Today we’d like to introduce you to Cimin Cohen.
Hi Cimin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
As a kid, I always loved media. My sisters and I would spend our summers making our own commercials or pretending we were hosting weather segments. Advertising as a career hadn’t really occurred to me until college, when I realized that the culture and energy of the Psychology lab, which was my major at the time, was not a great fit. When I found the media department at UT Austin, it was the perfect intersection of creative, business, media, and science that tied together all of my passions. Years later, after graduation, I was feeling super burnt out after my time working with some of the biggest media agencies and Fortune 100 brands in the world. I was on a fast track to leadership, but looked ahead at the people whose seats I’d eventually fill and didn’t see many happy faces. It looked to me to be a never-ending cycle of bosses on higher floors than you making decisions that impacted you but you had no say in; clients perpetually underserved and understaffed, always disappointed and annoyed at you; and teams that reported to you that were also underserved and therefore not happy either. It all felt very toxic. I escaped to the mountains of New Mexico by sheer luck where I made the decision to leave advertising and media. But advertising wasn’t done with me, and I was invited to help in a pitch for the New Mexico Tourism Department. I fell in love with the clients, the team and the work. From there I just started to say yes more and more, get a lot of referrals and word-of-mouth business, and we’ve grown like crazy since then to where we are today. By staying focused on doing good work for nice people, we’ve eliminated a lot of the sadness and toxicity I see as pervasive in agency life today. We’ve been able to stay selective about our client list, working with companies whose values align with ours and who are rooted in improving the customer experience.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have been challenges along the way to creating the amazing company that is Idea Peddler. Things have happened that come with growing a small business. What I think I was the least prepared for was the absolutely rapid growth of the agency. While we did have a couple of scary months during the early days of the pandemic, our growth in the past 12 months, and even before that, has been astronomical. As a team, it was a challenge to hire, train and cultivate a team over Zoom and through remote work. What kept us going was the important work we were able to do on behalf of our clients where it was so vital to the community.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Idea Peddler?
Idea Peddler is a full-service advertising agency offering a slate of services including paid media and advertising, public relations, social media and comprehensive marketing strategy. We provide big agency experience with boutique agency service that is all under one roof, providing an internal feedback loop and a truly integrated approach.
For Idea Peddler, we believe that the status quo of the agency process can be done better. We’re breaking down and rebuilding the way campaigns have been attempted traditionally. By pushing boundaries, we’ve done work we’re proud of, and continue to do it in a way that promotes a healthy work culture.
What’s next?
My plans for the future of Idea Peddler is to continue to go fast and build. I want to continue to drive my vision of challenging the status quo of the industry. There is so much opportunity in working with clients that have been underserved by their current agency structure. We want to help them realize their full potential and we’ll do that by integrating our team as an extension of theirs.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ideapeddler.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ideapeddlerllc/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideapeddler
Image Credits
Bailey Toksöz Photography
