My mom started this business 35 years ago. Hard to believe. I was 9 years old at the time, and we lived in Lexington, KY. My mother has always been crazy ambitious, so no one from her small-town farm community could be too surprised when she started her own company – and it flourished! Being a woman in the predominantly run male automotive industry could not have been easy, but she made it work. 3 years later she remarried and moved me and Miller Ad Agency to Dallas, TX.
Starting from scratch here, she made the connections, got to know the local media sales people and started knocking on doors. Shortly after she moved the company, Jimmy Lee, our VP and Creative Director, made the plunge and moved with her. It’s impossible to picture the company without his grouchy but lovable face around here. He’s forgotten more about advertising than most people will ever know.
And we can’t forget Kirk, our VP of Account Services. He has been here as long as anyone can remember. Need an AE who knows everything there is to know about advertising? He’s your man.
Last but not least is Jenni Halamuda – our one woman Austin band. Jenni has been with us almost 20 years. If you have a car dealership and Jenni doesn’t handle your advertising -well, you’re just missing out on someone who takes your business as seriously as you do. There are too many other great employees here to list, but these are the OGs.
The business has changed a lot over the last 35 years. We’ve grown from a 4 person shop to around 25 full time employees. Newspaper was a huge part of advertising when we first began. Now we might have one client still consistently using the paper. Internet advertising? Who would have been able to dream of all that we can now do and target through advertising 35 years ago. But Miller has stayed smart, adaptable and quick on our feet for over 3 decades.
As the landscape has shifted, so have we. We’ve taken every meeting, gone to every seminar and ensured that we know how to best serve our clients in this decade and the next. Our new CEO, Erik Radle, (new as in 7 years, instead of 35!), is an expert in automotive advertising as well as completely versed in all things digital and traditional. He brought his extensive automotive background to Miller and quickly learned all things advertising to go along with it. He has expanded our business from primarily local car dealerships and dealer groups to working for MARS on animation projects in Shanghai, advertising 5 Miles App nationwide and much more. He stays ahead of every curve and trend and has expanded our client base and reach exponentially. And I would say all that even if I wasn’t lucky enough to be married to him!
My mom no longer runs the company as she is off on her next business adventure, but she is still wandering our halls, and it should come as no surprise, offering her opinions on everything from lighting to ad placements. And that’s just fine with us. Without her at the helm for the first 3 decades, there would be no Miller to run. And that would be quite a shame for us and for the clients we continue to serve so well.
