Stretch Media Fun Chasers LLC Not real marketing agency. They lie to clients for money. Care only about stealing from clients, not their marketing efforts. Pasadena, California

If youre considering hiring this company, I really hope you read this before you decide to move forward with them. This review was written by someone who had the pleasure of doing an internship with them for 6 months. After seeing how they do business and burn bridges, I realized I would never get a meaningful letter of recommendation from them and figured I might as well warn the rest of the business world of this fraudulent agency. 

Internal e-mails are a good fit to start off the review:

As ad guys, we routinely try to sell people things "they don't need" by persuading them that what they have can be topped...by us.  That's how agencies win accounts. And you seem strangely timid about going for the brass ring, the bigger prize. Creative Director of Stretch Media, 10/23/2011

 Look at the way **** writes...her writing is not upscale sophisticated, it's street level marketing. (Yours is too.  A good fit.)   Creative Director of Stretch Media, 10/23/2011

Impress on the them that a coordinated, Subway like campaign (with maybe a jingle, like Eat at Joe's) has much more direct value than the corporate ad.   Creative Director of Stretch Media, 10/23/2011 (We had never seen the corporate ad, but I was expected to lie) 

Keep in mind that for THEM, the value and ROI is UNIQUE QUALITY and  SAFETY in numbers.  Creative Director of Stretch Media, 10/23/2011

As you can tell by the misuse of the term ROI, no one in this agency has a degree in business, marketing, economics, sociology, or psychology. They have no applicable knowledge of sales, finance, economics, supply and demand schedules, statistics, product development, sociology, or marketing. What I found even more appalling was that the math skills of management were basic and elementary. This was confirmed by the creative director asking me how to find the percentage of a number, something 7th graders learn in pre-algebra. 

What this agency does have is three employees; a talented director and cameraman / woman, a talented writer and creative employee, and a talented motion graphics and editing member. Though they do have the ability to create high quality video, it doesnt qualify them to act as a consulting agency in matters pertaining to business or marketing. 

While I was interning here, all of the matters relating to business and marketing were delegated to me, a first year marketing student with field experience, but no degree. Though I do consider myself to be knowledgeable in the field, I did this internship so that I could learn from a veteran professional in the field, not so that I could work for a couple that scams small businesses out of money and works out of their house in Pasadena.   

While working here, I counted at least one account that Stretch Media was clearly responsible for unethical business practices to. For the purposes of this story, I shall address this company as Company X. Company X was a small business facing liquidation, had no more financial capital to work with, and whose owner was struggling financially to keep the business alive. After doing a thorough analysis, I came to the conclusion that there was no hope for Company X and that instead of continuing to indebt itself even more by taking loans from family and friends, that liquidation would be its best option.

However, I was kindly reminded by the management at Stretch Media that if Company X didnt move forward with any marketing plans, that there would no longer be any checks for Stretch Media. I was then told by Stretch Media that I could not present those findings to Company X, and that I would have to find and create a campaign that could be created for $30k, which Company X said they could borrow from family and the rest of their retirement fund if they saw that there was a high chance for a return on their investment. I was also told to hide the high risks from Company X, and instead lie to them and simply tell them that there was a good chance for their campaign to succeed.

Management at Stretch Media was so careless about the campaign, knowing that it was bound to fail regardless, that all of the collateral and deliverables were completed over a month late, eliminating the possibility of thorough regional test runs for the campaign. The management also openly admitted that there was no hope for Company X, and that this campaign was sure to be a failure. However, they did not disclose this to them. Ultimately, Company X pulled the campaign, and the entire campaign was a failure. Despite all of this, Stretch Media still claims that this campaign was a complete success and that Stretch Media effectively increased sales by over 300%. They boast this to prospects on their website. 

As you can tell, this company sells companies things they dont need by persuading them.  They are constantly looking for the brass ring, the bigger prize, which is a fat check in their name. These are the words of the owners, not mine. They show wanton disregard for the wellbeing of other companies and the success of their endeavors. They have no working knowledge of marketing, nor are they able to define what marketing is. I dont believe they have ever heard of E. Jerome McCarthy or his proposed Four Ps. The fact that they have failed to create any long lasting relationships with clients serves as an indicator that this company doesnt care about their reputation or their clients, and that they have no problem continuing to look for the next business to scam.