Barkley Inc.: Agency Profile

Barkley Inc. is one of the largest independent full-service advertising, marketing, and integrated communications agencies in the United States — and the largest in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded 1964 by Mike Swenson (formerly Barkley Evergreen & Partners), Barkley operates a family of wholly-owned subsidiaries covering advertising, PR, design, and vertical-specialty marketing across a national footprint.

Founding and Ownership

Founded 1964 by Mike Swenson. Independent and majority-employee-owned. Barkley Evergreen & Partners rebranded to Barkley in the 2000s. Growth has come through both organic expansion and strategic acquisition, giving the firm the scale to launch and operate multiple category-specific subsidiaries.

Barkley's Subsidiaries

In 2012, Barkley split its public relations division into a wholly-owned subsidiary named Crossroads. Barkley now operates through a family of vertically focused subsidiaries:

• Crossroads — the PR practice. Serves lifestyle, consumer, and retail brands. Clients including Lee.
• Barkley REI — niche markets specialist covering nonprofits, higher education, travel, and tourism. Pittsburgh-based. Clients including Carnegie Mellon.
• Blacktop — the design group. Kansas City. Clients including Mr. Coffee.
• Grenadier — Boulder, Colorado. Clients including Waterpik.
• Better Than Famous — Los Angeles.

Headquarters

Barkley's Kansas City headquarters is a 133,000-square-foot building originally constructed in the 1950s by TWA. It has been extensively renovated and incorporates green-building features including a 25,000-square-foot rooftop garden. The 22-foot-tall TWA Moonliner II rocket on the rooftop is preserved from the original construction — a Cold War-era prediction of what engineers thought commercial airliners for space travel might look like by 1986.

The site was once home to a local brewery known as the "beer castle," which may explain one of Barkley's signature employee perks: free beer on tap. Alongside the usual roster of tech-office perks — free food, snacks, and a smoothie bar — beer on tap remains distinctive.

Client Roster

Barkley employs approximately 300 people. Named clients across the parent and subsidiary structure include:

• Big O Tires
• Target
• Dairy Queen
• Vanity Fair
• March of Dimes
• Weight Watchers
• Sonic Drive-Ins
• Coleman Lanterns
• Payless
• Carnegie Mellon University (via REI)
• Mr. Coffee (via Blacktop)
• Waterpik (via Grenadier)
• Lee (via Crossroads)

Positioning

Barkley's positioning is the independent Midwest alternative to the coastal holding-company networks. The firm has grown into one of the largest independents in the country while retaining the culture and ownership structure of an independent — with the subsidiary architecture giving it the vertical depth of a network.

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