Gorilla Manifesto

This manifesto documents our principles and inspires us to always be better. It’s rooted in our core values: results, improvement, relationships, kindness and inclusivity. It’s a work in progress.

“Good ads sell stuff.”

Steve Kopcha, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, had a phrase he coined. He used it in class. He wrote it on his students’ papers. It was in his email signature. Today, it drives the way we do business at Gorilla 76.

“Good ads sell stuff.”

It’s simple but incredibly powerful. Good marketing makes a company more money. Marketing isn’t an expense. It’s an investment. It must always be results-driven.

This is at the core of all that we do.

There’s a lot of opportunity to sell “stuff” in the B2B industrial space

There’s great opportunity to do good marketing in the B2B industrial space.

The work is enjoyable, the results are rewarding and the clients are some of the finest and kindest people with whom you can work. There’s opportunity for an agency to be a clear-cut leader and that agency will be us.

By 2030, we want to be the best B2B industrial marketing agency as recognized by our peers that honor us, clients that retain us, and employees that seek us out and grow with us. We’re aiming for $8 million in annual revenue with 25% profit margins. Why 2030? Ask us and we’ll get you up to speed.

Our five core values

Results, improvement, relationships, kindness and inclusivity. They’re at the root of all that we do.

Results. We succeed for our clients. We celebrate their achievements. This gives us purpose in what we do. It creates a stable work environment.

Improvement. We get better every day. This makes our work more effective and each of us more valuable. We believe that a commitment to improvement is the path to becoming the best in industrial marketing. We believe it’s the key to keeping our great workforce.

Relationships. Our clients and teammates make us the company we are today. And they determine where we’re going tomorrow. Building and nurturing strong relationships is important for work that’s fulfilling. It leads to retention and happiness.

Kindness. We’re good people. We act with integrity. We demonstrate a commitment to ethics and kindness and appreciate everyone’s contributions. This is a value that’s bigger than work. This is a value that helps us all leave the world a little better than we found it.

Inclusivity. We don’t just invite different perspectives to the table, we ask them to be a part of the conversation as well.

To live these core values, we affirm an obligation to the ethical conduct of our work. You can read more about that here.

Three things set us apart

Three things set us apart from every other agency in our space. They’re as follows:

  1. Industrial is our niche. We work with midsized B2B American manufacturing companies ($10M to $200M) selling complex products or services in long, consultative sales cycles.
  2. We’ve written a new industrial marketing playbook. Instead of helping clients with trade shows and sales collateral, we’ve designed a measurable marketing framework that generates revenue.
  3. Marketing-sourced pipeline is our success metric. We use KPIs like rankings, traffic and leads only as signals to guide us to that outcome.

We’re small – and that’s intentional

We’re a small agency. And that’s intentional. In fact, we pass up more work than we take on. We’re proud of that.

Being small allows us to be nimble. It forces us to fight apathy and leave mediocrity behind. It allows us to have great relationships and kind people leading them. There’s no room for “B” players at Gorilla. Every employee is as important as the next. And we all work daily to improve at what we do.

We’re a team, not a family (thanks Netflix)

It’s our responsibility to deliver results-driven work for our clients and to provide a stable job environment for the greater good of Gorilla. That means we must always make sure that the right players are in the right seats at the right times. Anything less and we won’t be set up to deliver great work. In short, we wouldn’t be set up for success. And a team that’s not set up for success is a victim of poor management and coaching.

This isn’t a notion born out of a lack of care for each other; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. A team member that’s not in a position to do their absolute best work is a team member that’s being treated unfairly.

What makes us different as people makes us better as a team

Great thinking knows no boundaries, and our differences make us stronger. We’re proud to be a diverse team, and we’re committed to ensuring we stay such.

But our pledge to diversity and inclusion doesn’t stop there. We extend it to all business operations at Gorilla – from vendor relationships to the organizations with which we volunteer in the community. If you ever see anything less of us, please reach out to Joe or Jon directly.

We believe in what we do

We started this business because we wanted to believe in what we did, day in and day out. We wanted to be in the driver’s seat. We wanted to know that the work we were doing was indeed delivering results, and that failure or success was squarely upon our shoulders.

Today, that’s still in our agency’s DNA. Our entire team feels both the pressures and the rewards of being in the driver’s seat. As Gorillas, we’re innately proactive and appropriately reactive.

We’re focused

In a world of interruptions, it’s easy to lose focus. That’s a pitfall we pledge to avoid. We focus on what we’re doing the entire time we’re doing it. Focus on the goals. Focus on the results. Focus on improvement. Focus on great relationships and ensuring all voices are heard. Focus on making our agency and the work we do for our clients better every single day.

Remain focused and success follows.

Healthy means profitable

There are many things that define the health of a company. But there’s no company if there’s no profitability.

We depend on each other for job security. And therefore it’s the responsibility of every Gorilla to strive for time and cost efficiency, to seek opportunities to grow our business with new and existing clients, and to proactively look for ways we can make Gorilla stronger.

We honor a pledge to professional development

To become better, we take initiative. We read the greats. Listen to the greats. We thirst for newfound intelligence. We learn from each other.

We’re always evolving and always making ourselves smarter. Employees participate in many developmental opportunities – both on and off the job. We push our people to leave their comfort zone. Again. And again. And again. This is how we get results. This is how we improve and get better.

We’re committed to professional development and we expect each of us to make the agency smarter and more effective.

We honor a pledge to wellness

Stand and stretch. Take a walk together. Go for a lunchtime workout. Intellectual ability is directly correlated to physical and mental health.

The healthier we are, the better teammates we are.

We’re good, kind people

In addition to professional development, we care about how we develop as people as well. After all, “9-5” doesn’t define us. It simply creates the means to grow into the people we want to become.

We don’t hire jerks, bullies or know-it-alls.

Jabs have no place in the office.

We’re kind to each other, to our clients, to our vendors, to everyone we interact with during our day. We value great relationships.

We encourage each other to get involved outside of work. We believe in both company and individual social responsibility. We’re committed to the community.

We’re good people. Anything less is unacceptable.

We’re very good at what we do

We’re all here for a reason. We’re good at what we do. We believe that. And so do our clients. Our agency can only succeed with “A” players. “B” players won’t cut it.

And while we know that we’re good at what we do, we don’t let it ever go to our heads, as that creates complacency. And complacency kills innovation.

We’re responsible

We’re self-motivated, self-aware, self-disciplined and self-improving.

And if we see a piece of trash on the office floor, we pick it up.

We’re making a difference

We’re not curing cancer. But our clients build, paint, engineer and manufacture for the people who are. And when they’re not curing cancer, they’re building the infrastructure of the American economy, while providing job after job after job. They’re doing good in the world. We’re honored to support them.

Our work matters. A lot. We must deliver results for our clients. We must always work to make ourselves better.

We respect our clients and we expect the same in return

We work with honest clients who do honest work and sell great products/services. They do the dirty work, the work that is the backbone of our country.

It’s an honor to work for our clients, and we treat them with kindness. Each and every one of them. We never take these relationships for granted. We also believe it’s an honor for our clients to get to work with us. We respect each other mutually.

Creativity never takes a back seat

We built our agency on great creative work. Strong copywriting and beautiful design. We’ll never lose sight of this.

We stay inspired

Smart marketers. Remarkable brands. Daring clients. Diverse co-workers. Good books. Thought-provoking podcasts. Classic film.

Inspiration always surrounds us. It helps drive our improvement.

Work is only part of “work”

If coming to work is a drag, we should all just stay home. We keep a fun, stimulating, desired work environment – a place where great relationships with kind coworkers, clients and vendors are the norm.

We’re successful

Gorilla is successful because we grow and maintain business, deliver strong results for our clients and maintain an environment where people want to come to work.

We’re successful because we complete our daily tasks efficiently and effectively, respect relationships and work-life balance, and grow – intellectually, financially and as kind humans.