For 15 years, Riverside resident Don Pogany led creative teams at the advertising agency DDB Worldwide, which produced some blockbuster campaigns — remember Budweiser’s “Whaasup!” campaign?
Pogany is still in the advertising business and running his own agency, a boutique studio called Sticky Worldwide, from the comfort of his new office in the heart of downtown Riverside, at 7 Longcommon Road.
“I always wanted [Sticky Worldwide] to have its own brand in a way,” said Pogany, standing last week in front of a “Refreshing Riverside” sign in the reception area of the office. The sign is actually a much larger version of a cream soda bottle label he produced for Riverside Foods this summer.
“Having a storefront is something I also wanted.”
The storefront allows Pogany to display the results of his work and have the office serve as a sort of gallery for the variety of work Sticky Worldwide can produce.
“So I have a boutique, salon kind of feel,” he said.
Sticky Worldwide has actually been around for about five years, operating at first out of a downtown office and then Pogany’s Riverside home. Three years ago after his daughter was born, Pogany took a bit of a sabbatical to be an at-home dad for more than a year, working from home during that time.
As his daughter grew up and with school age around the corner, Pogany concluded that Riverside was where his business ought to be located. The Metra is steps from his Longcommon Road office and the suburban rents allow him to spend more on creating work rather than paying for overhead.
“We started connecting the dots and figured maybe downtown Riverside would be an ideal location,” Pogany said. “It all added up to ‘let’s look in Riverside.'”
Pogan has officially been in his new office since October, though the purple sign bearing the name of the agency just went up recently.
Together with his wife, Nan Xu, who helps out on the financial and technical ends of things, Pogany has created an agency that handles all manner of advertising and marketing — from TV and radio to web/multimedia to packaging to marketing communications. Pogany said he brings creative teams together as needed. If the agency lands a large account, they hire account people to service them.
“We operate more like a SWAT team than the standing-army approach,” Pogany said. “I just got tired of the structure of a big agency. We work in a modular way.”
