What began as a cold-call LinkedIn conversation has become a major boost for EraserFarm, a Tampa-based branding and advertising agency.
EraserFarm managing director and partner Cindy Haynes got going last summer, when she reached out to a marketing executive with the North American Spine Institute in Dallas. Haynes and her team had tried to make contact with the Tampa-based Laser Spine Institute for branding work, but efforts there stalled.
Haynes clicked with her new contact in Dallas, which led to an in-person pitch for branding services. Then, in October, when Houston-based health care conglomerate Nobilis Health acquired the North American Spine Institute, EraserFarm was named the company’s ad agency of record. The work EraserFarm is tasked with doing for Nobilis includes developing branding campaigns for the spine institute, a national migraine treatment center and a bariatric weight loss program.
It’s a big deal and also a major step toward a big-picture goal for EraserFarm, founded in 2013. “We’ve been able to bypass the large agency stigma,” Haynes tells Coffee Talk. “Some brands are beginning to see past that need to only have a large agency.”
EraserFarm, named for the ideal that an eraser is only a tool to work harder and find a better idea, has signed on several other firms for work in recent months. Haynes, who founded the company with business partner James Rosene after both worked for larger advertising firms, adds that the company is close to a few more significant deals.
“Making the decision to go from a paycheck to being an entrepreneur was a big leap for us,” Haynes says. “It’s finally starting to pay off.”