People ask us all the time, “why did you name your company Aardvark?”
Well, to put it in perspective you have to go back with us more than 30 years to April 1, 1992. No fooling, we officially registered our company with the state of Texas on April Fools’ Day. But that’s a different story for another day.
In the ‘90s most Ad agencies were indistinguishable from law firms. Founded by David Alvey, a former Vice President/Creative Director of an international agency in Dallas, he could’ve named it Alvey, Alvey & Smith. Or Alvey & Associates. But he wanted to be different.
From the very beginning, we were committed to doing the best work we possibly could. And we were more concerned about building relationships than building our portfolios. So, we assembled a team of creatives to brainstorm. The Synergy Group? The Creative Shop? In the heated mix of concepting, someone suggested “Aardvark.”
Hmm. It’s different. It’s funky. But what does a hairless critter with a long snout have to do with creating great work? However, the more we said it out loud, the more it brought a smile to our founder’s face. A mischievous one, but a smile nonetheless.
So, our founder went to the Research Section at the Dallas Public Library. (Remember, in the dark ages of 1992 the internet was not public domain.) Thumbing through the stacks of books, he discovered that an Aardvark is the sole representative of the genus Orycteropus.
“Aardvarks are truly one of a kind,” he concluded. “And we want to be different. I like it!“
A little shirt-tail research found many people liked the creativity of the name. But what really sold us was the people who said, “You can’t name it Aardvark! Nobody will take you seriously.” What creative wants to be known for being “serious?”
So, we started as Aardvark Studios, a creative services agency. As we grew, we added public relations, web design, media planning and buying, social media, etc. Since we were no longer the cheeky creative services agency that we started as, we hired an outside branding agency to review our messaging and corporate identity and come back to us with suggestions. You can’t make this stuff up: one of the names they came back to us with was Alvey & Alvey! We incorporated as Aardvark Communications, Inc.
Now, three decades later, people still ask, “Why Aardvark?” And we let our work, our results, and our many satisfied clients answer that age-old question. And, yes, we can be serious when needed. But it’s more important to us that we deliver serious results for our clients.
