Griff/SMC at 30 Years
Thirty years ago, in 1975, Bob Griff went to the Boulder Reservoir
on sunny summer days to think strategy, draft copy and plan the
future of his new advertising agency called Griffiti. Those were
the years when the Pearl Street Mall was taking shape. Downtown
Boulder was transformed into one of the country’s foremost
pedestrian malls bordered by shops, restaurants and offices housed
in historic buildings. The Reinert Building at Broadway and Pearl,
right in the center of things, became the first office for Boulder’s
only full-service advertising agency, which would mature into
Griff Advertising and Public Relations and eventually become known
as Griff/SMC.
Building its reputation as a generalist agency in the early years,
the firm made its first foray into the medical products industry
in 1978 when it was hired by an up-and-coming med-tech company
called Valleylab. Over the next seven years, the agency was partner
to the company’s meteoric rise to global leadership in electrosurgery
that culminated in the purchase of Valleylab by Pfizer, Inc. (Valleylab
is now owned by Tyco International.) Along the way, the agency
won new medical industry clients and discovered its niche: medical
marketing communications.
In the years since, the agency’s strategic and creative
savvy helped build numerous medical industry success stories in
the Rocky Mountain region. These included Aesthetic Technologies,
Inc., makers of Parisian Peel, Cobe Laboratories and LIFECARE
in Colorado. In Utah, Griff helped launch Symbion and the Jarvik
artificial heart and served BD and Utah Medical Products.
A 2001 merger with Denver-based Strategic Medical Communications
further consolidated the agency’s medical market focus and
resulted in the agency’s current name Griff/SMC Medical Marketing
Communications. The merger coincided with a move to 954 Pearl
Street—returning to Boulder and Griff’s Pearl Street
Mall roots.
Today, Griff/SMC’s clients are based locally and throughout
the United States. Global players in a variety of medical product
categories include
Bard
Access Systems,
McKinley
Medical,
Philips
Radiation Oncology Systems and
IntegreMed
.
A distinctive Griff characteristic has always been to excel at
crafting messages that differentiate a product or service in ways
that stand out and get noticed. As a full-service medical marketing
communications firm, Griff/SMC offers clients strategic expertise
and creative excellence in advertising, promotions, public relations,
web design and clinician/patient educational communications. The
agency continues to gain outstanding results for its clients,
building on its mission "To do great work and to work with
great people."
Griff/SMC has earned numerous honors from its peers in the Business
Marketing Association, Medical Marketing Association, Society
for Technical Communication and the Colorado Healthcare Communicators.
Bob Griff was a member of the Colorado Medical Device Association’s
board of directors and a founding board member of the new Colorado
BioScience Association, lending financial and professional support
with industry outreach, organization publications and key events
like the annual golf tournament that the agency named The BioScience
Bogie. A long-time supporter of the Volunteer Connection, a model
for community volunteer programs nationwide, Griff/SMC was recently
nominated for a Nova Award by The Community Foundation, which
serves Boulder County.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Griff/SMC took the
opportunity to support a cause close to the agency and the local
community.
"Flying Into Our
Next Decade" raised awareness and provided funds to assist
Boulder County Wildland Fire Cooperators in firefighter training
and with the purchase of much-needed equipment to battle wildfires
from the air.
The Boulder Reservoir remains a local landmark. The ever-changing
Pearl Street Mall is still the heartbeat of the city. Now 30 years
young, Griff/SMC Medical Marketing Communications looks to the
future, eagerly anticipating another high-flying decade of award-winning,
results-oriented marketing communications for its medical industry
clients worldwide.
