Luckie & Co.
Luckie & Company (formerly Robert Luckie & Co., Luckie & Forney, and Tucker Wayne/Luckie & Co.) is a marketing communications firm with offices in the Denham Building in Birmingham's Parkside District. It is generally ranked as the state's largest marketing and advertising agency, both in terms of staff size (110 employees) and annual billings ($115 million). The firm is currently headed by CEO John Gardner and board chairman Tom Luckie.
The firm was founded in 1953 by former Birmingham News editor and advertising manager Robert Luckie Jr.
One of Luckie's first major clients was R. L. Ziegler. The young company landed an account with South Central Bell after its Atlanta-based firm caused displeasure. In 1956 it added Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama to its growing list of major clients and moved into a new building at Mountain Brook's Office Park.
In 1964 John Forney joined the firm as a partner, bringing with him access to Bear Bryant, who recorded a memorable "Call your mama" television spot for South Central Bell.
Since then the firm has done work for numerous local firms such as American Cast Iron Pipe Company, Bayer Properties, Books-A-Million, Express Oil Change, Liberty National, Regions Bank, the Birmingham Museum of Art, United Way of Central Alabama, Alabama Power, and the Alabama Department of Tourism, among others. The firm has also done work on national accounts, including Little Debbie Snacks and Papa John's. The firm was also well-known for handling the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns of George Wallace as well as providing services to numerous state and local politicians.
A former Luckie & Forney executive, Brian Cronin, founded his own firm in his native Dublin, Ireland. He and creative director Leo Wright established an exchange program between the two firms in the late 1970s.
In 1986 the firm moved into the newly-built Luckie Building at 600 Luckie Drive (at Shades Creek Parkway and U.S. Highway 280). In 1988 Luckie & Forney merged with Tucker Wayne & Co. of Atlanta, Georgia to form Tucker Wayne/Luckie & Co. The two companies split again in 1995. Luckie acquired the data analytics firm Integrative Logic of Atlanta, Georgia in 2011 and brought its founder, John Gardner, into the company, promoting him to the role of president in 2013. Robert Luckie III served as chairman and CEO until retiring in 2014.
Luckie was an early proponent of using social media in advertising campaigns. David Griner and Whitney Sides Mitchell collaborated on researching and implementing social media strategies for the firm's clients.
In 2021 Luckie & Co. moved into the Denham Building. In 2022 the company created a "virtual office" on the user-governed "Decentraland" virtual world platform. That same year the firm launched a Luckie Health division headed by Kamala Prince. In March 2024 the firm acquired Marbury Creative Group of Atlanta, Georgia.
Chief executives
- Robert Luckie Jr, 1953–2009
- Robert Luckie III, 2009–2014
- Tom Luckie, 2014–2022
- John Gardner, 2022–
References
- "When Irish Ads You're Eying." (November 1978) Birmingham magazine. Vol. 18, No. 12, p. 7
- Whitley, Carla Jean (July 29, 2009) "Luckie and Company Social Media." Birmingham magazine. p. 54
- Thornton, William (November 8, 2019) "Birmingham ad exec Robert Luckie III dies." The Birmingham News
- Patchen, Tyler (March 13, 2022) "John Gardner and Tom Luckie transition leadership at Luckie & Co." Birmingham Business Journal
- Thornton, William (July 8, 2022) "What can a virtual office do? Birmingham’s Luckie & Co. is finding out." The Birmingham News
- Thrailkill, Laurel (August 2, 2022) "Luckie unveils new division led by former pharma marketing executives." Birmingham Business Journal
External links
- Luckie & Company website (Flash 8)
- 1968 Wallace for President television ad created by Luckie & Forney