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The last thing you see as you leave Vigilante's offices in Soho, a bustling, fashionable neighborhood in lower Manhattan, is a sign that reads, "Last vigilante standing: Hit the lights. Bolt the doors (both). Watch your back."

Hit the lights? Makes sense. Bolt the doors? Sure. But Watch your back? It's a call to vigilance that complements other "inspirationals" on the walls of this busy workplace: "Always empty the clip." "Strategy is the craft of the warrior." "Vigilance in combat means keeping one's eyes wide open." This is not the headquarters of an urban SWAT team or a secret government operation. It's the headquarters of Vigilante, a young ad agency that's part of Leo Burnett.

Why Vigilante? "We wanted a totally aggressive name that would make people a little nervous and that would express our vision of doing business," explains Danny Robinson, 40, cofounder and chief creative officer. "Plus, you've got to admit," says Marc Stephenson Strachan, 40, cofounder and chief marketing-and-operations officer, " 'Vigilante' sounds much better than 'Robinson & Strachan.' " The name also fits the agency's mind-set. "Vigilantes get the job done first and ask questions later," says Strachan. "We know that we're doing something wrong if our clients' palms aren't sweating, if they're not a little hot under the collar, if we're not occasionally shocking them."

Among the high-profile clients that Robinson and Strachan have shocked are Johnnie Walker Black Label, Major League Baseball, Nintendo of America, and Sprint. How has this small firm attracted such big names? By cracking the code of urban culture -- by understanding the people who live it, make it, move it, and change it. To arrive at that understanding, Vigilante deploys an "Urban Think Tank," a consulting group that uses a collection of services -- with names like "Street Spies," "UNITE" (urban intelligence through empathy), and "Urban Passport" -- that both explain the urban market and immerse clients in it.

One crucial point about urban markets: Robinson and Strachan don't consider "urban" to be a euphemism for "minority." Cities, they say, are "magnetic epicenters" -- hot zones from which influence flows to the social mainstream. By understanding urban markets, you can understand, capture, and create other markets. "Urban centers are not niche markets," says Strachan. "They're home to a critical mass of consumers who live, think, and act differently and who affect a larger whole -- and force you to recalibrate your approach to them."

Fast Company recently visited Robinson and Strachan, who provided a short course on some new realities of urban marketing. In the main article, Strachan describes the ideas and techniques behind the agency's work. In two sidebars, Robinson and Strachan explain the theory and practice of some recent client engagements.

Urban Does Not Mean Minority

To 9 out of 10 people, "urban consumer" means "black or Hispanic." One of the things that we help people understand is that "urban" does not mean "minority." What annoyed -- and excited -- Danny and me when we first started our agency is that most marketers tend to think of urban consumers as being young blacks and Hispanics. We'd look at the streets of New York and ask, "What about all of the gay people? The older people? The Asians, the Russian immigrants, the white folks, the religious zealots, the women dressed head to toe in Prada?" During a heat wave last summer, ABC used what it called an "urban heat index" to broadcast the temperature. Was that index just for African-Americans and Hispanics?