The digital marketing and technology company has quietly grown in North Texas, with over 900 employees and growing.
Over the past 14 years, PMG has built a portfolio that includes work for Nike, Apple, Whole Foods and Sephora, as well as local companies such as Omni Hotels & Resorts, Dave & Buster’s and Nothing Bundt Cakes. After making two acquisitions last year, the company is gearing up for its next phase of growth, starting with relocating its headquarters from Fort Worth to Dallas.
PMG, led by founder and CEO George Popstephanoff, has leased 75,000 square feet at Kaizen Development Partners’ The Link at Uptown, located at Harry Hines Boulevard at Olive Street, where Uptown, Victory Park and downtown Dallas intersect.
The three floors, connected by an open-air staircase, are designed to foster connection and creativity in contrast to the polished formality of the surrounding law and finance firms. Meeting rooms on the 18th floor are named to highlight Texas landmarks, the 19th floor pays tribute to Nike athletes such as Kobe Bryant and Sheryl Swoopes, and the 20th floor is named after a Dallas street.
Most of the employees in the new office space are relocating from Centrum on Oak Lawn Boulevard in Dallas. PMG’s Link office, designed by Kogan and built by K2, currently employs 300 people and has room for about 400. The company’s original offices in Fort Worth will continue to be used, but the move to Dallas, which also comes with naming rights to the 25-story Class AA tower, marks a major shift for the company.
“We love Fort Worth, it’s a big part of our story so it’s still very close to our heart, but of course we’re also heavily invested in Dallas,” Popstephanoff said. “Dallas is a better fit for young professionals, especially in this region, and when we approached the design and development of this office, we wanted to create a hybrid new way of working where you can collaborate, you can walk around, and people can come see your work.”
Popstefanov grew up in Macedonia. During high school, he had the opportunity to study there as an exchange student and starred in the TV series “Macedonian Summer.” 90210 The show was so popular at the time that it attracted attention and he was placed with a family in Wisconsin, more than 2,000 miles away from Beverly Hills, California.
Despite its admittedly less glamorous environment, Popstephanov enjoyed his experience there, which led him to choose to study at a university in the US. He first enrolled at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma, but thanks to a program sponsored by Microsoft and RadioShack, he transferred to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth during his sophomore year. He’s lived in North Texas ever since.
Popstephanoff founded PMG in 2010 with $1,000 after spending about six years learning the business at a small agency in Fort Worth. Fourteen years later, PMG has reached $4 billion in media sales and grew revenue by more than 20% in a down year.
“My wife recently reminded me of 75 years ago when we were driving across America and we saw the TRG building,” he said, referring to the former headquarters of the Richards Group advertising agency. “I said, ‘Maybe one day we could have an office with our name and logo and brand on it.’ But I’m not the kind of person who stops to smell the roses. That’s just the way I am. I’m always asking myself, ‘What’s next?’ and ‘What else can I do?'”
Popstephanov’s urgency led the company to focus on technology and data analytics, launching its own marketing intelligence platform, Alli.
“Our marketing efforts need to be impactful and fully integrated with a digital-first perspective. We are not going to be traditional or TV-based, but more modern, engaging and combining different types of experiences integrated with powerful technology.”
Popstephanov acknowledges that while that may sound simple, most agencies don’t work that way, which is why he opted for an open office, allowing different departments to interact with the end goal of creating work for clients.
For example, the new office features an in-house production studio. This facility enables PMG to collaborate directly with clients on campaigns in real time. Clients can sit back in a luxury viewing room and watch what’s put together that day, and PMG can then immediately respond to any requested changes or improvements.
Popstephanov’s customer-first mindset led to a series of acquisitions the company embarked on last year: PMG first acquired Dallas-based Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media, followed shortly thereafter by U.K.-based Rocket Mill. The two acquisitions, funded mostly by cash and debt, have allowed the company to add 400 people and further strengthen its integrated marketing and technology capabilities.
In addition to Dallas and Fort Worth, PMG has offices in New York, London, Austin, Atlanta, Costa Rica and Cleveland.
Popstephanoff, like many leaders, said his company’s success is driven by its staff: In addition to perks like a staffed coffee bar and snacks at The Linq, PMG offers employees four months of paid parental leave, $50 a month for health and gym use, and four to five weeks of paid vacation per year depending on tenure.
PMG also has a strong recruiting tool in its Alumni Leadership Program. After screening approximately 20,000 applications, the company hires 60-70 employees from around the world, sponsors H-1B visas as needed, and puts them through an onboarding program that extends to full-time employment. New hires are required to relocate to Dallas.
The integration of Camelot and Rocket Mill employees into PMG marks an important step as the company looks ahead to 2024.
“Sometimes agencies get ahead of themselves by spending more and trying to grow for the sake of growth. If your culture is about quality, you can’t grow too fast,” Popstephanov says. “You have to be purposeful and intentional.”
