mbradwell@observer-reporter.com

It's been only a year since USG Insurance moved into its new building in Southpointe II, but the company already has launched a new marketing and advertising agency that is looking for external clients to serve.

Known as "Innovations," the concept was launched after USG's in-house agency found success working with the insurance wholesaler and its clients. That experience, according to Innovations Director and Vice President Kristen Taylor proved that it could sell an intangible like insurance, but not in the same way provided by traditional advertising campaigns.

The Innovations approach focuses on turning an organization's employees into marketing experts, including everyone from receptionists through top managers. When companies sell a service as opposed to a product, she said, they have to learn how to sell an experience.

"Receptionists are the door-openers," Taylor said, noting that they're the first person a client sees when they visit a company and the first to give an impression of the type of experience a visitor can expect.

According to Taylor and USG Executive Vice President Timothy Horton, Innovations works exclusively with companies that are selling a service: financial planners, lawyers, nonprofits, restaurants and travel agents.

What the agency offers is a full list of services including branding, marketing management and consulting, public relations, writing services, trade show booth and campaign design, advertising, sales training and production.

But at its core, Taylor said, her agency strives to get companies "to look beyond the ads and billboards and stop spending millions without results." While acknowledging that television or print advertising can be a part of the mix, Taylor said Innovations works from the inside out to create a buzz.

"Marketing for the service industry involves every person in your company," she said, adding that the ultimate goal is to create an army of marketing experts out of existing employees.

USG Insurance, which was started by Horton and his father Jerry Horton in 2001, now has a dozen offices around the country. The Southpointe II office handles all of the company's operations. According to Tim Horton, the privately held company generates about $100 million in revenue.

He said USG also began at "square one" when it came to building an image for itself. Taylor's team of 12 created a branding strategy, new logo and tag line as well as a new Web site and training for employees at all levels of the company.

As those efforts improved USG's sales, Horton said, it was time to let the agency take on external clients "as a way to diversify our platform. The marketing infrastructure was there, and this helped them morph into a new concept for Innovations."

According to Taylor, the time to branch out was approaching "because we were having agents and clients ask us for our help," Taylor said.

Innovations was officially launched by USG Holdings in February and Taylor said the agency is already negotiating a few deals. She said so far it "hasn't gone head-to-head on proposals" with other agencies, but there could be a reason for the lack of competition.

When Innovations was being formed to become an external agency, Taylor said her group looked at more than 100 companies and could find just 11 with a approach comparable to its own, but none that offered a full-service marketing and advertising approach.

If anything, Taylor said, one of her biggest challenges will be to find people willing to work outside of the glitz of product advertising to promote service-oriented clients.

"There's so much money (spent on) product advertising," she said, noting the spectacular amounts required to sell a mainstream consumer product like an Apple iPod.

For Innovations, creating the buzz people hear about a travel agency or investment firm is much more organic, but can sound as pleasing as the latest iTune to someone looking to fulfill an experience like traveling to a foreign country.

"It really requires a different marketing approach," Taylor said.

Innovations is headquartered in the USG Insurance building at 1000 Town Center Way, Suite 300, Southpointe II. For more information, contact Kristen Taylor at 724-754-9100 or visit the agency's Web site at www.intoinnovations.com

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