From Local to Global: Behind the Scenes of H/L’s Momentum-Making Machine

H/L is a full-service agency whose mantra is to ‘Make Momentum™’ - and they practice what they preach. 

“Over the past ten years, we’ve had exponential growth”, notes CEO Andrea Alfano. “As we’ve helped our core clients like McDonald’s, AAA, and Toyota achieve momentum, we’ve been building up our teams and capabilities alongside that”. 

Matching the growth of the agency’s clients is a clear source of pride at H/L. “When the demands have been there, we’ve risen to meet them and we’re now at a stage where we are operating at a soup-to-nuts level”, explains chairman Trey Curtola. “So for us, it’s only natural to talk about momentum - we’re living and breathing it”. 

So that concept of momentum has become self-perpetuating, infused across H/L’s clients, staff, and - crucially - in the communities where the agency’s teams operate. It all fuels an identity and rallying cry which is, in Trey’s words, “rooted in energy”. 

And it’s universal. Whilst the team can point towards a number of household name clients on its books, Andrea is quick to point out that momentum is the goal for brands of all shapes and sizes. “Nobody is too big to want growth”, as she puts it. 

From The Ground Up

Maintaining a consistent sense of energy and forward momentum can be a challenge, but H/L begins the process at a grassroots level which feeds through their entire operation. At many businesses, CSR initiatives can feel somewhat detached, or a long way from the final product. But at H/L, community initiatives are the lifeblood of the agency, simultaneously generating that momentum and enabling teams to think more locally when it comes to their own work - another key part of the organisation’s DNA. 

The Josh Nichol Memorial Scholarship was born out of this community-driven approach. It’s a fund which provides financial support to ambitious graduating high school seniors from the Oakland Unified School District, who are inspired to pursue a career in advertising and marketing. “This could be put towards a trade program, or a college course - anything that furthers their careers in the creative arts industry”, says Trey. The scholarship carries the namesake of H/L’s former CEO, an advertising industry icon whose legacy endures in part through this locally-focused scholarship. And, as Trey confirms, there are plans to broaden the fund out beyond Oakland to other areas where the agency has a footprint nationwide. 

This idea that H/L’s offices should be deeply embedded in their communities is one that the company takes seriously. Project Paella came out of Josh Nichol’s love of bringing his teams together over “a simmering pan of seafood and sausage”, a notion which now takes H/L’s staff out into their communities to clean up roadsides, volunteer at homeless shelters, work with food banks and, yes, enjoy a paella from time to time. “Something we’re proud of is that it’s so much more than writing a cheque”, says Andrea, “It’s time and energy going into something we believe in”. 

These community initiatives are about doing good, of course - but they’re also a catalyst for that feeling of energy and momentum which has come to define H/L. Collaboration breeds creativity, no matter whether that happens in a meeting room or a food bank. And this buzz of activity had lent a creative spark to so much of H/L’s best work. 

The Magic of Momentum 

Sometimes, the best ideas come naturally. But there are occasions where some out-of-the-box thinking is required - a task to which H/L has a habit of rising. 

“We have a very innovative team, and we wanted to do something a bit different connected to the convergence of linear and over-the-top TV,” recalls Andrea. “The idea we came up with was initially just a test. We produced a ‘pause ad’ for streaming platforms, which would sit on the screen when the user hit the pause button and disappear when they were ready to continue with their content”. 

In practice, it worked like a charm. The pause ad was unobstructive, causing no disruption to audiences in the way that an unskippable pre-roll ad might have done. But, interestingly, these pause ads ended up with more airtime than expected. “We found that, in many cases, the ads would be on the screen a lot longer than 60 or 30 seconds”, continues Andrea. “This allowed us to play around with the medium and incorporate interactive elements like QR codes. In the end, we saw a ten-times increase in conversion for that particular ad compared to what we would traditionally have expected”. 

Following up on the momentum-focused philosophy, Trey explains how that fuels an approach the agency fittingly refers to as “fast content”. 

“We knew from every indicator we had that clients had increasing needs around speed and efficiency, which is why we developed a new initiative called Fast Content which is part of our own production company”, he says. “That has enabled us to specialise in snappy, thumb-stopping content that’s perfectly at home on socials. And it’s relevant, too - tapping into trends and culture in a way that’s reactive but not ingenuine”.

Again, it all feeds into that feeling of momentum. 

“It feels like we’re looking ahead at what might be a turbulent time across the country”, says Andrea. “We have a long-predicted recession to deal with, alongside an unpredictable election. People are going to be looking for security, culturally and economically”. 

That’s certainly true, and in a constantly-changing, unpredictable landscape there are few certainties for any kind of business. But one thing seems like a safe bet: Momentum is going to be more precious than ever.