FRESH SUCCESS
By pooling their resources and talents, three young partners have launched a company specializing in brand strategy and media art.
-By Jill Fitzsimmons of the Missoulian 9|27|2003

When the three partners at WMQ Strategic Studio tell you they are a garage startup, they aren’t exaggerating.

The young business converted the garage behind media director Eve Whitaker’s home into an office to get the company off the ground more than a year ago. All 150 square feet is where the brand strategy and media art company – they make videos, documentaries and commercials and do Web design for businesses – works from.

But don’t let the small office fool you. There’s a whole lot of creative energy and excitement spilling out of that garage. Whitaker and her partners, director of account services Ken Quinn and art director Nicole Mrazek, are young, talented artists and business owners. They see themselves as not only having an impact on businesses in Missoula nut also playing a role in its economic development.

“There’s almost an endless array of companies that need our services,” Whitaker says. “I want to let them know that this resource is out there.”

WMQ Strategic Studio is best described as cutting edge. The studio uses innovative technologies to bring an L.A. feel to its work. WMQ works in digital media production, Web design, motion graphics, advertising and account planning. Its focus is on digital solutions – TV commercials, Web and print design, promotional videos and brand management.

Quinn jokes the trio is a hybrid of the University of Montana’s business and media schools. Mrazek, 30, and Whitaker, 27, earned master’s of fine arts degrees from the university, while Quinn, 26, earned a master’s of business administration.

Mrazek and Whitaker already knew one another when they started the studio. Quinn has experience working for a major Northwest ad agency and as a marketing director of a dot-com start up. He joined the women full time four months into their venture.

Pooling resources, they were able to get the company started without borrowing any money, which was important on their post-collegiate budgets, they say. Using the experience the women gained in their three-year graduate program and Quinn’s background in brand strategy and marketing, they’ve become a powerful bunch.

“You get something that works,” Mrazek says of their partnership.

The new business partners often are asked why they aren’t working in Los Angeles or New York. But all had one thing in common: they wanted to make Missoula home. While many of their peers were leaving to find work in larger cities, they knew they would have to come up with something creative to make a living in Montana, Quinn says.

“We are proof that you don’t have to leave Missoula after college to make it,” he says. “Yes, you have to fight more, but it’s worth it.”

Besides, there’s a niche here in Missoula for the studio, which specializes in brand strategy, Mrazek says. There aren’t many places in the area that do motion design and graphics, she says. They are not an ad agency, Mrazek adds. Instead, they are a brand identity company.

WMQ explains that at the heart of a company is its brand – the life force of the product or service that dictates both a company’s identity and destiny. When effectively communicated, the brand engenders a lasting trust and sense of loyalty from clients and consumers, according to WMQ.

So brand videos, for example, offer more than a commercial. Brand videos are three – to five-minute videos that say who a company is. Many companies don’t realize how important it is to develop a strong brand with their customers, Whitaker says. The studio helps companies develop an image that is visible and effective.

To get their studio started, the business partners sat down and did some old-fashioned cold calling. Focusing mostly on technology and creative companies, they sent 20 letters to potential clients. From that, the studio got 13 clients who it has been working with for the past year. Now, WMQ is looking to reach out more to markets throughout the Northwest and build its regional reputation.

A review of the company’s Web site, www.wmqstudio.com, shows some of the work the company has been doing. Among their clients has been the Missoula Police Department. The company did a fast-paced, documentary-style video for the city that it uses to recruit officers. The 30-minute video has aired on the public access channel.

“Anyone can create a commercial, but WMQ had the right people and processes to create what we wanted,” writes Conor Smith, president of First Call Solutions – another client of the studio – on the WMQ Web site. “I would recommend their team and processes to anyone who wants to make the most of their commercial creation dollars.”

The studio currently is working on a documentary of the hip-hop movement for a record label in Seattle. It’s also working on a five- to seven- minute video for the Missoula Cultural Council that will capture the creative community in Missoula and its impact on economic development. It will be used as an economic development tool.

The trio is a big supporter of the creative movement in Missoula; they believe that creativity in Missoula is the key economic driver. The partners want to bring to light something that has been out there a long time but hasn’t been recognized, Whitaker says. So when out-of-state companies ask why the studio is in Missoula, it’s good for them to see just what keeps them here, she adds.

In an article Quinn wrote, titled “Creative Key to Missoula’s Economic Future,” he argues that Missoula’s long-held reputation as a creative community will eventually get it recognized as a community on the cutting edge.

“What sometimes goes unnoticed is the impressive caliber of talent residing in this community,” Quinn writes. “Former Nike advertisers, Microsoft software programmers, dot-comers, independent filmmakers and songwriters, and NASA engineers all live in Missoula right now. As technology continues to disintermediate urban economic restraints, the collaboration of technology and Missoula’s creative thinking positions the community for an economic renaissance.”

The studio can help businesses grow not only through its work but also as being a leader in the community, Quinn says.

“Because if everyone else does well, we will too,” he says.