Resplendent Arkansas launches in Fayetteville

The Arkansas branch of Austin, Texas-based Resplendent Agency recently became an independent company to focus on its Arkansas clients.

Resplendent Arkansas is the temporary brand, said Andrea Ritchie, president of the Fayetteville-based public relations agency. The change happened on Jan. 1.

“It allows us to tailor our office to support the Northwest Arkansas community as Mary [Mickel] and I are both native Arkansans,” Ritchie said. “It allows our clients to know that they are utilizing services that are supporting growth in the Arkansas community and that we’re all Arkansas employees, and it’s also a women-owned Arkansas business. So our clients and potential clients can know that all the money being spent for our services is going straight back into our local economy.”

Ritchie and Mickel are the co-founders and co-owners of Resplendent Arkansas. In 2012, Mickel co-founded Resplendent Hospitality before it was rebranded to Resplendent Agency. It opened a Fayetteville office in 2019.

Ritchie said Resplendent Arkansas can share the Resplendent brand for up to a year but hopes to complete the rebranding more quickly.

“We are working internally to rebrand with a name that represents what we are building long-term with our partners,” Ritchie said.

The firm retained the Arkansas clients from Resplendent Agency and is focused on nonprofits and businesses “helping Northwest Arkansas thrive,” she said. Some of its nine clients include Forge Community Loan Fund, Arts One Presents, Specialized Real Estate Group, Bentonville restaurant Conifer and Fossil Cove Brewing Co. She noted that Resplendent Arkansas recently added a Little Rock-based client working in the hospitality industry.

“We want to stay a boutique agency,” she said. “We want to keep our small book of business so that we can focus intently on them.”

Resplendent Arkansas has four employees. Mickel, who’s a partner and senior adviser, works full-time at farmland investment firm AcreTrader in Fayetteville.