Local marketing firm is building solid clientele list

Capture Public Relations & Marketing has been pulling in clients throughout the Triad despite a tight economy.

The agency has about 30 customers at any given time.

Current clients include Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., Butler + Burke L.L.P., Kenan Institute for the Arts, RiverRun International Film Festival, Winston-Salem Dash and Wake Forest University Athletics.

"It's really more relationship driven, word of mouth and referrals," said Steve Bumgarner, who co-owns the agency with Scott Carpenter. "If you do good work, that's how people find out about you."

Bumgarner and Carpenter wouldn't give sales numbers but said that business increased 3 percent in 2009 compared with 2008.

They are proud of that percentage given these slow economic times when a lot of small businesses are shutting their doors or cutting jobs.

The business partners have focused on building long-term relationships with their clients since they opened their doors in May 2005.

They can often be found eating lunch with clients at Alex's Cafe, right across the street from their business at 749 Summit St. in the West End area, or inviting folks in for lunch meetings and brainstorming sessions in their office.

"We're fortunate to have some clients we have worked with from the beginning," Carpenter said.

Both men came to Winston-Salem to go to Wake Forest University, loved the city and stayed.

Carpenter's first job after graduating from Wake Forest in 1985 was with WCTI News, an ABC affiliate in New Bern. In 1987, he joined Ralph Simpson & Associates, a public-relations and marketing agency in Winston-Salem, where he worked for 18 years until starting Capture.

Bumgarner got a job as a field marketing coordinator with Krispy Kreme not long after he graduated from Wake Forest in 1995.

During the last part of his career with Krispy Kreme, he worked with various local public relations and marketing firms around the country, including Ralph Simpson & Associates. That's how he met and became friends with Carpenter.

Five years ago, they started talking about starting their own public-relations and marketing company. They came up with Capture.

Ann Urban is the company's director of communications. She has extensive experience in writing, editing and art direction, having worked at Princeton Architectural Press, The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, and Krispy Kreme. Capture also has nine freelance-contract employees.

Bumgarner and Carpenter "believe the true art of business is to capture value," rather than create value, thus the name for their company.

Capture started with just three clients -- Butler + Burke, Quality Oil Co. and Prudential Carolinas Realty.

The agency's big break came a few months after it opened in 2005. That's when Capture handled the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce's "30 Days of Dell" in 2005 to welcome Dell Inc. to Winston-Salem.

"It was a great introduction for us," Bumgarner said.

Carpenter also credited the agency's contacts and public-relations firms around the country for Capture's success because the firms have valuable local-market knowledge.

For example, Capture used its network to generate publicity in key markets and national outlets when it handled an announcement about Phil Hanes' sculpture at UNC School of the Arts in 2006.

Hanes, a prominent local arts patron, and his wife, Charlotte, will eventually have their cremated remains placed inside a sculpture at the school. It will also be the final resting place of their friend Richard Hunt, who created the public sculpture.

The long-term approach Capture takes with its continuing clients in terms of how it structures those relationships also helps business. Many of its clients are charged a flat monthly rate or a project fee.

"I think that helps our clients plan and know that we're going to be there to support them," Bumgarner said. "The work may come in peaks and valleys, but we're there for them."

Clients spoke well of Capture.

Patrick O'Sullivan, the vice president of brand strategy and new concepts for Krispy Kreme, said that the owners of Capture have a long and successful relationship with Krispy Kreme, dating back more than 20 years.

"Most recently, they've assisted us with new product launches, grassroots marketing and high-level special events," he said. "I value the way Capture approaches our projects with strategic thinking and effective execution."

The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts first hired Capture in July 2009.

"In particular they did an absolutely fabulous job helping us with the Open Dream Ensemble last fall," said Margaret Mertz, the executive director of the institute.

She said that Capture used innovative ways to advertise the event, helping the institute pack a 1,000-seat theater with children and their parents on a school night.

"They are very creative but very sensitive to the particular needs that we have here at the Kenan Institute," she said. "So we've been thrilled to work with them this year."

fdaniel@wsjournal.com
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