Terri & Sandy thrives despite the departure of a founder

Terri & Sandy faced an identity crisis last year when one of its principals, Terri Meyer, retired from the agency she founded with Sandy Greenberg. Not only was her name on the door for 14 years, but she and Greenberg had been partners for 42 years throughout their careers, making them practically synonymous.

“Just yesterday, a client called me Terri,” Greenberg said in a recent interview.

There was a real chance that, without Meyer, the shop could lose its culture, employees and clients, or that a new leader could advocate for a rebranding or new direction for the shop.

Instead, momentum grew. Revenue jumped 17% last year to $14.2 million. Only one client left the agency, due to a consolidation. Terri & Sandy reeled in eight new clients, one of the best new-business years in its history. Moreover, 85% of those wins came without a pitch, proof that even with a founder gone, the shop has retained its reputation.

New benefits

Much of the credit goes to Peyton Sutton, who assumed the presidency in May. Sutton was an outsider, joining from Curiosity in Cincinnati, where she was executive VP-client partnership.

“There was a contender before Peyton who really wanted to talk about changing the name and making a big deal of Terri leaving and [touting] this new chapter,” said Greenberg. But Sutton arrived with a different vision. “She said ‘I’m so excited that you’re female-founded. I’m so excited that you have diversity inclusions in your DNA. I want to take those qualities and build on them.’”

That isn’t to say employees didn’t need reassurance. “It was really important to me to demonstrate to our team that we love and care for them and that we're thinking of them in this transition. Because I think for an agency that has had their founders so ingrained and to have the loss of Terri after so many years, it was a risky moment for the agency,” said Sutton.

After a listening tour with all 45 employees, Sutton came up with a new benefit package that included fattening staffers’ dependent coverage. Terri & Sandy introduced Endless Summer Fridays, closing shop on Friday afternoons year-round. And in April—the anniversary of its founding—Terri & Sandy will award a $10,000 bonus to one employee to tick something off their bucket list.

These moves helped the agency attain a 92% retention rate among employees, including three staffers who have been with the agency since it opened.

Terri & Sandy also retained its longest-running client, Freshpet, which has remained on its roster for 14 years despite multiple shifts in the company’s top marketing ranks.

Freshpet co-founder and President Scott Morris recalls his first meeting with the agency was in Greenberg’s dining room, given that the agency had yet to open an office. At the time, Morris said, the fledgling pet food company had less than $60 million in sales; last year it notched net sales of $975 million and it has recorded 52 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.

“We’ve always locked arms and we’ve said, ‘Let’s figure it out, and we’ve figured it out together,” said Morris of the Terri & Sandy relationship. “There’s no bullshit, we’re very frank with one another. And that goes both ways.”

“In this industry, there’s a lot of egos, there’s a lot of flash and I don’t need that,” said Morris. “And Terri & Sandy are almost the opposite of that.”

The current campaign demonstrates pet owners’ love and loyalty to their fur babies by rejecting friends and significant others who balk at storing Freshpet in refrigerators near “people food.” The shop topped that off with ads featuring pop star and pup owner Meghan Trainor in a music video proudly proclaiming “I’m a Dog Mom.”

Not only has the agency managed to keep the work fresh, but it’s also consistently effective, said Morris. “When we put on brand new creative, we see a big spike every single time. And that’s been going on for well over a decade. It’s unbelievable.”

Maintaining its ethos

For Greenberg, protecting clients and staffers is one thing, but guarding its ethos as a certified woman-owned and LGBTQIA+ agency is equally important. “We hire a mosaic and we want different kinds of people,” she said. “We want men and women and gay and straight and trans; anybody’s welcome at Terri & Sandy. But there is a similar value, and I think it’s ambition, it’s drive, it’s intelligence, but it’s also integrity.”

And just a hint of subversiveness. The agency handles a number of wholesome American brands such as Pilgrim’s Chicken, Welch’s Fruit Snacks, Yankee Candle and Hasbro, but also built into its DNA is provocation—even naughtiness—that keeps the work sharp and compelling. “There is an aspect of us that’s very charming and warm, but we are also smart and edgy when we want to be,” said Greenberg. “And we have something to say.”

Take, for example, Terri & Sandy this year taunting WPP’s return-to-work mandate with a social video that features an empty-headed marionette “employee” that follows blindly its “corporate overlord.” The hashtag: Proudly indie.

The shop also isn’t afraid to be absurd. Its work for BJ’s Wholesale Club (below) lifted awareness for the third-largest wholesale club by touting its “absurdly simple savings,” including 25% lower prices than grocery stores and savings on gas. It illustrated the latter with a spot showing a balloon salesman and a customer discussing BJ’s savings on gas—in ridiculously high-pitched voices as helium leaks from a tank.

The shop created outdoor boards and social posts for the client with copy such as “More fresh food than we know what to do with. Seriously, please help,” and quick-clip videos styled after local newscasts presenting BJ’s prices as breaking news. The result: a 9% jump in awareness, an 8% rise in consideration and a 5.3% growth in sales.

The campaign also provided savings for BJ’s—the agency doubled up the “Newscasters” shoot with one for another client, using the same production company, director and shooting location.

In its maiden voyage for Princess Cruises, the agency took cruise fans on a nostalgia trip, reminding them that Princess was the original “Love Boat.” It signed “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham to sing the theme song from the iconic TV show, turning “love” into a positioning that sets it apart from rivals in the category. Since its launch, the client has notched a 13% year-over-year increase in occupancy rate and the number of new Princess guests jumped by 14%.

Sutton said the shop will next bring its “Big Bold Audacious Creativity” philosophy to broader arenas, such as finance, production and account management. “We’re going to be really infusing that into where we show up, the work we produce, how we collaborate with our clients, and the experience that we create for our employees,” said Sutton. “We really want to surprise the industry this year.”

But there’s one thing that won’t change. “I feel really strongly that we should keep the agency’s name,” said Sutton. “I want to honor [its founders] legacies as we take the agency forward.”

In fact, she may already have done so. “Somebody called me Terri last week,” said Sutton. “I was like, ‘Oh shit, that means I really made it.’”