The “M” at MGH is Andy Malis, who left the local shop of Doner, where he?d been vice president in 1995. The “G,” Malis say, is Jane Goldstrom and the “H,” Terra Hopson, two friends who share many of the same business ethics and goals he has.
Together they set up MGH, a Baltimore advertising and public relations firm that opened its doors in January 1996. Goldstrom serves as media director, Hopson as creative director.
When Malis talks about MGH, the discussion quickly turns to the agency?s values, which he believes make it unique. “The riskiest thing we decided when we started out,” he says, “was that we would do things differently. People said we were crazy.”
What MGH decided to do differently was “not to do what advertising and PR agencies very often do,” he says, “and that is stepping up all the time” ? taking on a small bank as a client (“You need to hire our great brains”), then dropping that client after reeling in a bigger fish. “That?s no way to run a business,” Malis says.
Early on, MGH took Heavenly Ham as a client. Later Subway said it would like to join MGH?s roster, but only if the agency dropped Heavenly Ham, which Subway regarded as competition. MGH decided to decline and is happy with that decision.
“Heavenly Ham had taken a chance with us,” Malis says, “and they refer others to us all the time.”
