At the C-suite level, there will be a few changes, and the new executive team will be a combination of folks from both agency backgrounds. King will remain CEO of Barkley while O’Keefe will assume the role of creative chair. Paul will remain president as will Fromm, so the merged agency will have two presidents who will oversee different aspects of the organization.
Longtime creative leader Katy Hornaday will remain chief creative officer, reporting to O’Keefe. She and O’Keefe have been talking about the best opportunities moving forward about how to take the creative to the next level, though they are still figuring things out.
“One of the first orders of business when we get together is, how do we integrate the creative department without disrupting what’s already working?” said O’Keefe.
King added that both agencies have a similar creative approach, being consumer-centric and constantly studying modern consumer trends, building on Barkley’s published research studies on consumer insights across the generations.
B Corp status update and new business
Barkley is an agency that went through the rigorous testing to become a certified B Corporation in 2021, which means that the agency does business with a positive social and environmental impact. The organization is now in the process of getting re-certified and at the end the new BarkleyOKRP will be B-Corp certified.
Finding new business will be a joint effort, but the teams are still figuring out the agency’s positioning. O’Keefe said that the agency will take six to 12 months to hone in on what the positioning will be, and that will include a new website, logo and strategy.
“The depth of creative talent and the breadth of services that we’ll bring to new business will be new and powerful,” said O’Keefe.
Barkley brings a 65-person content and social media studio, while OKRP has invested in advancing diversity with Putney, a minority-owned business, which will remain a part of the newly formed agency.
The newly merged agency also crafted a man-on-the-street video asking people what they thought about the new agency and what it meant for advertising. As is comically clear, nobody cared.
