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Ad5 takes off where ‘Godwin’...

Ad5 takes off where ‘Godwin’ dropped the ball

By: Lynne Jeter - January 29, 2025

  • “Great advertising feeds my soul,” says Mississippi ad agency legend Philip Shirley.

When Mississippi ad agency legends Philip Shirley and Jeff Russell learned on Dec. 4 that ad agency Godwin’s out-of-state holding company planned to close its doors on Dec. 6, they hatched an expedient plan with new partners to start a new company from the ground up. The mission on which they agreed: to save the employees, to create a new, vibrant marketing and communications services company to fill the void left by the closure, and to deliver a resource unmatched in the Magnolia State.

Shirley and Russell, former Godwin CEOs, and Godwin executive vice president Lauren Mozingo immediately began exploring the genesis of a new firm with longtime collaborators Tom Sullivan and Kevin Kuchinski of New Jersey-based Princeton Partners, a 65-year-old, well-respected national firm. Together, the five ad agency executives formed Ridgeland-based Ad5 LLC. Thirty minutes after Godwin’s doors closed that first Friday in December, Ad5 offered jobs to the entire staff. The following Monday, the new Mississippi corporation was launched.

“As a first step to launch this new company, we wanted to preserve the jobs of very seasoned professionals,” said Shirley. “We just couldn’t let those who had been loyal for all those years be without a job, and they had the talent we needed.”

Shirley and other Godwin shareholders sold the nationally recognized ad agency to Local Marketing Solutions Group (LMSG) in 2018. Godwin had been profitable, yet the holding company was bleeding money in other divisions. LMSG dispatched a letter to clients that basically said LMSG would not be able to fulfill obligations to their clients after Dec.6 and stated the decision “…has been driven by the current state of LMSG cash flow.”

“We never saw what bills were paid,” said Shirley, “because all accounting functions were centralized at the holding company. Of course, we’d sometimes get vendor complaints and would ask for those bills to be prioritized. For nearly six years, that worked.”

Because the five ad agency executives had worked together, “we didn’t have to vet each other,” said Shirley. “We knew each other professionally and personally. They said, yes, let’s do it. So, we jumped into crisis mode.”

Despite the emotional reasons for doing so, forming the new company had to make business sense, Shirley pointed out.

Jeff Russell, president and a partner, said, “The pros on our team have always delivered an advertising quality so that Mississippi companies didn’t have to leave for Atlanta, Dallas or New York. Princeton Partners has clients on East and West Coasts but was looking to come South. So, we formally united our talents by forming a new company.”

Russell, Mozingo, and Shirley had gravitated to Princeton Partners in part because “their data-driven digital and traditional marketing, enhanced with AI analysis, is superb … as is their foundation of research,” Shirley said. “By combining our strengths, we saw an opportunity to create a senior staff of really good storytellers, really good creatives, really good strategic thinkers.” 

How was the name, Ad5, selected? 

“We’re five senior partners operating the firm on a foundation of five core values, especially integrity and excellence,” said Shirley. “We’re a Mississippi-incorporated company operating as a Princeton Partners Group company, which brings depth, cross-fertilization of innovative marketing ideas, and resources from other markets. We focus on delivering unsurpassed quality and unrivaled customer service in five key lines of business – advertising, business consulting, digital marketing, media services, and PR and reputation management.” 

In less than a month, Ad5 signed two dozen former Godwin clients and won three new ones. 

“We’re daily adding other clients to the roster of companies we support and adding depth of expertise and capacity with more than 50 associates available to address client needs,” said Shirley, teasing that last month, through the joint efforts of the two groups, they won the branding for a major university in the state, which cannot yet be announced. 

“Our new company is new only in name,” said Shirley. “Numerous staff members offer decades of experience and expertise as a cohesive team. Our senior leadership is blended with some of the smartest young talent in the country who are delivering cutting-edge, data-driven digital and traditional media strategies, social media marketing, and customized go-to-market strategies that allow our clients to outperform competitors in their markets.”

The team formerly at Godwin was known for its expertise in many areas, notably the successful state flag campaign and prolific tourism work. Ad5’s focus areas include banking and insurance, healthcare, education and workforce development, utilities, nonprofits, tourism, and consumer. Their geographic reach encompasses the Southeast, including Texas. 

Shirley, who “semi-retired” when the company sold in 2018, has faced numerous challenges of his own. During the pandemic, he was hospitalized with severe symptoms of COVID. Last year, he had five major surgeries. When business began to unravel at Godwin, he could have stepped aside. Now he says, “I’m healthy and totally back. Work is fun again.”

“I’m all in like all the partners are,” said Shirley, whose carpentry hobby and author prowess skills take up weekends. “I’m working a lot of long days, and I love it. The work excites me, and the direction we’re going to deliver marketing that outperforms is greater than I could’ve hoped.

“Great advertising feeds my soul, and nothing is more satisfying than creating jobs. For us and our clients.”

About the Author(s)
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Lynne Jeter

Lynne Jeter is an award-winning business writer who penned the first book to market about the WorldCom debacle, “Disconnected: Deceit & Betrayal at WorldCom” (Wiley, 2003), and authored the biography of the late Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin, “Chief” (Quail Press, 2009). Her diverse body of work has appeared all over the world. Twice, she was named the SBA’s Mississippi Small Business Journalist of the Year. You may reach Lynne at Lynne.Jeter@gmail.com