Firm connects the dots for clients

ON THE DOT: Ninedot LLC President Mark Bevington speaks to intern Rachel Ginges, left, and Project Manager Jo-Ann Sarro. He founded the advertising and public relations firm a decade ago. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
ON THE DOT: Ninedot LLC President Mark Bevington speaks to intern Rachel Ginges, left, and Project Manager Jo-Ann Sarro. He founded the advertising and public relations firm a decade ago. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

There’s plenty of competition among advertising and public relations agencies in Providence and the state as a whole.
What sets Ninedot LLC apart, according to founder and owner Mark Bevington, is its emphasis on “purpose-driven” branding work, the concept that delving deeply into the fundamental purpose of an agency or a corporation is the best way to develop an authentic, effective and unforgettable identity for public consumption.
Bevington said he founded Ninedot – named for the nine-dot puzzle that forces one to go outside the box to connect the dots – as “just a graphic-design firm” in 2001. But after he began studying for his master’s degree in advertising at Syracuse University in New York in 2005, he realized there was another way to operate.
“I learned design could be used for the good of society,” he said. “I realized we could be more than designers, that we did not have to do only what the clients wanted” but could take a broader approach focusing on a client’s role in the world.
In best-case scenarios, such an approach would even help clients themselves rediscover what Bevington called their own “authenticity.” Case in point is Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island, a nonprofit organization that for 42 years has delivered meals to homebound senior citizens.
The purpose-based approach saw Bevington and his staff begin a discovery process to better understand the agency’s mission. Interviews were conducted and surveys sent to meal recipients, agency staff members and community partners.
Although serving meals is a large part of what Meals on Wheels does, Ninedot realized the agency is more than a delivery service. “They really are a supportive and caring network” for seniors, Bevington said, and often their delivery personnel are the only people to interact regularly with elderly shut-ins.
So, the agency’s new mission statement developed by Ninedot emphasizes the larger role Meals on Wheels plays in society: “Since 1969, Meals on Wheels in Rhode Island has been dedicated to caring for, supporting and enabling senior citizens to maintain their independence.” That concept is now a prominent part of the agency’s public relations campaign, including its website and fundraising appeals. At Roger Williams University in Bristol, a recent contract to boost the career center saw Bevington and staff don casual clothes to better mingle on campus and see what students actually thought of the career office. “We tried to put ourselves in their shoes to really understand their culture,” Bevington said.
What they discovered is that “the word ‘career’ was stand-offish to students and they were even afraid of it,” Bevington said. “What they really wanted was help for life outside Roger Williams.” So now, the career center is promoted as a “resource for life” and, Bevington said, student involvement in the center increased 20 percent.
The purpose-driven approach to branding has allowed Ninedot to survive and even thrive in a difficult economy, although Bevington has no plans to grow his business much more. “We’re always growing,” he said, “but we really have no aspirations to be a large firm. We feel we can be more nimble, more agile, and this way I can involve myself in each project.”
He estimated that about 65 percent of Ninedot’s work is for nonprofits, with the other 35 percent corporate contracts with businesses in Rhode Island, the Boston area and he’s even done work for a London client. Among the clients he has or is working with are FM Global, Dr. Annie DeGroot’s iCubed vaccine-research center at the University of Rhode Island, the Providence Downtown Improvement District and Heinz, the national food company.
A native of the Adirondacks area in upstate New York, Bevington earned his bachelor’s degree in communication design at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo before obtaining his masters from Syracuse in 2007. He is a member of the 2010 class of Providence Business News’ 40 Under 40 program.
He came to Rhode Island to begin an advertising agency, drawn to Providence by his friendship with Elli Panichas, an elderly woman active in Grace Episcopal Church in Providence. She urged Bevington to establish his business on the top floors of the church and that is exactly what he’s done. Ninedot has occupied what were church-warden rooms on the third and fourth floors for almost 10 years. “We have the best view of the city,” he said. •

COMPANY PROFILE
Ninedot LLC
OWNER: Mark Bevington
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Advertising and
public relations
LOCATION: 175 Mathewson St., Providence
EMPLOYEES: 8
YEAR FOUNDED: 2001
ANNUAL SALES: WND

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