Although Boulder, Colo., may not seem the perfect place to start an ad agency, Thomas Dooley, founder of TDA Advertising & Design, has proven differently.
Being a small regional agency competing for national accounts has its advantages, explains Dooley, who has parlayed his interest in bicycles and design into a vibrant ad shop with simple, smart and funny campaigns. TDA, with 15 employees, has gained a reputation for its comedic, often irreverent ads for clients such as Thule roof racks, Urban Angler, Gotham Comedy Club and the New Jersey Nets.
The agency emerged from rather humble and inauspicious beginnings, Dooley admits, and has continued growing every year. Giving up plans to go to medical school in Minneapolis, Dooley moved to Boulder, where he joined a bicycle-marketing company. Soon, he got into graphic design and made contacts with various bike companies around the world. At the age of 25, he borrowed $4,000 from his father—and ran up $15,000 in credit card debt—to set up a design company called Thomas Design Associates, in 1988. It evolved into a full-fledged agency shortly thereafter, and today has about $15 million in annual billings.
The design end of the business grew, and in ’90, TDA landed an account for a new company called Rockshox, manufacturers of shock absorbers for bicycles. The shop’s design work for Rockshox was a big break, as Rockshox soon hired TDA to handle all of its advertising. With that, the company became an agency. Within a couple of years, Rockshox products exploded in popularity, and TDA tapped into the wacky, irreverent nature of young mountain-bike enthusiasts.
"At the time we as a company were very young and wanted to do something completely different," Dooley recalls. "We felt that the ad world was something to fight against, so we did a lot of anti-advertising. No headlines in the copy, a lot of weirdness. But at the time it was a good thing to do, because it wasn’t being done too much. Rockshox became this big cult thing—everybody had stickers on their cars. It kind of changed the whole bike industry from this very staid, old-boy network. Then we were attractive to a lot of companies, because Rockshox suddenly was making more money than anybody ever imagined."
Spot Beginnings
After creating a successful print campaign, TDA dove headlong into commercialmaking for Rockshox. The handful of employees at the shop gathered together a bunch of Super-8 cameras, then shot and edited the spots themselves on an ill-equipped computer editing system they’d bought. "We felt we could do it all on our own. We didn’t need any help. We didn’t need any producers; we didn’t need any of that shit," Dooley relates. "It was an interesting experience, getting slapped around trying to do it all on our own, but it was a really good learning experience."
The Rockshox spots featured surreal images like a man dressed up as a woman, spinning a Hula-Hoop around his waist; and a beatnik walking along a road toward the camera. "One of the things we did with Rockshox was, we never showed real cyclists or anything like that," Dooley notes. "We always came from another angle and tried to make it more of a feeling. At the time there wasn’t any brand that was speaking like that. Mountain biking was just at its germination period, so we created an image for what mountain bikers could be, or what they saw themselves as."
TDA’s work for Rockshox brought in more clients from the bicycle industry, including Cannondale bikes, and the ad shop continued with surreally styled, slightly wacky ads, until Jonathan Schoenberg, a former copywriter with Mad Dogs & Englishmen, New York, was hired in ’98 as associate creative director/copywriter. In addition to his skills as a copywriter, Schoenberg brought with him his connections to production companies. "With Jonathan, we became more script-oriented, and we focused on our written ideas instead of just focused on our graphic concepts," explains Dooley. "That was a huge jump for us. We mixed with the writing what we had going on before, and that seemed to be a nice combination. From there we landed the [Gotham] comedy spots."
The spots for Gotham Comedy Club in New York were very basic, but showcased TDA’s flair for humor. The ads, which broke in ’99, feature two club owners critiquing stand-up comedians during try-outs. In "Penis," directed by Steve Gold of Clothes Pins Films, New York, a comedian comes on stage and says, "Penis." The club owners call this genital humor "sophomoric," and ask him if he has any other jokes. The comedian regains his composure and says, "Penis," again, but this time with a British accent. The owners burst out laughing, and one comments, "Foreign people are funny." The ad ends with the tagline: "Gotham Comedy Club. We know what’s funny."
Concepts
About 80 percent of TDA’s business is still print work, but it has been doing more broadcast work each year, and at this point does about eight to 10 commercials a year, mostly for clients advertising on national and regional cable television. TDA has produced many of its best ads on very low budgets. "We’re trying to grow, but we’re trying to grow slowly with great creative work," says Dooley. "We’ve been able to show that we can do great creative work [on a smaller budget], and I hope it builds from here."
Being a smaller agency has advantages, Schoenberg adds: "With a smaller shop you tend to have more freedom with your clients. There’s more of an opportunity for the principals to develop relationships with the clients, which I think allows for fewer restrictions in terms of the work. It allows you to develop a deeper relationship in a shorter amount of time."
Dooley says that working in a smaller market where the ad agency business is not as saturated allows TDA to stand out more. "It seems we’re lucky to be in a place where the creative isn’t really as well developed yet as far as agencies doing a lot of high-level stuff," he observes. "Hopefully, we can help make Boulder a place that can be the next San Fran or Minneapolis. It may take twenty years, but it seems like we’re in the right place at the right time."
TDA works with production companies in the region and beyond. "I think it’s fun to mix it up," explains Dooley. "I think what we’re trying to do is build a reel, and I think that just by working with different people will give us some variety."
Two local production companies have shot the three spots for Thule, a company that makes roof racks for cars. Monty Miranda of Incite Films, Denver, directed "Kayak" and "Gramps"; and "Antique Show" was directed by Mike Gray of Dewey Obenchain Films, Denver. "Gramps" was chosen for SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (SHOOT, 5/25, p. 13).
TDA has also used production companies from New York to handle many of its spots, including a humorous self-promotion ad called "Hooker," which also made "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (SHOOT, 9/8/2000, p. 15), and was directed by Peter Sillen of Washington Square Films, New York. "Hooker" was honored at the One Show, the British Design and Art Direction show, and was shortlisted last month at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in the business and equipment services category.
Dooley and Schoenberg are looking forward to building up TDA, and seeing the production and postproduction communities grow in the region and in Boulder. "It’s a cool environment out here," notes Schoenberg. "There are a lot of agencies rooting for each other. They’re rooting for local directors, too, so they won’t have to take their budgets out of town so often. There are some good local directors that weren’t here or weren’t as strong two or three years ago. Things have gotten a lot better here and will continue to get better."
