Photograph by George Sakkestad
Laura Cannestra, CEO of the marketing firm P3M, and Roger Sanford, president, review some work in their Los Gatos offices.
By Clarence Cromwell
The Los Gatos marketing firm Paradigm 3 Marketing joined the ranks of the Bay Area's fastest-growing businesses during 1995.
In passing the 480 percent mark in growth, P3M was listed in seventh place in the San Jose Business Journal's top 100 firms.
The 12-employee firm prospered because many of its high-tech clients have made vast gains and because the company's corporate atmosphere allows people to keep their creativity fresh, said P3M President and CEO Laura Cannestra.
The firm is also young.
"Because we're only five years old, we've had a lot of growth in there from nothing to something," Cannestra said. She and her partner, Roger Sanford, founded the company in 1991.
The company has tried to expand its client base. But 80 percent of its business in 1995 was with a firm referred by a previous client.
"Why I think we've been so lucky is we create relationships with our clients," Cannestra said. "When they grow and do well, we do well."
The company accepts ads from any industry, and designers work in small teams that are given varying products to promote. P3M handles just about any type of advertising or marketing in its Los Gatos Boulevard offices, except public relations work.
One reason P3M is succeeding is that it tries to keep advertising designers from getting bored, Cannestra said. "If you're doing car ads all day long," she said, for example, "it's hard to get excited about another car ad."
The company has received six local advertising awards from the San Jose Ad Club.
P3M designs Web sites and creates TV, radio, magazine and newspaper ads. Clients include Nikkei Services, the San Francisco 49ers, FlowPoint Corp. and Metricom.
P3M used to have offices in Campbell to be as close to its high-tech customers as possible, but opened the Los Gatos offices because the owners live here, Cannestra said. Some clients seem to enjoy visiting the downtown area, and some live here, she added.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 5, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.