Video Games

Houston Business Journal
April 19, 2004

by Greg Barr
Riding fun to success: A loose approach has paid off for their firm.
Once a visitor gets past the fortress-like entrance to the warehouse offices of Active Imagination Inc., inside, the place bursts with color -- and personality.

A group of photos depict the company's employees as kids. A red tricycle hangs from the ceiling above an air hockey game that doubles as a conference table. Nearby are a Ms. Pac-Man arcade game and dart boards. The employee toilet bears the sign, "Think Tank."

While many companies pay lip-service to the notion that employees should feel good about their workplace and have fun on the job, the principals of this hip, fast-growing design and video production firm foster an environment that's downright whimsical.

One of the titles on the translucent business card of founder and creative director Adam Nisenson is "Head Coach." The title on the card of his Emmy Award-winning wife, Beryt, reads, "Producer, Writer, Dreamer." The card of the company's third partner, art director Tuong Ngo, includes his nickname, "Mr. T."

Although the firm's name, atmosphere and logo -- a stylized, winged tricycle with a trail of fairy dust -- suggests a frivolous approach, Active Imagination is on a serious growth track with a high-profile client roster of national and regional corporations, sports teams and major entertainment events.

While many Houston creative communication firms and agencies faltered in the post-9/11 world, AI increased revenue by more than 50 percent -- to $633,000 -- in 2002 over 2001, and grew by 20 percent in 2003. Revenue in 2004 is on track to nudge close to $1 million.

For Adam Nisenson, it's been a wild, rewarding ride since he formed Nisenson Design in November 1992 after being fired from his art director's job at a T-shirt shop.

"I didn't have a business plan," he recalls. "So if you told me back then I would be here doing this today, I wouldn't have had a clue. At the time I was just living with these other guys in a house, trying to make my car payment."

Nisenson forged ahead, having no qualms about bringing representatives from publicly traded companies into his bedroom-turned-office. One of those firms, US Physical Therapy Inc., remained a solid client for 12 years.

"Was I wet behind the ears? Sure," he says. "I'd call up my dad and ask him if it was a good deal to spend $20 on an office ink stamp for 'Approvals.' I just didn't learn any of this stuff in school."

Imagining the possibilities
After hiring Tuong, a student intern from the University of Houston -- Nisenson's alma mater -- as the first outside employee, the company's client list took off. At the same time, Nisenson was preparing to marry Beryt, a University of Texas broadcast journalism graduate, in 1995.

Beryt Nisenson had found a public relations job in Austin following her graduation from UT, but moved to Houston after the couple became engaged.

"... I loved to produce and write so I worked at a couple of agencies and then went out on my own," says Beryt Nisenson, whose career path mirrored her husband's in 1998 when she announced she was quitting her job to go it alone as a video producer/director.

By then, Adam Nisenson had changed his company name to Design Force, while Beryt Nisenson operated as Design Force Production Services. But in 2000, Beryt came up with the Active Imagination name, leading to an ultimate business revelation for her husband.

"It was kind of a slap in the face, and I woke up," Adam Nisenson says. "I wondered why we were doing this separately, with Beryt working out of the house and me with two employees in a small office. So we dove in, without bothering to check the temperature of the water."

The couple quickly leased a 2,100-square-foot space in a trendy part of town off Studemont, invested some $35,000 in computers, phones and office equipment and splurged on an extremely expensive but slick marketing brochure, thereby joining forces as AI.

By then, Adam Nisenson, a self-described sports nut, had already begun focusing on sports clients, having worked in the late 1990s on several projects for the Houston Rockets.

Today, AI works with professional and university sports team clients in several cities, including the Houston Texans and Houston Astros. In fact, AI developed the look for the Astros' "Root for the Good Guys" concept -- which is reflected on everything from tickets to pocket schedules to billboards.

Andrew Huang, the Astros' vice-president of marketing, says AI has hit one out of the park as far as the team is concerned.

"They take direction very well," says Huang. "Some artists and designers will just try to force their ideas on you and are not good listeners, but Adam can take a vision and make it a reality. We like to meet with them regularly just to throw around new ideas and run things by them."

Meanwhile, Beryt Nisenson has recently worked up TV spots for clients such as the Houston International Festival (AI came up with the more hip i-Fest logo this year) and Moody Gardens. Her forte is 30-minute documercials -- she has three Emmy Awards for her efforts -- which clients use to sell a concept or service in prime time.

One award-winner was the piece titled, "Health Works - The Silent Predator," for St. Luke's Hospital. St. Luke's used the documercial, which Nisenson says has the look and feel of a "60 Minutes" documentary, to promote its liver disease treatment expertise.

After the piece aired one night in Houston, Nisenson says the hospital fielded 700 calls from concerned individuals, 100 of whom were found to need treatment for Hepatitis C.

Brand-new
AI has just signed deals with three major clients from very different worlds: The University of Houston athletics program, Yellow Cab and Compass Bank. All the deals involve branding, and range from creating a new look for the UH sports marketing campaign beginning with the fall football season, to image-building for Yellow Cab, and finding ways to better market Compass' services to high-end wealth and institutional clients.

Bert Simon, AI's accountant, says the Nisensons are an example of what happens when a husband and wife are in tune when it comes to running their business as a partnership.

"They are really focused and not tripping all over each other," Simon says of the couple. "Each has creative control in their own area of responsibility, with Adam in graphic arts and Beryt in video. And when a couple in business doesn't have this clear demarcation, there can be enormous stress and a high failure rate."

Adam Nisenson says the couple is also on the same page when it comes to the kind of environment they want to create for the company's employees.

Even with only 10 people on staff, AI offers flexible hours, a 401(k) and health plan. Once a month, a different employee suggests four team-building group activities and the staff votes for a favorite, such as a night on the town, a Houston Texans game, a pottery workshop or bowling.

In addition, the employees are given a good deal of creative freedom and authority.

"Our designers are empowered to build one-on-one relationships with clients, whereas a lot of firms have an account rep who meets the clients," Beryt Nisenson says. "I realized that in a creative industry, it starts with my interpretation, then I tell (the designer) and it becomes the designers' interpretation that the client sees."

The company has endured only a few missteps, such as a failed experiment when sales reps were hired.

"We thought that in order to grow the business, we needed someone in charge of growing your business," Adam Nisenson says. "But the client first wants to shake hands with the person in charge. (Beryt and I) are still our best salespeople."

On the flip side, a decision to hiring an office manager just last month has already paid dividends.

"We were driving to the store to buy toilet paper," Beryt Nisenson says. "All that other stuff was keeping us from sales and networking."