T3's CEO, Gay Gaddis, uses partnering, cross-training and core values to shape her agency.

Gay Gaddis is the President and founder of T3 (The Think Tank), an integrated marketing services firm and idea factory with a range of regional, national and global clients including Dell Inc., Marriott International, Inc., JCPenney, MSN, i3 Research, Nortel Networks, Spheris and Despair.com. Gaddis founded T3 in 1989 and has since built the company into the largest privately held agency wholly owned by a woman in the country. Committed to making T3 the most innovative agency in the nation, she drives the company’s business philosophy -- smart people doing smart things.

iMediaConnection: Describe the reasons behind T3's rapid growth.

Gaddis: Our strongest unique point is that we are flexible in meeting client needs. Your agency model cannot work with every client. Creativity and innovation is still what sparks the imagination of clients. The ability to partner with others is key to this flexibility.

I tell people that we're an overnight success after 15 years. We were first hired by Dell, which allowed us to see a working model of how interactive and all the other pieces work together at a time ahead of other competing agencies. Eight years ago we were already starting to see the future impact of the online space. To stay immersed in the Dell work, we began to develop areas of expertise around an online financial model. Had we not had a client charging ahead in interactive we would not have embraced or invested so aggressively in that direction. Integration already happened for us five years ago and in a robust way. It's old news to us and it's finally working.

iMediaConnection: What do "agencies of the future" look like?

Gaddis: "Agencies of the future" are going to be driven by accountability. It's pushing us into more research and development and looking into new technology and tracking. We formed an in-house research and development unit called T3 Fuse that will inject new technologies into our marketing plans. We have to be prepared to address new audiences.

Old media buying techniques aren't that important to us anymore. It's being able to take the creative applications we're working on and make sure that they can fit the applications of media properties. We can push them to help make our creations come to life. The Web is the focal point of accountability and efficiency, but still there are other aspects of the client's marketing program that we have to service. To do this, we developed the ability to partner with embedded experts in other areas.

iMediaConnection: Does your business scale? How will you maintain your specialty focus?

Gaddis: T3's intention at this point is to spawn entrepreneurial people in-house that share my original vision and will help me shape it. We've grown 25 percent each year. But it will be hard to hold the culture at this continued pace. It's an advantage that we're an independent company so that we can stay agile. I have to look at it one account at a time. I’m making sure that the industries of the clients we bring in are diversified.

iMediaConnection: T3 is known for hiring employees with different professional backgrounds and disciplines. What are the skillsets that really need to be hired?

Gaddis: We hire tech savvy and innovative people. We actually teach most of these skills. We cross train so that they can work across different media. I'm asking universities to teach certain skills and disciplines that T3 needs. I'm still trying to integrate our product management team and traffic team. Traditionally agencies always ran on traffic, but when we brought on Web designers that were application-oriented we didn't exactly know how to organize their efforts. It will be a gradual process.

Certain core values have to be exhibited so that people understand them through action. Our "T3 and Under" program, which allows parents to bring their children to work, shows that I respect employees and their family values. I believe that everyone should have a careful life balance. This has created an environment like a home and proof that we care about them as human beings. It has received a lot of attention in the media. For being such a small agency, we were astonished to receive 6,300 applicants last year.

iMediaConnection: How can agencies reclaim the strategy role in the relationship with clients?

Gaddis: First, agencies need to get back in control of information. If you own the information and the research and you're held accountable, then you're put in a position to lead the strategy. Account planning has become so much more real today because we have specific one-on-one data about a client's customers. Agencies have to prove information and results or clients won't be willing to let go of the dollars. Proof is why online is getting more and more share of marketing dollars.

Second, an "agency of the future" needs to be more astute in technology. Media and technology will only become more sophisticated, so we have to understand what consumers want from and how they interact with technology so that we can figure out how to claim a one-to-one relationship.