The local marketing firm Karsh Hagan has merged and added to its Denver office.
Karsh Hagan is now KHM after melding with Madden Media, an Arizona marketer, according to a news release from the new firm Wednesday. It has 75 employees here and 300 nationwide. Its 17,000-square-foot office at 685 S. Broadway is the new firm’s headquarters.
“The era of buying attention is coming to an end,” CEO Dan Janes said in the news release. “For decades the industry paid for impressions and called it a strategy. That game is ending.”
In its place, the new firm aims to build deeper connections by focusing on what is already happening rather than manufacturing a new image. While working with Travel South Dakota, for example, the firm heard from tourists that they wished they had more time there. The result was a slogan: “So Much South Dakota, So Little Time.”
The firm also handled the Aspen Snowmass campaigns “The Aspen Way” and “Give A Flake.” It has worked for Visit Denver, Children’s Hospital Colorado and state tourism agencies.
“Communities already know who they are, and they don’t need an agency to come in and define them; they need partners who take the time to listen,” said firm President Brett Gordon.
Karsh Hagan was founded in Denver in 1977 by Phil Karsh and Tom Hagan, who worked out of a Chevrolet Impala for the first several months and once pitched the Colorado Lottery while wearing Groucho Marx disguises. Hagan’s eldest daughter, Kathy Hagan, is co-CEO of KHM.
“KHM brings together the talent, perspective and curiosity to build stronger connections,” she said.
