Cynthia Montello is president and CEO of The Montello Agency, a full-service advertising, marketing and public relations firm. She also recently won the John P. Hall Award at the Excel Awards from The Florida Home Builders Association Sales and Marketing Council which is presented annually to someone who has made long-lasting career contributions to Florida’s sales and marketing profession.
WHAT DO YOU DO?
The company has been open for 20 years. “I am primarily responsible for the growth of the company and the operations of the company. My husband Howard and I work together to oversee all of the clients. We don’t have junior account executives here at all. That is one of the reasons I have kept the business where it is. I feel very strongly about not putting a junior account executive in with a client, which is a familiar practice with most advertising agencies. I’m very hands-on. I want to be able to answer questions right when they are asked. I’m the one who comes up with marketing plans strategies and most of the creative side.”
HOW DID IT FEEL TO WIN THE AWARD?
“I was amazed and shocked. I did not know that I had been nominated for it. My employees put something together and nominated me. We went down for the Excel awards in Orlando and I thought we were just there to observe the Excel awards to bring back any information that would help us in the Laurels. So I was just sitting there and they called my name. It was weird because the speaker was reading a paragraph about this person and I was thinking I have a lot in common with her. Then they called my name.”
WHAT DO YOU SPECIALIZE IN?
The Montello Agency specializes in the advertising, marketing and public relations of new home construction. “Pretty much anything a builder or developer would need, we do in-house now. From architectural renderings to photography, ad campaigns, marketing budgets, logo design and web design all in one place.” Montello has 10 employees and her company represents 15 builders as well as land developers and master-planned communities. “We represent national, local and regional builders, land developers, master planned communities and other industry-related individuals and companies.”
HOW HAS THE INDUSTRY CHANGED IN THE PAST 20 YEARS?
“It has changed dramatically. When I first came into it, builder’s marketing efforts weren’t as sophisticated as they are today. The Times-Union didn’t really have a builders section and there were very few advertisements in the paper for builders. Floor plans were just copies made on the copier. They didn’t have a nice consistent look, theme, color or design. It was much less sophisticated than it is now. When I picked out my first homebuilder I saw the need for that kind of design consistency throughout their program. My first homebuilder was Tompkins Heritage Homes. I worked with them and redid their whole marketing package. That is when I started picking up more builder business once they saw what I was doing.”
HOW DO YOU COMPETE WITH OTHER COMPANIES?
“We’ve been able to really hold strong for the past 20 years. Most of my clients have been with me for well over 10 years. We don’t have a revolving door philosophy here; we like to keep our clients for years. A lot of our clients are like family to us. That’s the way I like it. I like to keep the business small. Right now we are doing just under $5 million a year. That is relatively small for an advertising agency. I love it just where it is at.”
HOW DID SHE GET HER START IN THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY?
Montello is a singer and had traveled with the USO Tour entertaining the troops in the Vietnam War. When she moved to Cincinnati, she started singing professionally at night. “I needed to get a job during the day to help my income. I got a job as a receptionist at an advertising agency. I moved up in the company to secretary and started sitting in on all the brainstorming sessions for the creative [meetings] just to take notes. Creative meetings are very fun and very loud. Everyone is just throwing things out and you are just laughing. They are very informal. So, several times I would throw out ideas. I wasn’t really supposed to be participating, but they would say ‘That’s a good idea.” It happened so often that they ended up using my ideas three times for national campaigns. Finally, someone said ‘Who is that girl?’ They called me in and asked me where I was getting my ideas and I said they just come to me. So they promoted me into the creative department to see if I could come up with ideas consistently and I did. I found out that I was very creative and I didn’t know I was.”
HOW DID SHE OPEN HER COMPANY?
After Montello and her husband moved to Jacksonville she opened her own company in 1985. “In spite of all my experience, I couldn’t get hired because I didn’t have a college degree. Every advertising agency in town closed the door on me. So I decided to go on my own. The first week I had two clients. I just started at my kitchen table writing advertisements. I had restaurants, nightclubs and car dealerships.”
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SPECIALIZE IN BUILDERS?
“It happened gradually. When I picked up Tompkins it took about a year before I started getting other builders. I loved the product and the whole idea of creating an image for a company and that the end result was putting a family into a home that they loved. It was very satisfying to me. Builders are very personal. Every builder has their own identity, philosophy and things that they care about and that is what makes them all unique. I like to celebrate that uniqueness and give every builder their own individual look, their own colors, their own theme and own identity.”
ADVICE FOR SOMEONE INTERESTED IN GETTING INTO MARKETING?
Montello said someone interested in getting to marketing needs to be willing to start at the bottom and work their way up. “You have to be humble and willing to start anywhere. You have to be willing to get your foot in the door even as a receptionist because if you shine it won’t take long for people to see your light and you will move up and that’s all there is to it. It doesn’t take long, it just takes humility.”
LESSONS LEARNED?
“I’ve learned to be honest about everything. I’ve learned to do the right thing in every single occasion. I’ve learned to suck it up and take care of mistakes even if they weren’t our fault. The spiritual aspect is a huge part of my life. I’ve learned to put God in the very center of my life and let my life circulate around that center and that has made all the difference in the world. Balancing work, family and ministry is very important to the success of someone’s soul.”
PET PEEVES?
“I hate and despise gossip.”
BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?
“To be honest with everyone, especially in business.”
HOMETOWN
She has lived many places including Oklahoma, Kansas, Tallahassee and Myrtle Beach and she moved to Jacksonville in 1982.
PERSONAL SIDE?
Montello is a cancer survivor and expressed how that experience changed her life. “There was a five-year point in my life where I really had to fight for my life and keep the business going. It’s amazing how when you are faced with something like that, your priorities change instantaneously. All of a sudden your babies and your husband are the most important and nothing else matters. You want to spend every second you have left with them.”
She has been married to Howard for 23 years. She has two sons, David, 21 and Jeff, 17. She attends church at Celebration and does prison ministry and public speaking to women’s groups on Christianity. When she is not working, she enjoys riding Harley motorcycles with her husband. Two movies she has seen and would recommend are “A Walk in the Clouds” and “Under the Tuscan Sun.” Her favorite book is the Bible.
-by Michele Newbern Gillis