Dear Friends,

The year 2008 marks our 36th anniversary. In an industry where longevity is often measured in months, we are well into our fourth decade of providing clients with incredible results in building their businesses. We are now Minnesota’s 7th oldest advertising agency out of over 700. The 2008 Business Information Guide ranked us the 7th largest Minnesota advertising agency, the #1 Web Developer and the 5th largest PR firm in January 2008. Our annual capitalized billings have exceeded $100 million for the last 7 years. We have created an insanely large body of great work for our clients, helping them create, build and benefit from their brands.

We head into 2008 with a structure and platform to offer our clients the widest variety of integrated services they need in a more streamlined way. The two most important things remain intact. Our ability to generate brilliant marketing ideas and our ability to deliver those ideas to our client’s customers and prospects in the most relevant and economical way.

Here are a few of our other recent accomplishments:

1. Our leadership in the e-commerce area remains unchallenged. Other agencies are now trying to copy our vision and strategic partnerships. President Ted Risdall, Director of Interactive Planning Frank Grubbs and CTO Joel Koenigs lead this effort. Adweek magazine IQ ranks us the #1 web developer in the state. In the 2007 Web Marketing Association Awards, we won 18 awards and came in second in the world.
2. Rose McKinney has been a world class leader of our public relations team, aided by lieutenant Joel Swanson and Eva Keiser delivering Results That Matter™ to over 90 clients. We are ranked the 5th largest PR firm in Minnesota.
3. The addition of Tom Wilson as President of Risdall Marketing Group really strengthens our entire account services team. His background includes stints at Fallon, Martin Williams, Campbell Mithun, Gage and Russell & Herder.
4. VP/Account Supervisors Kevin Deshler, Patrick Bettenburg, Glenna Dibrell and Tim Dillon increased our leader ship in the business-to- business and industrial categories.
5. Our role in the service/consumer and medical sectors also grew, thanks to VP/Account Supervisor Terri Lee assisted by Account Executive Tia Wilkins. We now work with 10 of the top 50 Minnesota medical product manufacturers, plus several others nationally – more than 40 clients total.
6. We have long served a substantial number of sporting goods clients. Agency Chairman John Risdall is recognized as a leader coast-to-coast and is assisted Account Executive Dianna Schmidt.
7. As Minnesota’s most wired agency, we’ve provided leadership to the high tech category. Ted Risdall, Tim Dillon, Jennifer Risdall (President of Risdall Search Marketing) and Josh Dahmes (VP/Director of online advertising) head our activities.
8. Our Arts & Entertainment Division led by Julie Knipp now has more than 40 clients like Theatre de la Jeune Leune, Million Dollar Idea TV Show and the 35 restaurants of Twin Cities Originals.
9. Our fundraising and development group led by Jerry Seppala continues to deliver amazing results!
10. Kevin Deshler is also the President of Risdall Marketing Institute, interfacing with Minnesota academia.
11. The financial services sector is well served by VP/Account Supervisors Jennifer Risdall and Laura Martenson who lead the sector with more than 30 accounts, capped by recent national awards for Honeywell Federal Credit Union which was recently rebranded as Endura.
12. Risdall Sandstrom Media Works - Jim Sandstrom is doing wizardly things both online and in traditional media for our clients.

Nationally, the April 30, 2007 Advertising Age ranks us the 88th largest agency out of more than 27,000 and the 4th largest business-to-business agency. Ad Week Magazine ranks us the 48th largest interactive agency in the nation – the only Minnesota firm in the top 50. According to Twin Cities Business Monthly we are the largest web developer. In short, we are in an elite group of the top 1% of agencies in the world. While we are about a $100 million business-to-business agency, we are also a $50+ million consumer agency. But most importantly, we are proud of the work we do and the positive impact it has on our clients’ sales and profits. They enjoy the unfair business advantage of focused, creative advertising. We would like to show you some profitable ideas we think might help your company in 2008 and beyond.

Sincerely,

John Risdall		Ted Risdall		Tom Wilson
Chairman/CEO		President		President, Risdall Marketing Group