Marcie Brogan believes in the importance of having fun, and makes it part of her job to ensure that her employees — her most valuable assets — are having fun every day. Her philosophy that fun in the workplace leads to high morale has proven effective for her staff of 60+ in the form of low turnover, a room full of innovative workplace awards, and the agency’s reputation for highly strategic and creative work.

Bonnie Folster (left), a long-time friend and Marcie enjoy a "fun" and rejuvenating trip to Italy.

"If you’re doing anything for 40, 50, 60 or more hours per week, you’d better be really enjoying it," says Brogan. The CEO of Brogan & Partners Convergence Marketing, Marcie leads by example in showing her employees how to keep a healthy and fun balance between work and personal life. Staffers enjoy free manicures at the office, a lunchtime yoga instructor, cash awards for ‘fessing up’ to making the "Mistake of the Month," and monthly and yearly rewards when employees meet their income goals.

Perhaps the most revered of all mandatory "fun" activities at Brogan is the annual Mystery Trip, where employees are taken on a four-day company bonding experience, but are not told where they are going until they get to the airport. Past destinations have included Iceland, Amsterdam, London, and a cruise to the Bahamas. Quarterly half-day mystery trips for each office to local destinations keep employees connected socially, and help to integrate new employees into the Brogan family. "The trip is the fun part for them," quips Brogan, "but keeping them in the dark about where we’re going is the fun part for me."

In 1972, Marcie traded in a doctoral program for a job at Southfield, Michigan-based Doner Advertising Agency, where she soon began winning national awards for copywriting. Next came eight years at ad agencies in Europe — London, Brussels, and The Netherlands, where she became Holland’s first female creative director. Back in the USA in the early 80s, Marcie noted a big glass ceiling over her head, so she opted to put her name on a big glass door instead.

In 1984 she opened Brogan & Partners, which was soon offering full-service advertising, marketing and public relations services in Detroit. This was soon followed by service offices in Washington, DC and Florida, an affiliation with a research firm in Chicago, and a full-service office in Cary, NC, which opened in 2000. What she configured nearly 25 years ago is today a successful, high-energy, culturally and ethnically diverse agency that keeps growing because of her commitment to her employees, and their commitment to her.

Besides serving on numerous civic, industry and charitable boards, Marcie and her partners have received multiple industry awards. She has been named by Adweek as one of "the Midwest’s 10 most influential ad people of the decade" and the agency has been named "A High Performance Workplace" by the U.S. Department of Labor.

She defines her own away-from-work fun as biannual trips to Italy, a monthly bridge group that has been playing together since the 70s, and Online Scrabble — at which she says she never cheats. Marcie has a passion for modern furniture and architecture, and is an admitted Jane Austen groupie.

Her newest source of fun is visiting and i-chatting with her first grandchild, 9-month old Brogan, who lives in California. Besides spoiling her two grown children and Brogan employees, Marcie helps retired ad executive husband Mike promote his mystery novels. As for the future, Marcie hopes to "Work until I’m gaga!" She plans to eventually give up the management side of the ad business, and get back to her first love of copywriting and idea generation.

But for now, she splits her time between Brogan offices in Cary, NC and Detroit, MI. And if you need a fourth for bridge, she’s game!