How a Charlotte-based marketing firm is selling North Carolina to the world
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You’ve undoubtedly seen Mythic’s work around town.
The Charlotte-based marketing firm led the rebranding of the N.C. Dance Theatre into Charlotte Ballet. They shaped Sonic Automotive’s new customer experience. Mythic even led the advertising for the Tryon Place skyscraper, under construction.
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Now Mythic has a big new challenge — marketing the state of North Carolina to the world.
The firm recently became the agency of record for the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the nonprofit spun out of the state commerce department to recruit new business from around the globe.
That’s a big deal for a 40-person agency ensconced on the ninth floor of an Uptown office tower.
Mythic leaders took the drive up to Raleigh for a competitive pitch, highlighting their experience in destination marketing and coming up with ideas that any community in the state could identify with. It worked.
Less than 24 hours later, Mythic had won the account and received the call from Raleigh — help us impress Amazon as the company looks for a second headquarters city.
The result? A sassy “Next Firsts” campaign splashed across city buses in Seattle.
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Though Charlotte missed out, the Triangle area made the list of 20 finalists.
What’s next for the North Carolina account? Next Firsts isn’t going away. Mythic is now working on campaigns that will hit CEOs and site selection experts internationally.
It’s a natural progression for a company that’s slowly winning business from giant companies.
Mythic was formed in 2013 as the brainchild of David Soliday and Lee James. Soliday, the CEO had a ton of experience on the client side of the ad world, working with brands like American Airlines and Dominos Pizza. James, the Mythic president, came from the creative side, running campaigns for Coke and Disney.
The idea is to leverage the qualities of a boutique firm — like keeping senior leadership on projects once the deal is closed — to carve off pieces of a big company’s overall marketing spend.
Mythic is now regularly poaching top talent from agencies in Chicago and New York City.
The goal is to become the high-profile agency that Charlotte becomes known for in the advertising world — like McKinney has become in Raleigh.
“There’s a strong creative culture here,” Soliday said.