This article was printed in the Eagle Valley Enterprise on September 19, 2013
UrgeMedia, a small company headquartered in Eagle, CO is changing the way national TV marketing campaigns are handled.
“I think it’s pretty unique to have such a high-profile company in town,” said Eagle Town Manager Jon Stavney.
If you watch The Outdoor Channel or similar programs about hunting and fishing, you’ve seen UrgeMedia’s work.
“We manage our clients’ TV advertising budgets in the outdoor/hunting/fishing space,” said Justin Roach, 41, who started the company in 2000 and now co-owns it with his twin brother.
“We’re not a production house,” Roach said. “We acquire inventory and restructure a client’s ad campaign to maximize exposure to the target audience.”
In other words, UrgeMedia helps manufacturers use their advertising budgets in the most efficient way. Where the manufacturing company might be guessing which TV spots will reach its target audience, UrgeMedia knows where the best opportunities lie for a given budget and has the connections to seize them. The company is also involved with social media and Internet marketing.
“We are the kings in our space, which is hunting and fishing,” Roach said.
From the ground up
The UrgeMedia headquarters are at 215 Broadway, where they have been since 2002.
“We designed and built the Eagle Valley Business Center,” Roach said. “When we started, we rented out most of the space to other businesses and now, except for two offices on the ground floor, we now occupy the bulk of the building.”
The company currently has 10 employees and is looking to add two more positions. All the staff members are from Eagle, Gypsum and Edwards.
“Right now we’re in a growth phase and we’re looking for smart, self-directed people who are interested in a career job,” Roach said.
Roach used to work for the sales department of a software company in Boston.
“My passion was in the outdoor space – I grew up hunting and fishing,” he said. “I saw a niche while working for the software company, and when the company went public, I left and started UrgeMedia.”
Meanwhile, Roach’s brother, Jake, started a guiding/outfitting company for hunters in the Midwest called Performance Outdoors. They merged their companies in 2002 and moved to Eagle.
“The bulk of our clients are in the Midwest but we moved here because of the lifestyle,” Roach said. “We wanted to focus on what we loved. This valley has that and it is so accessible – the other day, I met with a client who flew in at the airport.”
Early challenges
“We grew slowly at first,” Roach said. “We’ve grown a lot quicker in the last five years. It was just three of us for a couple years and we grew from 5 to 10 people in the last five years.”
Roach said one of the toughest challenges in the early days of the company was finding the right people to help him.
“I had to figure out how to find people and trust them to do delegated work,” he said. “I had to let go of the micromanaging.”
Growing
Last July, the brothers launched a production company called QuietKat. There are now 18 employees between all three companies.
The QuietKat is an all-terrain electric bike that fills another niche.
“There is a demand for a portable vehicle in recreational hunting,” he said. “It has a range of 50 miles, is powerful and replaces the larger electric vehicles like Bad Boy Buggies. The QuietKat can fold up and fit into a car.”
People are already buying the new vehicle and the first 200 QuietKats will be assembled in the Eagle Valley Business Center.
“There are almost no manufacturing companies in the valley,” Roach said.
When he’s not brainstorming ways to improve his business, Roach is teaching his 9- and 5-year-old sons about the outdoors.
“When you make a business out of your passion it allows you to excel in your business,” he said.