Barkley Inc: Kansas City PR, Marketing & More…
Barkley Inc. is an independent full-service advertising agency based in Kansas City, Missouri. They were formerly known as Barkley Evergreen & Partners and are one of the largest independent advertising agency in the U.S., and the largest in Kansas City.
In 2012, Barkley split their public relations division off from the rest of the company and created a wholly-owned subsidiary named Crossroads. Other wholly-owned subsidiaries are Barkley REI (for niche markets such as nonprofits, higher education, and travel and tourism) with offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Blacktop (their design group) also in Kansas City; Grenadier in Boulder, Colorado; and Better Than Famous in Los Angeles.
The headquarters are in building built in the 1950s by TWA. The 133,000 square foot building has been renovated since then and incorporates many green features. One nice green feature and probably great for the employees and events is a 25,000 square foot rooftop garden. One thing that remains from the original TWA building is the rocket on the rooftop, 22 foot tall TWA Moonliner II. At the time of the original construction, the rocket was what engineers thought might be the commercial airliner for space travel by 1986.
Barkley was founded in 1964 by Mike Swenson and. has expanded their numbers, their reach, and their client base many times by purchasing other firms giving them the ability to start their various subsidiary companies.
The employee reviews are mixed, but one interesting perk listed several times was free beer on-tap all the time. Free food, snacks, smoothie bar – all good, free beer? Now that’s different.
One thing that may explain the beer on tap is the headquarters site was once where a brewery stood, locally known as the beer castle. The company employs approximately 300 people and some of their best-known clients include Big O Tires, Target, Dairy Queen, Vanity Fair, March of Dimes, Weight Watchers, Sonic Drive-Ins, Coleman Lanterns, and Payless.
Some of the clients represented by their various subsidiaries include Carnegie Mellon (REI), Mr. Coffee (Blacktop), Waterpik (Grenadier), and Lee (Crossroads).
