From the ridiculously funny American Mustache Institute to brand building for Anheuser-Busch, creative agency Elasticity stretches innovative boundaries for a wide range of clients and cracks the formula on humor in marketing. WORDS: Kim Gordon PHOTOS: Matt Marcinkowski
“SIZE MATTERS” The provocative Guinness slogan stretches across the bright orange walls of Elasticity’s offices on Washington Avenue, alluding to the cutting-edge marketing and public-relations agency’s ability to push creative boundaries and maximize client results. Bigger is better, especially when it comes to creative digital marketing and a public-relations team. This combination has propelled Elasticity into the national spotlight and landed the agency an impressive client roster boasting the likes of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Monsanto, Stifel Nicolaus, Quicken and Charter Communications, among others. As the founders of the American Mustache Institute, a ridiculously hysterical organization dedicated to the growth and preservation of the mustache, and the Bacon Institute, a purposely short-lived online community dedicated to the world’s most robustly glorious meat, the Elasticity team explains density and length both matter when it comes to mustaches. And the same goes with bacon: the thicker and meatier, the better.
The Elasticity team describes itself as a digital word-ofmouth marketing agency that focuses on the triangulation of social media, blogger outreach and traditional media relations, all fueled by the power of search-engine optimization. Think of it as a digital, social-media and PR agency mash-up masterfully mixed by a team of mad scientists. Enter the Elastic Lab headquarters hidden deep underground beneath the world’s largest mustache: St. Louis’ Gateway Arch. It’s here where the team pilots “ideas, strategies, flavors of bacon and dance maneuvers,” to ensure they understand, improve and test the newest social-media and digital strategies. “A lot of companies claim to be, but we’re not everything to everyone,” says Perlut. “We can, however, do some things very well, like a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.” One of those strengths is the timeless ability to maximize humor in marketing, but while humor is a powerful weapon to possess in a creative firm’s arsenal, the ability to successfully leverage parody in PR and humor in marketing is tricky, and striking a delicate balance with humor and managing brand reputation are critical.
But size, stamina and strength may matter most when it comes to building and executing powerful marketing and PR campaigns. “Elasticity is an agency based on the culture of great ideas,” says managing partner Aaron Perlut. “Marketing campaigns born from great ideas and creative content, not from recycled programs, can make an indelible impact if executed well.”
That’s the ironic aspect of Elasticity. Perlut, managing partner Dan Callahan and fellow founder Brian Cross have more than 50 years’ combined experience managing corporate reputations and directing crisis communications for major energy and financial-services institutions, including Progress Energy, RBC Dain Rauscher, Capitol One and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
As the name implies, Elasticity straddles new and traditional media by stretching creative boundaries for a wide range of clients, running the gamut from major corporations such as Capital One and Toro to boutique lines including Corazón Tequila and Stout Signs to nonprofit groups such as the American Mustache Institute. If you haven’t heard of that last organization, the name only begins to suggest the St. Louis–based agency’s groundbreaking ability to use humor to build brands and engage consumers.
“The reality is that only a few of our clients have cultures that embrace our humor, and that’s fine,” Perlut says. “Humor doesn’t work for everyone. We put humor where it fits and find alternate means of amusing ourselves.”
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There’s no better example of Elasticity’s funny bone than the American Mustache Institute, the world’s only facialhair advocacy and research organization, with more than 700 chapters across the globe that battle negative stereo-