50: The Surprising Benefits of an Employee Owned Marketing Agency w/ Mark Gale

Agencies are typically known for lacking in internal communication and being resistant to change. 

However, today’s guest on the Innovative Agency podcast, Mark Gale CEO of Charleston Orwig sits down to share with us how his agency is doing things differently. 

Charleston Orwig has been around for nearly three decades. Because of their familiarity with clients they need to be nimble to shed the legacy that can sometimes lead other agencies to become complacent or stagnant. 

Instead, they work very hard to stay relevant in the ever-changing food and agriculture space. 

Marketing and Advertising in a category that doesn’t really reflect the reality of how nuanced the work they do is. 

A testament to that is the fact that their top concern is talent, and in order to keep that talent they’ve employed a visionary tactic of using ESOP.

Few people know this as well as Mark, who is also the ESOP Board Director at Charleston Orwig. 

In the beginning they financed 100% of the ESOP plan for their employees at Charleston Orwig. Agencies are typically really bad at communicating within themselves. Charleston Orwig is not. 

They are really pushing to be transparent about things such as billable hours, how they make money, and how they make decisions.