Awards & Press
Ovative In: MSPBJ May 2021
Ovative adding more space to Minneapolis offices, plans to keep hiring
By Carrigan Miller, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
Digital marketing firm Ovative Group is expanding its offices again after doubling in size since 2019.
Ovative has 245 employees across the country, with about 210 in offices in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood. Since Ovative moved into its current space in The Nordic in April 2019, it has added 123 employees, it said. While CEO Dale Nitschke didn’t disclose the firm’s current revenue, it had revenues of $21.8 million in 2018, and Nitschke said the firm has been growing at least 20% each year since it was founded in 2009.
Ovative currently occupies the ninth through eleventh floors of The Nordic and has plans to add the eighth floor, which will add 19,150 square feet and room to accommodate up to 314 employees, each of whom can have their own workstation. Ovative hopes to reach that number of employees in the next couple of years, Nitschke said.
Its offices also include amenities like a feather bowling court (a sport that’s similar to curling, but without ice) and beer and kombucha on tap.
Minneapolis-based architecture studio KKChong will handle design work for the project, which will begin in June and is set to finish in October.
The firm is also finding space for its remote workers in New York City – which could number as many as 20 by the end of the year, Nitschke said.
“We anticipate that we’ll continue to grow,” he said.
Ovative helps clients grow using a metric it calls “Enterprise Marketing Return,” or EMR, which is its secret sauce. Many digital marketing firms only focus on the digital returns of their campaigns, such as e-commerce sales. Ovative, however, uses its technology to help firms understand the holistic impact of their efforts, including things like brick-and-mortart sales.
Nitschke compared Ovatives focus on EMR to Wayne Gretzky’s famous mantra of skating where the puck is going to be, not where it is. That approach has paid off, he said.
“In the past three or four years, more of the industry and more of our clients are recognizing, ‘That’s amazing that they can do this,'” Nitschke said.
Ovative has over 40 clients, more than half of which it has added since January 2020. Its clients include The Walt Disney Company, UnitedHealth Group Inc. and The Home Depot Inc. The Covid-19 pandemic has helped Ovative grow as more of its clients shift to digital channels to drum up business.
The firm is largely staffed by digital engineers and data scientists, thought it has a small and growing creative team, Nitschke said.
Nitschke was a 23-year veteran of Target Corp., including spending time as the president of Target.com. He formed the company as a response to what he saw as increased interest in digital media, he said.
Carrigan Miller. “Ovative adding more space to Minneapolis offices, plans to keep hiring.” Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2021/05/11/ovative-doubled-since-2019.html. May 11 2021.
