This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 1, 2011 - Mark Shapiro, the co-founder of Louis London, a premier brand marketing and advertising firm that developed campaigns for some of the nation's most prominent businesses, died unexpectedly on Tuesday (Aug. 30), at his home in Clayton. To celebrate his 60th birthday this year, Mr. Shapiro had begun training for the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9.
His son Andrew said the cause of death has not yet been determined.
Mr. Shapiro spent half his life forming and running product promotion businesses. But his most well-known venture was, by far, Louis London, which he co-founded in 1983 as The Hermann Group with partner Robert Hermann Jr., the company's chairman and majority owner.
Hermann left the agency when it was sold to FKB Group PLC Ltd., a British company. Mr. Shapiro stayed on. The Hermann Group was renamed Louis London, combining the names of its main operating offices in St. Louis and London.
When FKB went bankrupt in 1990, Shapiro bought his company back. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at the time that being the sole owner rather than an employee would not require a change in his leadership style.
"I ran the company like it was my own company anyway," he said. "I treated every damn pound as if it were a pound of mine."
Smart And Gutsy
When he bought it back, Louis London was anticipating annual billings of $17 million serving clients that included Southwestern Bell Corp., the Miller Brewing Co. and the Ralston Purina Co. He declined to say how much he paid, but volunteered that it cost less than he had offered to buy out his former partner in 1987. Hermann had refused Mr. Shapiro's offer and chose to sell to FKB.
The buy-back was a bold move, said his longtime friend, Allan Groswald.
"He took a company that was going out of business and mortgaged the farm to buy it," Groswald said. "Then a few years ago, he sold it for millions of dollars."
It wasn't the first gutsy move Groswald recalled Mr. Shapiro making. That would have been when his agency lost the Anheuser-Busch account.
"He got on a plane and went to Milwaukee and got the Miller (Brewing Co.) account," Groswold said. "He later got the A-B account back."
Mr. Shapiro ran Louis London for eight years. He sold it to Interpublic Group, a New York-based agency, in 1998. He continued to lead the agency, renamed Momentum North America, for the next five years.
The current chairman and CEO of Momentum Worldwide, Chris Weil, said Mr. Shapiro left his mark on Momentum.
"As former CEO of Louis London and President of Momentum North America, Mark was there from the beginning to develop the foundation of what is now our great agency," Weil said. "We started around $30 million and now have billings of more than $250 million."
Ahead Of The Game
He had begun his advertising and marketing career in the '70s and joined the Hanley Group in 1981. But Louis London in its various incarnations "is where he built his legacy," Andrew Shapiro said.
He never stopped building.
After leaving Momentum in 2003, he soon partnered to form another agency, Havoc, a part of the creative services company Mozaic. He left Havoc in 2007 to found another agency. Of his latest company, he told the St. Louis Business Journal shortly after it was formed: "White space is the ability to see through the brand landscape and see the business opportunity. (So) we call that business opportunity 'White Space'."
Mr. Shapiro's multiple ventures did not surprise his good friend and former neighbor, Tony Ponturo. The two had once been friendly rivals when Ponturo was an Anheuser-Busch executive and Mr. Shapiro was representing Miller.
"Mark had relentless energy and creativity to keep exploring ways to do fun things in business," Ponturo said from his New York office. "He was a very creative person with a fluid mind that brought different and interesting ideas to advertising."
One such idea was an advertising precedent that is still emulated today: the marriage of a product and the NFL's fantasy football, an interactive, virtual competition where people manage football teams. His product was Miller Lite and the marriage endures.
"It was the campaign he remained most proud of," his son said. "He also foresaw the rise of digital media long before others were thinking it was going to be a force in the industry. He was always a few steps ahead of the game and was able to change the landscape of the industry."
Mr. Shapiro's legacy and ideas extended far beyond his work life. He was about to begin his eighth year as a mentor to students at Sherman Elementary School in St. Louis. In fact, he had shown up last week, two weeks early for the beginning of this year's program.
The director of Mentor St. Louis, the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club program through which Mr. Shapiro volunteered, said he clearly remembers the conversation about the early arrival.
"Mark laughed and said he was just ready to go," said Ryonnel Jackson. "He was always excited and always wanted to do something for the kids. He had a big heart."
St. Louis Proud
"He was a St. Louisan and a Missourian through and through," Ponturo said. "He was St. Louis born and raised and very proud of it."
Mark Shapiro was born in St. Louis on June 7, 1951. He was the eldest of Harvey and Lee Shapiro's three sons. He graduated from Clayton High School in 1969 and earned a bachelor's degree in English from Washington University and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
When Louis London was named the 1995 "Agency of the Year" by PROMO magazine, he told the Post-Dispatch: "That this honor comes to a St. Louis-based agency is another indication that the Midwest can deliver world-class service to its clients."
His agency won the award twice and Mr. Shapiro was named the magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year in the service category.
Mr. Shapiro was a member of Westwood Country Club where he golfed infrequently - and his friends said it showed; was an enthusiastic biker (but was not averse to driving a black Porsche), would leave St. Louis for an occasional Broadway production and did not discriminate when it came to any kind of music or movie, sometimes going alone to a 10 p.m. show.
The Golden Rule
"He was always about the golden rule," Andrew said. "He treated other people like he wanted to be treated. That was my father."
In addition to his parents of St. Louis and his oldest son Andrew (Felicia) of New York, Mr. Shapiro, who was divorced, is survived by another son, Max Shapiro of St. Louis; two brothers, David (Judy) Shapiro of San Jose, Calif. and Kenny (Mary) Shapiro of St. Louis as well as a niece and nephew, Melissa Shapiro and Scott Shapiro.
Services for Mr. Shapiro will be at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman Blvd., St. Louis.
If desired, contributions in Mr. Shapiro's memory would be appreciated to Forest Park Forever, 5595 Grand Dr. in Forest Park, St. Louis, Mo. 63112, or Mentor St. Louis, 2901 North Grand Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63107.
Gloria Ross is the head of Okara Communications and the storywriter for AfterWords, an obituary-writing and production service.