history

Poem

A Story with a Happy Beginning

Perhaps it was meant to be. Barefoot's passion that is: Marketing the pursuit of happiness®. After all, the agency's existence is the result of someone chasing happiness—and finding it.

Barefoot's founder and its present day leader and creative torch bearer, Doug Worple, began his career in finance for Procter & Gamble. After a few years of exercising his left brain with Excel spreadsheets, Doug found himself in brand management where his right brain got more of a workout. And he loved it. So much so, in fact, that he signed up for a company-sponsored copywriting internship at Leo Burnett in Chicago.

That experience confirmed Doug's instincts: he was meant to be a copywriter and creative director. Professionally speaking, it was the only thing that would make him happy. So he left P&G and founded Barefoot on December 1, 1993.

Why the name Barefoot? Good question. Prior to leaving P&G, Doug came across a poem entitled "If I Had My Life to Live Over." A line from the poem reads: "If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot/earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall." So, as you can see, even Doug's inspiration was born of the notion that life is meant to be enjoyed to its fullest. Besides, it's nearly impossible to be barefoot in the grass or a pile of leaves and not be happy.

Initially, Doug worked out of his home, primarily freelancing for other agencies. In just two years, Barefoot had a "real" office and four employees. Also in 1995, Doug received the first of what would be many assignments from his former employer: P&G.

By 1999, the firm had 15 employees. Barefoot was regularly competing against other, often larger, more established agencies—and winning its fair share of work. For instance, in 2000, Barefoot won work from hair care brand Function over Leo Burnett. That's right, the agency where Doug found his true calling.

Barefoot celebrated its ten-year anniversary in early 2004. On a cruise liner! To show his appreciation for his colleagues' hard work ,and to plan for the next ten years, Doug took the entire company—30 employees at that point--on a four-day cruise to the Bahamas. (The details remain a company secret, but suffice it to say that getting—and staying happy—was the order of the day.)

The firm's strategic and creative work began to attract attention. Barefoot was written up in Adweek, Advertising Age and even The Wall Street Journal. The award judges were taking notice, too. Barefoot was consistently among the biggest winners in the Cincinnati ADDY competition, with work traveling on to—and scoring at—the regional and national levels. Barefoot's creative also found its way into Print and Communication Arts.

2005 was a big year for Barefoot as it marked the launch of in-house interactive capabilities. Previously, the firm had collaborated with other interactive firms. The addition of interactive expertise helped fuel considerable growth, with the employee count now exceeding 50, requiring the firm to double its office space to accommodate this as well as projected growth.

In "just" 13 years, Barefoot has grown from one employee to 50+, from mostly project work to integrated work, from mostly print work to work of all sorts, from locally based clients to those all over the map, from no awards to hundreds.

And this all traces back to Doug Worple and his pursuit happiness, knowing full well that that path is often paved with hard work, sacrifice and risk. But there's no doubt that Doug found his happiness and, along the way, so have his Barefoot colleagues, the firm's clients, and the countless numbers of consumers who trade up for those brands.