Brian Sauer on selling Saturday Mfg to MACLYN

MACLYN, a 25-year old a creative agency based in Chicago, announced late last month that it had acquired Des-Moines based creative agency Saturday Mfg.

“Over the last few years we had what I felt was a significant amount of growth,” said Brian Sauer, founder of Saturday Mfg. “It became too much for me to handle and it grew to a point that I knew I coudn’t handle it on my own.”

After giving it some thought, Sauer decided to put his business out on the market, started talking to people and looking into different options on how to best move forward.

“As far as the overall core vision of what we do and how we approach our projects and clients, it lined up really well with how MACLYN approached it, Sauer said. “To the point where when we were talking and describing to each other what we do, our tones, descriptions and vocabulary were identical in certain cases. So it didn’t feel like it was going to be a huge departure in the core of what we do at all. For me, that was something that was very important. Being presented with a few options, this one was the one that struck as the easiest transition.”

Sauer says that it, at times, can be challenging not having creative ownership over something he has put so much time and energy into.

“I’m not going to lie to you. There have been tough days and there have been great days. There have been days where you ride the emotional roller coaster of creating this thing-this identity and this brand that’s going away,” Sauer said. The harsh term is we’re no longer Saturday, we’re now MACLYN. It’s not that black and white obviously. The things that we’ve built—the relationships, the culture and everything else—just don’t disappear overnight. But yeah, it’s tough.”

The entire Saturday MFG staff is now part of the MACLYN team and Sauer will stay on as a partner at MACLYN and serve as the company’s Creative Director.

“My interests are still just as invested as they are when it was Saturday,” Sauer said.

Holding on to old traditions

“Everybody keeps asking if we’re keeping the flapjacks and we certainly are. There’s definitely a lot of things that are Saturday traditions that will become MACLYN Des Moines traditions,” Sauer said. “We are currently planning our pancake party for the spring so that’s not going away. We’re keeping the same office, the same furniture — we’re kind of the same people.”