Three founders, two companies and one idea that has not changed in forty years. Understand first, then advise, then create.
Three letters. Three people. Two companies that became one firm.
A Procter & Gamble and national agency veteran who opened a research driven marketing firm in downtown Tampa in 1986. His discipline, evidence before action, is still the firm’s first rule.
Came up through Tampa’s early internet era, then built the interactive agency that merged with Hill’s. Today he leads the firm’s strategy, operations and public sector work.
A Penn State journalist, former Marine and filmmaker. He leads brand positioning, storytelling and communications, and still directs the firm’s award winning film work.
HCP began in 1986 as Hill & Associates, the research and marketing consultancy R. Patrick Hill opened in downtown Tampa after a career at Procter & Gamble and national advertising agencies. Its first clients set a tone the firm still keeps: SunTrust, Media General, Raymond James, and the Sheraton Sand Key Resort, a relationship that has now run for three decades.
A generation later, Sean Coniglio and Eric Polins were building a different kind of company. They met in Tampa’s early internet scene at the incubator Inteledigm Communications, founded the Ybor City studio 361 Media, and then opened their own interactive agency, Coniglio Polins Interactive. Their very first project, before either side realized the connection, was a new website for Hill’s longest standing client, the Sheraton Sand Key.
That coincidence became a firm. Coniglio and Polins moved into Hill’s office in 2000 as partners, and in 2003 the three names were incorporated as HCP Associates. Hill’s research discipline and the partners’ interactive and storytelling craft became one practice: research first, strategy second, marketing last. Four decades on, that order still defines the work.
The history, told the way it happened: room by room, from a second floor above a printing press to Port Tampa Bay.
R. Patrick Hill founds Hill & Associates in downtown Tampa. The firm turns a profit in its first year, working with SunTrust, Media General, Raymond James and the Sheraton Sand Key Resort.
Growth carries the firm to the top of the Barnett building, then to Franklin Street, running a London office that returned finished artwork overnight by fax. Guests on the office deck included the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles.
Hill moves the firm into the old WFLA executive suites. Across town, Sean Coniglio and Eric Polins meet at the internet incubator Inteledigm Communications and launch the Ybor City studio 361 Media.
Their new agency, Coniglio Polins Interactive, lands its first project: a website for Hill’s longtime client Sheraton Sand Key. The coincidence brings the two firms together, and the partners move into Hill’s office.
The three names become one firm: HCP Associates, Inc. Hill’s research discipline and the partners’ interactive craft merge into a single practice.
The partners’ film company produces the feature Descansos, starring Gary Busey and Charles Durning.
HCP moves to its home today, The Joseph Garcia International Center at Port Tampa Bay.
Founder Pat Hill and partners Coniglio and Polins announce 30 years of memorable marketing. Five years later, the City of Tampa issues a proclamation marking the firm’s 35th anniversary.
Four decades of insight that endures, and the page you are reading now.
Sean Coniglio and Eric Polins have built HCP together for more than two decades, and they still lead the work themselves, from the first research question to the final cut.
A University of Tampa marketing graduate who leads business strategy, operations and public sector engagement. Leadership Tampa 2006, a past Florida Aquarium board member, and a founder of the Gasparilla International Film Festival.
A Penn State journalist, former Marine and filmmaker who leads brand positioning, storytelling and communications. Leadership Tampa 2005 and an AAF Silver Medal recipient. His film company’s recent feature, Under the Blue, won its category at the Cannes Film Festival.
HCP carries the name of its founder, R. Patrick Hill, whose Hill & Associates began the firm in 1986.
HCP’s leaders have spent their careers in the region’s civic life. The firm’s fingerprints are on the institutions its clients care about.
Coniglio and Polins helped create Tampa's international film festival.
Polins in the class of 2005, Coniglio in the class of 2006.
Coniglio has served on the aquarium's board of directors.
Volunteer service with the Guardian ad Litem program.
A seat on the destination's marketing committee.
Coniglio chaired the formation of the Tampa Hillsborough commission.
Tell us what you are working on and we will schedule a conversation, usually within one business day. The consultation is free and confidential, and you will leave it knowing whether HCP is the right fit for the work.
