APEX owners Linda Andross and Ken Evans are embracing the explosive expansion of digital media by offering both traditional PR offerings, which has helped their firm more than double its revenue over the past three years.supplied
Why not us? APEX execs-turned-owners embrace digital transformation to expand their PR firm
After nearly two decades of working at APEX Public Relations Inc., Linda Andross and Ken Evans decided to become co-owners of the business they helped build.
It was 2016 when the firm’s founder decided to sell the Toronto-based company she started in 1998. Andross and Evans were already minority partners, each with an 11-per-cent stake. The two senior executives either had to up their stakes to acquire the company or watch it get sold to an outsider, so each bought 50 per cent to become both owners and managing partners of the business.
“2016 was a monumental year,” Evans says. “Linda persuaded me. She literally twisted my arm to take this leap and buy the company. I’m so glad she was persistent ... her vision to integrate digital strategy and programming into our existing PR work in 2013 was starting to take serious shape, so the timing was unexpectedly perfect.”
Andross also believed that she and Evans were well suited to take over APEX and its well established legacy with clients and peers.
“Why not us?” Andross says. “I felt that nobody knows us – our company, our industry, our people, and our clients — like Ken and I do.”
APEX, and its digital division, ruckus Digital, is a public relations and digital communications agency that works with a range of multinational and Canadian clients behind brands in industries ranging from consumer goods and retail to financial services, real estate and business-to-business technology players.
Like most PR firms, APEX has embraced the rapid expansion of digital media by offering both traditional PR offerings such as media relations, experiential and influencer marketing, issues/crisis management, media training as well as digital services including social media marketing and advertising, video and design. This includes proprietary initiatives contributing to Canadian industry intelligence including the ruckusmakers speaker series, CMOLab marketing research and a complementary podcast called The Pivot featuring industry leaders as guests. The integrated approach helped the company increase its revenue by 113 per cent per cent between 2015 and 2018.
“By doing a more integrated play, we develop deeper, more diversified collaborations with our clients,” says Andross, who joined APEX in 2002 as vice-president after working for a number of multinational agencies. Evans started at APEX in 2000 as a consultant and worked his way up to senior vice-president before becoming a co-owner.
Evans says the combination of new and traditional PR work isn’t just good for business, but employee attraction and retention. “Our employees see this approach as more ambitious and as such as an opportunity for growth. As practitioners, it’s much more motivating, exciting and fun,” Evans says.
APEX works hard to engage and challenge its employees — and the rewards are great too. In 2018, for APEX’s 20th anniversary, the owners took all of its employees on a retreat to a private villa near Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
“That’s who we are. We want to celebrate and invest in our people,” Andross says. “It’s important to drive revenue, but it’s also important to love what you do and who you do it with.”
Making decisions that enhance culture and team dynamics is “part of the joy of being independent,” says Evans.
Independence in decision-making — in fulfilling a vision —is one of the best parts of owning their own business, the co-owners say.
“It may seem subtle, but it’s actually very significant,” Evans says. “We can make decisions with confidence together and then execute them, which means not constantly debating and rationalize them with a third party.”
Andross loves being her own boss, but says it’s a different kind of responsibility than just being a senior executive.
“We have a team of people to take care of. They count on us for their jobs and to help fulfill them professionally. That’s a big difference,” Andross says. “You also have to really want to dig in and stretch yourself and have a vision as to what you want your organization to look like. When you’re the owner, you’re not looking to someone else for that.”
Evans and Andross say they have an exceptional working relationship, but when the rare disagreement comes up, they work through it by focusing on what’s best for the company.
“We ask, ‘Are we making this decision for ourselves, or the business?’ … and then we resolve it,” Andross says.
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.