Range Online Media

Range Online Media is at the forefront of shaping the present and ever-evolving future of marketing and advertising in cyberspace.

In barely five years, blending vision and prudent hard work, Cheryle Pingel and Misty Locke, Range co-founders and sisters-in-law, have established a Fort Worth-based company that is literally on top of the world – and leading it, too – in the realm of interactive online marketing.

Born out of the Internet bust and launched one month after Sept. 11, 2001, Range, which counts Nike, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Sharper Image among its impressive portfolio of Fortune 500 clients, closed 2006 with $45.8 million in sales, placing it 54th among the Business PressÂ’

Top 100.

 Â“It has grown way beyond our vision,” Locke said. “Yet, at the same time, Cheryle and I are kind of goofy; we envisioned offices across the world.”

They got off the ground in October 2001 with three eager clients, including Fort Worth-based Pier 1 Imports Inc. and SouthlakeÂ’s Travelocity, before they had a name for the company or even a comprehensive business plan.

Yet, back then Range was one of no more than three companies nationwide to understand the emerging value of concepts called paid search optimization and natural search optimization – basically advertising on search engines such as MSN, Yahoo! and Google.

For instance, say you want to search the Internet for tennis shoes. You enter the key words “tennis shoes” in a search engine, hit return, and you get a list of search results. To the right another list called “sponsor results” appears.

Those are paid ads or whatÂ’s known in the industry as paid search optimization or pay for placement. YouÂ’ll notice Nike is at the top of the list.

Locke and Pingel embarked on this high-tech journey from an office suite at 131 E. Exchange Ave., in the Stockyards. They now have offices in Houston, California, New York, Utah and Canada, and a London office is coming soon.

Locke, Range’s president, is the epitome of the latest Internet movement – young, savvy, bright.

A University of Texas alum, Locke recently turned 30. Pingel, a Texas Tech graduate, is 42 and the companyÂ’s chairwoman.

Just 23 when she and Pingel co-founded the business, Locke previously lived in Austin with her musician husband. With his intensive traveling schedule, they moved to Fort Worth to be closer to Pingel, who was working at a local marketing firm involved in Web site design.

Locke joined the agency and thatÂ’s when the sisters-in-law envisioned the value of the then vastly untapped advertising arena that has become their calling card.

 Â“I am so thrilled with what Cheryle and I started,” Locke said. “With the growth of the company, this is just not our doing. We have some of the coolest, greatest people working with us. We have the best team out there – smart, passionate, witty, competitive and just brilliant. TheyÂ’re dedicated to not only their growth, but their clientsÂ’ and the industryÂ’s growth.”

Range has 55 employees, 47 of whom work in Fort Worth. It has 56 clients, national and international, including Cole Haan, The Container Store, Neiman Marcus, Burberry and Samsung.

“We are one of the fastest-growing companies,” Locke said. “I would say from what I’ve seen in the industry, we are a Fort Worth-based company that competes not only with other competitors in the search arena, but with other major agencies that do creative media buying.

“It has become a huge need for most marketers in the world. It’s not just about TV, off-line and radio. Having an online piece is crucial these days.”

RangeÂ’s rapid growth has been an amazing success story that has made the two co-founders something of industry stars. They are regular speakers at industry functions and are on the search and advertising councils for Yahoo!, MSN and Google.

In this wired world that can often seem cold and inhuman, Locke reiterated that RangeÂ’s success is about its dedicated employees and an engaging corporate culture that emphasizes quality of life and family.

“We have a 94 percent client retention rate and weÂ’re an agency, so thatÂ’s very rare,” Locke said. “We have been selective in who we hire and who we partner with in terms of clients. While weÂ’re going global, we still have the core of our people.”