May 5, 2026
L&S Celebrates 50 Years
This May, our agency turned 50. While anniversaries are always worth celebrating, this one is extra special. According to industry data (and a light sprinkling of Chat GPT), only 5% of ad agencies make it to their 50th.
When you’ve overcome odds like that, it’s natural to feel introspective. We’ve worked with hundreds of clients, traveled around the country, won work, lost work, built relationships, trudged through hard times and found ourselves incredibly lucky to still be in this business.
One thing anyone in this industry knows: You need to constantly learn, grow and change to survive. We’ve opened and closed office locations, most recently celebrating the success of our new Minneapolis branch. We’ve adapted to innovations in AI with a focused, future-forward agency philosophy. We’ve incorporated sophisticated research, data and technology into our clients’ marketing and media plans. And we’ve launched new services and products to evolve with culture and consumer trends, like L&S Studio.
It’s eye-opening to reflect on everything that’s changed about L&S in the last 50 years. But it might be more meaningful to talk about the things that haven’t. Because at our core, the same principles that guided us in 1976 still make up our DNA.
Decades ago, agency founders Craig Lawrence and Paul Schiller set the tone for L&S culture, perhaps unknowingly. It started with a new client: the dairy brand Nordica. To learn the business, Paul jumped into a milk truck for the day so he could ride along and overhear conversations between the driver and customers. Today we might call that “mining for observational insights” or “ethnographic exploration, ”but back then it was just doing right by the client.
That instinct to dig deeper and get to know the customer’s customer still rings true at L&S today. We’re always working to embody a spirit of “more,” like the time we visited 100 Taco John’s restaurants while we pursued their business. After we started working together, we even took turns working shifts behind the counter. We’ve ridden along with highway patrol officers, hitched a ride on dog sleds in Alaska, and worked with professionally trained mice and ducks all in the name of great work.
Living our clients’ brands, asking smarter questions and doing the absolute most when clients need a partner who can bring their best. Embracing change to sharpen what you do without it dulling who you are. And giving 110% so you can be one of the 5%.
All of that makes up the Extra Mile. And it’s what makes us who we are.
Cheers to 50 years — and staying true to ourselves, no matter whatever the next 50 bring.
