Chris Marshall, vice president and account management for Callahan Creek, left, and Cindy Maude, CEO, have guided their ad agency to several regional and national awards.

A Lawrence-based advertising agency that does work for everybody from Free State Brewing Company to Westar Energy has been sold.

Leaders at Callahan Creek have announced that longtime CEO Cindy Maude has sold her majority ownership interest in the company to Callahan Creek President Chris Marshall. With the purchase, Marshall now takes over as president and CEO of the company.

But local officials shouldn’t worry that the company will leave Lawrence for a more traditional ad agency type of market. Marshall is a Lawrence native, and he said plans are for the company to keep its corporate headquarters in downtown Lawrence.

“Lawrence has a great creative culture,” Marshall said. “Who I am today is built around the people and this city. I definitely want to continue to leverage that culture.”

Callahan Creek came to Lawrence in 1999 after Maude bought the company and moved it from Topeka. The company has about 65 employees, with most of them at the headquarters at 805 New Hampshire St. The company has 11 employees based in California who work on a national account for Toyota.

Maude said it was simply time for her to sell the company and move into more of a retirement role, although she’ll serve a CEO emeritus and consult with several clients.

“It has been a really easy and smooth transition,” Maude said. “Chris is going to be a great leader for the company.”

Chris Marshall, vice president and account management for Callahan Creek, left, and Cindy Maude, CEO, have guided their ad agency to several regional and national awards.

Marshall has been with Callahan Creek for 10 years. He said the company is poised to grow by focusing on its expertise in helping clients understand the growing number of advertising options, including print, broadcast, digital, social media and other emerging channels.

“We focus on success through simplicity,” Marshall said. “There are so many mediums out there, and that means there are more messages, and more pressure to show a return on investment. Marketers are thirsty for people to make sense of all that.”

Maude said she thinks the company is well-positioned in Lawrence to grow. The company added about 20 employees after Maude moved the company to Lawrence.

“It has been a great decision for us,” Maude said of the company’s move to Lawrence. “It enabled us to do what we needed to do, which was attract employees. Lawrence is a creative community, and being downtown has been really important. To me that is where creative energy of Lawrence is.”

In other news and notes from around town:

• When it comes to marketing, the folks at the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau have been busy lately. We previously reported the group has changed its name to Explore Lawrence. Now, I also have word that the organization is set to launch a new branding campaign for the city.

Next month expect to see pint glasses, T-shirts and other items with a new marketing slogan of “Unmistakably Lawrence.” The campaign is expected to be launched on the weekend of Kansas University graduation ceremonies. Several bars and restaurants across the city will be using the pint glasses with the “Unmistakably Lawrence” logo on it.

The slogan is designed to highlight that Lawrence has many events and attractions that aren’t common to other communities in the area. Think of the downtown shot put event recently, or in the original rules of basketball that will be displayed in the new center adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse.

• A bigger change may be on tap for the convention and visitors bureau, however. There is serious consideration of Lawrence City Hall taking over the organization. Currently the agency is overseen by a non-profit board — Destination Management Inc. — that oversees both the CVB and the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area. That board is appointed by a host of different organizations, including the city and the county.

The plan currently being floated by local leaders would involve splitting those two organizations. DMI would be responsible for overseeing the national heritage area, while the convention and visitors bureau would be overseen by the City Manager’s office. As currently envisioned, Communications Manager Megan Gilliland would be the executive overseeing the agency. although a new director would be hired for the CVB, and that person would report to Gilliland. The current employees of the organization would become city of Lawrence employees under the plan.

An argument can be made that City Hall should have more direct control over the CVB because city tax dollars provide the major funding for the agency. It receives about $860,000 a year in transient guest tax money, which is the special sales tax charged on hotel rooms. Currently that money goes to DMI and is used to support both the CVB and Freedom’s Frontier. The bulk of the money, though, goes to the CVB function.

If the city does bring the CVB inside City Hall and allows DMI to exist on its own, city commissioners likely will be asked to provide some funding to DMI. Figuring out what that amount should be likely will be the big issue to determine. Thus far, the Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board has been supportive of the idea of moving the organization into City Hall. (To be clear, the offices for the CVB would not actually move to City Hall. The organization has relatively new offices inside the Carnegie Building at Ninth and Vermont streets.)

The CVB board likely would take on an enhanced role under the new structure. Gilliland is proposing that the new structure include a formal grant program through which organizers of community events would apply for transient guest tax dollars. Currently, groups periodically ask for support from the City Commission, and the requests are handled on a case-by-case basis.

Gilliland said a new process would require event organizers to go through a more formal application process. That process would include the CVB board making recommendations on whether an event should receive funding. Ultimately, city commissioners would still have the final say on spending decisions. But the new process might do a better job of ensuring that the guest tax dollars are being used on events that are likely to attract overnight visitors, which in turn attracts more guest tax dollars.

I expect discussion about the proposal to happen this summer as city commissioners are crafting the 2016 budget.