“Of course I did that!” Stefani Collins, laughs. “It was for a client!” Stefani, Saturn Lounge’s newest Account Executive, is confirming a story about her above-and-beyond efforts to keep a medical device photo shoot on schedule when several parts didn’t make it onto a delivery truck. As the story goes, Stefani jumped in her car, raced halfway across the state to get the parts only to learn they were left in her client’s husband’s trunk and were now in Janesville. “I jumped back in the car, drove to Janesville, met the husband, grabbed the parts and raced back to the studio,” Stefani says. “And the good news is that photo shoot went on as scheduled.”
Stefani is well known in the Milwaukee advertising community for taking great care of her clients. She explains that she learned about good account service by spending the bulk of her career on the client side. A native of the Northern Milwaukee area, Stefani started out in commercial real estate development in Illinois and then moved to Colorado and then Florida for work in the private residential development and club industry. She explains that in both of these positions she relied on outside agencies to help her implement programs. “I try to deliver great service,” she says, “because I know what it feels like to receive great service.” She says she believes the goal of an AE should be to do the heavy lifting for a client so that they may become more successful.
Since 2005, Stefani has been working in the advertising industry, focusing on growing accounts. She has worked at a few select Milwaukee agencies, and her clients tend to follow her wherever she goes. She laughs that she currently sits in an office she sat in almost six years ago when she worked at an agency that used to occupy Saturn’s new space. “It’s so strange,” she says. “Each day is now sprinkled with a little bit of déjà vu.”
So what brought Stefani to Saturn? She simply says, “We were in the middle of a pandemic, and I received a call from Jim Kohlhardt with an offer. I was intrigued by the diversity of the clients, the focus on digital and the tremendous growth potential, so I said, “Let’s do this.”
The move has already been a boost for Saturn as Stefani continues to ensure the creative team has plenty to do. She checks on projects daily, ensures her deadlines are met and encourages clients to try things they haven’t tried before, especially when it comes to digital campaigns. “The breadth of capabilities makes this really fun for me,” Stefani says about her time at Saturn. “It’s great to recommend new things and then watch them really take off.”