Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 38

RETAIL MARKETING

On his own terms

"These forms of media [print, television
and radio] are not dead, but I think your
company might be if you choose to ignore
them. You just need to tweak the way you
leverage all of these channels. But, that's
retail. You have to be nimble and you
have to change. I've always known this. If
I didn't, I would have gone out of business
ten times by now."
"Over the years," he says proudly, "Seven
of the top ten companies in the world have
approached us to buy. And the bottom line
was that I was always very entrepreneurial,
very passionate. It was always very clear
to me that they were trying to buy me with
my own money, and I didn't want to report
to anyone. I never wanted some CEO telling me what to do. I always blankly turned
down all of these offers, and as soon as I got
cash-flow, I got rid of all of the banks, too. I
don't like the idea of reporting to anybody,
including the banks."

38 |

This philosophy isn't one that's subscribed
to by most within his industry, or any other-
many wouldn't be able to handle the stress and
pressure that comes with running their own
business-but it seems to be the only way Padulo can operate. His entrepreneurial thinking
and approach to each task has allowed him to
do things his way, and has led his company
to the cusp of another outstanding achievement-its thirtieth anniversary. Few within
the advertising marketing world can boast
as lengthy and successful a career as Padulo.
And when asked about his longevity in such
a competitive and arduous industry, and his
continued work, his response is simple.
"What you have to remember is that retail is
the fastest, most exciting industry in the entire world, and to operate and succeed within
it you have to enjoy it and fully understand
that everything changes, every day. That's
always been the case, but today the change is
even that much more dramatic and constant.
During the first 20 years of my career we had
television, radio and outdoor. And then suddenly the Internet arrived and it changed
everything again."
He explains that he sees the advent of the
Internet and today's omnichannel retail environment as a continuation of the change
that he's witnessed throughout his career.
And fortunately for his team, their leader was well ahead
of the curve when he formed the company back in the mideighties, positioning Padulo Integrated Inc. as a full-fledged
multimedia marketing company.
"We were the pioneers and the foremost proponents of
multimedia back in the day," he says. "When we were growing up and becoming meaningful as a company and were
growing in size, we were up against everybody, including all
of the multinationals. Multinationals historically had their
agency, their direct marketing company and their promotions company. Everything was siloed. And it always resulted
in an internal battle for the ad dollar."
To avoid this, Padulo saw to it that his company was always
directed and looking for ways to make their clients more money
and the best things for them to do to improve their businesses.
"I never operated in siloes," he says. "I had specialists in
different disciplines and I had them all at the table-they
were a part of a global bonus plan, not for their individual
departments, but for the company as a whole. We were the
foremost proponents of omnichannel and fully integrated
communication in the early 90s. It's the reason we called ourselves Integrated, because we do a shitload more than advertising. We're a marketing company, a service company and
we happen to be good at a lot of things."

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Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014

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