Eighteen years ago, BPM looked a little different.
There was no Ashwaubenon office, no promotional products division, no Brandtoberfest and definitely no charity golf outing bringing our community together to support a cause we care about. In the beginning, there were coffee shop meetings, a lot of hustle and a belief that local businesses deserved marketing support that was strategic, practical and accountable.
Then came our first real office in 2010, located on Webster Avenue next to the prison.
Every great agency story needs a glamorous beginning.
From there, BPM moved to an office on Main Avenue in De Pere before eventually settling into our current Ashwaubenon location. The addresses changed, the team grew and the services expanded, but the basic approach stayed remarkably consistent: understand the client, do good work, communicate clearly and never get too comfortable with what worked yesterday.
Saturday, September 12 marked BPM’s 18th anniversary. That feels like a pretty good excuse to look back at how far we have come and, more importantly, where we are heading next.
From Two People to a Growing Team
For a long time, BPM meant Aaron and Molly.
Building an agency from the ground up takes a ridiculous amount of persistence, and those early years laid the foundation for everything that followed. Client relationships had to be earned one at a time. Services evolved alongside the digital marketing landscape. Google Ads, social media, SEO, websites and analytics all changed rapidly, and the agency had to change with them.
Over time, the team expanded to include Jake, Katelin, Chris, Gail and Adam, with another content marketing specialist joining us soon.
Each addition has brought new expertise and a new perspective. Creative, paid media, photography and video, promotional products, sales, strategy and content all have dedicated people behind them now. That gives us the ability to look at a client’s marketing from more angles while still operating like the kind of team where people can walk ten feet across the office and solve something together.
That collaborative approach has become one of BPM’s biggest strengths.
We like specialists. We also like specialists who talk to each other.
Growing Up Alongside Digital Marketing
Eighteen years in marketing means BPM has had a front-row seat for a lot of change.
Google Ads became more automated. Social platforms turned into major advertising ecosystems. SEO evolved far beyond stuffing keywords onto a page. Analytics became more sophisticated, privacy regulations changed how data is collected and AI entered practically every marketing conversation on the planet.
BPM has continued investing in the certifications, technology and expertise required to keep pace.
Jake’s Google certification has long been part of the BPM story. He was among the early marketers in the region to earn Google certification, at a time when paid search expertise was far less common locally than it is today. Whether anyone wants to dig through nearly two decades of certification records to establish an official regional first is another question, but it was an important milestone for BPM and reflected the direction the agency was heading.
That attitude toward learning still matters today. Marketing platforms will continue changing, so our team has to keep learning right along with them.
Experience helps you know which new ideas are worth paying attention to and which ones are mostly a shiny button with a good sales pitch.
Adding Promotional Products to the Mix
September 2022 marked another major step when BPM added promotional products.
It made sense.
Our clients were already trusting us with their brands, advertising and creative strategy. Promotional merchandise gave us another way to help those brands show up in the real world through apparel, customer gifts, employee programs, event merchandise and products people might actually want to keep.
That service has grown into a significant part of what BPM does, and it eventually helped inspire an event of its own.
In 2025, we hosted the inaugural Brandtoberfest, bringing businesses and premium merchandise suppliers together for an afternoon of product discovery, networking, food, drinks and plenty of new ideas.
Apparently one Brandtoberfest was not enough.
The second annual Brandtoberfest is happening next Friday, September 25, at Green Bay Distillery. It has become another example of how BPM has expanded beyond simply delivering marketing services. We want to create opportunities for clients, vendors and other local professionals to meet, trade ideas and find new ways to grow their brands.
Plus, any business event that involves good merchandise and a drink at Green Bay Distillery is already off to a solid start.
Strings & Swings Raises $9,000 for Guitars for Vets
This year also brought another BPM first.
In June, we hosted our inaugural Strings & Swings charity golf outing in support of Guitars for Vets, an organization that helps veterans through music.
The weather gave us a memorable opening with some heavy rain, but the event went on, the golfers showed up and the day turned into something we were extremely proud of.
Together with our sponsors, golfers and supporters, Strings & Swings raised $9,000 for Guitars for Vets.
That milestone mattered because community involvement has become an increasingly important part of who BPM is. We spend our days helping organizations promote themselves, but we also want to use the relationships and resources we have built to support causes that deserve more attention.
Based on how year one went, we do not expect Strings & Swings to be a one-time event.
The BPM Attitude Has Not Changed Much
Eighteen years brings plenty of opportunities to complicate things.
We have tried not to.
BPM still believes marketing should make business sense. Clients should understand where their money is going. Strategy should come before tactics. Reporting should tell you something useful. Creative work should have a reason behind it.
We also believe good ideas can come from anywhere in the room.
That has shaped the culture as the agency has grown. We debate ideas. We ask questions. We occasionally give each other a hard time. Then we get back to figuring out what will actually work for the client.
We are comfortable challenging recommendations from advertising platforms, questioning industry trends and telling clients when we think there is a better approach. Eighteen years of doing this has taught us that blindly following the newest feature, platform or automated recommendation rarely qualifies as strategy.
Technology changes. Good judgment remains pretty useful.
18 Years Down, Plenty Still Ahead
From coffee shop meetings to the Webster Avenue office, from De Pere to Ashwaubenon, BPM has grown a lot since 2008.
The team is larger. Our capabilities are broader. We have added promotional products, expanded our digital expertise, launched new events and found more ways to support the community.
What has made those 18 years possible is much simpler.
Clients trusted us with their businesses. Employees chose to build careers here. Vendors and partners helped us deliver better work. Friends, families and members of the local business community continued supporting BPM as the agency grew.
We are grateful for all of it.
So, happy 18th birthday to BPM.
We are old enough to vote now, which seems dangerous.
And with Brandtoberfest coming up next Friday, a growing team and plenty already in the works for the months ahead, we are not planning on slowing down anytime soon.
