Osborn & Barr Communications, the St. Louis-based advertising agency that represents some of the country’s most familiar agribusinesses, slipped quietly into Iowa in early December. The agency helped emblazon the name of agricultural chemical giant Monsanto’s No. 1-selling herbicide, Roundup, and top farm implement manufacturer Deere & Co.’s leaping deer into the psyche of the American farmer.

Stephen D. Barr founded the agency in 1998 with three other partners and built it into a company that employs more than 100 people, has annual capitalized billings in excess of $80 million, and has a regional office in Kansas City and an Canadian office in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He says his agecny’s Johnston office is about to become a key player in the metro area.

“We don’t spend a lot of time talking about ourselves,” Barr said, explaining his company’s low-profile move into the Greater Des Moines market. “Ninety-nine percent of what we do is talk about our clients and their products and services.”

Strategically, it made sense for the agency to open a satellite office near one of its most important clients, John Deere Credit, Barr said. O&B’s Johnston office is located on 62nd Avenue in Johnston, across N.W. 86th Street from John Deere Credit’s large campus. But the expansion resulted in fortuitous opportunities that Barr couldn’t have orchestrated, but was quick to seize.

One big windfall for the agency came after CMF&Z, an agency that had had been a major force in the Greater Des Moines advertising community for more than three decades, was shuttered in August after fighting a losing battle to recoup losses suffered during an anemic post-Sept. 11 economy. Barr’s agency was able to latch onto “instant” accounts, such as the Clive-based National Pork Board, and hire what Barr calls some of the most talented and creative advertising professionals in Iowa.

“There’s not only a very tempting client base in Des Moines, Iowa, but also a great talent base,” Barr said.

Dan Kirkpatrick became a senior public relations writer and Jeff Hartz, one of Kirkpatrick’s co-workers at CMF&Z, was hired as associate creative director. The agency also lured Joy Johnson away from Principal Financial Group Inc., where she was in charge of the insurer’s direct-marketing arm, Principal Connection, and later worked to consolidate marketing efforts and develop strategies for new product launches by small and medium-sized sellers of 401(k) plans and investor services.

Johnson’s hiring as the director of strategic marketing speaks volumes about the agency’s strategy in Greater Des Moines. Though originally created to help develop brands for some of the world’s best-known agricultural companies and products, the Johnston office plans to plow the fertile fields of the city’s financial services industry.

Barr said Johnson’s background in financial services will help O&B further expand into the financial services arena, but he also thinks her experience dovetails well with the agency’s Avant Marketing Group, which O&B developed four years ago after a national search for what Barr calls “a brand guru.” Mark Bogel, who works out of the St. Louis agency, was eventually hired to head the division, which uses its trademark Channel Marketing approach to brand products and services and help clients compete in a marketplace complicated by mergers and acquisitions.

“A lot of them don’t know how to approach the market with those types of strategies,” Johnson said. “The need for better coordination of communication efforts grows as consolidation takes place.”

Conversations last summer with corporate executives representing some of the largest employers in the city convinced Barr that the agency would have opportunities to accelerate its growth if it opened an office here.

“We spent a lot of time here last summer, and got the feeling O&B would be good for the Des Moines market,” Barr said. “Companies in Iowa like to work with Iowa agencies, and we got the impression if we were going to be a player, we needed to be on the ground here.”

The agency brings a track record for strong financial performance to Iowa. Though tumultuous for ad agencies nationwide, 2002 was a banner year for O&B. The agency landed six major new accounts, including Intervet International, a world leader in veterinary pharmaceuticals and products, and two divisions of Arkansas-based Lawhon Farm Services, Delta King Seed Co. and Beltwide Cotton Genetics, a new cottonseed company launched during one of the most severe downturns in the agricultural economy in decades. O&B is also negotiating with – and, Barr says, close to signing on as a client- a major agricultural tire manufacturer.

The agency’s financial stability is a big selling point with clients, Barr said. “Clients entrust us with a lot of money,” he said. “They’re looking for more financial stability.”

He said O&B also appeals to clients doing business worldwide because, as an agency that has shepherded communications efforts in projects for the Department of Interior, the Department of the Treasury and the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s already meeting tighter standards and accountability requirements. “Because we have federal contracts, we have to meet federal standards,” Barr said.

Landing federal contracts is just one of the agency’s efforts to diversify its services beyond its agricultural base. A strategic decision to represent only the biggest names in agriculture – the agency’s super-brand survey in 2000 showed Roundup herbicide and John Deere are the No. 1 and No. 2 the most recognizable brands in agriculture – makes the cyclical ups and downs of the farm economy less worrisome. Barr said it was a natural extension of the agency’s experience in agricultural marketing to begin representing industry groups funded by commodity checkoffs and other non-profit agricultural groups. That work currently represents about 20 percent of the agency’s business.

Corporate clients also are becoming increasingly diversified. For example, O&B represents Hayward Pool Products Inc., the nation’s leading supplier of above-ground swimming pools and products, and Aqua Leader, another top player in that market. It also handles advertising and public relations for Bissinger Chocolates, the world’s oldest chocolatier, which began making its confections in 17th-century Paris.

Though only three people currently staff the Johnston office and interviews are being conducted to fill a fourth account/office manager position, the agency’s full resources are made available to clients.

That will be important as O&B looks to expand further into financial services. In addition to its John Deere Credit account, the agency also works with financial institutions in Kansas Citym and Tom Bertoncin, the managing director of account services in Kansas City, comes from a banking background.

“We have a lot of depth in that area,” Barr said. “There’s a great opportunity in Des Moines, which is really a financial center, to bring that expertise to bear.”