TBQ: Wayne Cranford Did Things Differently

Our cover story for the latest edition of our magazine, Talk Business Quarterly, features Wayne Cranford — the Little Rock advertising executive who will be one of four inductees in the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame next month.

Cranford had a unique management style that fit perfectly with the changing times of the 1960’s world of advertising, when he embarked on a new agency with creative business partner, Jim Johnson.

Former colleague Ron Robinson, who interned in the early years of the Cranford/Johnson agency (now known as CJRW), had this to say:

“There were advertising agencies and there was Cranford/Johnson,” Robinson said. “There was great collegiality. Wayne was the account executive and the real businessman of the operation. Jim Johnson was the creative heart and soul of the agency. And they were both very inspired people and inspirational people.”

“They brought a new spirit to advertising in Little Rock because they wanted to create an agency that could be found in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles or Atlanta. You didn’t have to be on Madison Avenue,” he said.

In the 1960’s, there were as many as 50 advertising and marketing agencies in the Little Rock phone book. Typically, an agency might lose as much as 20 percent of its business from year to year from “stolen accounts” or completed work.

Slowing that churn and keeping leads in the pipeline was important for an agency’s long-term success, and Robinson said Cranford understood this dynamic early on.

“One of the secrets to Wayne Cranford’s leadership in the beginning was in trying to get to know people and to try to do project work for people to show that you could work together and what it would be like to work together before getting the major account,” he said.

He recalls Cranford/Johnson’s efforts in the late 1960’s to land the mighty Arkansas Power & Light account, then one of the most lucrative clients in the state. Cranford scored an opportunity to brand and develop a public awareness campaign for AP&L’s first nuclear-fueled plant in Russellville.

The agency coined the name, “Arkansas Nuclear One,” developing a logo and public education effort about nuclear power and the economic benefits of the new power plant.

It was from that foundation that Cranford/Johnson eventually won the AP&L account.

Another unconventional approach Cranford took with the agency was in business development. In the ’60’s, pro football players didn’t train and play year-round as they do now. They also didn’t get paid blockbuster salaries like today’s athletes.

“One of the things that Wayne Cranford smartly did in the beginning was he hired Lance Alworth, the all-American and all-pro football player that he had gotten to know after graduation from the University of Arkansas,” Robinson said.

In the off-season, Alworth, a standout wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers, would call on prospects for the agency. As a household name and national sports star, he helped open a lot of doors to potential business.

“New business was attracted by the fact that people began talking about the work the agency was doing. This was shaking up the advertising agency then,” Robinson said.

Read more on the business career of Wayne Cranford in our latest TBQ, which you can access online here. Also, we encourage you to share our new TBQ Facebook page with your friends. We’ll be giving away $50 in gift certificates to Cheers restaurant in Little Rock to a Facebook friend when we top the 300 mark.

During the next week, we’ll be rolling out more stories from our latest magazine and giving you more opportunities to win some gifts and prizes. We hope you enjoy!