Gregory Smith: Lifelong promoter pushes growth at agency

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A few years ago, when boxing promoter Don King needed to push his D-Day Dynamite match in Las Vegas, he turned to Gregory Smith for help.
Smith managed to get 6,000 Marines in uniform to march through the city to cheer ex-marine Jim McDonald who was fighting boxer Michael Spinks.
“The electricity was unbelievable,” Smith says. “We had the place filled with Marines waving the flag.”
Smith, president and chief operating officer of Jay Advertising Inc., is a promoter at heart. Smith oversees the agency’s activities as various teams help promote cars, events and others for the firm’s clients.
“I love how, like an orchestra, all these elements such as creative and client services have their own unique role,” he says. “But they all work together for the final symphony.”
Smith also charts the ad agency’s future goals.
“I also have to give people the vision of what we need for our clients not only today, but down the line,” he says.
Jay Advertising’s 85 employees report to Smith, 50. Jay Advertising also added 17 staffers in 2001.
With $102.5 million in billings for 2001, Jay Advertising saw dramatic growth when many other area agencies did not. Its billings jumped 56 percent from $65.7 million in 2000. The company ranked No. 2 on the most recent Rochester Business Journal list of marketing communications firms, just over a $1 million behind SIGMA Marketing Group New LLC.
“We did not see a pullback in the accounts we have,” Smith says. “I like to think we are delivering and getting results.”
Despite the difficult economy and marketing budget cuts, Jay Advertising’s focus on retail-based clients has been a plus.
“The economy is challenging and even though our segment is one that tends to get cut first,” Smith says, “(clients) in the (retail) business are more sales-driven and that’s what we do best.”
The ad shop expects to see 15 percent growth in billings in 2002.
“(And) we plan to add 10 people this year,” Smith says.
Jay Advertising’s clients include Wegmans Food Markets Inc., General Motors Corp. and High Falls Brewing Co. LLC.
“We have a good mix of clients,” Smith says. “These are not only strong names in the country, but strong names locally.”
Jay Advertising also has been active in marketing the community. The agency created promotional materials for the Rochester International Jazz festival and the Greater Rochester Visitors Association Inc.’s campaign to promote the area’s winter season.
“Greg saw the potential in (the winter promotion) immediately. It was rather amazing how quickly they came up with creative ideas,” says Edward Hall, president and CEO of GRVA.
Smith is keen to become a key player in the new branding effort for the Rochester region.
“I have a community goal. I want to see this town in a new brand image,” he says. “I want to do everything possible to have this town reach the goals we are capable of reaching and (the agency) can play a big role in that process.”
Jay Advertising expects to continue to use its retail experience to compete for significant accounts locally and nationally. Smith would not disclose details of new-account pitches but indicated the firm could see more business this year.
“We are working on a couple of things,” he says. “We are constantly working on our ability to be more strategic in our thinking.”
Born in Pittsford in a family of six children, Smith always had a job.
“I was a morning newspaper boy,” he says. “And I would always be the first kid at the golf course to caddie.”
After graduating from McQuaid Jesuit High School, Smith pursued a bachelor’s degree in business and communications at St. John Fisher College.
Promotion was already familiar territory for the college student.
“I would be the guy in school who booked the bands for entertainment,” he says. “Or I was the guy who made the deal with the tuxedo shops.”
Smith’s father, Ferdinand Smith II, whose jobs included being a stand-in for actor Spencer Tracy, early on instilled the seeds of promotion in Smith.
“It was in our blood. My father was doing live commercials in the ’50s and ’60s and we were part of the commercials,” he says. “We were getting our influence from that and often we were characters in those commercials.”
While Smith was a senior in college, he teamed with brother, Ferdinand Smith III-the CEO and executive creative director of the firm-to start Jay Advertising. The company opened its doors in 1973, in downtown Rochester’s Sibley Centre building.
“Ferdinand was a popular on-air personality,” Smith says. “His full name is Ferdinand Joseph Smith and everyone called him Jay, so I thought, ‘Why don’t we go as Jay (Advertising)?'”
Gregory Smith was eager to be part of the business, his brother recalls.
“He went back and forth (to college and work) all the time. He was so interested in being involved,” Ferdinand says. “He got a ticket for speeding from the same cop at the same time three days in a row.”

Promotions start

Gregory Smith graduated from Fisher the same year Jay Advertising started, and he joined his brother full time. Although the firm dabbled in advertising, its focus was promoting events and rock bands.
“At that time we were strictly in the entertainment industry,” Smith says. “We had some advertising accounts, but we were still managing entertainment groups.”
The duo had picked up a Capitol Records Inc. act, Skylark, and Smith moved to Los Angeles to manage the band.
“Right after I graduated I drove cross-country in a Spitfire Triumph with the top down,” he says.
Skylark-a Canadian band-soon had a hit album with a winning track: Wildflower.
“David Foster, who was the leader of the group, has turned out to be a world-famous producer and composer,” Smith says.
In 1974, Smith returned to Rochester. The agency had decided to concentrate on advertising.
“From then on we were consumer- and retail-oriented,” he says. “We always thought the consumer approach was the way to go.”
Jay Advertising’s early accounts included Hoffman Appliance and Seabreeze Park.
But the thrill of promoting events continued to have a stronghold in the agency’s strategy. In 1975, Smith helped bring a record-breaking crowd to watch a Rochester Red Wings game. Some 14,000 people attended.
“He did it all in three weeks. There was no question then that Greg was a rising star. He is a man of creativity and initiative,” says Vincent Stanley, owner of V.J. Stanley Inc. and past president of Rochester Community Baseball Inc.

National push

In the 1980s, Smith and his brother planned to expand the agency’s business into other markets. The agency looked at Tampa, Fla., as a possible location for future growth.
“We felt to really grow we needed to reach out to other areas,” Smith says. “We were working locally here with the Rochester-area Buick dealers and we took our success and approached the Tampa-area Buick dealers.”
Jay Advertising got in at the last minute to pitch for the account.
“We had produced a campaign for them to see and the guy loved it so much that he got us in and we unanimously won that account,” Smith says.
As a result, Jay Advertising quickly became retail promoters for Buick dealers across the nation, with an office in Florida.
The agency’s understanding of the production aspect of the advertising business prompted other area firms to use their expertise.
John Brown, vice president and creative director of Jay Advertising, recalls using Smith’s flair for promotion for a campaign for Omega Watch Corp. Brown was then president of Blair BBDO, the agency on the Omega account.
“It was before watches were a fashion statement,” Brown says. “Greg was truly ahead of his time and he put together a wonderful presentation. He is always thinking of ways to get as much attention for a client as possible.”
Jay Advertising also landed the Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden account, followed closely by the Wegmans business. The firm often used events to market its clients.
“When the Ringling Brothers came to town, they came to us. And we did the ice shows,” Smith says. “We understood how to capitalize events and appropriately tie in accounts.”
It was an event promotion bid that helped Jay Advertising grab the Wegmans account.
“I can remember going to Danny Wegman when he was head of marketing and I asked them to be ticket outlets for community events like the Lilac Festival,” Smith says. “In those days, tickets were done differently. I told him their name would be mentioned on the advertising and he thought it was terrific and that is how we got that account.”
Smith’s brother, Guy, vice president of retail account services at Jay Advertising, remembers Smith’s enthusiasm for promoting Wegmans.
“He was on it like a panther,” Guy says. “Every detail was covered to get the account.”

King of promotion

Gregory Smith also was helping bring people to downtown Rochester. As chairman of the Downtown Trust Fund, now known as the Rochester Events Network, Smith helped break a world record through a New Year’s event on Main Street called the Kolosal Kommunity Kazoo in 1984.
“We had 54,500 people blowing kazoos at the same time,” he says. “And several weeks before that we were doing things to build it up. We went to shelters on Thanksgiving Day and senior citizen’s homes.”
“Greg is someone who can make a mountain out of a molehill promotionally,” brother Ferdinand says. “When Greg does something, you know it is going to be big.”
By 1990, Jay Advertising had reached $25 million in billings, more than double the $12 million of a year earlier.
“We really took off in the late ’80s,” Smith says. “There was GM around the country, Wegmans, and naturally we matured and got sophisticated as an agency. We were considered unique in our ability to produce things in-house.”
The agency moved into new office space at Linden Oaks in 1993. Jay Advertising now had studios that rivaled any production facility in the country. Billings grew, crossing the $40 million mark.
It was the production facility among other things that caught the attention of the Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc. After 18 months of discussion, Jay Advertising became a wholly owned subsidiary of IPG in 1996.
“We did not want to lose our entrepreneurial spirit,” Smith says. “I think we made the right move at the right time, to compete in the arena we want to compete.”
IPG is one of the largest organizations of advertising agencies and communications companies in the world. The acquisition provided Jay Advertising with access to worldwide resources and nationwide offices.
Working with his brothers as a team has been vital to the agency’s success, Smith says.
“Even though we had our own scope of friends, my brothers and I were friends and still are to this day,” he says.
Over the last couple of years, Jay Advertising has added the Warner Bros. Television Network affiliate, WRWB-TV 16, and the United Way of Greater Rochester Inc. to its client roster.
“He is always thinking of new things. He is the promotional genius of Rochester,” says Barbara Laughton, director of marketing communications at Jay Advertising.
Smith’s receptiveness to new ideas is appreciated by agency staffers.
“He encourages people around him and doesn’t hold you back,” says Patricia Soike, office manager at Jay Advertising.
Even criticism is welcome, Smith says.
“People know that if they have an idea or have a criticism of what is going on here it is welcomed, whether they have been here for a week or 20 years,” he says.
Nurturing talent is another top priority.
“We want to have people to come here and do great work,” Smith says. “We are focused on getting people here and encouraging them to stay.”
All employees meet every Monday morning to discuss new ideas and current projects.
“I keep reminding people that we are very fortunate to be growing, being extremely busy and never for a second take it for granted,” Smith says. “We have great clients and they demand focus and great work and that takes a lot of passion, a lot of enthusiasm and a unique breed in this industry.”

Consumer focus

Smith intends to further sharpen the agency’s focus on reaching consumers.
“An old friend of mine once said to me, you are doing well with this (promotions and advertising), but what happens after that?,” he says. “And I said our job is to get them in the door and he said what if it fails after that?”
Catching the consumer’s attention through all channels of marketing has become an important objective for Jay Advertising.
“There are so many ways that the consumer is being exposed to things and we want to have our hands in as many of those as possible,” Smith says. “If the people who are in direct contact with the consumer don’t understand what you are trying to communicate, then it is not going to work.”
Smith also helped his younger brother, Guy, learn the ropes of the advertising business.
“He really trained me to look at the full picture,” he says. “And how everything should work together.”
Promoting the Rochester community is a task that Smith takes seriously.
“This town has a self-imposed inferiority complex,” he says. “It has unbelievable resources that for some reason people are insecure about. We can compete with almost any other town.”
Smith is on several boards including the American Cancer Society, United Way and the United Nations Association of Rochester.
“He has a great commitment to the Greater Rochester area,” Jay Advertising vice president Brown says. “He has a true caring for where this community is going.”
But the excitement around a big idea created by Jay Advertising is still the best part of his job, Smith says.
“I love when a group of us are sitting around and are inspired with something that you know is going to work,” Smith says. “There isn’t a day when I am not looking forward to coming here.”

“Hollywood”

On the lighter side, Smith has a penchant for clothes. It has earned him the nickname Hollywood around the office
“His ties, he spends a lot of time on his ties and suits,” Office Manager Soike says. “He likes to look right and he likes to look good.”
“Clothes, clothes, clothes,” brother Guy adds. “And this is going way back too. He always had a great style.”
Driving in his Saab convertible with the top down is another passion.
“I love the wind,” Smith says.
Smith and his family live in Webster by Lake Ontario. His wife, Shari, is the founder of Faces of Hope Inc., a non-profit organization that focuses on the importance of early detection and prevention of breast cancer. The family enjoys lake activities and watching movies.
“I always thought kid’s movies were interesting,” he jokes. “Now I have an excuse to watch them.”
Smith also is known as the tickle monster to Sydney, 7, and Emma, 4, his two young daughters.
Golfing, baseball, music and traveling to other countries are among his other interests.
The future holds great promise, Smith says.
“One thing I learned is that everybody is competition,” he says. “We are focused on what we have to do and we keep our eye on the ball.”
([email protected] / 585-546-8303)

07/05/02 (C) Rochester Business Journal