Mike Fetrow, who’s touted as the guy who turned Minneapolis based (75 year-old) Colle + McVoy from a B2B agri-shop into an award winning, industry leader. Well, at least in Minneapolis.
We spoke with Fetrow earlier today, and asked him how the transition came about. He candidly remarked that the direction he wanted to take the shop compared to that of other C+M leaders didn’t mesh. In our experience, this is the age-old ‘creative guy wants more creativity, but suits like the way things are’ scenario.
And Fetrow, a Minneapolis native, indicated just that. “We made huge strides over the last four years,” he said. “But you have to change, always. Some people thought there was too much change.” In Fetrow’s mind, there was a lot further to go.
“But I feel really positive about what we did.”
The creative department, on the other hand, is less positive about Fertow’s departure. One insider told us that C+M CEO Christine Fruechte (Frook-tee) fired Fertow, “for political reasons.” If this year’s election is any indication, “change” is definitely a political subject.
Fruechte did not respond by the time this story was published.
“The creative department is outraged. Completely outraged,” said our spy. Fetrow acknowledged that the team he built is not happy. “We are a tight group of people with similar beliefs,” he said. “We are friends.”
Fetrow has made his mark on the industry. Before joining C+A as ECD in 2004, he was the Sr. AD at Carmichael Lynch. He’s also done stays at Saatchi SF and Fallon McElligot. He’s won awards at The One Show, Cannes, The Effies and more.
As for the future, he’s happy to have some time to figure things out. Apparently, the separation wasn’t completely out of the blue, so he’s glad to be done with that part of the picture. Now he’s got to decide if he’ll start his own biz, or hop back into another shop. We hope he stays in Minneapolis. It’s just nicer there.