WHAT IF?
THE QUESTION THAT LAUNCHED
A NEW BREED OF AGENCY.
Back in 2001, a couple of agency veterans started asking themselves: What if?
What if we created our own agency model?
What if it exemplified everything an advertising agency should be?
What if we eagerly adapted to new media and new market realities?
What if we empowered our employees to take ownership of ideas?
What if we didn’t allow great ideas to get bogged down by processes?
What if everyone felt free to suggest new ways to make our agency even better?
In short, from those two simple yet powerful words, Fathom was born.
By embracing the potential of What if? we found ourselves consistently delivering bigger, better and smarter business-building ideas – and deploying them more quickly and efficiently.
What if? makes us more agile. More open-minded. More adaptable to any marketing challenge that comes our way.
What if? empowers us to create smart, different and cost-effective marketing solutions for our clients.
What if? not only makes us Fathom, it allows us to evolve Fathom…
…so that we continue to be what an advertising agency should be.
Peter GroomeCEO & Founding Partner
Peter’s vision to create a new type of agency, which could meet our clients’ many marketing needs under one roof, became a reality with the launch of Fathom Communications in January 2001. In his role as agency CEO, Peter has led Fathom’s growth over the past ten years from a drawing room concept to an established, full-service agency.
Peter’s inspiration for Fathom was a direct result of the trends he saw firsthand during his ten-year advertising career. His strategic insights as Account Director of the ExxonMobil business at DDB Worldwide led Peter to apply several non-traditional marketing solutions to extend the agency’s advertising plan and better serve his clients’ needs.
Peter’s advertising career began at Ogilvy & Mather in 1991 when he joined the agency as a Junior Account Executive on the Post Cereals account. Peter rose in the ranks quickly at Ogilvy, receiving three promotions in less than five years. In addition to managing accounts that included General Foods and Jaguar Cars, Peter was given the added responsibility of directing Ogilvy’s renowned training program for young Account Executives.
In 1998, Peter joined DDB Worldwide as the Account Director on the Mobil Oil business, one of the agency’s oldest and most valued accounts. Peter quickly grew the Mobil account by securing the Mobil 1 business from a rival agency. Due to the merger with Exxon, Peter was twice put to the challenge of defending the agency’s account and bringing in new Exxon assignments. Both times, under Peter’s leadership, the team beat Exxon-incumbent agency McCann Erickson and was awarded the ExxonMobil Corporate launch assignment and its entire worldwide brands account. As a result of his extensive automotive experience, Peter also helped DDB win the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars accounts.
Peter comes from a long line of advertising and marketing specialists, as his grandfather literally wrote the book on advertising (This Is Advertising, available at your local public library). Peter lives in Manhattan with his wife Amy and sons Henry and Freddy.
TRES MCCULLOUGHPresident & Founding Partner
As a founding partner of Fathom, Tres is directly responsible for the development and steady growth of the agency. With his entrepreneurial spirit and unique ability to build effective, integrated marketing programs, Tres is the creative mastermind behind many of Fathom’s most innovative campaigns.
Tres’ knowledge of, and passion for, non-traditional marketing solutions was nurtured during an eight-year advertising career serving a variety of accounts including KFC, Molson and Champs Sports.
Since starting Fathom, Tres has been a catalyst for bringing marketing innovation to several leading brands. Tres was the visionary behind the Sony Ericsson T68i launch, a groundbreaking, integrated marketing campaign that Stuart Elliott called “the godfather of guerrilla marketing.” Tres also created the US National Texting Championship for LG Mobile Phones, a three-year-old property that has grown into a global marketing platform for the cell phone manufacturer. Tres has made multiple appearances on Business Week TV as a marketing visionary.
In 1999, Tres joined DDB Worldwide on the ExxonMobil account. In this role, Tres applied his extensive retail expertise to developing integrated acquisition programs for ExxonMobil’s Speedpass offering. Under Tres’ leadership, annual Speedpass enrollments reached an all-time high and Tres became the key agency contact for the ExxonMobil business for two years. Tres was so highly regarded by his clients at ExxonMobil that he served a term as interim marketing manager for the company.
Tres began his marketing career at Young & Rubicam working on the renowned “Everybody Needs A Little KFC” campaign. Later he served a tour of duty with “The King”—driver Richard Petty— on STP. At Y&R Tres was promoted to the prestigious Molson Golden Account where he helped resurrect the McKenzie Brothers and Molson sales.
After five years at Y&R Tres honed his retail skills when he joined Publicis on the national retailer account, Champs Sports. While on Champs Tres executed multiple co-op programs, most notably campaigns with category leaders Nike, Reebok and Adidas.