Agency Business #61: Rick Milenthal, CEO of The Shipyard
Mar 9, 2026
Rick Millenthal, founder and CEO of The Shipyard and a 40+ year agency veteran, discusses building an integrated agency that combines media, PR, creative, and experiential. He explains their mid-market focus, why Columbus and San Diego work, and the opportunity in media buying for $50–$100M clients. He also covers acquisition-as-talent strategy and how the agency handles ethically fraught work.
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Shipyard Metaphor Explains Agency Positioning
- The Shipyard brand frames itself as the unseen engineering center that builds famous client work rather than chasing agency glamour.
- Rick Millenthal named the agency to evoke workmanship and creativity, explaining clients are the 'ships' and The Shipyard does behind-the-scenes engineering.
Integrate Paid Earned And Owned For Real
- Integrate paid, earned, and owned capabilities because consumers don't distinguish channels; treat campaigns as unified engagements.
- The Shipyard built media, PR, social, creative and experiential teams (including acquisitions) so work can move fluidly between channels.
Acquire Talent Not Platforms
- Acquire best-in-class specialty teams to assemble a full-service capability quickly rather than building everything from scratch.
- Rick cited acquiring Fargo Morton (PR) and Tiny Wins (digital) as talent-acceleration moves to strengthen offerings.