Be a Bigger Magnet

Take, for instance, the United States Marines account that Mallin (then working for JWT) took charge of a few years ago. The marketing challenge: Recruitment messages had always gone out to a broad pool of eligible candidates, many of whom were woefully unsuited to become Marines. These broadcast calls to be one of “the few, the proud” resulted in a high wash-out rate among new recruits. It was costing the federal government time and money. The goal now was to get inadequate candidates to weed themselves out of the process from the outset.

“One of the things we determined was that we should really convey what it’s like to be a Marine through interaction with the Web site,” Mallin explains. The JWT-designed site showed video of recruits on rugged obstacle courses and drill instructors yelling, goading them on. The goal was to present a highly unromanticized view of Marine training. Many potential candidates visited the new site and opted out of further exploration because they were turned off by the reality, Mallin says, while desirable recruits were entranced and would watch the intimidating video clips over and over again.

“When we were growing up, the [Marine Corps] ads you saw were about proud individuals standing in front of flags,” he adds. “Those made everyone want to join. But we decided we could get people to self-eliminate by showing them what the Marines are really like. It was basically an ‘If this scares you, don’t enlist’ message.” JWT won a 2004 Silver Effie—the marketing and communications industry equivalent of an Oscar — for its “Pain is weakness leaving the body” campaign.

Mallin and Litman had done it as part of a global marketing giant, but it was what they had learned to excel at even earlier, with Imaginet. And with the new-media ground continuing to shift under the feet of the big marketing and advertising houses, they saw an opportunity opening up for marketing and technology firms as small as Imaginet had once been.

Glue to Make the Network Work

There was a noncompete agreement to wait out until January 1, 2008. In the interim, Litman and Mallin helped the late investment fund manager Gene Sit develop the Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund. They served on the boards of several companies—among them Bellacor, Bard’s Tale Beer, Hardcore Computer—and were active angel investors. In 2005, Litman and Mallin developed and launched the Minnesota Cup, a competition for entrepreneurs that has become an annual event supported by Twin Cities Business.

When 2008 rolled around, the two men began making calls to marketing, brand development, and design firms that they admired and recruiting them to Magnet 360.

Their business model isn’t entirely new. Large holding companies, such as WPP, Omnicon, and Publicis, have long been acquiring and aggregating advertising and marketing firms.