History

Gragg Advertising was started in 1992 in the basement of Greg Gragg's home. Gragg Advertising has grown from a one room basement to a two-story office building. The expansion has experienced its ups and downs but has remained a strong contender in the direct-response advertising industry.

In October 1990, NRAC went out of business unexpectedly and Gragg's phone rang with clients on the other end requesting him to continue managing their business. Gragg answered and literally went in to his basement and worked for six months. He managed accounts that included Gateway Electronics, Computer Learning Network, US Trucking and Fort Scott Community College. After an unsuccessful attempt to partner with another advertising agency, Gragg signed a three-year lease for an office space on 83rd street in downtown Overland Park and went to work on his own. He began to expand his staff. Focusing on traditional media with a secondary focus in web and SEO, Gragg Advertising continued to expand and moved to an office in Westport in 1996.

Providing clients with return on investment as promised, it was evident that building software to manage everything had to happen.

Ingram's Magazine ranked Gragg Advertising as one of Kansas City's 100 Fastest Growing Companies in July of 2000. Two years later, the company had grown to 15 employees and migrated into the interactive world and as it advanced, Gragg kept up. It began the development and growth of its highest revenue based service today, pay-per-lead. In 2005, it ventured into keyword purchasing and Search Engine Marketing. This increased the need for aggregation services as Gragg Advertising had to digest an enormous amount of data their clients had trouble processing on their own. On top of that, providing clients with the quantifiable return on investment as promised, it was evident that building proprietary software to manage everything had to happen.

Director of Information Technology Mike Schuler joined the agency in 2006 to build management systems for the overwhelming amount data. December of that year signified the development and build of Gragg Advertising's proprietary management system for internal operations, IRIS, as Schuler was tasked with developing a system to do "more with less". To ensure accurate data and quality information was passed through to the clients in a comprehensive manner, a Lead Delivery Engine (LDE) was built to sort, scrub and store relevant data in the fall of 2008. At the same time, ALPINE was created as the client portal to view customer data in real time, a first of its kind in aggregation. As it evolved, the LDE was updated into its current version, GraggNet, and provides multiple avenues for customization and analysis for Gragg Advertising's strategic partnerships.

In 2010 Gragg Advertising has grown 72 percent year over year in revenue with 57 employees and is currently located in the River Market. It has proven to be credible and competitive within the advertising industry and continues to grow with the needs of its clients. Gragg is now recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Kansas City.