resorts and the Eddie
Robinson Foundation. Final Phase Marketing still handles marketing
for various local clients, including the Lambert International Airport
Expansion Program.
At first, Franklin says, “we turned down business locally for a
number of reasons. We were either called for events with small budgets
or corporations called us for their usual Martin Luther King or
Black History Month tributes. “That’s one-time business, and we
can’t assist a corporation in building a relationship with the African
American consumer if all they think it will take is an ad during
Black History Month,” he says.
The agency had a lot to prove, Franklin says, but what mattered
was being patient, staying focused on the work, and maximizing opportunities.
“By going outside of the region, we built a reputation for strategic
and creative excellence,” he says. “As a result, local corporations
are coming to us now with much more respect.”
FUSE’s forte is to effectively build relationships with clients
in order to control and build brands for the long term. “We have
a different approach to advertising, because we have always understood
multiculturalism, as well as the so-called general market,” Franklin
says.
In particular, although it strives to break away from the minority
label, FUSE also understands the future of advertising lies in building
brands with minorities.
“Last year African Americans spent $450 billion. Hispanics spent
$375 billion. The Asian market also has significant buying power,”
Franklin says. “Agencies and clients must realize you have to communicate
to all people.”
In the meantime, for the third consecutive year, FUSE has won the
“Best of Show” award for print work in the Advertising Club of St.
Louis’ ADDY competition and the AAF Midwest ADDY competition. The
latest award was for the “Five Years” print ad for the U.S. Department
of Justice’s Operation Ceasefire, which beat out more than 1,100
other entries.
By the end of the year, Franklin hopes to add several employees
to his staff of 18. But it’s not a workplace for just anyone. “If
you’re not committed to creating the best advertising possible,
you won’t survive,” he says. “We work on average 70 hours a week,
and we’re looking for warriors who can keep up in this environment.”
The FUSE staff “is probably the most diversified in town,” he adds.
A member of the RCGA Leadership Circle, Franklin is committed to
“convincing corporate and political leadership they must have African-American
talent involved in discussing the future of St. Louis,” he says.
“But African Americans have to step up and be in positions to lead.
It’s a two-way street.”
To assist in that effort, Franklin serves on the board of the Gateway
Classic Foundation, which awards scholarships to African-American
students, and Kappa Alpha Psi, an African-American fraternity that
provides community outreach and social programs. He’s also a board
member of the Advertising Club, the American Marketing Association
and the National Junior Tennis League.
Away from work and civic duties, Franklin enjoys the company of
his wife and 5-year-old daughter, Sara. He also recently took up
golf, and is an avid reader of books on business management and
African-American history.
With major awards and important clients, FUSE is on its way to greatness,
Franklin believes. “We want to be one of the best ad agencies in
the nation, one that just happens to be black owned.”
Pam Droog is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
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