“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.”
-T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
We’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of Offenberger & White (OffWhite Marketing) this February. To commemorate this momentous occasion, our Senior Content Manager sat down with our founder and CEO, Bill White, to talk about where we’ve been, what he’s seen, and where the future may take us.
So, 40 years of OffWhite. Tell us — how did it all start?
With words and pictures. That sounds a lot like ‘death and taxes,’ and in marketing, it’s just as inevitable.
When we started Offenberger & White, I was the words guy and Warren was the pictures. I wrote all the copy for all of the literature and marketing materials and would take it over to Warren. Together, we would establish an approach plan based on the raw materials that we had, images, charts, scraps, etc., We would then coax it into something that would be a good sales tool. Warren, with his talent, would put it all together into the finished product.
We always looked at our work, and still do as a marketing firm, as an enabler of sales and a protector of the brand. We don’t just come in and do this work for the heck of it — it has to have a purpose. That’s why the words that we choose and the way we express value propositions, and put things into context for our clients’ customers are the bedrock of how we think at OffWhite. Whether we were working on literature ads, white papers, tech briefs — it didn’t matter. It came down to the words and the pictures.
The business itself was born when I left a job with a company I helped start. I went into business with Warren Offenberger, who was one of my esteemed vendors at the time; a creative force at a local printing company. He did a lot of our literature and other graphic work at Forma Scientific.
We both had talked extensively about starting our own firm and in January of 1985 I was fired from my job as the Director of Marketing from my own company. Warren and I had been working together off and on for about eight years. He was a resource to our company and me as the marketing person of Forma and then at Queue. So, when we went into business together, it wasn’t like we hadn’t worked together. On February 4th. 1985, Warren and I established OffWhite and opened our doors.
How have you balanced content creation with the day-to-day demands of running a business during your 40 years?
Well, at the very first, 40 years ago, we did everything in-house. But it didn’t take long to realize we didn’t have time to do things we could outsource. So we found the best accounting firm and the best legal representation. That let us focus on what we were good at. And from that point on we never worried about things like taxes, payroll, and anything unrelated to our business of serving our clients. It lets us center everything around our clients and what we do for them.
How did OffWhite change as new technology, like computers, hit the business world?
We started really close to the beginning of the computer revolution. The business world went from small word processors to the age of desktop computers from this little upstart company called Apple. I bought my first computer, a Macintosh 128K, from a local business and splurged on an external drive that would keep all my files — it was probably 500k of additional storage. From that point on, we really embraced the computer age and made sure to continuously invest in emerging technology.
We had to keep up with the technology that was being used by the printers at the time as well because this was still well before digital media. A good example is the original QuarkXPress, which was really the first art design program that was widely used in the industry. When it first launched, we had to upgrade our computers in order to run the program. At the time, it felt a lot like chasing your tail, trying to balance hardware and software needs with cash flow and changes at the print companies. But through adapting, overcoming, and improvising, we were able to see the value of keeping up with these changes and continue to work on staying current. We could literally put our thoughts on a screen and change them as many times as we wanted until we saw something we liked. We were able to do things we never could before because previously, everything was manual. This helped us really thrive in a time when many other small marketing firms who were starting out and were not being aggressive in those investments did not make it. We stayed the course because we believed in what we were doing and we believed the technology would ultimately yield benefits to us; that’s proven to be very true.
How did you know when you had 'made it'? Was there a point in the business or a particular event that made you realize OffWhite was established?
Even now, I’ve never thought that. I look back out at 40 years and just think we obviously did something right — we never quit. I once did an interview with someone from the Ohio Department of Economic Development and they asked me what my greatest motivation was. I said — fear. Being rich or fighting towards some idea of success has never been what motivated me. It’s to do good work and be afraid that we would fail if we didn’t. The fact that we’ve had clients that go on for decades in some cases suggests that maybe we’ve done okay.
You've done and seen so much in your career. Is there a project or professional experience that stands out as one of your favorites?
The quality of our clients makes it difficult to choose just one project. When we were just getting started, we were just flattered to have such trust from some extremely successful companies that had proficient internal marketing and sales divisions of their own. We’ve had some truly wonderful experiences with long-term clients, some of which have gone on for 20 years. I’ve always made it a point, to my clients and my team, that relationships are at the front lines for us.
Perhaps one of the most lasting accidents of fate, for want of a better term, is our name itself. Our clients all began shortening our name, Offenberger & White, to “OffWhite” pretty soon after we got started. It stuck, so it was obvious to us to grab the URL offwhite.com. Today, of course, OffWhite Marketing has become the name we go by and it’s proven to be a good brand for us.
What is your elevator pitch for OffWhite Marketing, what sets us apart from other marketing agencies?
We make it a point to know, truly know, your product and your company. In this setting, we can’t just hide behind puffery or flowery words. We have to know your products and services because we are providing the very tools your front-line sales reps and managers will be using to educate your potential customers. So every word we write, every photograph and graphic we create, supports the premise of advancing your efforts to educate, inform, and eventually sell your product or solutions. Every member of our team is detail-oriented. We have each other’s backs to help catch the details that even a client might have missed. And we have bailed many an engineer out by catching an effort that would have resulted in ordering the wrong product component and resulting in a costly recall.
Essentially, we do more than just marketing. We help you establish the strategy, framework, and components that are fundamental in thought leadership. It’s been part of our DNA for 40 years and I expect that to continue. We are unique. Can other people do what we do? I don’t know. What I do know is that our clients keep coming back.
What's next for OffWhite?
OffWhite Marketing will be a company that is owned and managed by the people who work here as business partners. I know the folks in this company, my staff right now, appreciate the value of relationships — both with our clients and with their teammates who are their go-to people. I’ve worked and mentored this team to be deeply committed to the value of these peer-to-peer relationships, both internally and with our clients. This focus on collaboration and mutual success has not only strengthened the team internally but has also enabled OffWhite to help spark the growth and success of our client companies, creating a truly symbiotic partnership. It’s all about ensuring agency-to-client collaboration that can keep ideas flowing and perspectives fresh so that the energy of both remains above the curve, regardless of industry, technology, or global changes.
To keep going for another 40 years and beyond, we and our clients need to be able to adapt to change and have fun while doing it. This is the best, and most in-tuned team I’ve ever had. I’ve worked hard over recent years to take a step back and prepare them to take over the reins. I am very pleased with what I might be leaving here. Very pleased.
