I first met Rich Sullivan when he was a student at the University of Alabama. Rich is one of the brightest people I’ve ever known, and we seem to hit it off. A native Mobilian, Rich entered his senior year of college with the intention of attending medical school after graduation. 

Having worked in hospitals every summer during college, he consulted with the doctors and surgeons he had befriended about which track to take, and they all told him, “ if you aren’t completely on fire about being a physician, you should choose something else.” Career unhappiness plus the prospect of socialized medicine helped Rich choose another path.

After earning his liberal arts degree, Rich decided he wanted to attend a prestigious Ivy League MBA program like Wharton or Harvard and pursue business. He added a fifth year of undergraduate education at Alabama to take some finance and accounting courses while interviewing at the MBA programs he sought to attend. The message he received was typical of all these schools; “Get some work experience first, and then come back. It will help you better understand the relevance of a master’s in business administration.”

Rich called his dad, Richard Sullivan, who with his business partner, Karen St. Clair, owned Sullivan-Clair Advertising in Mobile. “I’ll do anything,” he told his dad. “I just want the work experience necessary to get accepted into my MBA school of choice.” His dad agreed.

During his 5th year at Alabama, Rich studied another subject, the gaming industry in Philadelphia, Mississippi’s Silver Star Casino. A group of friends would often make the trek, and Rich fell in love with gaming, especially casinos. “There is nothing in a casino I don’t like,” he says. “I never get tired of it.”

After graduation, Rich worked at Sullivan-St. Clair doing whatever the agency needed. He was welcomed and eventually gravitated to the creative side of the business. “I liked the advertising business immediately. I liked the culture, and it is a fun business. Once I saw that I liked it, I started focusing on the economics of the business.” He forgot about earning his MBA.

As a local agency, Sullivan-St. Clair started in 1977 as Reynolds-Sullivan and was well-regarded in Mobile. Rich likened it to a lifestyle business and described it as “an accordion,” with high highs and low lows, depending on the clients you were working with. “Most agencies grow to a certain size and stay there.” That was not Rich’s style.

As Rich settled into his role at the agency, he was given a lot of leeway to find his footing. He started in Account Services, then was named Creative Director, a huge role at any agency, and then President after four years. He has a strong sense of competition and loves challenges. He began to ask himself, “How do I build this company to compete at a national level?’ He wanted to be the best.

Rich credits his extracurricular activities at the fraternity for helping hone his leadership skills. His liberal arts education was a perfect cross-section of math, writing, art, music, and scientific method that was relevant for going into advertising. He was naturally drawn toward copywriting and began producing a newsletter called Red Square, a take on the company’s logo, a red square with the agency’s name reversed in white.

The name immediately got people’s attention. Rich, hoping to compete on a national scale, believed that they needed a powerful name and approached his dad about changing Sullivan St. Clair to Red Square Agency. “Over my dead body,” Richard replied. But Rich persisted and ultimately did change the name with a bit of trepidation two years later. It worked.

That was in January 2008, and the name change flipped the switch. “We changed our mindset and thought of ourselves differently. Dad caught a load of grief, but our first client as Red Square was the State of Alabama when Kay Ivey wanted to rebrand the 529 College Savings Plan. I knew we would be okay.”

The recession happened that same year, yet the business doubled. Red Square did some rebranding work with Colleges and Universities, and Rich saw that the highest returns came from concentrating on selective industry sectors. “When you have a strong position in certain sectors, you can be selective about which projects you take on.”

Between 2008 and 2011, things were humming. Red Square was pitching national businesses but being located in Alabama was a headwind, so they began contemplating an office in a major market.

By 2013, the gaming to non-gaming business revenue was 80% to 20%, so he decided to “split the baby,” thinking that separating the two operations’ focus would benefit the agency. “The division into Red Square Gaming and RSQ had the exact opposite effect I expected, and it was a bust,” he says. Meanwhile, the company had outgrown its space in downtown Mobile and developed another nearby building with twice the space.

In 2016, the opportunity to plant a flag outside of Alabama presented itself. Red Square acquired Chicago-based digital design and development company, We Can’t Stop Thinking and began winning significant brand business.

In 2017, he put the Red Square baby back together and began sorting things out. “We try to stay nimble,” says Rich. “We continually think of ourselves as a brand new company, and that keeps us fresh.”

Rich admits he is a driven and extremely competitive person. He wants to be the best. He was totally consumed by the agency and had nothing but support from his father and Karen St. Clair to do his thing. “It was a very high compliment to be told, ‘You can run this thing.’ ” He says he picked different creative and business influences to emulate and then built his own style.

After continual experimentation throughout the years, he’s come to a few conclusions:

1. You have to have better talent. Pick better horses.
2. Have clients that allow you to do “crazy-ass work.”
3. You need a category to leverage. Own a category.

Red Square found its category at the same place Rich spent his 5^th year in college – in casinos.

“It’s a category that is unloved,” he says. “Casinos are a hard business. It’s fast-paced, with lots of volume. They operate 24/7, and it's relentless. It’s like drinking from a firehose. Most agencies have a tough time with casinos, but I love it.” He points out that gaming is state-regulated. “States are in it for the revenue gaming generates, and whenever there is a recession, there is an increase in gaming licenses.”

Gaming was first legalized in 1932 in Nevada as a response to the Great Depression and the economic distress it generated. Rich set his sights on the gaming industry and said, “It has all the key ingredients. It has a high barrier to entry. I knew it would grow as more states entered the industry and issued new gaming licenses.” As gaming became more saturated, it became more competitive, and advertising became more valuable.”

“I felt if the company could firmly establish a position in the gaming industry, we could grow the business. And I liked the industry,” he said. Then Covid hit. “We gathered everyone in our gym on March 13, 2020, and told them we were working remotely. Three days later, 989 casinos in the U.S. shut down completely within 72 hours. This included 80% of Red Square clients. “Our clients went to revenue zero overnight, but they kept us on retainer, and 2020 was one of our best years”

Each state made its own decision on when to reopen the casinos, and Red Square was right there with them. During this closing and slow reopening, Rich made contact with one of his biggest competitors, Foundry Agency, in Reno, Nevada. He wanted to discuss the new environment and share ideas.

They kept up with each other and decided to meet in Lake Tahoe in August 2020. By the end of 2021, the two decided to merge their respective agencies and rebrand as Good Giant. The deal closed on June 10, 2022, and the goal is to continue to grow and become a giant in the industry but still operate with the mindset of a small company.

Rich serves as CEO of the new company. They created a holding company hoping to be in a good position to acquire other agencies that would help them grow. With more than fifty gaming clients, the future looks bright. The day before I met with Rich, the company had just won Best in Show at the ADDYs for a digital ad campaign they did for Skittles, a product of Mars-Wrigley Brands, so the digital side of the equation is working well.

I asked Rich his thoughts about living in the Scenic 98 Coastal area. “I love being and living in Mobile. You can live anywhere these days and love where you live. We can compete with anyone from here.” Today he feels that the way we are working post-Covid is the way it will continue to be, and that bodes well for Mobile and the entire area. “It’s about the quality of life and the cost of living. This is an attractive area, as we have learned from the growth since the pandemic. I don’t see that changing.”

Thank you, Rich, for believing in your hometown and building a national agency right here. Here’s to much success for Good Giant! Your vision, spirit, and determination are an inspiration to us all!