Maureen McDowell

Portland Business Journal  10.17.2003

When Arve Overland founded advertising firm Overland Agency in February 2001, his potential clients had already braced for the recession by reining in marketing dollars. That just meant it was time for the Norwegian expatriate to get creative and to customize a pitch aimed at companies that had hit a wall.

Overland started with two employees and an office in the garage of his Southeast Portland home. He painted the walls with chalkboard paint and used them to sketch ideas for Overland Agency's one client, Beaverton-based Tektronix Inc.

The agency grew in spite of the economic downturn, adding employees and moving to bigger office spaces -- first to a warehouse in Southeast Portland and eventually to its current location on Southwest Taylor and Second Avenue, home to 15 employees. Revenue more than tripled from $480,000 in 2001 to $1.5 million in 2002. Overland said he expects to finish 2003 with $1.8 million.

Although the company has grown, Overland is careful not to lose touch with the values that built a creative work force. In fact, rather than just acknowledge and support his employees' creative needs, Overland built a business that serves as an artistic vehicle for his staff. That business, Overland Entertainment, quickly went from creative outlet to profit center.

In its third year of operation, Overland Agency's client list includes athletic apparel giant adidas, Beaverton-based Audio Precision, Soloflex, Pinnacle Bank and Micro Power Inc. In recent weeks, McMenamins Inc. hired Overland Agency to upgrade its web site. The agency plans to build a custom administration tool that allows McMenamins employees to update its content -- movie times, concert schedules and menus -- quickly and easily.

This relatively new fish in Portland's creative pond attracts clients like McMenamins because of its approach, Overland said. The agency promises work that is customized for every client and prides itself on coming up with new ideas.

"In the recession, companies are not making money, and instead of applying Band-Aids like most agencies, we come up with strategies," said Greg Tozian, vice president of creative services and senior copywriter at Overland Agency. Many of Overland Agency's clients are companies that "feel like they've stalled," said Tozian. "We strengthen and revitalize brands that have slowed down."

The firm prides itself on thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing strategies for the $10 million to $100 million revenue companies along the I-5 corridor it targets as potential clients. For client Dolphin Software Inc., a Lake-Oswego provider of chemical management software and services, Overland Agency collaborated on a book authored by Dolphin President and CEO Mark Wysong. "The Non-Toxic CEO: Protecting Your People, Planet, and Profits Through Better Chemical Management," published by Beyond Words Publishing Inc. in Hillsboro. The book is touted as "a road map to 21st century corporate responsibility" and spells out Dolphin Software's trademarked Compliance-Side Total Management system for chemical management.

Hillsboro-based Micro Power hired Overland Agency to help the battery systems provider and developer generate new leads. Instead of sending out the standard mailer, Overland Agency convinced Micro Power to host seminars about its products.

"They got hundreds of leads," Tozian said. Overland Agency also hooked Micro Power and Texas Instruments up as marketing partners.

"We take risks based on knowledge," Overland said. "But the clients have to buy into the idea, too."

The agency doesn't take on any projects that stray from its mission, either. Tektronix, already a client whose business made up 80 percent of Overland's revenue at the time, sent out a request for qualification that Overland Agency turned down.

"We saw it as not being beneficial long term [for Tektronix]," said Overland. "We need to be true to our strategy, and the companies we work for need to be true to our strategy."

Overland is aggressive about coming up with fresh marketing concepts, and therein lies his biggest challenge: stimulating the employees so their ideas stay on the cutting edge. Over 15 years in the marketing and public relations business has taught Overland that employees' creative interests must be fed to keep employee turnover to a minimum and to maximize work quality.

"I want my guys to be jazzed about creating," he said.

Overland is so conscious of that element of the business that he created Overland Entertainment Inc., a division of Overland Agency.

Overland Entertainment

Overland Entertainment started as an online local music resource guide. It also served as an outlet for the Overland Agency staff to experiment artistically and do work that's different and fun.

By hiring Dave Allen as president of the entertainment division, however, Overland's spin-off quickly morphed from a fun side project to a profitable business.

Allen is a seasoned music industry executive and musician. He was a founding member of the British post-punk band Gang of Four, whose music received critical acclaim in the '70s and '80s, and is a founding member of underground band Shriekback.

Allen still performs professionally. He was president of World Domination Recordings, a Los Angeles-based independent record label and general manager of eMusic.com's Los Angeles office.

Prior to joining Overland Entertainment, Allen was director of content services business development at Intel Corp. when the company was delving into consumer digital audio. He also serves on the boards of Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls and MusicFest NW.

Overland and Allen agreed that Portland's entertainment industry was an "unseen economy" -- a burgeoning community of independent record labels and independent musicians, both signed and unsigned to record labels. These musicians and labels, Overland and Allen saw, needed a way to promote their music.

The web site started out offering streaming radio featuring local bands -- both signed and unsigned. Allen soon discovered that visitors who came to listen, liked what they heard, and they wanted to buy records.

In June, the company launched OEbase, an interactive web site featuring an MP3 streaming radio station, MP3s available for download to users' hard drives and an online store encouraging consumers to "get your merch on" with CD, DVD and vinyl record purchases. OEbase contracts out fulfillment of its orders.

The store's merchandise is handpicked and diverse. The rotating "latest and greatest" offerings on one visit to OEbase included a Chemical Brothers retrospective album and the 20th anniversary edition "Scarface" DVD.

The site also features local music venue reviews, record label reviews and web blogs, or online logs, penned by Allen and Overland Entertainment Music Editor and Content Developer Matt Wright. Subscribing to the site is free, and around 22,000 opt-in users receive OEbase's e-mail newsletter each week.

"As the music business collapses around its ears, my research shows that sites like iTunes are not a fix," said Allen. "We're doing something bigger, going to the music-lovers, bypassing the labels and going directly to the regional and local bands. We want to be the radio of choice, where you can buy the album right there," said Allen. "We want to be the clear alternative to ClearChannel."

Allen contends OEbase boasts one of the largest collection of independent music online and is on the brink of partnering with another web site that will allow OEbase to offer around 450,000 MP3s for downloading, making OEbase most likely the largest source of independent music on the web, Allen said.

Overland Entertainment is not only generating revenue through OEbase, it's also attracting clients.

"In the last month, because of the mix of what we do, two international brands came to see us," said Overland. "People have an interest in what we're doing because we're doing interesting, new things. People also come to Dave [Allen] for music advice, and create business connections."

Willamette Week hired Overland Entertainment to provide WW Radio, a streaming radio and music store, on the independent newspaper's web site. It's a money-maker for all parties involved, Allen said.

Independent weeklies' advertising revenue is down, especially because record stores are losing money, and they're often the biggest advertisers, Overland said.

The streaming radio and online store, along with advertising space on the site, can replace that depleted revenue. The concept is one that Overland Entertainment hopes to roll out to independent newspapers across the United States.