As 2020 was just starting, the Atlanta-based Fitzgerald & Co. returned when founder and chairman David Fitzgerald bought it back from IPG. Looking back, it may seem like an inopportune time. As Fitzgerald notes, by March 15, the agency had closed its office.
Yet Fitzgerald has a somewhat unique vantage point on the pandemic. “You know, we haven’t lost any business and we’ve gained some business,” he said. “So it’s been a positive year financially, when the world is coming to an end, which is, which has been gratifying.”
For some, Fitzgerald’s timing may have seemed unfortunate. But, like others, he has rolled with it and has come out of the other side. “When the pandemic first hit. I said, Oh, my God, what have I done? This is the stupidest business decision in the history of American commerce,” said Fitzgerald. But the agency was lucky in some respects. It didn’t have any clients in the travel industry and for others, “they decided to grab, share and spend more, some decided to do less, and we got some new business in the interim.”
