STANANDLOU MARKETING/ADVERTISING

One of my fondest memories of a new business pitch was back in 2002 when STANANDLOU was asked to present our capabilities to Houston’s fifth largest accounting firm, Mann Frankfort Stein & Lipp.

What made the meeting unusual was that STANANDLOU didn’t have any experience at the time nor any real desire to enter into the accounting firm arena. I had heard real horror stories about accounting clerks going postal during tax season and I didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire.

However, the marketing director, Marla, sounded nice so we went.

Our meeting was at the end of the day on a Friday after the rush and crush of business was taken care of so we could all relax. That is until after we presented our largely retail-oriented ad portfolio to the owners of the firm, Milton Frankfort, Rick Stein and Arnold Lipp.

Mr. Frankfort seemed to enjoy our ads but was concerned that we had no samples of advertising for accounting firms in our presentation. He asked if we felt we were up to the challenge of creating advertising for an admittedly “boring” industry.

I looked at Milton and admitted that I knew next to nothing about accounting except for the two courses I took in college and, quite honestly, even thinking about accounting “made my brain bleed.” But I did tell them that I knew how to do advertising and if they were willing to take a chance, so was I.

Well, they thanked me for the meeting and I returned to STANANDLOU to finish some work before the weekend. When I arrived, I had a note to call Marla. The principals wanted me to come back and talk.

We had just become their first official advertising agency.

Today, UHY Advisors is ranked No. 13 on Accounting Today’s Top 100 Firms list, with U.S. revenue of $242 million, up nearly 22 percent from the previous year.

I’d like to think that STANANDLOU may have had a little to do with this success. Also, I can’t think of a nicer group of people that I’ve ever worked for than Milton, Arnold, Rick & Marla. They broke the mold.