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ST. LOUIS — Experiential marketing agency Switch is alive and thriving, having had to re-brand itself several times over the past 30 years, plus weather the storm of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Switch celebrated its 30th anniversary on April 1.

Switch was originally launched in 1980 as Busch Creative Services Corp., which planned and executed meetings and events for the Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. In 2002, the brewer sold off the marketing company to three of its managers and it became The Spark Agency Inc.

Following a legal dispute, The Spark Agency was forced to take on a new name and became what it is known today as Switch. The three partners are Mike O'Neill as the firm's CEO, John Nickel as its President and Kevin Quigley as Executive Vice President. Switch employs about 110, with offices in St. Louis, Texas and Atlanta.
 
In 2009, Switch produced the All-Star Game Commissioner's Gala in St. Louis for Major League Baseball, in addition to having produced events for Southwest Airlines, Thomson Reuters, FedEx, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Variety the Children's Charity, Dickies, Primerica, HOK, Webster University, Kicker, Glaceau, Muscle Milk, and many more.

Switch has even gone so far as to petition St. Louis' mayor to declare St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day a Legal Holiday www.openingdayholiday.com with much success.
 
The experiential marketing agency combines creative thinking, experience and brand liberation into every event or program that it produces. The firm has its creative offices, plus a production shop where all of the physical work and producing is done in-house.