Denali may be a new name on the Twin Cities marketing scene, but the agency’s principals are no greenhorns.
Two of the managing partners, Mark Lacek and Peter Brennan, have worked together since 1984. They developed Northwest Airlines’ frequent-flyer program. Later, they built MilePoint, which converted unused frequent-flyer miles into “points” that could be used to buy products. (MilePoint was acquired by Toronto-based Points International in 2004.)
Denali was born of their desire to join forces with several other top-shelf veteran creatives—Rick Boubelik (head of loyalty-marketing firm Customer Experience Marketing), Greg Heinemann (a 25-year marketing pro, most recently ran his own branding and product-launch consultancy, Blackwatch), Mark Lenss (president and CEO of Minneapolis marketing agency McCracken Brooks from 1997 through 2001), and Margaret Murphy (until recently, a senior vice president for Carlson Marketing Worldwide). Together, the team has 145 years of experience working for numerous well-known brands, including Delta Air Lines and Sprint.
The principals have been discussing the move for years, Lacek says: “We believed that when we combined our respective talents and experience, we could create something really unique and powerful—and, hopefully, have a lot of fun.”
Up and running in May, Denali currently has 17 employees and a client list that includes Sun Country Airlines locally and Nederlander Theaters in New York. “We have very strong relationships and histories with clients around the world,” Lacek says.
With its principals’ varied backgrounds, Denali offers a broad array of services, including branding, loyalty marketing, and online marketing and e-commerce site construction. For some smaller clients, Denali offers a skin-in-the-game, pay-for-performance contract rather than requiring a straight fee or hourly rate; in the future, Denali may make monetary investments to help client firms get off the ground.
How can these veteran marketers, most of whom have run their own agencies, work nicely together? For one thing, each partner “owns” his or her own client relationship. The partners review each other’s strategies to provide input and ideas without biased judgment or turf concerns.
Another reason for the harmonic convergence: The partners want to build a business that requires less travel. Though Denali does have clients outside the state, it will focus primarily on local business.
“One of the key reasons is balance of life,” Lacek says. “We can spend time with our families and friends. But we also believe we can provide superior service to the local clientele, because we can be there in 15 minutes.”
