About
Alchemy
With more than 4,000 out-of-home locations across 29 domestic markets, we are the largest street-level media and wild posting company in the country
Our Company
Alchemy, founded in 1969, is an out-of-home media company that specializes in the strategic placement of posters, hand-painted murals, and traffic-stopping experiential. With our exclusive network of entitled real-estate locations, advertisers can tap into top markets across the world. Alchemy will also customize campaigns to hit advertisers’ target demographics and budgets, while fast-tracking street campaigns to meet tight deadlines. In fact, we move product from contract to the streets faster than any other non-digital outdoor-advertising company.
Our Team: The Alchemists
At Alchemy we believe that every single member of the organizational chart is just as important as the next. You might be familiar with our Executives and Managers, but we’re equally proud to introduce other key Alchemists that make our company the success that it is today.
Kristine started her career in OOH on the administrative side of Alchemy’s Operations in LA, where she quickly developed a strong understanding of the business and cultivated management skills. Kristine’s current role as National Distribution Manager is essential to keeping Alchemy running across the platform.
Melissa is a San Francisco native who has been working as a billposter for two decades, which has made her crucial in the evolution of wild posting in the Bay Area. As supervisor of our operations, she is a proud member of the Alchemy family.
Veronica has considerable experience in Sales, Production, HR, and Accounting at several multinational companies over the last two decades. She's an invaluable asset to the Alchemy team.
Maryosha came to Alchemy in 2019 after starting her professional career in documentary filmmaking. As the Director of Alchemy X, the experiential division of Alchemy Media, Maryosha helps keep it weird from Austin by activating experiential campaigns nationwide.
Cirilo has been a dedicated member of the Alchemy family since 2007. As lead billposter in Chicago, Cirilo executes and oversees all wild posting campaigns in the market. He is an essential part of the Alchemy team.
With 32 years of wild posting experience under his belt, Rod is one of the pillars of Operations at Alchemy. His background and knowledge of the industry make him instrumental in the constant evolution of the department.
Sheila’s ample background in print, exceptional organizational skills, and attention to detail make her the glue that holds Alchemy’s Sales, Production and Operations departments together. With fifteen years of service and counting, she plays a key role on our team.
Glenn's experience in real estate leasing and administration dates back to 2004. Since joining Alchemy in 2017, he has become an essential part of our leasing division and has been instrumental in securing some of the best locations in Los Angeles.
Our Story
Alchemy has pioneered wildposting and out-of-home advertising since 1969. We've done campaigns for Springsteen, 'Star Wars,' the original Apple iPod, and more.
Gary Shafner recruits childhood friend Pete Zackery to help him with his summer job: passing-out discounted tickets for Hollywood’s Ivar Theatre. The duo goes on to promote everything from convention-center shows to the legendary musical 'Hair' and the Oscar-winning 'Woodstock: The Movie.' They hand out flyers, stick them in store windows, place them on car windshields, and tack them onto telephone poles. They name their business Creative Distributors and land accounts with the Greek Theatre and Universal Amphitheatre, as Gary takes a job with Bill Graham, the famed rock-concert promoter out of San Francisco.
Creative Distributors breaks into the record-label business through a contract with A&M Records. In 1974, Gary becomes a road manager for a musician, so Pete runs the business, which is now national thanks to Shafner’s contacts with local promoters. The company becomes the industry’s out-of-home favorite, blanketing tour stops with posters a week prior to an act's performance in that city.
The company’s increased popularity in the music world grabs the attention of the film industry. As demand grows, Creative Distributors begins wild posting around Los Angeles. They are the first to use glue to affix posters onto walls.
Creative Distributors lands its first major motion-picture campaign, for 20th Century Fox’s seminal blockbuster 'Star Wars.'
With several major movie ('Ghostbusters,' 'Airplane!,' 'Raging Bull') and music (Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac) campaigns under their belts, Pete and Gary change the company name to National Promotions and Advertising, better known as NPA. This better represents the company’s growing cross-country reach.
Pete and Gary realize they can expand their business by also printing the posters they distribute. To meet demand, they purchase a silk-screen press and later, a lithograph machine.
With the explosion of hip hop, wild posting becomes part of city landscapes. Labels such as Death Row Records, Priority Records, and Rap-a-Lot Records recruit NPA to promote their artists first in L.A. and, after ticket sales surge, nationally.
NPA’s wild posting business explodes, and the company expands with it. This not only broadens NPA's inventory, but transforms the guerilla operation into a legal business, making NPA the first “legitimate” wild posting company.
NPA buys its first color press for added efficiency and ramps up its community efforts. In L.A., Gary leads NPA’s posting crews in efforts to clean up graffiti on public property around the company’s wild posting sites. Local law enforcement—and even neighborhood gangs—applaud these efforts.
Although entertainment and media companies are NPA’s predominant wild posting clientele, ad agencies begin to approach NPA to get in on the action after seeing its measurable impact on campaigns.
A wild posting turf war intensifies in New York City, between NPA and local outfits trying to get into the game. After a lengthy legal battle, a judge awards NPA an official territory, thus giving the company firm footing in the city.
Pete and Gary see growth potential in breaking bread with the competition. They merge NPA with a competing company in NYC. NPA then expands, establishing a consistent presence in major markets from Coast to Coast, with offices in L.A., NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Mainstream brands in the tech (Sony), auto (GM), fashion/lifestyle (Nike), and food/beverage (Anheuser-Busch) industries turn to NPA for out-of-home advertising. In a landmark move, NPA works with Apple and its ad agency on the legendary national campaign that debuted the iPod.
NPA executes its first experiential activations for Nissan Maxima’s 'Feel the Burn' campaign. Locations in NYC and L.A. feature a seemingly burned-out barricade—complete with faux-charred props around it, including meters and telephone poles—that reveals the new Nissan Maxima behind it.
After a successful public-private partnership with the City of Los Angeles, the latter officially passes the Graffiti Abatement Ordinance, which is supported by NPA. It legalizes wildposting on barricades around construction sites and vacant lots (with cooperation from property owners), expanding NPA’s street-media business in L.A.
Gary and Pete bring on Mike Freedman, a friend and former CEO of Fuel Outdoor, as Partner and CEO. An updated strategy focuses on forging deals for fully entitled street-level locations in dominant markets and integrating advertising media with mobile technology.
NPA partners with its counterpart in London to expand inventory and add European coverage to its services.
NPA overhauls its look, rebranding to Alchemy Media. The concept of alchemy nods to how the company has single-handedly transformed the wild posting space over the years—adding sound, texture, and visual features to street-level, out-of-home experiences.
Now 50 years old and still going strong, Alchemy has assets in 29 markets across the country and continues to be the largest street-level media company in the United States.
