Locally owned and operated in Honolulu, Hawaii, Core Group One, Inc. was established in July 2005 by Emi Anamizu and Jim Horiuchi to acquire Ogilvy & Mather Hawaii, Inc. Wanting to divest itself of the advertising business in Hawaii, WPP Group (the London-based parent company of Ogilvy & Mather) offered Emi and Jim the opportunity to purchase the company. Emi was the CEO and Jim was Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather before the transition. Core Group One opened its doors on September 1, 2005.

In January 2013, Hendrix Miyasaki Shin joined Core Group One, bringing together best practices in branding strategy, creative services, account management, new/social and traditional media and marketing.

CREATIVE TRUST drives us. Our clients give us tremendous space and encouragement to create advertising and marketing solutions that are leading edge. This trust comes from delivering results, in addition to creativity and imagination.

A BALANCED AND DIVERSE PORTFOLIO OF CLIENTS affords Core Group One best practices across industries and protects us against catastrophic events within a single category, such as tourism.

CONSERVATIVE OVERHEAD COSTS, PROFITABILITY, OWNING OUR OFFICE SPACE provides Core Group One the freedom to take advantage of new opportunities and make investments in our future.

IN-HOUSE VIDEO EDITING FACILITIES give Core Group One the ability to make timely revisions and respond quickly to unforeseen circumstances on behalf of its clients, in addition to the opportunity to experiment with new techniques and digital innovations with no hard costs.

CGO TALENT GROUP (Core Group One’s consortium of design partners, copywriters, account managers, public relations consultants, video directors, technology geeks and other contractors in Hawai‘i and on the U.S. mainland) affords Core Group One a diverse and broad range of skills with no overhead, and in turn provides clients with fresh, world class services at no additional charge.

Core Group One develops marketing and creative solutions for large and small companies. We are an idea company working to invent the future, rather than react to change. We believe in authenticity and transparency. We like challenges that are thought provoking and unusual. We work with clients who are big thinkers and let us do our best work.

• Creativity is a life philosophy and part of our business model, not just what we do.
• We engage in activities that create the future and make the world a better place to live.
• We are passionate about our culture of creating and exchanging.
• We partner with the best in class and work with the media, production companies, finance and insurance firms and other service providers in the spirit of partnership.
• We practice kaizen—continually improving and learning.

Core Group One’s organizational philosophy is “big brains, small machine.” Our staffing approach is to hire individuals skilled in multiple areas. It is a zero-hierarchy model designed for direct accountability, speed and efficiency. Everyone is accountable to each other and everyone is accountable to our clients and business partners. At Core Group One, a core team of individuals work across disciplines. The team works with 15-20 other art directors, designers, copywriters, production artists, account managers and video directors in Hawaii and on the U.S. mainland. Having a flexible and adaptive talent pool is essential to resonating with ever-changing customer lifestyles and preferences. This set-up brings diversity, different points of view, age and gender-specific sensibilities and unique skills to our work, along with a more efficient and value-added cost structure for clients.