John and Kristy Sexton have always had an entrepreneurial spirit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally from Saline, Ohio, the couple moved to Houston in 1982 when John got an accounting job and Kristy got a job at an advertising agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin a month [of starting the job], she said, \u2018I can do this on my own,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s do it,\u2019\u201d John said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, the couple will celebrate 45 years of Adcetera, a full-service digital marketing agency, in 2027.\u2029Over the years, the agency has worked with large companies including HP Technology and Chevron.<\/p>\n
Kristy said that, as people who are married and work together, they have to have their own lanes in the company in order to be successful. For the Sextons, John is the business side and Kristy is the creative side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a line in the sand,\u201d Kristy said. \u201cEverything that is client- and creative-related is on my side. Everything that is finance, technology and systems-related is on his side of the line.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
How we got here<\/p>\n
The idea for Adcetera came to Kristy as an opportunity with IBM, which was a client at the agency she worked for. She said they offered that if she would step out on her own, they would give her project work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The couple was young and broke at the time, John said. The company started in their garage and modern technology was non-existent, so much of the work was done by mail and on typewriters, he said.<\/p>\n
They also bartered a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did logos and direct mail pieces for dentists, little furniture stores,\u201d Kristy said. \u201cWe would trade it out, and they would give us a couch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sextons’ big break came when they bought a house and their neighbor, who worked in marketing at Sysco Foods, allowed them to work with the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really gave us our big opportunity with a corporate account,\u201d Kristy said. \u201cAnd they were a client for 35 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, Adcetera has worked with nonprofits, tech companies and local municipalities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Remember this?<\/p>\n
Kristy said she has enjoyed doing major projects that require \u201ceverything from the creative toolbox,\u201d such as print, digital and technology marketing. One of those was when the iPod was first introduced. HP\u2019s technology was in the devices, and Adcetera helped with the campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably one of my favorite things was when we did the iPod,\u201d she said. \u201cWe called it, \u2018party in your pocket.\u2019 It was so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
John said his most memorable project was when they helped with a fundraiser to build Texas Children\u2019s Hospital in The Woodlands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat made me proud of not just the work that we did, but the deliverable that came out, that was a hospital for the children,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A new chapter<\/p>\n
Adcetera now has three offices: Houston, The Woodlands and Chicago. Each office plays a different role in the company, with creative work being done in the Houston and Woodlands offices, John said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChicago has a really nice media market,\u201d he said. \u201cThe media planning \u2026 is done out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they prepare to celebrate 45 years next year, Kristy said the company has managed to stay relevant by keeping up with technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are all just tools. When the computer came out, people said it was going to get rid of designers; it was going to be able to do all these things. AI is the same way,\u201d she said. \u201cThe beauty of all this is that the tools are only as good as the people who use them. The threat is not in the tool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A family affair<\/p>\n
Adcetera is an independently owned agency, which they prefer, John said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin this industry there\u2019s been a mass consolidation of independent agencies,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to fight to remain independent because big holding companies use that against you.\u201d<\/p>\n
John said he discovered that when agencies were acquired, it ruined the culture of the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou become an employee instead of a coworker; this is a family business,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don’t want this to become a job for everybody. We want everybody to want to come in here, enjoy the people that they work with, have a great family life, have a great faith life and enjoy that aspect of their life as much as work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John and Kristy Sexton have always had an entrepreneurial spirit.\u00a0 Originally from Saline, Ohio, the couple moved to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[158146,27004,72686,56,58,57,158149,158147,158148,158150],"class_list":["post-464066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-adcetera","tag-chevron","tag-digital-marketing-agency","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-hp-technology","tag-john-sexton","tag-kristy-sexton","tag-sysco-foods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}