The Foundation: Born Independent, Staying Independent
In 1968, when Eric Mower founded his eponymous agency in Syracuse, New York, the advertising world’s center of gravity was firmly planted in Manhattan. Nearly 60 years later, Mower—now simply Mower, having shed the “Eric Mower and Associates” moniker—remains exactly where it started: fiercely, staunchly, unapologetically independent.
But independence at Mower means something more radical than just avoiding a holding company acquisition. In January 2023, when Stephanie Crockett ascended to President and CEO after 21 years with the agency, Mower doubled down on a different kind of ownership structure altogether. The agency is 100% employee-owned through an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), a decision that prioritized people over profit maximization.
“You don’t go the ESOP route instead of PE funding, which is not as attractive financially in many cases, if it wasn’t because it was all about the employees,” Crockett explains. “Eric Mower cared so much about taking care of these humans and these people that we wanted to do this business structure.”
The agency recently added another distinction to its independent credentials: WBE certification, making Mower a women-owned, women-led, 100% employee-owned independent agency. It’s a mouthful, and they’re damn proud of every word.
The Secret Sauce: Making Fierce Friends
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Ask Crockett what Mower is best known for, and she doesn’t lead with awards or client names. She leads with a philosophy: Making Fierce Friends.
“It’s really around creating connections for clients and brands based on affection, relevance, and trust—those tenets of friendship,” she says. It’s not marketing speak. It’s the agency’s north star, informing everything from how they approach creative briefs to how they structure their internal culture.
The philosophy has helped position Mower as one of the top B2B agencies in the country, a designation that comes with significant industry recognition. While B2B represents about 50% of their work, it’s become a defining strength, particularly in sectors others might dismiss as “low interest.”
“We work a lot in spaces where they’re regulated industries, a bit more commodities,” Crockett notes. Copy paper. Utilities. The kinds of products people don’t think about—and don’t particularly want to think about. “How do we make these products that people don’t think about and make it matter? Have it really be important in their lives?”
The answer, Mower has found, isn’t about the product at all. “It isn’t about a lack of interest. It’s about a lack of motivation. And how do we inspire people to really care about things that they just don’t on a day-to-day basis?”
The Powerhouse Team: Strategy, Creative, and Everything In Between
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At the heart of Mower’s operation is a strategy team led by Amanda Shuneman, whom Crockett describes as “nothing short of brilliant.” That team forms the foundation for everything else: creative, data-driven connection planning, an unusually robust in-house public relations division, and an in-house market research team.
“It’s pretty unusual for an integrated agency,” Crockett says of the PR team’s integration. So unusual, in fact, that when she worked with trade publications in her previous life, the question was always the same: Is this from the PR agency or the advertising agency? “We’re all the same crew. It’s an agency within an agency.”
This structure allows Mower to create what Crockett calls “really interesting and engaging connections across paid media, earned media, and all of the tactics and things in between.” It’s integrated in practice, not just in name.
The Remote Revolution: Culture Without Proximity
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Coming out of COVID, Mower made a decisive choice: they would become a remote-first agency. It wasn’t just about following a trend. It was about expanding their talent pool while maintaining—and even strengthening—the culture that had made people want to stay for decades.
“We know that building culture in a remote environment is challenging, and so we really took that as a challenge to ourselves,” Crockett says. “How can we make sure that these folks feel like they are so cared for, that they really feel those connections, even though they’re not in the same physical space together?”
The answer came through significant investments in training and support: LinkedIn Learning access, ongoing mental health training, leadership development programs, and an in-house leadership coach providing one-on-one support. The coach offers deep-dive coaching, ongoing assessments, and a safe space for employees to navigate challenges.
The results speak for themselves. Mower maintains a 98% retention rate—nearly unheard of in an industry where job-hopping has become the norm. At their recent anniversary celebration, 15 employees hit the 20-year mark, and the agency only celebrates in five-year increments.
“I’m from a little bit of the older guard, right?” Crockett acknowledges. “It’s definitely less common now for people to stay at a place as long as I have.” But at Mower, it’s not uncommon at all. And when people do leave? They often come back. The agency has coined a term for it: “Back for More.”
The Weirdo Underdog Spirit
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When asked to choose between weirdos, misfits, or underdogs, Crockett doesn’t hesitate: “I would say we’re probably a bit of a combination of weirdo underdogs.”
The weirdo part reveals itself in surprising ways. At that anniversary celebration where Crockett interviews long-tenured employees, she learns things that consistently surprise her. “There’s one employee that’s been with us for years who apparently is into Korean soap operas. And I was like, what? These are the things that you learn about people. We are such a cool pack of weirdos, and I love every second of it, because we’re just interesting, fun people.”
The underdog part? That comes from the Syracuse origin story. “It’s not exactly the advertising mecca,” Crockett admits. While Mower now has significant concentrations of employees in Manhattan, Chicago, and Atlanta—”real powerhouse agency towns”—and while they’ve evolved from being seen as “a little bit conservative, or a little bit behind, not as digitally forward,” there’s still that scrappy hunger.
“We feel like underdogs, but we’re going to keep fighting and get to the top, for sure,” she says. “We always say we’re scrappy, hungry—and that’s what makes indies great.”
The Client Relationships: Fierce Friends in Practice
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Crockett struggles to pick just one client or CMO to shout out—”I could go on and on and on. We have so many incredible relationships”—but she lands on Kendra Lewinsky, head of B2B marketing at Carhartt.
“She has been an incredible fierce friend of the agency since we started working with them in the middle of COVID. We won the work never having met in person because of that, and they have quickly become such an incredible partner.”
It’s telling that Mower won major business during the pandemic’s darkest days, when most agencies were struggling just to maintain existing relationships. It speaks to the Making Fierce Friends philosophy in action—the ability to build trust and affection even through Zoom screens.
Other standout relationships include Deborah at Novant, Jennifer and Christy at First Energy, and recent wins that can’t yet be announced publicly. “We just won a big new client that hasn’t been officially announced yet,” Crockett teases. “So I’d be shouting them out, but they know who they are.”
The Legend: Eric Mower’s Lasting Impact
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If there’s one person who gets Crockett’s ultimate shoutout, it’s the man whose name the agency carried for decades: Eric Mower himself.
“Eric is one of the OGs of independent, integrated agencies, a legend for sure in the market and in the space,” she says. “So well regarded in the advertising community and a staunch supporter of independence.”
But it’s not just about past glory. Mower’s continued independence—and its transformation into an employee-owned entity—happened because of decisions Eric made as he transitioned into a new role. “We would not be continuing to be independent if it wasn’t for the gracious decisions that he made,” Crockett emphasizes.
It’s a reminder that independence isn’t just about avoiding acquisition. It’s about actively choosing a different path, even when—especially when—that path might be less financially lucrative in the short term. Eric Mower chose people over profit, and now 98% of those people are choosing to stay.
The Future: Leaning Into the Lawn Mower
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When Mower rebranded from Eric Mower and Associates to simply Mower a few years ago, they knew what was coming. People had always mispronounced the name anyway, calling it “Mower” like the thing you use to cut grass.
So they leaned in. Hard.
“At the bottom of the website, you’ll see a dude mowing it up there,” Crockett laughs. “There is a magenta mower—literally a riding mower—sitting in my office right now. It’s humongous and amazing.”
It’s cheeky, memorable, and perfectly on-brand for an agency that’s equal parts weirdo and underdog. After all, if you’re going to be an independent agency founded in Syracuse that’s become a national B2B powerhouse, you might as well have some fun with it.
You can find Mower at mower.com, at ANA events, and at industry presentations across the country. Just look for the people with the riding lawn mower and the 98% retention rate. They’ll be the ones making fierce friends.
Stephanie Crockett has been with Mower for 21 years and has served as President and CEO since January 2023. Under her leadership, the agency has achieved WBE certification, maintained its 100% employee ownership through an ESOP structure, and continued to build its reputation as a top B2B agency. She interviews every employee at their five-year anniversary milestones and maintains an open-door policy for the leadership coach she made available to the entire team. When she’s not running the agency, she’s probably figuring out where to put that magenta riding mower.
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