/ about
Small on purpose.
Purple Wave Creative is Mike Andersen and Andrea Argy, plus a short list of specialists we trust. You’ll always know who is doing the work, because it’s us.
Where we come from
Mike Andersen, who founded Purple Wave Creative, has spent 25 years in events. Fifteen of them were as a freelancer, managing events all over the United States. Three more were in-house at destination management companies. He has also been a tour manager for promotional tours, taking consumer brands to crowds city after city. Along the way: four Super Bowls, nationally televised sporting events, and plenty of ten-person board dinners.
Websites were always running alongside. Mike started building them in the early 2000s and has been doing SEO since 2006. When COVID shut down live events, the side project became the business, and building websites became his full-time work.
Working inside an association management company, he learned the membership platforms associations rely on, and kept thinking there had to be a better way. That thought eventually became Purple Pushpin, our membership website for chambers and associations.
Before any of that, Mike grew up in Chicago playing in blues, hip hop and funk bands, booking and promoting his own shows with nothing but a phone and a rolodex. Filling rooms is an old habit.
Today we’re based in Metro Detroit, with deep Chicago roots, and we work wherever the project is.
Who you’ll talk to
Founder
Mike Andersen
Builds the strategy and does the work himself. Events, websites, search and the software behind Purple Pushpin.
Business Development
Andrea Argy
Builds the relationships and looks after clients once the work begins. Her background is in luxury hospitality, and it shows.
Chief Morale Officer
Bruce Lee
A pug. Handles stress relief and snack quality control.
Mike and Andrea are married: partners both in the company and on each other’s emergency contact list.
The name
Why Purple Wave Creative
Purple
From Seth Godin’s Purple Cow, the idea that the remarkable thing gets noticed. And yes, a nod to Prince.
Wave
From Lake Michigan, and from rhythm: showing up consistently and finding a flow that works.
Creative
Fresh thinking over the standard playbook, for every client.
How we work
Senior people do the work
The people who plan it are the people who do it. No handoffs after the sale.
Honest about fit
If we’re not the right match, we’ll say so and point you to someone who is.
Results over busywork
No filler meetings, no padded deliverables.