About
Our philosophy stems from a statement from Harvard Business School professor, Ted Levitt, who told his students: "People don't want a quarter-inch drill they need a quarter-inch hole."
We see a great deal of advertising that spends too much time talking about products rather than solutions. People don't buy products; they buy solutions.
Our job is to develop a deep understanding of the consumers' needs that our clients' products fulfill and then build a brand narrative that creates a passion for the brand. And makes more money for the client.
Brief agency history
Lawler Ballard Van Durand spun out of Lawler Ballard Advertising, founded in 1954, in Norfolk, Virginia. Lawler Ballard's creative reputation flourished in the 1970's and 1980's as it attracted national attention and opened offices in Birmingham, Cincinnati, Kalamazoo, Nashville, Richmond and Tampa. Adweek Magazine named Lawler Ballard the Creative Agency of the Year in the South in 1989.
In 1991, the now-defunct Earle Palmer Brown acquired the agency. That same year, Tinsley Van Durand, a Lawler Ballard executive in Birmingham, negotiated the purchase of that office and formed Lawler Ballard Van Durand.
In 2001, the agency opened an Atlanta office under the leadership of two former Ogilvy executives.
The agency has handled the work of AmSouth Bank, U.S. Unwired (an operating unit of Sprint), Taylor & Mathis (a Georgia-based real estate firm), First Commerce Corporation in Louisiana, Marshall Durbin Chicken, Baptist Montclair Hospitals, Sloss Furnaces (a Birmingham National Historic site), the Delta Blues Museum, Smithfield Foods and many other clients.
Today, the agency handles work for Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer with sales in excess of $12 billion; Alabama Power, an operating unit of The Southern Company; JBS, the world's largest beef company; the National Peanut Board; and a few smaller yet equally important clients and pro bono projects.
We focus on our clients, do not chase much new business and have grown through referral.