So was much else, it seemed. By the end of 1992 PDP had lost three of its largest accounts -- McDonald's, the state of Georgia, and Contel. McDonald's apparently told its present agency that it left PDP because it didn't feel its account was getting "senior staff attention." The state of Georgia says that its departure wasn't PDP's fault, "it was just time to move on." Whatever the reasons, the loss of those three cut the agency's billings in half. A third of the employees were laid off. Morale was battered.
Pringle kept trying, though. For herself, she tried daily injections of vitamin concentrate. For her company, she tried to remain the ebullient cheerleader.
But the vitamins don't seem to be making a difference. And the cheerleading is wearing thin. Not a day goes by that she doesn't wonder if it's time to step down. "Have I used up all my energy for this business?" she asks. "On some days I say, 'Absolutely'; others I say, 'Never.' "
There are contradictory messages. This past July, after losing to another agency in a bid for a local consulting firm's account, Pringle called the client to ask why PDP lost out. "It wasn't anything said directly," he told her. "But there's the question about the financial health of your agency." And then the toughest words Pringle could hear: "And there's a rumor you might be leaving."
Just a couple of days later, though, PDP employees gathered for a celebratory piece of pie. It was the product of Pringle's latest coup, Edwards Baking, one of the largest pie-making companies in the country. Edwards expects to spend several million dollars in advertising with PDP in the coming year. Pringle herself had wined and dined the company's managers for more than six months before winning the account. The baker is among five multimillion-dollar new accounts she's courted and won in the last year.
On weeks like that, Pringle can't help wondering if she's part of the problem or part of the solution. Has she reached the end of the line, or is she helping the firm gather steam for the next ascent?
And then, of course, there are the formidable business challenges facing PDP that both Pringle and her husband discuss openly. First, they must rebuild a damaged client base while combating rumors about Jan's involvement. Second, they have to confront Jan's lessened role and groom someone to fill the void. "It's hard, though," Jim admits candidly. "Jan's a great salesperson and the proverbial cheerleader. How do you go out and hire that?" And last, PDP must find a new edge in the marketplace. Integrated marketing, once the agency's exceptional calling card, is now a widespread advertising practice.
* * *
Seated in a restaurant far from the deadlines and blinking phones of her corner office, Pringle sums up her predicament. "There's an argument that it's time for me to move on," she begins. As if she were the prosecutor arguing against her continued stewardship, she declares: "I've been sliding downhill. Often, I'm hardly involved in the company at all. And I wonder how confusing that is for employees."
It's also painful to be only half involved. "It's hard to watch others make decisions without me," she explains. Even to watch her husband and partner. "I'm willing to take more risk than he is, and there's a great argument that this is the time for risks."
Looking back, Pringle sees a couple of unfortunate detours: her quest for success and recognition in the '80s, for example. "When you're focused outside, it saps your creative juices." She wonders if her father's desertion of the family makes her crave attention too much. "Sometimes I think getting recognition became my way of proving he was wrong for leaving us." Today, in part because of hard times at PDP, Pringle reports, her limited energies are better focused. Still, she admits it's tough being out of the limelight. "I miss the calls from the press.
"I've always been one to shoot for the stars and ask questions later," she says. On the downside that meant it was hard to know if dealing with "abusive larger clients" or "losing the PDP-family feeling" flew in the face of her vision or was simply growing pains.
And then there's the Pringle 2,000, a list she and her husband have been compiling on her laptop of the 10 or so companies she'd start if she left PDP. "What about a travel guide?" she pipes up. "Jim's a great photographer. We love to travel, and I could do the copy." Carried off on a jet stream of possibilities, she goes on: "Or an ice-cream company, or what about a heart catalog? Everything would be high-end, heart-shaped gifts." Already, Pringle has procured exclusive rights to distribute a line of specialty porcelain dolls.
But is it time to leave? Without hesitation, Pringle flips to the defense of why she should stay. She has more to give PDP, for one. "My husband tells me he'd rather have one day of me than five days of some other people."
And it's true: on some days, she can buzz from meeting to meeting, munching a sandwich along the way, just as she did in the old days. But then there are the tough days. And for those days -- unlike the days of old -- it's a matter of pretending. "I just put on a little more makeup, wear a brighter outfit, and think, 'Smile, smile, smile,' " she says.
Financially, there's no doubt it would be a bad time for Pringle to walk off the scene. Hard times in the ad business, along with the agency's recent tumbles, make leaving a risky step. She claims her agency's billings are near $30 million, but the agency's observers doubt that PDP can be doing much more than $14 million, if that.
