Gigunda
Group
Ryan FitzSimons started a company from his Dartmouth dorm room in
1994 called the College Kit because they compiled welcome gifts
containing products from brands that wanted to reach the college
market. By 2003 the company's offerings had evolved to include
nontraditional marketing such as event production, experiential
marketing and sampling programs that extended beyond the college
demographic, so a new name was needed. He wanted a name that
communicated big ideas and considered numerous options, including
Hippo House. "I was going back and forth debating what name to pick
when my sister reminded me that when we were kids, instead of
referring to something as 'huge' or 'enormous,' we would describe
it as gigunda!" said Mr. FitzSimons. "I knew right away that should
be the name of my agency. "
Sra. Rushmore
"We believed 11 years ago that a feminine name with the image of a
little old lady would represent the care and fondness with which
we'd want to do things for our clients," said agency President
Roberto Lara. "We chose Sra. [pronounced senhora] Rushmore
because she was the character in the first interactive campaign
done in Spain 15 years ago, for our Pepsi client. She was an
actress named Dolores Goodman, who was in movies like "Grease," and
we got in touch with her and bought the rights to her image (which
is displayed on the agency's home page at srarushmore.com)."
MIR
"Adam [Wohl] and I were freelancing, we needed to be a vendor in
order to get (at the time) a big job, the budget would only
accommodate for a vendor, no freelance," said Darrell Whitelaw,
co-founder of MIR. "I had an S Corp that i used in the past to sell
t-shirts and other mildly creative endeavors, so we filled out some
paperwork for a DBA and the next day had a real company. The
difficult part was choosing the name. We had batted around a few
options, and since at the time we did a lot of social stuff we
liked the ring of MIR, it has a lot of meanings in Russian, but we
loved the idea of the obshchina, a community where people
were reliant on one another to survive. It really summed up our
goal as an agency partner and the way we wanted to do business.
Looking back, we definitely 'settled' on MIR, we needed a company
name in under 12 hours and it's just stuck. The logo has changed,
but the name is here to stay."
Squeaky Wheel Media
"The word 'no' is the impetus for the name Squeaky," said CEO and
Founder Anthony Del Monte. "I always felt that I needed to be the
one who made a little noise. Being the youngest of a family of five
kids all born back-to-back, making noise was the only mechanism I
had in order to not be left out. Also, growing up in Jersey City,
N.J., during the early '70s 'no' was a constant chorus. 'Mom can I
have a skateboard?' 'No.' 'Can I have second helping?' 'No.' 'Can I
get sneakers?' 'No.' 'Do you love me?' 'Yes.' (Lots of yeses in my
life also.) But, by summoning the courage to hear a no you also
become heard. When it was time to name my agency I focused on three
drivers. It had to make sense: 'Squeaky wheel gets the grease' --
making the right noise for our clients communication needs. It had
to be personal: my background and the need to make noise to be
recognized. And it had to be fun and memorable. As a side note,
other names considered: Spork Media -- an homage to utility and the
device I used while eating so many free lunches in the '70s (too
weird) -- and Old Dog Productions -- a tribute to my experience
(too novice)."