Electrum Branding is a boutique agency that helps its clients grow their business, retain customers, increase revenue, and grow profitability. We function as each client’s outsourced marketing department specializing in branding, digital marketing, social media management, graphic design, website design and development, and more.
Electrum Branding was founded in 2004 by former banker Ellen Schlafer. At that time, the agency specialized in branding newly chartered banks with corporate identity packages, sales collateral, websites and more. Within a few years, Electrum Branding had launched 21 bank brands and earned a spot on the South Florida Business Journal’s Top Advertising Agencies (based on gross billings).
As its reputation in the financial services sector spread, Electrum began to attract the attention of other industries, and our client roster grew. Although the agency still works with several banks and credit unions, its client base has grown to include construction, non-profit, entertainment, legal, hospitality, insurance, and marine services.
Regardless of the industry or the services needed, our goal is the same: for our clients to consider us their marketing department that’s right down the hall and ready to provide quality work at a moment’s notice.
Over our 22-year history, a lot has changed but the agency’s core values– Creativity, Respect, Integrity, Sense of Purpose, Continuous Improvement, and Positive Attitude – have not. That’s largely due to the longevity of Electrum Branding’s partners, Roger Hicks and Thomas La Badia, who are guided by Electrum’s core values every day.
Roger Hicks, who joined Electrum in 2006, is an Addy-award-winning copywriter with more than 30 years of marketing experience. As part of his commitment to continuous improvement, he went back to school and completed his Masters Certificate in Integrated Online Marketing in 2012. And, as the client demand for social media strategies grew, he became a certified social media professional.
Thomas La Badia, who joined Electrum in 2010, creates captivating graphics and cutting-edge websites that help Electrum Branding’s clients get noticed and remain top of mind. In 2018, Ritter’s Communications named La Badia the winner of its annual Pantone Color of the Year Magazine Cover Design Contest.
What’s Up with the Mid-Century Vibe?
Business partners Roger Hicks and Tom La Badia grew up in the 60s and 70s and share a profound appreciation of mid-century style. The clean lines, geometric forms, and retro style of that period evoke an emotion in them.
To celebrate Electrum Branding’s 20th Anniversary in 2024, they rebranded the agency with a new logo and website that embodies the timeless charm of the 1950s. The logo uses two mid-century fonts and a vibrant two-color palette reminiscent of the era. If our logo is a nod to that era, our website is a romanticized homage to fictional Madison Avenue advertising agencies such as Sterling Cooper of “Mad Men” or McMann & Tate from “Bewitched.”
We use nostalgia to tell our story, albeit an ironic one, of our forward-thinking agency. Our goal is for visitors to have an emotional connection to our site and want to stay a bit longer and read one more blog or check out our design portfolio. A perfect example of our site’s irony is its imagery which is mid-century-inspired, yet it is all generated by AI.
Curious what a team this experienced — and this obsessed with getting the details right — could do for your brand? Book a free Marketing Opportunity Review and let’s talk.