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GMR MARKETING HONORED AS TOP WORKPLACE

5/23/2010 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE (May 23, 2010) – GMR Marketing has been honored as one of the best places to work in Wisconsin!

GMR, which is headquartered in New Berlin, WI, was recognized by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in its Top 100 Workplaces rankings in the Top Midsize Workplace division (150-449 local employees).

“It’s the people who make a company great,” said GMR founder and CEO Gary Reynolds. “This honor is a testament to the environment created by our dedicated and tireless employees. We truly appreciate all of their hard work and everything they have done to make GMR such a success.”

During the most turbulent economic stretch in generations, the Journal Sentinel set out to identify the companies and organizations in southeast Wisconsin that consider it an obligation, or at least smart business, to give their employees a fair shake and a fulfilling work experience. Workplace Dynamics was enlisted to survey tens of thousands of employees in the region and the result was a fascinating and diverse list of organizations, large and small, that are finding creative and exciting ways to engage and retain employees.

GMR was founded in 1979 and has grown into one of the largest and most successful agencies in the world. There are currently 21 GMR offices in 10 countries, with further expansion planned in the upcoming months.

GMR MARKETING NOW IN KOREA

5/18/2010 12:00:00 AM

Agreement Reached with Yonhanaro Communications

MILWAUKEE, Wisc., May 18, 2010 – GMR Marketing, the world’s largest engagement marketing agency, has established a working agreement with Yonhanaro Communications, adding Korea to its growing global footprint.

The partnership with Korea’s first and largest event marketing agency further affirms GMR’s commitment to broaden its global capabilities in response to clients’ growing needs. It also expands the global reach of both agencies, which provides GMR an established presence in a key Asian location.

“Yonhanaro Communications is one of the world’s most successful and experienced agencies, and one that shares our vision, passion and culture,” said GMR Marketing founder and CEO Gary Reynolds. “The breadth of their experience is impressive, ranging from the Olympics, World Cup, automotive and electronics clients to the inauguration ceremony of Korean President Lee Myung-bak in 2008. We are delighted to be associated with a truly best-in-class partner that will be able to offer our gold standard of service, while providing valuable insight and understanding of Asian consumers.”

Yonhanaro Communications, which was founded in 1985, is based in Seoul. It extends its own global reach via an expanding GMR network that now features 21 offices in nine countries.

“The alliance with GMR Marketing enables us to offer proven, state-of-the-art services to our global clients, which maximizes the return on investment for our Korean clients in their experiential marketing activities in Korea and overseas,” said Joonpyo Hong, managing director of Yonhanaro Communications. “GMR Marketing’s profound insight gained from three decades of experience in each market and in each specialty area – added to our understanding of Korean clients – makes it possible to deliver a higher level of services for the clients and for the industry.”

“GMR Marketing, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisc., has offices throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and China.

GMR MARKETING NOW IN POLAND

4/26/2010 12:00:00 AM

Agreement Reached With Communication Unlimited

MILWAUKEE, Wisc., April 26, 2010 – GMR Marketing, the world’s largest engagement marketing agency, has joined forces with Communication Unlimited, adding Poland to its growing global footprint.

The partnership with one of Poland’s leading agencies further affirms GMR’s commitment to broaden its global capabilities in response to clients’ growing needs. It also expands the global reach of both agencies, which provides GMR an established presence in another key Central Europe location.

“Poland is one of the world’s fastest-emerging and most dynamic economies, and one that has great interest for many of our global clients,” said GMR Marketing founder and CEO Gary Reynolds. “Communication Unlimited has excellent understanding of the local and regional markets and is one that shares our vision, passion and culture. We are delighted to find a best-in-class partner that will be able to offer our gold standard of service, while providing valuable insight and understanding of consumers in this energized part of the Europe.”

Communication Unlimited, which is based in Warsaw, will extend its own global reach via an expanding GMR network that now features 20 offices in eight countries.

“GMR Marketing is a strong partner that offers a comprehensive range of services, which enables us to enter new markets,” said Elzbieta Wojtczak, Communication Unlimited’s managing director. “Communication Unlimited will remain an independent agency, which means that we do not have a shareholding in GMR. The alliance will bring advantages to both partners, which will reflect in offering our clients a wide range of services, access to new markets and the know-how and experience of both parties.”

GMR Marketing, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisc., has offices throughout the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Canada and China.

GMR MARKETING’S MUSIC 20X20 A HIT AT SXSW

3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Inaugural Summit Brings Leaders of Music, Marketing Together

AUSTIN, Tex. – During an era of constantly-evolving commercial opportunities due to the drastically-changing nature of the music industry, the leaders of the music and brand marketing industries were brought together by GMR Marketing for a unique summit to discuss the proper way to leverage the appeal on music on consumers.

Music 20X20, a one-day summit in conjunction with the South By Southwest music conference on March 18, brought together 20 major players of the music industry with 20 top brand marketers to discuss the most effective way for the sides to collaborate. The gathering included Grammy Award-winning singer Estelle, who discussed the ongoing benefits of having her song, “Star,” used in a Crystal Light commercial. The London native said that the creative freedom and the theme of the ad campaign, which centered on empowerment, made it a perfect fit. Estelle also said that the song placement continues to pay dividends by widening her demographic appeal.

Among the Music 20X20 participants were top representatives from AT&T, Atlantic Records, Bacardi, Banshee Music, Big Red, Billboard, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival/Superfly Productions, CAA, Curve Records, Davis Shapiro, Downtown Music, EA, ESPN, Fox Cable, Fuse, GSK, Harley-Davidson, Levitt and Hayes LLP, Madison Square Garden, McDonalds, Mercedes Benz, NPD Group, Pandora, Rhapsody, Topspin Media, TuneCore, Universal Music Publishing Group, Whole Foods, Yahoo! Music and the Warped Tour/4Fini.

Billboard editorial director Bill Werde, who hosted Music 20X20, said that brands have learned that music marketing reaches consumers in new ways, reaching many who may have never been attracted to a brand under previous conditions.

Further details about Music 20X20 can be found at: http://blog.gmrmarketing.com.

GMR MARKETING WINS ANOTHER REGGIE AWARD

3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

CHICAGO (March 24, 2010) -- GMR Marketing won a Silver REGGIE at the 2010 Reggie Awards for its “New Balance 20th Anniversary Campaign” on behalf of New Balance and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The honor, which was judged in the Best Cause or Corporate Social Responsibility Mark category, was shared with Marketing Drive, of Boston.

Bill Blank, Ryan Majszak, Mollie Pape, Kara Bilot and Kris Eul headed the project for GMR Marketing.
The 20th anniversary of the partnership between New Balance and Susan G. Komen for the Cure® was celebrated in 2009.
Executed with Marketing Drive, the multi-faceted, year-long program consisted of:

•Media partnerships
•Event Activation across Race for the Cure and Breast Cancer 3 Day.
•Co-branded 20th anniversary mark
•Lace Up for the Cure Gift with Purchase KM993 Jump Drive
•October Pin Up Donation program
•Limited edition product, the pink suede KM993 available with customized messaging and delivered in a 20th year partnership custom shoebox
•National consumer video contest
•Short film called “Running on Hope” shot during the Global Race for the Cure in Washington DC, features the story of a 2-time breast cancer survivor and her daughter and their shared commitment to the cause.
•New Balance YouTube brand channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/RunningOnHope.

Launched in 1983 by the Promotional Marketing Association, the REGGIE Awards are dedicated to recognizing superior thinking, creativity, execution and results across the entire spectrum of promotion and integrated marketing. The name of the award - The REGGIE - is derived from "cash register." It was chosen because "nothing happens until a sale is made.”

GMR Germany Wins International Sponsoring Award

3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

(March 26, 2010) GMR Marketing’s team in Germany has been awarded a 2010 International Sponsoring Award for its work with Allianz at the Paralympics.

The honor, which was presented by professional sponsorship association FASPO in the “Sport” category, cited the GMR-Allianz partnership’s exemplary combination of sports sponsoring and corporate social responsibility projects that enhanced public awareness of the Paralympics.

GMR’s German team has been supporting Allianz as a partner of the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) and the German Disabled Sport Association (DBS) since 2007.

"Although it is not yet in the mainstream, we have been watching the development of this area of sports over the last few years,” said Jordi Queralt, managing director of GMR Germany. “We are convinced that the Paralympics have enormous social potential to make engagements for sponsors even more attractive in future.”

An important component of the activation strategy developed by GMR was the application of strategies and tactics of traditional sports sponsorship skewed towards corporate social responsibility. The measures, which were tailored to a wide variety of national and international target groups, shifted the focus of attention onto the athletes' passion for maximum performance under exceptional conditions.

CAMERON WAGNER RECEIVES FORTY UNDER 40 HONOR

3/9/2010 12:00:00 AM

(03/08/2010) GMR Marketing’s Vice President, Client Services, Cameron Hall Wagner, has been recognized by SportsBusiness Journal with the prestigious Forty Under 40 honor.

Wagner, who joined GMR in 2007 and is based in Charlotte, NC, oversees GMR’s Procter & Gamble business, which includes everything from the Gillette Young Guns in NASCAR to the handful of brands that activated around the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Appalachian State University graduate was also honored last year in North Carolina with a Women Extraordinaire award, which was presented by Business Leader magazine.

Senior Vice President Greg Busch was the last member of the GMR family to receive the national Forty Under 40 honor in 2008.

GMR MARKETING OPENS U.K. OFFICE

3/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, Wisc., March 1 – GMR Marketing is continuing to add to its growing global footprint with the opening of a new office in London.

The opening of GMR Marketing in London, with a new office on The Strand, further affirms GMR’s commitment to broaden its global capacities in response to clients’ needs by providing the world’s largest engagement marketing agency a presence in the United Kingdom.

“Establishing a GMR presence in the UK is a critically-important step to our global operations and another layer in our on-going expansion plans,” said GMR Marketing founder and CEO Gary Reynolds. “London is a center of activity for global brands in Europe and this will help us service our clients and their growing marketing needs.”

Tony Fowler, formerly Vice President at GMR’s Charlotte, N.C., office, has relocated to London to manage the integration of the European offices, ensuring continued flawless execution across GMR’s stable of top-tier clients.

Fowler, who joined GMR seven years ago, has played an integral role in the expansion of GMR’s Charlotte office, which services many of GMR’s marquee clients. Tony will help integrate our operations, culture-building initiatives, as well as sales and business development throughout Europe.

“This is an exciting opportunity for GMR to further expand its global network,” Fowler said. “I look forward to working with each of our European offices to share the history, success and culture of GMR Marketing with the goal of future growth abroad.”

GMR Marketing, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisc., has 19 offices in seven countries.

GMR MARKETING EXPANDS INTO SPAIN

2/17/2010 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, Wisc., Feb. 17 – GMR Marketing is adding Spain to its growing global footprint through the merger of Delfin Integrated Marketing.

The addition of Spain’s top marketing agency further affirms GMR’s commitment to broaden its global capabilities in response to clients’ growing needs. It also provides the world’s largest engagement marketing agency an established presence in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. Delfin, which was acquired by Omnicom in 2003 and incorporated into the Radiate Group, will be rebranded as GMR Marketing.

“Spain is a gateway to both Southern Europe and the emerging markets in North Africa. Delfin is clearly best-in-class in Spain, so adding them to the GMR global team is a perfect strategic fit for us and our clients” said GMR Marketing founder and CEO Gary Reynolds. “With this key addition to the network, we will not only expand the resources and capabilities of GMR in Spain, but we will also be gaining a deeper understanding of the consumers through Delfin’s knowledge and expertise in this part of the world”

Delfin, which has extensive marketing, television production and content production capabilities, won a string of major, integrated marketing awards in Spain over the past few years for its creative solutions on behalf of a diverse roster of some of the world’s most-recognized clients. Delfin and GMR had participated in an employee-exchange program in recent years.

“We at Delfin are very excited about our merger with GMR Marketing, a world-class creative marketing powerhouse,” said Oscar Coto, GMR Spain’s CEO.

“Being a part of a global group and able to share best-in-class methodologies under a single brand, GMR, will extend our creative talents and no longer restrict us to our borders. We are looking forward to a new shared global future for our people and our valued clients.”

GMR Marketing, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisc., has offices throughout the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, Canada and China. The Delfin acquisition gives GMR 18 offices in six countries.

About GMR
Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with offices in six countries. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

Contact:
Jeff Horrigan, Media Relations
GMR Marketing
(262) 780-8798
jhorrigan@gmrmarketing.com

GMR NOW IN GERMANY

2/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, Wisc., Feb. 1, 2010 – GMR Marketing is adding Germany to its growing global footprint through the integration of Experience into the Global GMR brand.

The addition of Europe’s leading sponsorship agency further affirms GMR’s commitment to broaden its global capacities in response to clients’ growing demands in a changing worldwide economy. It also provides the world’s largest, stand-alone engagement marketing agency within the global Omnicom Group an established presence in Munich and Frankfurt. As of today, Experience (Germany) will be known as GMR Marketing.

“We are delighted to enter the German market with an agency of the quality and strength of Experience, which has been one of Europe’s top-ranked agencies for so long,” said GMR Marketing founder/chairman/CEO Gary Reynolds. “The addition of Experience is mutually beneficial. Our new colleagues have access to GMR’s expertise and innovation, while expanding our presence in Europe will open doors for our clients and their growing need for global platforms. It also increases our understanding of the global consumer.”

Experience has won a string of major media, marketing and advertising awards over the past few years for its work on behalf of some of the world’s most well-known and respected brands.

“Joining the GMR family will be of great value to our loyal clients and will open doors in other regions of he world,” said Uwe Alten, Experience’s managing director in Frankfurt.

“This gains us access to some of the most experienced and creative minds in the marketing industry and it will also enable us to provide local insights and knowledge to our new colleagues at GMR,” added Jordi Queralt, managing director in Munich.

GMR Marketing, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisc., has offices throughout the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, Canada and China. The Experience acquisition gives GMR 14 offices in five countries.

About GMR
Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin now with offices in seven countries. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

GMR TESTS MOBILE MARKETING PROGRAM FOR 7-ELEVEN IN SAN DIEGO

1/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

With the help of GMR Marketing's division, GMR Mobile, 7-Eleven Inc. tested the theory that the only thing better than texting to chat is texting for free stuff.

More than 200 San Diego-area 7-Eleven stores participated in a pilot program designed and executed by GMR Marketing that allowed consumers to parlay their use of texting into a free beverage every day in December. During that time, San Diego residents could send an SMS (Short Message Service) text with the word “FAST” (in Spanish, “RAPIDO”) to “72579.” In response, they received a message informing them which of 7-Eleven®’s best-selling beverages they had won. Four of the convenience retailer’s most popular drinks were featured in the test.

The text message offered participants two ways to redeem their coupons at participating 7-Eleven stores. Customers with wireless internet access could click through to a screen displaying a UPC bar code that could be scanned at the cash register. For other basic service users, a 7-Eleven sales associate entered the promotional code for redemption. The message also included an invitation to receive text messages with 7-Eleven news and offers.

“7-Eleven’s mobile test is the optimum use for our proprietary UPC bar code technology,” said T.J. Person, senior vice president of Mobile Marketing Strategy for GMR Marketing. “Besides gathering valuable consumer insights, the quick-scan and numeric codes gave consumers a quick and easy way to enjoy a free beverage, compliments of 7-Eleven.”

KIERNAN JOINS GMR MARKETING

12/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, WI. (September 29, 2009) – Ed Kiernan has joined GMR Marketing as Senior Vice President. Kiernan, who spent the last nine years at Peter Jacobsen Sports (PJS) as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, will work across all of GMR’s platforms with a focus on sports, lifestyle and music.

“We are delighted to be getting a very talented, team-oriented guy,” said GMR Marketing Executive Vice President Mike Boykin. “Ed has an incredible drive to be one of the best, which makes him an ideal fit for GMR.” Kiernan was a partner in the PJS firm and oversaw the sports marketing and corporate consulting practice, with an emphasis in overall brand strategy/management for blue chip companies, athlete representation, global event management/promotion and the negotiation of complex, multi-level/multi-media contracts for sports and entertainment properties. He joined PJS in 2000 from Pro Links Sports, Inc., where he served as Vice President of Southeast Operations and Executive Director for the PGA TOUR’s Verizon Classic. Prior to that, Kiernan served as tournament manager for the PGA TOUR’s Canon Greater Hartford Open.

“I have known many members of the GMR family for a number of years and I have always admired their talents, expertise and knowhow,” Kiernan said. “GMR has such a rich reputation and has been deserving of all of their recent accolades. I’m excited to join such a great group and begin the next chapter in my career.” Kiernan has served on many important boards and committees, including the PGA TOUR Tournament Association, the Tampa Bay Sports Authority and the Tampa Bay Super Bowl Steering Committee. He is a native of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, and Youngstown, OH, and attended Mount Union College, in Alliance, OH, where he earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Sports Management and International Business.

ABOUT GMR

Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, Seattle, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris and Beijing. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

JOE BAN JOINS GMR MARKETING

12/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, WI. (November 17, 2009) – Joe Ban, who has been one of Milwaukee’s leading advertising executives for the past 18 years, has joined GMR Marketing as creative director.

“With nearly two decades of experience in this market, I have come to know and respect so many members of the GMR family and I look forward to being on their side,” Ban said. “GMR has a well-deserved reputation for innovation and creativity and I’m happy to be a part of such a talented and hard-working team.”

Ban has been on the United Adworkers board of directors for the last six years, including the last two years as president. His term expires next month. Ban has served as creative director at Boelter & Lincoln and the Zizzo Group after beginning his career as a writer and producer for BVK. He spent the last two years as an independent contractor. Ban has also served on the board of directors for The Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design.

A 1991 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ban currently resides in Wauwatosa.

ABOUT GMR

Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, Seattle, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris and Beijing. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

GMR MARKETING ADDS JIMMY BRUNS

12/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, WI., (November 20, 2009) – Veteran sports marketer Jimmy Bruns has joined GMR Marketing as vice-president for business development. He will be based in GMR’s Charlotte, N.C., office.

“We are thrilled to have Jimmy join our team,” said Mike Boykin, GMR’s Charlotte-based executive vice-president. “He has lots of invaluable experience in all facets of the sports world and his network of contacts will serve us well as we continue to aggressively pursue new business opportunities.”

Bruns comes to GMR from Connexions Sports and Entertainment, where he served as VP, sales. Prior to that, he was VP, sponsorship and marketing, at Rusty Wallace, Inc. Bruns, who is a graduate of Southwestern University, has also worked for IMG, International Speedway Corp. and the Orlando Magic.

“I have known many members of the GMR family for a number of years and I am excited to join such a talented and driven team,” Bruns said. “I look forward to helping GMR enhance its stature as the premier sports marketing agency in the country.”

ABOUT GMR

Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, Seattle, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris and Beijing. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

WAGNER NAMED “WOMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE”

12/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, WI., (November 30, 2009) - Charlotte-based Cameron Wagner, of GMR Marketing, was honored at the 8th annual Women Extraordinaire Awards on December 9 at the Charlotte Embassy Suites.

Wagner, who is a Charlotte native, is currently vice-president, client services for North America’s largest engagement marketing agency. She joined GMR Marketing in 2007, following nine years at IMG. Wagner is a graduate of Appalachian State University.

Wagner was featured in the December issue of Business Leader magazine. Selection criteria included the ability to be an influential leader within her company, with extraordinary impact on its economic success and forward-thinking strategies, as well as her status as a mentor and example to other women in the industry, especially by maintaining a high-functioning work/life balance.

About GMR

Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, Seattle, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris and Beijing. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

PAGE NAMED “MOBILE WOMAN TO WATCH”

12/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, WI., (November 30, 2009) - Orlando-based Theresa Page, of GMR Marketing, has been honored as one of the inaugural class of “Mobile Women to Watch in 2010” by Mobile Marketer magazine.

Page has been a pioneer in the mobile marketing industry and founded Mango Mobile in 2005 before joining GMR in 2008. She is currently Senior Vice-President at North America’s largest engagement marketing agency and heads the GMR Mobile division.

Mobile Marketer Editor-In-Chief Mickey Alam Khan said the Mobile Women to Watch selections were: “Evangelists for the industry, astute observers of evolving consumer behavior at work and home, and advocates for ethical mobile marketing as part of the multi-channel media mix. Above all, they served as admirable role models to others to consider a career in mobile marketing. These women are poised to make more history in 2010.”

Page’s path to success wasn’t the typical one. A former high school teacher in Florida, she joined Wright Entertainment Group (WEG) in 1997 as VP of Artist Development. Page then formed her own company, Steeleworks Entertainment, in 2003 before founding Mango Mobile with two partners in 2005.

About GMR

Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, Seattle, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris and Beijing. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

GMR’s WINNING STREAK CONTINUES WITH PRO AWARD

11/3/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE, WI., (October 9, 2009) - GMR Marketing, of New Berlin, WI, won a Promo Pro Award at the 2009 Pro Awards Gala for its “Fill the Plane” campaign on behalf of Orbitz.

Orbitz “Fill The Plane” was judged in the Best Use of Games, Contests and Sweepstakes category. The program leveraged consumers’ social-networking skills to create a never-been-done-before promotion to send 300 people on a trip to the destination of their choosing.

Through online promotion and street teams in four major cities, consumers were driven to an online portal where they registered as a “pilot”. Their task was to get 300 friends onboard and have 80-percent agreement on one of three pre-determined destinations. The catch was that the “pilots” could only invite two people per day but those two people could invite an additional two, and so on. The winners were the first to fill their plane. Tiffany Kurtz, Max Lenderman, Tim Dyer and Chris Lierman headed the GMR team.

Launched in 1993 PRO Awards recognizes outstanding promotion marketing campaigns in the United States. The PRO Awards are the Gold Standard of recognition for top promotion marketing professionals.

About GMR

Founded in 1979, GMR Marketing is a pioneer in the practice of engagement marketing. GMR builds brand relevance with campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level by leveraging passions for sports and entertainment through the use of interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, Seattle, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris and Beijing. GMR has received numerous industry accolades, including SportsBusiness Journal’s 2009 “Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year” award.

GMR, RADIATE GROUP ANALYZE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING

8/10/2009 12:00:00 AM

Event Marketer (8/10/2009) – GMR, RADIATE GROUP ANALYZE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
GMR Marketing and the Radiate Group were called on by Event Marketer magazine for a roundtable discussion to analyze the way experiential marketing has evolved and continues to evolve. Below is the text of the article:

The experiential space is changing, accelerating—evolving. In an effort to make sure you’re getting as much information as possible, we are heading out into the agency side of the landscape for several regularly scheduled roundtable discussions. Folks, your agencies are living the realm of the experience, too, and if you listen to them, you’ll learn something. In this first roundtable, we dive into the Radiate Group, Omnicom’s own collective of experiential partners. Take a look at the shift away from the big shiny idea and into the bigger-shinier strategy. Check out the ties to digital. And ROI is now requisite—and attainable.

EM: OK a little about the agencies and then let’s get to the clients: How has your agency changed in recent years, and how are you changing to prepare for the next three to five years?

TONY BESASIE: Our agency is being asked by clients to be a much more equal contributor. We’re being invited into their marketing planning. Clients are asking for smart agencies, no matter what their discipline is, to participate in helping build their brands. So we’ve added insights and analytics capabilities to our organization, and we’ve been expanding into the digital space, primarily leveraging our mobile platform.

PATRICIA ROSI: We were founded on the promise of production excellence, and we started with very simple, transactional events. Now we have evolved to become a full-service agency that designs but also produces and measures the entire suite of experiential marketing for the client. Clients are now looking for partners to work hand-in-hand with them, to come up with the best plan for their brand. Our involvement is increasing with most of our brands, and now we have [relationships] where we’re helping an entire continuum of channels and ideas work better, more efficiently and more innovatively.

JAY LENSTROM: I agree. What has changed for us is that now we have client partners coming to us to ask, “What can you do in these four countries?” Or, “How can you expand an idea from Milwaukee and have it apply in London or Australia?”

WENDY ROBINSON: When Smartfusion started in the U.K., much of the offering was very technology-focused. Over a number of years we were asked to get more involved in the events side, and slowly the business shifted into experiential. We found ourselves looking at the merging planes between digital and experiential, and trying to build event campaigns around it. So now we’re talking about digital-live, day and night.

ALLEN BROOKS: In our early days, clients measured success by how good a time people had, how close they got to the action, and maybe even how little they remembered of the experience afterward, because that meant it was a great time. We’ve moved on to where there has to be the ability to measure the experience. It has to be integrated into the overall marketing and business objectives. So we now have an invitation to the planning table as a strategic partner, and we’re helping clients put together activation or hospitality programs that are much more strategically aligned with what the company is doing.

LENSTROM: What’s interesting is that if you look at the roots of these agencies, GMR was a music agency, Pierce was a health and beauty agency, SportsMark was an Olympic agency, and Smartfusion was a technology agency. You probably wouldn’t use those words at all to describe what many agencies have become, which says a lot about the industry and our ability to change as we move forward.

EM: Many of your clients have programs they’ve been doing for 15 years that they can’t measure or can’t afford anymore. How can they succeed in this new reality?

BESASIE: We’re coming to the realization with our clients that we’ve got to drop the focus on the big idea. What we really need to adopt is a smart idea. Big ideas often are exaggerations. They supersize it, they over-invest. Smart ideas are born out of better insights, better objective-setting, better collaboration—eliminating the wastefulness that’s inherent in some of the things marketers have been doing.

BROOKS: I think you’re right. It’s not about throwing money at things; it’s about the small elements. It’s applying a sports property or a sponsorship across more areas of a company’s business—finding ways in which they can be used for employee engagement, for example, so you hit HR budgets that many times carry a lower activation spend. When clients spread out the budget and activate for various business units and other areas of their business, they get a lot more efficiencies.

LENSTROM: There’s a saying, “Never waste a crisis.” We’re in a crisis, and I’m finding that agencies are coming up with more than marketing solutions. Most clients have more than marketing problems. They don’t have the staff they used to have; they don’t have the budgets. So now agencies are coming in with solutions that may be operational, they may be travel efficiencies. If we’re saving a client millions of dollars, we’re getting credit for that, whether it’s a marketing idea or not.

BESASIE: I want to add that I don’t think creativity has been lost at all in what’s taking place—it is just being reapplied in different areas. We’re being much more creative in how to problem-solve for our clients. Agencies are problem solvers at heart, and we’re creative thinkers. We’re just applying those skills in different ways these days. There was a time when clients guarded their information and data—they were very sensitive about sharing it. Now, we’re doing ROI calculations. We have a Ph.D. on staff whose entire job is just doing ROI modeling, and he’s able to calculate legitimate ROIs, because clients are now sharing their profit margins with us. We didn’t see that before.

EM: It seems that there are some bells and whistles that brands just are not going to spend money on now. Are there certain things that your clients will never buy again? Are they just going to spend smarter from now on?

LENSTROM: Our industry is being scrutinized, as is every industry. Before, a lot of purchases were made because someone at the brand liked fashion or a certain sport. Those things are all going away. I believe we’re in a new era in which we’re not going back to some of those wasteful spends. If you’re going to spend a million dollars on anything, you better be able to deliver a half-million-plus on return.

BROOKS: On the hospitality front, there are some corrections happening that I think will be long-term—we’re experiencing some of it right now in Vancouver around our Olympic planning.
Because of the economy we’re seeing some clients moving from a five-star experience to a four-star experience. Yes, there are appropriate times for five-star treatment—there are guest segments that warrant that—but overall we may see a correction.

ROBINSON: One of the biggest shifts we’re seeing, as everybody’s feeling this economic crunch, is that consumers are looking at whether brands are behaving appropriately. Brands will therefore have to think about how they’re spending money, how their executives are behaving, how they’re doing hospitality.
One other thing we’ve noticed is that the whole green issue, which was bubbling along until last summer, suddenly has almost gone off the radar. So brands are asking not whether their event assets are recyclable, but whether they can afford them.

EM: Inherent in brands’ decision to downgrade some experiences from five stars to four is that they are recognizing who their best customers are, who are more likely to convert to buyers and how to target those customers. Are clients starting to spend more money on a more targeted audience?

ROBINSON: We’re certainly seeing clients wanting to focus in and know that their money is being spent talking to the right people.
When we first connected with Porsche, we presented a proposal that was just about isolating the target consumer and behaving in a way that fills them with confidence, engages them and takes them on a journey that hopefully results in sales. At no point did we say, “And this is the moment when the car flies out of the ceiling and there are flashing lights.” It was totally focused around developing a relationship with the consumer and taking them on a journey. From their feedback, that was the reason we won the business.

EM: Not too long ago, we could easily say that experiential marketing was the way to break through the clutter. Now, many are saying that it is the clutter. How do you adjust?

LENSTROM: People say we’re bombarded with messages. But not all of those messages are relevant to the consumer. In the same way, not all events are relevant. If we can find the right consumer and develop relevant touchpoints, I would argue that a customer probably only sees two or three relevant messages on a weekend. Relevance is the game we’re going to beat people at.

BROOKS: On the hospitality side, we are working on putting strategy toward identifying the most appropriate guests to be targeting. It may be identifying qualifying criteria for a guest to get an invitation or incenting some sort of behavior or purchase. That upfront work allows us to tie the results back to what we see post-event.

EM: What are your thoughts on the state of music, entertainment and sports sponsorships? How are brands taking a harder look at what they’re signing up for? And what are the keys to successful activation?

BROOKS: I think there is great value in sponsorship, but it has to be done for the right reasons. Many times Olympics deals are emotional decisions by ceos, so that’s one place where we may see some correction.
But I think you continue to see examples of companies that are aligning themselves with sports properties, paying considerable sums, because it’s relevant or delivers impact. Panasonic just signed for three years with the IAAF for track and field. Because the world championships are going to be in Korea, because they’re already Olympic sponsors, and because of the prominence of track and field in the Olympics and in Europe, that obviously made sense for them. On the other hand, Bank of America just discontinued a longstanding USOC sponsorship because they weren’t able to show ROI.
It comes back to whether a property aligns with what a company is all about. And whether the brand can be just short of guaranteed, if not guaranteed, that the money they’re putting in is going to deliver a return and get them closer to their target market or open new target markets.

EM: In hospitality, is there more scrutiny than ever to deliver a guest experience that’s more business than pleasure? How is that equation being tweaked?

BROOKS: Companies can, in the context of a hospitality program, demonstrate new technologies or introduce new products and services to prospective customers—that’s a big driver for b-to-b companies with the Olympics. And when they can tie it back to tangible business elements and they can get time with c-suite decision-makers that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise, there still is a real reason for doing it. It just has to be done smarter and without the extravagance that we’ve seen before.

EM: What are the ingredients of a relevant on-site experience these days?

BESASIE: First, I think it’s important to recognize that consumers’ passions haven’t waned with the economic downturn. They still love football. They still love racing. They still love music. They may not be paying for the ticket to attend the event, but they may be more plugged in online to see what’s happening.
What we’re seeing in activation is that it’s not buying what’s on the shelf; it’s not buying into the media package. Brands have to design a program with their objectives in mind. We’re seeing property owners very willing to participate in that process. They know they need to make their brands and their partners successful.

LENSTROM: For custom solutions I think the sports and music entertainment business is stronger than it’s ever been. The bad deals are going away. The properties are very eager to listen to us. The reason it’s so strong is that it’s relevant, it’s lifestyle, and it has talk value. You’re talking about powerful, passionate things: sports, fashion, entertainment, movies. And social networking really feeds off the power of entertainment and sports.

BESASIE: The other key to successful activation is that it’s just not a one-time interaction. We’re looking much more at a dialogue with the customer, and continuing the engagement. The activation may be at an event. But what you’re seeing is that we’re extending that relationship. The passion points that Jay mentioned provide a context for us to continue that dialogue.

ROSI: There are also great opportunities not tied to sports, and the work we’ve done for LU at Fashion Week is a good example. LU became the chic little biscuit of Fashion Week. It was perfect because of the brand’s French heritage and fashion, and it was a fairly small budget. Before we knew it, it became a hub for viral impressions and media impressions. It was probably one of the best ROIs we’ve seen.

EM: Let’s talk about design, the look and feel of a live experience. How is it evolving, how are you looking at it differently?

ROSI: What really matters in design is to be aligned with the brand and its DNA, because it’s no longer just an event; it’s a continuum.
Our mantra now is, “Why not?” because we’re thinking about what an event is without a set. We’re flipping all of the systems back to the root of what we design, which is telling stories. We have to resonate with people, so it’s all in the nuances and the details. It’s not necessarily in a big set.
From a production standpoint, the keys are being nimble and efficient. We want assets you can convert. We do a lot of work with Procter & Gamble, and for their Fusion Tour, they’ve been using the same truck for four or five years. Each time, we reinvent the story on a smaller budget. But it’s still a very efficient story and very impactful.

EM: What is the right way for a client to work with agencies? Should they talk to the event agency first and then bring in their other agencies? What is your definition of partnership?

ROSI: The earlier they bring us in the better, but we’re also seeing up-front collaboration with other agencies now. It’s very rare that we’re engaged alone. There’s cooperation between all of us to come to the table with the best, most integrated idea.

BESASIE: We love working with other agencies. We feed off of their ideas. We pride ourselves on not having our ego in the room when it comes to working with other agencies, so we want to be invited to the table sooner. That’s a key for clients: The sooner the better. It lets all of the agencies vet good ideas and throw away the bad ideas.

EM: The Internet and social media have officially fused with live marketing. So for the brands that still haven’t wrapped their arms around it, what advice do you have for them?

LENSTROM: Wake up.

ROBINSON: We’re just starting the launch of one of Nokia’s high-end N-series devices. As an experiment, we’re flipping the whole process and going live. We’re sending a team of bloggers out to go to different cities to road-test the device and talk to their audiences. We’ll give them challenges along the way, and it culminates in an event in New York.
It’s a complete flip from what we did previously, which was to have an event, invite people and get them to talk about it online afterward. Now, we’re seeing if we can launch a product in reverse.

BESASIE: Mobile devices enable us to have two-way communications; we’re not just pushing things to people. Integrating that mobile device and the activity that’s taking place gives you the ability to provide a better, more engaging, more valued marketing program. They’re just inseparable. If you’re doing one-way messaging, you’re going to get filtered out.

ROSI: It’s not a question: Digital is a must, and all our clients have it very high on their priority lists. What’s interesting about digital is that it also gives us live feedback. After half an hour of your event, it’s all there. And it lets us constantly improve and change and adjust.

ROBINSON: I still feel that where you create the greatest impact on people, where you engage the most successfully in a way that is emotive and has impact on them—that’s still live.
That’s not to say that in two years’ time it won’t be digital, and we may have cracked the way to do it. But I don’t think anybody really understands fully what digital events will look like yet.

LENSTROM: Experiences create memories. And memories are of no value unless you communicate them to someone else. It’s like a right hand and a left hand. You can go at this world with just one tied behind your back, or you can go at it with digital and experiential, and you can really attack it. What’s the balance between the two? It depends on the client.

ROSI: I think it’s going to become like yin and yang. You won’t be able to have one without the other.

EM: Allen, how are you leveraging the Internet and digital media for b-to-b hospitality?

BROOKS: As Patricia talked about, we can use it for real-time feedback. It allows us to either customize a hospitality experience or change it, especially during an Olympics, when we have five or six different waves of guests coming in.
We also put a lot of time and effort into extending the hospitality experience. How can we, from the moment the guest accepts an invitation, have them start to experience the Olympic Games? A lot of what we do in support of our clients’ programs does take place on the Web.

EM: How good a job are your clients doing of measuring results? Is this recession the best thing that ever happened for recognizing the importance of measurement?

BESASIE: I do think there is some good that’s coming out of the recession, and the greatest area is measurement. We as an industry, many years ago, didn’t feel comfortable talking about measurement, and that has changed. We are all making a concerted effort to do a better job with measurement. And it’s a big part of our business—we’re preaching it constantly. Our clients are being much more open about it. They’re being held accountable.

LENSTROM: Ten to 20 years ago, in the experiential business, flawless execution was your table stakes. Flawless execution got you renewed. Flawless execution built into 10-year relationships. Today’s table stakes are ROI or ROE. Measurable results are what separate the good agencies from those that are not getting their contracts renewed.

BROOKS: We’re even seeing it in some of the RFPs. Before we’re brought on board, clients are asking us to identify what the event is going to provide in terms of return, and how we’re going to measure it.

EM: As we wrap up, what advice would you give clients to put them on a successful path for 2010?

BESASIE: Don’t shy away from taking risks. We’ve talked a lot about being calculated, which can also lead to being overly conservative. But we are in a very exciting industry, an industry where we’re innovative and creative.
It has been proven over time that innovation is the growth engine out of bad times. I think you’re going to see a lot of innovative products and innovative services. And I think we have to be on the leading edge of that. With any innovation, there is risk. So my advice is don’t shy away from risk. Just make sure it’s calculated risk.

BROOKS: I would say that in this market you have to differentiate yourself. True, there is clutter out there; there is noise. But when you see something that is smart, that is relevant, that moves the needle, you remember it.
We talk about real estate, or the stock market, where everybody’s bailing, but that also means it can be a good time to get in and get some real estate or stocks at a cheap price. Now, there are sports and event properties out there with good deals. For the right company, at the right time, and activated in the right way, there really are some opportunities here.

ROBINSON: Really know what success looks like for you at the outset. If you’re unclear about that, you need a good team of partners around you that can get you to that point.

ROSI: I completely agree with the idea of taking risk, because so many clients this year shifted their brand experience budget into p.o.s and stores. So I would say: Don’t underestimate the power of brand experience. We can prove that it works.

LENSTROM: Think differently and behave differently. Also: Brands, you aren’t alone. If you have a smaller budget to try to reach a certain demo, tell your agency that, because we can help find another client or another property that has that exact same need. We all have clients that are working together to reach a certain demo.

GMR IS GOLD WINNER AT INTERNATIONALIST AWARDS

6/18/2009 12:00:00 AM

VANCOUVER (June 24, 2009) – GMR Marketing has been honored as a Gold Winner at the Internationalist Awards For Innovation In Media for its work on behalf of Peroni (SAB Miller).

GMR, in conjunction with PHD Canada, helped create the wildly-successful Emporio Peroni campaign in Vancouver and Toronto, which keyed the Italian beer’s global rebranding strategy as the choice beverage of the style-conscious. To complement the Italian beer’s status as title beverage sponsor of Toronto Fashion Week, Emporio Peroni was launched for one month in a storefront in the heart of the city’s elite shopping district, featuring a single bottle of Peroni on an illuminated pedestal, surrounded by a single red rope. In Vancouver, Peroni partnered with Italinteriors, a high-end furniture retailer in Yaletown, to launch Emporio Peroni in its store window. The campaign, which received substantial media coverage in Canada, led to a significant sales lift for Peroni.

GMR MARKETING HONORED AS SPORTS EVENT MARKETING FIRM OF YEAR

6/18/2009 12:00:00 AM

Our clients have known it for quite some time but now it is official: GMR Marketing is the best sports event marketing firm in North America! GMR received the confirmation when it was recently honored by SportsBusiness Journal as 2009 Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year at SBJ’s annual Sports Business Awards in New York City.

GMR was selected for its wide scope of sports marketing partners, vast number of successful sports event productions, extensive work with other brands to provide fans hands-on experiences and the ability to generate positive media coverage. GMR works with a wide array of partners, including MillerCoors, Lowe’s, Gillette, Comcast and Ask.com.

“It’s a great honor to have the Sports Business Journal recognize the work GMR does for our clients within the sports marketing arena,” said GMR President Craig Connelly. “We have a passionate group of sports professionals and this award is a testament to their commitment to their clients and the industry.”

GMR produced more than 7,500 events over the past year on behalf of more than 25 clients, ranging from the Daytona 500 to concerts at tailgate parties to intimate, VIP hospitality at the International Consumer Electronics Show, providing seamless integration with top companies and brands. The mobile production staff continues to deliver experiences from palette to pavement, while the QuickStrike staffing arm provides clients a trained workforce of 15,000 or more. It all allows GMR to build best-in-class solutions for clients in sports event marketing. Recent activation includes Ask.com’s NASCAR launch, Comcast’s promotion of March Madness OnDemand, PepsiCo’s “AMP Energy Human Energy” event at Super Bowl XLII and SPEED Channel’s “Speed Fanatics.”

“We as a company are extremely fortunate to work with such great client partners that give us opportunities to help market their brands,” said Mike Boykin, GMR’s Executive Vice President/Sports Marketing. “Even during these challenging times, sports marketing continues to prove its place in the marketing mix to reach consumers on a more engaging level.”

GMR was represented by Craig, Mike, Greg Busch and Steve Dupee at the May 28 ceremony in New York City.

MangoMOBILE BECOMES GMR MOBILE

6/17/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE (June 16, 2009) – MangoMOBILE is now GMR Mobile.

The Omnicom-owned digital marketing agency has been merged into GMR Marketing’s digital group, allowing it to join forces with the world’s most experienced engagement marketing agency to expand its reaches within the ever-growing discipline of mobile marketing.

“GMR is a leader in consumer lifestyle marketing and the mobile device plays a crucial role in integrating brands into consumers’ social life,” said GMR President Craig Connelly. “Adding Mango’s capabilities is a natural complement to GMR’s marketing services.”

MangoMOBILE has been a leader in the emerging mobile marketing industry with the most technologically-advanced mobile platforms, including:

- MangoLIVE, mobile content provisioning and delivery

- MangoENGINE, mobile customer metric management system

- MangoCRM and Bluetooth connectivity via MangoBLUE

- Mobile web/WAP (Wireless Access Protocol), development, data collection and short-messaging services, and multimedia messaging services.

“Adding MangoMOBILE’s expertise gives GMR more tools to build marketing campaigns that deepen the level of engagement between brands and consumers,” Connelly said. “The industry is going through a rapid expansion, fueled by better integration of mobile extensions to existing marketing campaigns, and the growth of new, 3G applications.”

MangoMOBILE made a name for itself by combining strategic thinking, creative execution and cutting-edge technologies to connect consumers to the world’s leading brands. As GMR Mobile, it will continue to develop integrated mobile programs with the same robust mobile platform, while maintaining the top team in the field, which has more than 15 years of experience in the specific concentration of mobile programs and applications. GMR Mobile does not outsource key technology, which resides in-house, allowing for instant turnarounds on projects, while maintaining absolute control over the quality, reliability and security of all client data.

GMR’S “FILL THE PLANE” TAKES OFF WITH EFFIE AWARD

6/4/2009 12:00:00 AM

MILWAUKEE (June 3, 2009) -- GMR Marketing continues to be recognized by the industry’s elite for our outstanding work on behalf of clients. Less than a week after taking home 2009 Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year honors at the Sports Business Awards, GMR won a Silver Effie Award at the 2009 North American Effie Awards for the Orbitz “Fill The Plane” campaign. GMR was also honored four other times at the ceremony in New York City as a contributing agency on three other winning campaigns.

“Fill The Plane,” which was judged in the Travel/tourism/Destination category, leveraged consumers’ social-networking skills to create a never-been-done-before promotion to send 300 people on a trip to the destination of their choosing. The campaign also won a Silver REGGIE at the REGGIE AWARDS earlier this year. GMR was also feted at the Effies for the part it played in three other campaigns.

GMR was a credited contributing agency on “Damn Right,” for Canadian Club, which won a Gold Effie in the Renaissance category and a Silver Effie in the Beverages/Alcohol category. The Wrigley, “5 - Stimulate Your Senses” campaign (Snacks/Desserts/Confections category) and the Visa, Inc., 2008 Beijing Olympics “Go World” campaign (Financial Services/Cards category) captured Silver Effies.

The Effie Awards were founded in 1968 by the American Marketing Association as a vehicle to recognize the most effective advertising efforts in North America.

GMR MARKETING OPENS OFFICE IN VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

9/11/2008 12:00:00 AM

Company Opens Second Canadian Office to Handle Growth in Live Marketing Demands

MILWAUKEE (September 15, 2008) – GMR Marketing (GMR), a leader in live marketing, has announced the opening of its Vancouver office, along with the hiring of Rob Finkelstein as Director of GMR Canada to oversee the agency’s growth in Canada.

“We welcome Rob to oversee our expanded offering in Canada,” said Craig Connelly, President, GMR. “Rob has worked in the Canadian market on many different initiatives and brings with him years of solid experience. He will be overseeing the development of new business opportunities and will direct the operational aspects of regional programs.”

A native of Montreal, Rob holds a degree in International Business and Marketing. He has spent the last 6 years in British Columbia, between Vancouver and Victoria. Prior to joining GMR, Rob worked as a consultant specializing in the field of experiential marketing. He came to GMR from a role as director of operations with a Montreal based experiential marketing boutique agency and oversaw the Telus, Procter & Gamble, National Bank and Absolut accounts.

The GMR office in Vancouver is the company’s first in Western Canada and will play an important role in the service of national clients and the management of live marketing programs leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. The office will offer many of the same services found in the company’s other eleven offices including strategic planning, sponsorship, staffing and full-service event activation.

Congrats Effie Nominee Kimberly-Clark

3/31/2008 12:00:00 AM

Congrats to Kimberly Clark for their nomination of the 2008 Effie Awards in their success in convincing the nation to Let it Out with Kleenex®. The experiential marketing objective was to promote the Kleenex® brand’s new “let it out”™ brand story by offering people a quality “let it out” experience and to support the brand, providing unpaid media coverage opportunities. GMR executed an eight-city tour – from March through November – that put the Kleenex® brand, armed with its Blue Couch and Good Listener from the television advertising, on the road encouraging everyday people all across America to release their emotions, share their stories and let it out™ for our cameras, so that everything would be digitally captured in order to be repurposed and extend reach via the web, as well as meeting our primary goal of local media coverage. Ketchum Public Relations and JWT were valued agency partners and Craftsmen Industries, Inc. manufactured the giant Kleenex® box.

GMR Winners at 2008 Ex Awards!

3/28/2008 12:00:00 AM

In just five years, the Ex Awards have become the event industry’s greatest symbol of recognition. The only award program focused 100 percent on event marketing and judged entirely by brand-side marketers, this year¹s Ex Awards drew more than 700 entries from around the world, the most ever. The top vote-getters in 20-plus categories [an Ex winner as well as the Gold and Silver awards for each category] will be honored at the annual Ex Awards Gala on April 21 in Chicago. Best Mobile Marketing Program (Consumer) - Received Silver Client: Unilever Campaign: "The World's Dirtiest Film" Agency: GMR Marketing Best Activation of an Entertainment Sponsorship - Received Gold Client: Samsung Campaign: "Beyoncé Experience Tour" Agency: GMR Marketing Best Vehicle Design (Less than 18 Wheels) - Received Silver Client: ESPN Campaign: "The King of Fandom" Agency: GMR Marketing Builder: Project Two Customs

Greg Busch recognized for Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 Award

3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Greg Busch never really intended to end up in sports marketing, he just kept chasing his passions. Those just happened to be business and sports. "I didn't necessarily set out to be a sports marketer," Busch says. "I thought if the opportunity to marry those up and combine those passions was there, it sounded more appealing." That decision has been GMR Marketing's gain. Since joining the agency in 1999, Busch has been a large part of GMR's growth from one client - albeit a prominent one in Miller Brewing Co. — to the New Berlin, Wis.-based firm's current roster of 20, a list that includes Visa, Miller, Lowe's, Alltel and the NBA, among others. "We really weren't on the map in sports," said Busch, GMR's senior vice president and group account director. "It was just Miller then, an iconic sports marketing brand. Obviously, we've built this entire agency on Miller." Most recently, Busch spearheaded the expansion of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s name in sports. The strategy Busch and GMR created resulted in Wrigley developing sponsorships with NASCAR and the NBA. "Wrigley has been a partner of ours for eight years now," Busch said. "We had a deep understanding of the brands and the category going in. With new marketing objectives and campaigns, we identified sports as a medium we could leverage and push those communications through." In NASCAR, Wrigley aligned with Chip Ganassi Racing (with drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Reed Sorenson and David Stremme). They developed a program that was attractive to mass markets while also being relevant to the Hispanic consumer, thanks to Montoya's popularity among that demographic. Despite GMR's success, which Busch says included 34 percent revenue growth in 2007, challenges arise daily. "There's the constant need of justification of a marketing program," he said. "It's something we work on every day."

Axe Clix Honored with Pro Award

10/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Promo Magazine recently named the Axe Clix campaign the Best Campaign Targeting a Micro Audience.

AXE CLIX
CLIENT: Unilever AXE
AGENCY: GMR Marketing LLC

To promote its new fragrance, Clix, Axe looked to leverage the appeal of pop culture icon Ludacris and rap label Island Def Jam. For this launch, Axe, a brand known for its sexy and humorous ads, paired the product with a mechanical clicker showing guys how they could keep track of the number of girls they clicked with after using Axe. The brand integrated the clicker concept into a Ludacris music video called “Money Maker.” A separate video shows the artist clicking and counting different girls on the set of his music video, where Axe items were also integrated. The company took over Ludacris' tour bus, wrapping it with Clix images and turning it into the Axe Clix Room where the rapper greeted fans and conducted interviews. To keep consumers engaged, co-branded hip hop towels were handed out as premiums. Brand ambassadors also distributed clickers with scented cards at fraternities and dorms at 28 campuses. The campaign moved the needle for the product. Brand sales were up $700,000 in the anti-perspirant/deodorant category and $300,000 in shower gel within four months of the launch.

GMR Marketing Adds Staff To Oversee Busy 2008

9/11/2007 12:00:00 AM

GMR Marketing LLC (GMR), the nation’s leader in live-marketing, has recently announced the addition and promotions of employees. “With all the new programs we have scheduled to launch in 2008, we are looking forward to getting the new employees in place and planning underway,” said GMR Marketing President Craig Connelly. “We are fortunate GMR’s strong reputation in the marketing industry attracts some of the best talent out there. These folks are the reason why we have been so successful.”

New Hires
GMR-Chicago welcomes Bruce Florine as Senior Vice President/General Manager. GMR’s Milwaukee office welcomes Robert Romens, senior staff accountant; Cindy Green, project analyst; Robyn Straub, account coordinator; Sarah Gallenberger, account coordinator; Ashley Ziegler, account coordinator; Emily Hall, recruiter; Kelly Rick, executive assistant; Toni Moesch administrative assistant; Khou Vue, recruiting assistant and Kathy Pezzi, receptionist. Todd Davey joins GMR-Charlotte as account coordinator.

Promotions
Congratulations to the following GMR employees on their recent promotions: Terri Klabunde, account director; Jonathan Cantwell, account supervisor; Matt Pape, account supervisor; Erin Kell, account supervisor; Jeff Handler, account manager; Patty Morales, production manager; Crystal Roth, project analyst; Stephanie Hosking, account executive; Jessica Reider, account executive; Brian Shaw, account executive; Chris Boggs, account executive; Amy Dwyer, account executive; Erin Simon, account executive; Patti Griffin, account executive; Miriam Santariello, senior recruiter and Charis Sorum, recruiter.

GMR Marketing and MLS ¡Futbolito!™ Celebrate Successful Summer Tournament

9/4/2007 12:00:00 AM

GMR Marketing (GMR) and Major League Soccer (MLS) are celebrating a positive start to their multi-year partnership. GMR is the official management company for the 14-market MLS ¡Futbolito!™ summer soccer tournament.

MLS ¡Futbolito!™ is a series of all-day events targeting the League’s growing multicultural fan base and represents the largest touring Hispanic event hosted by a U.S. professional sports league.

“When planning the 2007 tour, we wanted to work with an agency who could handle everything from promotion to execution under one roof, and GMR has a great reputation in that respect,” said David Wright, Major League Soccer’s Senior Director of Partnership Marketing. “We’re very pleased with the outcome: a successful 2007 tour. Participation was up 30%, and the on-site experience was better than ever.”

“GMR was thrilled to add MLS to our client roster,” said Dave Houston, Director, GMR. “We were looking forward to introducing MLS to what we have been doing successfully with soccer and other sport tournaments on a national level. Our high account delivery standards were exactly what MLS was looking for.”

GMR came out of the gates focusing on enhancements to referees, on-site staffing, and tournament registration/scheduling software.

“When you hire talented staff and provide your in-market promoters with the resources they need, you are able to focus on other things like making sure the tour sponsors are reaching set objectives,” said Houston. “Going into 2008, we have energized promoters, happy sponsors and satisfied participants, so we can focus on building an entertainment culture for those coming to cheer on the players, which will mean more music, food and product sampling.”

MLS ¡Futbolito!™ kicked-off in Miami on April 29, 2007 where participation more than doubled from 59 in 2006 teams to 130 teams in 2007. The tournament recently wrapped up at a second visit to Los Angeles on August 18 where the teams saw a bump from 106 in 2006 to 128 in 2007.

GMR offered on-site staffing which included four professional road crew, one professional master of ceremony and all professional referees. Soccer Scheduler software was purchased to process the registration, scheduling and payments. The agency was also designated to work closely with the promoters in each market as well as oversee media relations with local radio stations to help get the word out about the tournament.

About MLS ¡Futbolito!™
MLS ¡Futbolito!™, one of Major League Soccer’s most successful grassroots initiative, is the a series of all-day events that take place in various U.S. markets which target MLS’ growing multicultural fan base and represents the largest touring Hispanic event hosted by a U.S. professional sports league. The 4-v-4 tournament is open to players of all ages, abilities and affiliations. Team rosters can consist of up to seven players (four field players and three substitutes) and each team will play a minimum of three games in round-robin action, with the possibility of advancing to the single-elimination championship playoff. Winners of each division will receive prizes with the first and second place teams in the Premier Division competing for $3,000 in cash prizes. For more information about MLS ¡Futbolito!™, log on to the official Web site at www.MLSFutbolito.com.

About GMR Marketing, LLC.
GMR Marketing opened its doors in 1979 and quickly pioneered the discipline of event marketing, now often referred to as “live marketing.” GMR produces more than 700 live events each week, connecting brands and consumers throughout North America with innovative sports, music, lifestyle and grassroots programs. The agency has received numerous industry accolades including Promo Magazines “Agency of the Year” award.

With offices in Milwaukee, Chicago, Charlotte, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, and Toronto, GMR Marketing is a member of The Radiate Group, a global network of independently branded-marketing services agencies operating within the Omnicom Group Inc. For more information about GMR Marketing, visit www.gmrlive.com or call Mary Christine at 262-780-6172.

Category Killer

8/16/2007 12:00:00 AM

Once focused on all-media-all-the-time, Best Buy now connects with customers using a blossoming event marketing mix.

A lot has changed since Best Buy first opened its doors 41 years ago. For one, the buyer has changed. As growing product sophistication intersects with falling prices, consumers are now afforded every opportunity to grab the latest and greatest. Two, the category itself has also changed, evolving from a hardware-packed sector into a lifestyle channel serving consumers gadgets and gizmos to fit virtually every want and need. And the product technology has changed, weaving itself into the DNA of everyday life. How has Best Buy responded? By making its name synonymous with the category. The chain, now operating a base of more than 1,100 stores throughout the U.S., Canada and China, has swelled into the defacto category killer. The brand has been refined, now perceived more as a horizontal halo provider of consumer-electronics than vertical products such as music and video games.
Connecting with the customer is core to Best Buy’s blueprint, a philosophy espoused by ceo Brad Anderson and phased into the stores beginning in 2003. This “customer-centric” focus, as Anderson calls it, segments core customers and buying habits into groups: young technology buffs, suburban soccer moms, affluent male professionals, budget-conscious family guys and small business owners. (Not to mention Hispanics, gamers, NASCAR fans and music lovers.) As many as 400 stores—with more in the planning stages—have been outfitted with fixtures, new layouts, updated product and retrained personnel to meet the needs of these different types of customers. The environment has been physically adjusted to facilitate conversations, purchase inclination and, obviously, merchandise movement.
Anderson’s mantra has impacted the marketing portfolio as well. For years media-driven and anchored by a once totally in-house marketing agency, Best Buy marketing has gone live. Event marketing may have been let out of the gate slowly by director of marketing Debbie Estes when she first joined seven years ago, but it’s now become a galloping bronco for the brand. Mobile tours and sponsorships are meshed with in-store and out-of-store event campaigns. Partners are engaged and connected to the stores when appropriate. And consumers, too often marketed to by companies, are now marketed with, literally engaged and pulled right inside brand experiences in an effort to create longer-lasting connections and communications.
At the center of it all? Data and an aggressive lean on analytics. The company analyzes sales results and customer demographics to target the needs of its top customers, those shoppers dropping a few thou on a new flat-screen or notebook computer. Its Reward Zone loyalty program, which launched nationally in 2003, is another good source of information on customer spending. “The company is one of the first to transition from being product-focused to more customer-centric, understanding [the consumer’s] attitudes and behaviors, wants, needs and preferences, and that drives a lot of their marketing strategy,” says Jeff Zabin, director-marketing at Fair Isaac, a Minneapolis-based firm that helps Best Buy analyze its data and understand customers.
According to Zabin, approximately 31 percent of Best Buy customers drive 80 percent of revenue. Even more striking, he says, seven percent of customers drive 43 percent of overall sales volume. Translation: It would take 39 “uncommitted customers” to replace the lost lifetime value of a single “best customer,” he says. Giving these best customers unique experiences they can’t get anywhere else is key to building and keeping their loyalty. That’s where event marketing fits in. Hundreds of sponsorships and events are now becoming the lynchpin of a growing customer-centric marketing portfolio at Best Buy, and Estes and her team of nine full-time staffers are hardly slowing down. “Event marketing serves as the emotional connection between consumers and the company,” she says. “The brand experience is now leading [our marketing], not advertising.”

The Portfolio
You want a taste? Oh, OK. For starters, there’s the Fun Zone, a mobile marketing tour that has hit the road over the past five years and this summer trucked primarily to NASCAR races filled with PCs and digital cameras, a home-theater set-up, kitchen appliances and gaming activities such as race simulators to appeal to race car fans. “It’s reinvented every season with new content and products,” says John Steltenpohl, senior vp-client services at New Berlin, WI-based GMR Marketing, which handles Fun Zone as well as other projects for Best Buy.
There’s also Tour Out, part of Best Buy’s sponsorship of the Dub Tour, an auto show and concert series for urban fans of Dub magazine. The 2007 Tour includes autograph sessions and performances by rappers Lil’ Scrappy, Lloyd, T Pain, Rich Boy and others at large convention centers from Los Angeles to Atlantic City. The Best Buy exhibit features a custom Alpine 2007 Chevy HHR and Kenwood Ford Focus outfitted with audio products sold and installed at its stores. In mid-July, Techno Zona hit the road, heading to 12 markets through September with home theatre and digital imaging products for the Hispanic customer. Then there’s this year’s sponsorship of the sell-out Police Reunion Tour and the No. 66 Haas CNC team, which goes to NASCAR events. Add in regional baseball sponsorships, the NBA, NFL, Reward Zone special shopping nights, movie tie-ins and partnerships with brands such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and General Mills and, well, you can see how a person might lose count (Estes jokes that she sometimes does).
Last fall, for the launch of Sony’s PlayStation 3, Best Buy took over a city block in Los Angeles for an evening as it brought every game within the PS3 to life. Besides Sony, more than 20 partners, including the movie studios, Activision, EA Sports and Blue Ray—along with celebs such as Tony Hawk, Xzibit and Marvel Entertainment’s Stan Lee—tied in to the excitement. Camp Freddie played, Velvet Revolver and Slash took to the stage while Good Charlotte spun tunes. The event drew 1,500 people who partied until midnight, when Tony Hawk awarded the first PS3 to a lucky consumer at the adjacent Best Buy store. “It positioned Best Buy as doing something very unique within that industry and being able to break the norm,” says Donna Graves, ceo at handling shop nCompass, West Hollywood, CA.

Tuning It Up
Best Buy continually fine-tunes and sharpens its event and sponsorship strategy, making sure it is spot-on when it comes to reaching its target. “We always look at an event uniquely in how we measure it,” Estes says. “It may be one that we want to build equity and sustain, or it could be an event that hits the objective and target in that time and space. There’s no template.”
There are, however, what Estes calls four “pillars” of criteria that help identify an event’s ROI as well as determine whether it was successful or not.
First are the sponsorship levers, which Estes describes as “what you have and what the values of it are—whether it’s signing, media, sweepstakes rights or logo rights.” Next are opportunities to build on those levers with in-store appearances, a community-relations element if there is one, merchandise tie-ins and cross promotions. Third is employee engagement and opportunities for employees to attend an event. And last, how the event relates to Best Buy’s products and services.
The retailer measures each event against these four pillars as well as other metrics, such as attendance and sales, but what really matters, Estes insists, is a quality interaction with the customer, one that makes that all-important emotional connection. To remain fresh and relevant, Estes borrows ideas from everywhere. “You just have to listen, hear and be creative in how you bring things together,” she says.
The merchandising team and its strategies provide the cue for carefully choosing partners to tie to the events. But the company also receives proposals from brands looking to partner with the retail giant. “Wherever the idea begins, it must make its way through Best Buy’s strategic filter, one that everyone in the marketing communications mix has to hold up to,” she says.
But it all comes back to the customer. “When we look at partnerships, whether it’s a media partner or a sponsorship partner, it starts with the customer and what customers we are trying to appeal to,” says Jim Lawrence, senior manager-event marketing.
To satisfy the music lovers, that means affiliating with industry icons such as The Rolling Stones, Elton John and Usher, whose DVDs the retailer sells. Justin Timberlake visited stores last year for listening parties (and helped Best Buy win an Ex Award in the process. Just sayin’.), Mariah Carey and Tiger Woods appeared for autograph sessions.
And then there’s this summer’s sold-out Police Reunion Tour, which began in May in Vancouver and wraps up in November in Mexico City, making stops from Seattle to New York along the way. The thrill of hearing Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers belt it out onstage continues behind the scenes at every show with the Best Buy Police Station, designed as a Moroccan oasis for the store’s top Reward Zone members, special guests and celebrities. The oasis features a 100-year-old restored arch from Marakesh, autograph sessions with the opening band and authentic touches such as fresh rose petals and traditional mint tea. The store’s 20 million Reward Zone customers get first dibs on tickets and a chance at ticket giveaways.
Graves, whose agency activated the Police Tour backstage oasis for Best Buy, has received emails and letters from consumers praising the event. “They’re saying this makes it worthwhile for them to shop at Best Buy,” she says. “And that’s just one experience.”
Best Buy has also connected with families via a four-year program in conjunction with McDonald’s and Monopoly. Customers collected game-pieces off packages of hash browns, fries, soft drinks and sandwiches for cash prizes, McDonald’s food, Best Buy bucks and a chance at a $5 million grand prize. “That was a unique way to hit the customer when he is not at Best Buy to drive him back to the store,” Estes says. The retailer also partners with Coke in promotions to reach Hispanic consumers. “They’ve been in that arena for years, but it is relatively new for Best Buy,” Estes says. “We’re partnering with them to reach a very important demographic.”
On tap for fall is a new partnership with General Mills’ snack division in which music and movie promos on packs of Bugles and Gardetto’s mix will have a bounce-back offer to Best Buy entertainment. “We’re reaching that customer in a non-traditional way to bring value to both brands,” Estes says.
And that reach is extending. In 2008, look for more of it all: More events and sponsorships, more partnerships, more experiences—and more analysis. After all, it’s a laser focus on the customer and a wealth of information that keeps Best Buy on track. Having more than 1,100 stores keeps everybody on their toes, but that’s 1,100 reasons to keep the customer connections flowin’.

Criss Angel's Latest Hair-Raising Escape Attempt

7/30/2007 12:00:00 AM

Scharff Weisberg supported GMR Marketing LLC with an array of display, audio, lighting and control equipment for the live webcast and future telecast of Criss Angel’s cement block demonstration in Times Square.

The headline-making illusionist and escape artist performed his latest death-defying feat in full view of spectators at all times. Angel was encased in a 4x4x4-foot glass box with steel bars, which was hoisted into the air and filled with cement. The block was suspended 40 feet above the crowd for 24 hours as Angel attempted to escape before the block was released and crashed to the ground. The event was streamed live in a webcast and taped for a future episode of the series “Criss Angel Mindfreak” now showing new episodes on cable’s A&E. Needless to say, when the cement block was dropped after 24 hours Angel magically appeared atop the Times Square set’s LED wall.

“We were asked to provide a turnkey solution to maximize the limited space available for the event and make the performance exciting for everyone onsite and on the web,” says Scott Troxel, Director of Entertainment, GMR Marketing. The company was tasked with furnishing theatrical lighting, sound reinforcement and high-resolution video to satisfy the needs of the event’s advertising partners as well as spectators in Times Square and viewers on the web and, soon, TV.

Troxel recognized Scharff Weisberg as a one-stop solution for the demo. “I needed to have lights and video all interact in a cohesive manner without being able to rehearse the event as I would have needed to do if I used separate suppliers,” he explains. “I have worked with Scharff Weisberg in the past, and they have shown their ability to come through with solutions to the evolving needs of live event marketing.”

Challenged by heavy rains, Scharff Weisberg provided a multi-camera TV production/satellite truck for uplinking the demo and set up a large LED wall consisting of a 32x11 configuration of Barco O-lite 510. The wall rolled IMAG of the event plus pre-produced content from A&E, stats, commercials, and text messages wishing Angel well.

“We used two Barco Folsom Encores in series which allowed us to treat the LED wall as one image area, a third Encore was used to send a camera feed to the web and a 4th one was used to build the control room John Ackerman. “We had four channels of effects playback, four channels of disk playback and six. We recorded all the cameras, then built highlight packages with an Avid A&E brought in and played them back during the event.”

Scharff Weisberg also supplied six Barco Folsom Image Pro HD scalers, a 42-inch NEC plasma monitor.

The large lighting package from Scharff Weisberg included VARI*LITE VL3000 spots, VARI*LITE VL3500 framing spots, Martin Atomic strobes, six-foot MR16 striplights, Martin Littlebig 3Ks, ARRI 2.5K/4K HMI Fresnels, Coemar LED Pars plus a grandMA and grandMA Light for control, four DF-50 hazers for atmosphere and a considerable amount of truss.

The roster of Scharff Weisberg-supplied audio equipment was also extensive. The company furnished a Crest X4 16+4 audio mixer, a Klark Teknik DN9848 speaker processor (4 in, 8 out), Klark Teknik DN360 Stereo EQs, Denon DN-C630 CD players and a DBX 166 2-channel compressor/limiters. Speakers included Apogee AE-2, Apogee AE-5 loudspeakers, Genelec 1031APM monitor speakers and Meyer 650-P subwoofers.

Scharff Weisberg also proved a Sennheiser E835s cardioid mic, Sennheiser hard-wired MKE-2 Omni lavaliers, 2 Shure UR4D 2-channel receivers with UR2 handheld transmitters plus communications gear, audio cables, snakes and accessories.

“With the use of technology to reinforce what was being seen, heard and demonstrated,” notes Troxel. “the LED screen allowed images to be displayed to thousands of people on site and tens of thousands of people on the web.”

In addition, Scharff Weisberg’s lighting “added to the dramatic element as well as enhanced the branding,” he says. And the “audio allowed the event to have an emcee describing what was happening at any given time and interacting with the crowd.”

Troxel reports that “working with Sharff Weisberg is always a pleasure. They make my event run flawlessly and make me, and more importantly, my clients extremely happy. I’m looking forward to the next project we can do together.”

With offices in Milwaukee, Chicago, Charlotte, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Toronto and Paris, GMR Marketing is a member of The Radiate Group, a global network of independently branded marketing services agencies operating within the Omnicom Group Inc. For more information about GMR Marketing, visit www.gmrlive.com or call Mary Christine at 262-780-6172.

Scharff Weisberg specializes in audio, video, lighting and post production technology for the corporate, social, arts and theater communities. For more information on Scharff Weisberg, call 718-610-1660 or visit their website at www.swinyc.com.

Chew on this: NBA signs Wrigley gum brands for 3 years

7/9/2007 12:00:00 AM

The NBA has wrapped up a sponsorship deal in the chewing gum category with a three-year leaguewide agreement with the William Wrigley Jr. Co.

Wrigley has signed on as presenting sponsor of the NBA’s Jam Van tour.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Wrigley will activate around five of its chewing gum brands in Juicy Fruit, Winterfresh, Doublemint, Big Red and Wrigley’s Spearmint. The deal also includes a media buy on NBA national broadcasts and is expected to eventually include team deals and endorsement deals with NBA players.

“This is a fully integrated agreement and Wrigley will be as active as any of our national marketing partners,” said Mark Tatum, senior vice president of marketing partnerships for the NBA.

The deal, which gives Wrigley exclusive rights in the chewing gum category, begins this summer with the company signing on as the presenting sponsor of the NBA’s Jam Van touring in 13 cities. A leaguewide marketing plan, including retail promotion, is expected to be in place for the coming season.

“They are looking to build their brand with our young, multicultural audience,” Tatum said. “It’s a significant deal. There will be a bunch of retail promotions and we are working on a major national promotion for next season.”

The Wrigley’s agreement does not include the WNBA and the NBA Development League.

“For now, it is with the NBA, but we continue to talk to them about all of our properties,” Tatum said.

This year, Wrigley’s signed on as a sponsor of Chip Ganassi Racing. The company is also a sponsor of Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Busch Series car.

Wrigley officials were not available for comment. GMR Marketing handled the NBA deal for Wrigley.

In the past year, most of the NBA’s partnership business has been done with Chinese companies, including computer maker Lenovo and appliance maker Haier.

Meanwhile, NBA officials said they continue to talk with Capital One regarding a deal that would fill the league’s vacant financial services category.

GMR recognized in Event Marketer magazine

6/30/2007 12:00:00 AM

GMR was recently honored with three Ex Awards. The following stories appeared in EM’s July issue.

2007 Best Mobile Marketing Program (Consumer)
Ex Award
Campaign: Road Trip Live
Client: McDonald’s
Agency: GMR Marketing

McDonald’s hit the road with two equally difficult objectives at the top of its list: connect with marketing-averse young adults during the busy summer season and differentiate Mickey D’s from the rest of the crowded QSR landscape. Mission—make that missions—accomplished. When the 100-day tour was complete, 81 percent of attendees surveyed said they believed McDonald’s was connected to cool and interesting things, and 77 percent reported that the program helped set the Golden Arches apart from the competition.

At each stop, guests could climb aboard the converted Airstream RV, chill out inside amid leather couches, TVs and video games, and party down on the rooftop deck. Partners provided goodies as premiums—Yahoo! contributed free ringtones and Magellan threw in GPS units, for example. A dj spun tunes while free food and celeb meet-and-greets completed the experience.

A secondary goal was to build awareness for other McDonald’s marketing assets—from national and local sponsorships to product and promotional initiatives. The tour hit a wide range of events, settling in at NASCAR races, movie premieres, Hot Import Nights at Shea Stadium and a block party in Chicago. To extend the impact beyond the live events, McDonald’s posted event webisodes and blogs on a Road Trip microsite. The tour’s two hosts supplemented their marketing duties with volunteer stints at Ronald McDonald Houses. Consumers not only said they enjoyed their time on board (with 90 percent saying it was appealing), but also reported that the Road Trip enhanced the host event (80 percent).

2007 Best Activation Of An Entertainment Sponsorship
Ex Award
Campaign: Axe Clix
Client: Unilever
Agency: GMR Marketing

First, the premise: Unilever introduced Clix, a line extension of the popular Axe body spray for men, with a TV ad in which the ultra-dreamy Nick Lachey uses a handheld clicker to keep track of all of the women he “clicks” with. Dreaminess notwithstanding, Lachey gets far fewer clicks than an ordinary Joe who happened to be wearing his Axe Clix spray.

The mission: extend the clicking phenomenon and bring the campaign to life while activating a sponsorship of a Ludacris concert tour. Axe kicked it off by seeding college fraternities with their own supply of clickers and staging “Hit Your Numbers” parties on campus. Ludacris’ video for the song “Money Maker” featured the clicker, and the artist sported a diamond-encrusted version during media interviews and other TV appearances to promote his concert tour. (Axe made it worth his while to talk up Clix by donating to Ludacris’ nonprofit foundation for every brand mention on the air.)

Once Ludacris hit the stage, the clicker also played prominently in the presentation for “Money Maker.” Meanwhile, the brand’s Axe Angels doled co-branded Clix/Ludacris towels to concertgoers. The partnership also extended through Ludacris’ CD release party in New York City, which generated additional press coverage, and the brand got one of its interns to write a story for Rolling Stone about a month on the road with the singer.

The results: Clix became one of the top-selling products in the brand portfolio and realized trial and repeat sales that exceeded those for other line extensions.

2007 Best Proprietary Property (Consumer)
Ex Award
Campaign: Miller Lite Taste Express Tour
Client: Miller Brewing Co.
Agency: GMR Marketing, Live Nation

With their grassroots feel, Miller Lite’s “Save the Taste” ads were ripe for a live event translation. The brand delivered with a proprietary music property unlike any other. Miller chartered a private train, called it the Miller Lite Taste Express, and hired recording artist Gavin DeGraw to get on board and travel across the country.

The vehicle, which began its journey in Los Angeles, was a full-on passenger train (complete with a dining car and lounge car) pulled by Amtrak.

DeGraw played private acoustic shows aboard the train as well as Miller Lite-sponsored club dates in the 11 cities where the train stopped, all of which were sold out. (For the on-board acoustic concerts, a national sweeps earlier in the year had given consumers a chance to win a ride on the train for one leg of the trip. Distributors and retailer VIPs were also invited.) Miller also leveraged with behind-the-scenes footage on its web site, where consumers could track the Taste Revolution online, watch daily video updates from the tracks and read daily blogs by DeGraw.

The train traveled all the way to the East Coast (Philadelphia and Washington, DC), before circling back to Milwaukee for the wrap-up concert in early June.

Local and national promotions around the initiative lasted from March to May, encouraging thousands to get involved in the Taste Revolution. Those who “joined” and attended the custom-sponsored events were treated to a limited number of complimentary Miller Lites (where legal, of course). Price specials were also offered at on-premise promotions and club events to further reward attendees for choosing to Save the Taste.

Gum Brands Increase Sponsorship Spending To Boost Sales, Gain Share

6/13/2007 12:00:00 AM

Unfortunately for chewing gum manufacturers, consumers’ mouths aren’t the only things cooling off these days. So are sales in a category that just five years ago was growing at a 20 percent annual clip.

Under pressure in part from the growing popularity of mints, sales of gum at supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandisers grew just 4.19 percent from ’05 to ’06, according to Information Resources, Inc.

Those numbers have prompted increased sponsorship from two of the country’s three largest gum manufacturers: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. and Cadbury Adams USA LLC. Cadbury’s Canadian sibling also has taken a new tie.

Wrigley’s new activity includes niche efforts aimed at Latinos and college students, as well as a mass-market push through ties to two NASCAR teams.

Cadbury is putting more marketing firepower behind its year-old Stride gum through presenting status of the Virgin College Mega Tour and title of an online video game competition. Meanwhile, Cadbury Adams Canada, Inc. this summer will sponsor the four Canadian stops of the Vans Warped Tour presented by AT&T on behalf of its Bubblicious brand.

Wrigley Stretches Efforts Across Property Types
To connect with Hispanic consumers, Wrigley will cosponsor the fall tour of reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee on behalf of its Orbit gum. The company also has launched Planeta Wrigley, a multi-brand mobile marketing program that features a music stage, soccer and basketball playing areas, climbing wall, tech lounge, and oxygen and gum bars.

Wrigley plans to take the program to roughly 13 markets this year, with stops including Taste of Chicago, Los Angeles’ AT&T Fiesta Broadway and San Diego’s Street Scene, as well as at retailer locations.

The tour is managed by Chicago-based Cardenas Marketing Network, which sold the program to Wrigley. The gum manufacturer reportedly plans to conduct Planeta Wrigley over the next two years.

To reach college students, Wrigley is sponsoring the MTVU College Invasion Tour. The sponsorship follows a nine-stop “Official Sponsor of Finals Week” college mobile marketing tour this past April and May.

Wrigley this year entered the world of NASCAR on behalf of its five core gum brands through team sponsorships of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and Evernham Motorsports.

Through its Ganassi deal, Wrigley is aligned with drivers Reed Sorenson and David Stremme, who are driving the Wrigley-branded car in this season’s first 25 Busch Series races.

When Sorenson is behind the wheel, the car will carry primary sponsorship from the Juicy Fruit brand, while Stremme’s ride will carry the Winterfresh name and colors. Wrigley will be an associate sponsor on the car for the remaining 10 races.

Core brand Big Red will be the primary sponsor of Ganassi’s Nextel Cup entry driven by Juan Pablo Montoya in three races and an associate sponsor the rest of the season. Wrigley will use its tie to Evernham for a Doublemint primary sponsorship of a Kasey Kahne-driven entry in November’s Busch Series race in Phoenix.

The Wrigley’s Spearmint brand, while not getting its own car, will be promoted in all of the company’s racing activation.

Wrigley aligned each brand with a driver that exemplifies its personality, said Suzanne Yeager, account director with GMR Marketing, which manages the NASCAR tie-ins on behalf of Wrigley.

The 21-year-old Sorenson matches up with Juicy Fruit’s youthful positioning, Stremme exemplifies Winterfresh’s edgy image, Montoya is aligned with Big Red’s spicy profile and Kahne fits with Doublemint’s wholesome attributes, Yeager said.

Wrigley is activating the tie with a Sweetest Ride sweepstakes that offers consumers the chance to vote for their favorite driver in exchange for the chance to win one of four Dodge Chargers customized by each driver.

The company is touting the sweeps through a dedicated Web site–WrigleyRacing.com–as well as through on-package and p-o-s materials that were rolled out last week. The site also touts an ancillary promotion offering race-themed merchandise to consumers who mail in UPC codes from Wrigley multipacks.

At the racetracks, Wrigley is entertaining employees and retail customers, Yeager said.

Wrigley’s sponsorships are overseen by Paul Chibe, vice president of U.S. marketing.

Stride Replaces Dentyne On College Tour; Bubblicious Repositions
Cadbury’s Stride brand presented this spring’s 18-city Virgin College Mega Tour. Stride took over the role from the company’s Dentyne Fire and Dentyne Ice brands, which co-presented for the past three years.

The company leveraged the tie with advance campus visits by Stride-branded vehicles that sampled the brand’s new Sweet Peppermint flavor. It also gained sales rights at Virgin Megastore locations as a result of the sponsorship, said Martin Berman, president of Integrate Marketing, which produces the tour.

In addition, the brand has incorporated its tagline into title of The Ridiculously Long Lasting Stride Xfire Cup online gaming competition, which was developed by interactive agency MEC Interaction and gaming software provider Xfire, Inc.

Lynne Vandeveer, marketing director for Stride, spearheaded the ties.

Meanwhile, Cadbury Adams Canada is sponsoring the Warped Tour stops to support the year-old repositioning of Bubblicious bubble gum.

Cadbury launched new marketing efforts to revitalize the brand and gain a point of differentiation from its main competitor–Wrigley’s Hubba Bubba. The skateboard-themed campaign is designed to position Bubblicious as an aspirational brand to its eight-to-13-year-old target.

“Hubba Bubba is targeted at an eight-to-10-year-old audience. Our target is aspiring up to 16-year-olds,” said Brennan Lalonde, Bubblicious’ brand manager for Cadbury Adams Canada.

On site, the brand is sponsoring the tour’s skateboard demonstrations and will sample its Bubblicious Bursts line extension; retail promotions are in the works, Lalonde said.

GMR Listed in Adforum.com and Adweek Magazine “2007 Agency Preview Guide”

6/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

The 2007 Agency Preview Guide published by Adforum.com and Adweek Magazine in June, 2007 includes the following information about GMR:

GMR is the nation’s most experienced live marketing firm, providing partner clients with strategically sound, professionally executed marketing solutions that engage customers in dynamic brand experiences. For 28 years, GMR has been creating and executing innovative interactive marketing programs in music, sports and lifestyle environments, touching and motivating more than 50 million people each year. The agency’s extensive experience with various consumer segments and industries, along with its knowledge about brand lifestages, enable GMR to offer clients culturally relevant, unique and valuable insights about contemporary trends in the marketplace.

GMR Marketing And Miller Brewing Company Extend “Live” Marketing Relationship

5/21/2007 12:00:00 AM

GMR Marketing, LLC (GMR) and Miller Brewing Company (Miller) have officially extended their “live” marketing relationship for the 28th year. GMR has been developing and implementing live event marketing programs for Miller since 1979, when Miller was signed as the agency’s first client.

“Gary Reynolds (GMR Chairman) approached Miller 28 years ago with a Band Network program,” said GMR President Craig Connelly, “and the rest has become part of successful marketing history. It’s interesting for us to sit back and not only look at how the industry has changed, but how together, both GMR and Miller have continued to push each other to pursue and implement innovative marketing.”

Music and sports marketing have changed since the early days of the GMR/Miller relationship. From banners and product sampling; to multi-million dollar mobile and concert tours; to branded-ownable activations, GMR and Miller are continually on the cutting edge of capturing consumers’ attention through award winning programs such as the Miller Lite Taste Express.

“In a time when maintaining a healthy and successful client/agency relationship is becoming more of a challenge, we are incredibly fortunate to have developed such a strong partnership with GMR,” said Dockery Clark, Sports & Alliance Marketing with Miller Brewing Company. “GMR certainly has helped us penetrate the sports, music and entertainment industries with our brand visibility.”

GMR provides Miller with strategic development, creative concepting, negotiation, program management and execution support around all the brewery’s sports and music marketing properties.

GMR Marketing “Live” Event Programs Recognized

5/17/2007 12:00:00 AM

GMR Marketing, LLC (GMR) was recognized Monday night at the Event Marketer Magazine Summit in Chicago, receiving three EX Awards.

“It goes without saying we strive to give our clients award-winning service everyday,” said GMR President Craig Connelly, “and when you receive national recognition for your work, it just confirms your philosophies are correct. You can’t go wrong when you’ve got great clients and staff that we have here at GMR. As popularity of live marketing grows, so does our competition. We’re very pleased our innovative thinking and hard work keeps us leading the industry.”

Event Marketer Magazine’s 2007 Ex Award finalists were judged by 20 brand-side marketers who selected the Ex winner, Gold and Silver winners in 26 categories. The award show is part of a three-day Experiential Marketing Summit in Chicago and in just four years, the Ex Awards have become the event industry’s greatest symbol of recognition. The only award program focused 100% on event marketing; this year’s Ex Awards drew a record setting 600+ entries from around the world.

Miller Save the Taste Express Tour – Best Proprietary Property
GMR and Miller Lite took Gavin DeGraw on the road with this multi-city concert tour that traveled the country by train. Consumer contest winners and key retail/distribution partners enjoyed private acoustic shows aboard the train car. Following each private show, publicly ticketed larger club shows provided a once in a lifetime concert experience. In all, more than 7500 consumers saw the concerts in 10 key markets.

Unilever Axe Clix - Best Activation of an Entertainment Sponsorship
This unprecedented branded entertainment partnership seamlessly integrated Axe Clix body spray with hip hop icon Ludacris. Axe introduced the concept of clicking a hand held gadget when you “click” with a member of opposite sex. Ludacris integrated Axe Clix and used his custom clicker in public appearances, in his concerts and in his “Money Maker” video. Axe turned Ludacris’ tour bus into the Axe Clix Room where he would conduct interviews and hang out with fans. The Clix MySpace page made over 84,000 friends, and the program enjoyed impressive sales results quickly becoming the category leader and the number one Unilever variant sold in Wal-Mart stores.

McDonald’s® Road Trip Live - Best Mobile Marketing Program
McDonald’s realized that young adult customers – most of who live their lives on the go and on their own terms - were not all found in one place. The mission of Road Trip Live was to interact and engage with young adults in the places they love to be, while reinforcing McDonald’s brand message “i’m lovin’ it™”. GMR hired two young adult hosts who traveled the country and recorded their adventures with young adults at the hottest live events. . Traveling in a customized RV, the tour was on the road for 110 days, visiting concerts, sporting events, and even red carpet premieres. These unique live experiences were captured and produced into webisodes and blogs and featured on an official Road Trip website, where young adults could also interact and be part of the experience. Road Trip Live drove activation of McDonald’s existing alliances and partners and complemented brand marketing activities. Generating over 10 million impressions and exceptionally high program scores in post attitudinal measures, the tour successfully engaged with young adults with the brand.

Brands take one-to-one approach

5/14/2007 12:00:00 AM

Health concerns and a blizzard of alternatives have combined to make soft-drink sales lose their fizz in recent years, a trend that makes the popular notion of one-to-one marketing all the more vital for Pepsi, Coke and other brands.

The concept is simple: Establish a back-and-forth repartee with your customer (chiefly through online methods), collect and analyze the names and preferences of said customer and — ta da! — sell more of your storied, syrupy drinks.

Pepsi and Coke (and their sister soft drink brands, such as Mountain Dew and Sprite) have long counted sports as a major part of their marketing and sponsorship portfolios. Thus, the one-to-one focus is no different, with ample emphasis on ties to various sports leagues and teams.

“In the past, the data, the methodology of identifying these individuals wasn’t there,” said Tony Besasie, senior vice president at GMR Marketing.

“Now the technology is coming to our aid. You can identify an individual and correlate their interests with cellular, online and the rest. It’s a real opportunity for one-to-one interaction.”

My Coke Rewards, an online-driven program launched last year, aims to boost sales by enticing customers to earn points for prizes small (replica basketballs) and large (a $10,000 home-entertainment system). Coke products carry codes that can be entered at the site to create an account and accumulate points. To date, 5 million drinkers have signed on to the program. The figure includes other Coke-owned soft drinks as well as other beverages made by the company.

Though the Coke rewards program cuts across a wide swath of interests, including music, movies and more, sports play a pivotal role. In fact, My Coke Rewards launched in February 2006 on 20-ounce Coke bottles, with the first major marketing push tied to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. (Coke is a major NCAA sponsor.) Coke executives motivated hoops fans to sign up by promoting a range of unique prizes and offers during CBS broadcasts of tournament games. The sweepstakes offerings included a visit from a major college basketball coach and tickets to the following year’s Final Four.

“You tell us what your passions are,” said Michael La Kier, director of My Coke Rewards. “It’s very much an Amazon [.com]-like way [of reaching customers] versus the past of saying, ‘Here is what we think is important.’ We put you in the driver’s seat and let you decide what’s important.”

Pepsi, too, is making an aggressive bid to lure and keep customers using similar methods. The motivation for both companies, as well as smaller players such as Cadbury Schweppes’ Dr Pepper brand, is to instill loyalty while also gathering a valuable database that allows the companies to keep the conversation going.

Leading into the most recent Super Bowl, Pepsi, the official beverage of the NFL, used its football connection to further a campaign based on morphing cola can designs throughout the year. The company played off the iconic Vince Lombardi championship trophy awarded to the Super Bowl champions, as well as players’ jewel-encrusted rings, to create a one-of-a-kind $100,000 Pepsi can. Pepsi drinkers, through an online code, had a chance to win the commemorative can, as well as lifetime tickets to the big game, once the winning number was unveiled at halftime of the Super Bowl.

Ralph Santana, Pepsi vice president of sports, media and interactive marketing, said the Super Bowl can promotion ranks as one of the company’s largest online promotions, similar to a highly successful campaign tied to pop star Britney Spears five years ago.

The cola companies, like most marketers, emphasize the need for strong sponsorship partners to enable them to lure current and potential customers into their Web sites and other promotions. Tactics include prizes and giveaways as well as video vignettes, text messages and so on.

Though none of the companies discusses specific sales gains or marketing budgets, it is clear the soft-drink brands have ramped up one-to-one marketing, most through online campaigns and other so-called new media, often at the expense of more traditional advertising.

Two years ago, Dr Pepper and the rest of the Cadbury Schweppes drinks portfolio did not include any staffers dedicated to interactive and emerging media. Now it does.

“Emerging media tends to get more money thrown at it,” said Gerald Johnson, vice president of promotions and events at Cadbury Schweppes. “Everything has its season. At the same time, people are reluctant to throw the entire kitchen sink at [interactive] because the measurements haven’t caught up.”

Dr Pepper uses its role as a sponsor of the major college athletic conferences to drive one-to-one marketing. A promotion last fall offered prizes for customers who went online to predict college football games against ESPN Radio host Mike Golic, for example.

Soft drink marketing executives and industry experts say the key to making the technology effective in the new, narrowed world of specialized marketing depends upon the creativity of the offering. People won’t go to a Web site to look at a logo; they have to be motivated by something more appetizing.

La Kier, the Coke executive, points to a series of NASCAR prizes that include Tony Stewart’s racing helmet, Kyle Petty’s car hood and lug nuts taken from the tires of actual race cars. When My Coke Rewards put 250 lug nuts on the site, fans snapped them up in a single day.

Pepsi has used its database to motivate drinkers in a variety of ways. For its Mountain Dew brand, a soft drink closely linked with action sports, the company created an action sports video-game link that was sent to customers through personalized e-mails. NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, a Pepsi endorser, is part of a new promotion online that allows consumers to design a paint scheme for his race car — with the best entry selected for actual use on the racetrack.

“That’s compelling,” said Santana. “To make this work, you’ve got to have a reason (for consumers to visit your Web site). And you’ve got to keep them there.”

Erik Spanberg writes for The CharlotteBusiness Journal, an affiliated publication.

GMR Honored at Radiate Awards

4/9/2007 12:00:00 AM

GMR was recently named "Radiate Group Agency of the Year" at the 2007 Radiate Summit held in Las Vegas. In addition, the Axe Gamekillers program was the Best Entertainment Program, and the Jeep Compass Uncharted Tour won for Best New Product Launch.

Axe Gamekillers was a college guest speaker tour featuring comedian Mo Rocca. Brought to you by Axe Dry, Mo educated college students on the various "Gamekillers" that are working to interrupt their attempts to make romantic connections. Axe filled college lecture halls across the country and more than 5,600 students attended Gamekillers presentations. Total impressions are estimated at 31,766,564.

The Jeep Compass Uncharted Tour set out to launch the new Jeep Compass to a younger demographic. Focusing on 18-30 year olds, the music tour signed eight developing artists to travel in a Compass and perform street concerts and scheduled shows. The Uncharted Artists performed 300 concerts in 40 markets over the four week program and pages on Myspace and Facebook made more than 20,000 total friends and artist’s songs received over 120,000 listens on Myspace.

Event Marketer Magazine Names GMR in Top Agencies Listing

4/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

In its first ever listing of the Top 100 Event Agencies, Event Marketer calls GMR “an industry vet, as good as ever”. They go on to say “If we started an industry Hall of Fame, founder Gary Reynolds would be the first (well, maybe the second) inductee. The giant that in many ways sparked the entire event infection has turned into the b-to-c agency world’s largest player, and the anchor of Omnicom’s growing Radiate Group. Once a mobile marketing tour de force, GMR has become a premier full-service shop, focusing as much on strategic solutions as it does on the tactical prowess that has set the standard for years.”

Toronto Agency Adds Manpower To Meet Growing Client Roster And Needs

3/12/2007 12:00:00 AM

GMR Marketing-Canada welcomes Dan Sorotschynski as Director of Client Services. Sorotchynski brings 6 years of agency experience and will be a leader in offering clients fully developed strategic communication platforms.

“Dan caught our eye because of the level of marketing experience he brings to the table and for the wide range of clients he has worked with in the past,” said Scott O’Hara, Managing Director of GMR Marketing-Canada.

Sorotschynski will be working with internal account teams to develop and oversee implementation of all projects coming in and out the door. "GMR is a growing agency that is driven by sound strategic thinking and precise execution," said Sorotschynski.

"I look forward to working with our team to build integrated programs for our current and future clients that get noticed, are on strategy and drive results."

Street-to-Screen Casting Call

3/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

If you missed some stunt that a marketer pulled on the street today, don't worry. Chances are it'll end up on TV-and not necessarily on the evening news.

Call it reality marketing or street-to-screen marketing. But brands are bringing their events to the screen through ads and programming in 30-second and 60-minute increments.

Take Proctor & Gamble. The firm co-hosted the first Bunco World Tour Championship for its Prilosec OTC heartburn medicine last month, and featured it in a one-hour special on the Oxygen cable network. And it is now hosting bunco parties across the country.

The target audience? Roughly 17 million middle-aged suburban women who are behind the resurgence of the decades-old dice game.

In a similar vein, cable network GSN will hold its National Vocabulary Championship finals in New York City this month, then feature the event on April 15 in a one-hour show.

Then there's Kleenex. The tissue brand set up a couch on street corners in four cities and invited passers-by to have a chat with a congenial Good Listener. The best bits — a teary moment, an earth-shaking sneeze — were used in TV ads, the theme of which, “Let it Out,” positions Kleenex as part of emotional moments. The couch — and a video crew — are now on their way to 12 more cities.

The idea of repackaging a promotion into TV content isn't new. Unilever pioneered the strategy in 2002 with its “Axe House Party,” a shindig in a Miami mansion. Attended by 100 contest winners, the event was filmed for a one-hour program on cable network TNN.

But these on-air replays are now more commonplace. For one thing, they allow a brand to capture a street campaign (ideally, impromptu endorsements from real people) and bring it to a broader audience. The result is more controllable than that of a PR pickup, and further blurs the line between marketing and entertainment.

Beyond that, there are two advantages. First, of course, is that the brand can get more bang for its buck. A $100,000 street event provides ready-made footage, amortizing the cost to reach a wider audience. And a promo that ends up on-air can pull additional funding from ad and even content-production budgets.

For example, GSN pooled marketing, programming and sponsorship dollars for its National Vocabulary Challenge, the finals of which sponsors Sharpie, Sony Credit Card, Neutrogena, Orbitz and American Heritage covered about half the costs.

And now the network is signing more sponsors for fall, and eventually hopes to fund the full event through sponsorship fees, says Joel Chiodi, GSN's vice president of marketing.

GSN's campaign is in many ways a casebook study of how to proceed. To do it, the network dropped a two-year-old mall tour. Then it teamed up with The Princeton Review to create the contest. Schools registered to get test materials created by the publication, and students were tested on it by their teachers.

Next? The 100 kids who scored highest in each city competed in a local game show-style competition hosted by GSN star Dylan Lane, and produced by American Idol producer Andy Scheer. The finalists will travel to New York this month to compete for a $40,000 scholarship.

Another 30,000 kids who live outside the tour cities took the test online at www.WinWithWords.com. Of those, 3,000 competed in regional finals in 75 sites.

Who else wins from this? The cable affiliates in the tour cities. They get video-on-demand programming, showcasing local kids.

“We're a standalone network, so we have to give affiliates great programs that make them look good to their local community,” Chiodi says. “That helps us negotiate strong channel position” against bigger media companies with multiple networks.

P&G, meanwhile, realized that it could reach Prilosec OTC's core user, middle-aged women, at bunco parties, where the snacks are as big a draw as the dice. So it licensed the World Bunco Association's trademarks through 2008.

The 2006 tournament contenders, all 1,000 of them, played on tables covered with Prilosec-purple tablecloths, and used cups and napkins bearing the brand name.

Why bunco? Research showed that 20% of all frequent heartburn sufferers are interested in bunco.

The second annual World Bunco Championship will occur later this month, the finale to Prilosec OTC's own “Bunco World Tour,” a series of four regional tournaments held over the last two months in Kansas City, San Antonio, Atlantic City and Nashville. Four regional finalists and two additional players chosen by wildcard drawings won trips to the finals.

Roughly 1,200 women registered to compete at the events. And those free seats were filled within 12 hours, with another 1,000 people on the waiting list. The top prize is $50,000.

This isn't only about bunco. P&G will have a pharmacist on site to answer questions about heartburn and give away Prilosec OTC samples. And another P&G brand, Folgers, will hand out samples of Simply Smooth, a beverage created for easy digestion. P&G works with several agencies to execute the tour, including Jack Morton Worldwide.

Some reality marketing efforts play off real news events. For example, HP sent a van outfitted with scanners and printers to New Orleans after Katrina struck, inviting residents to bring family photos damaged by the storm. The computer marketer's team restored 300 photos, then hung them in a makeshift gallery for families to view before taking them home.

The project was featured in ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition series, in an episode titled “After The Storm.”

Emotional moments
And Kleenex? It has filmed consumer interactions to use in ads to drive more engagement.

The first Good Listener spots were filmed with street-corner couches in New York, New Orleans, San Francisco and London. And when they broke in January, they prompted a flood of calls.

“People wanted to know if the Good Listener is a real guy, and if they could sit on the couch,” says Dave Brotherton, associate brand manager, Kleenex translation.

They can this month, when Kimberly Clark begins its 12-city tour. The Good Listener (played by a character actor who once was a social worker) will chat with consumers. And brand reps will pass out cards with a thought-provoking question that visitors can answer on the spot.

GMR Marketing, which handles the tour, will film the sessions for use on a new Web site, www.LetItOut.com, and main agency JWT may use them for future TV spots.

“When they were filming the ads, people's stories were so powerful,” says Amanda Boyle, vice president and group account director at GMR. “We wanted to be sure we could capture them at the events, too.”

JWT still has “an embarrassment of riches” from its earlier shoots, says JWT creative director Richie Glickman. “People are just starting to see the tip of it. But it's important to have timely online content [from the tour] that we can also use for ads on other sites.”

Having the same Good Listener on-air and on tour gives continuity, Glickman adds: “Having the same person from the TV spots gives a nice bigness to the events.” The ad-and-event campaign marks a strategy shift after seven years with the tagline “Thank goodness for Kleenex.”

“We wanted to make the brand's role more active in people's lives,” says Matt Crum, Kleenex brand development director. “We wanted more of a two-way dialogue.

You can't rely on just a TV spot when you're asking people to talk about emotions that make them cry. “The idea demands personal interaction at some point,” Crum says. “The kind of authentic comments that people make on the couch — we couldn't reproduce that in a studio.”

Kleenex will be in Los Angeles, the city with the biggest school district, in time for back-to-school, the brand's second-biggest season (behind cold/flu season). Kids and teachers will tell how they feel about school; video clips will run on the Web site.

This is Kimberly-Clark's first experiential push for Kleenex, as the brand shifts money from mass media to more targeted vehicles.

The first TV spots affected “only the few dozen people who sat on the couch,” Crum says. “Building it out with other ways for people to participate [gives us] a happy medium with a big-splash event and the broader reach of the ads.”

Sometimes content ends up on a DVD. Warner Bros. Consumer Products is pitching Speedy Gonzalez to skateboarders with a six-week tour starring pros Danny Gonzalez, Patrick Melcher and Steve Caballero.

At each tour stop, crews film the performance for a DVD that eventually will sell in skateboard shops alongside Speedy apparel. Local kids get to skate with the stars, too; tour producers will pick one kid in each market to include in the DVD.

Talk about bragging rights. (Those kids each get a copy of the DVD, gratis.) Grand Central Marketing, New York handles the tour. Intersection, Los Angeles, produces the DVD.

“The skater community has a tradition of DVDs of top skaters' best tricks, sold at parks and shops,” says Grand Central CEO Matthew Glass. “That lends authenticity to what we're doing.”

The three skaters shoot their own footage on the road between stops. That feeds a dedicated Web site, www.AndalePosse.com, and 10 other sites that get new video and blog updates three times a week. “We expect to reach more people online than via DVDs,” Glass says. But the DVDs build Warner Brothers' presence in stores, and cement a long-term link to the sport.

Web coverage is standard these days for tours and experiential campaigns. Meow Mix borrowed from MTV's Real World and CBS' Survivor last summer for Meow Mix House. A Manhattan storefront housed Meow Mix House, where a passel of cats lived in full view of passers-by.

Three-minute segments aired on Animal Planet for 10 weeks, asking viewers to vote one cat out of the house each week. (Those cats were adopted.) A 24-hour Webcam drew 2.5 million visitors to a dedicated Web site, far more than Animal Planet's viewership, Glass says.

Web coverage of tours and events is standard stuff these days. The TV tie-in? There's a trend that's worth watching.

Double takes
Kleenex tested its couch concept, “Let it Out,” for a few days in New York last spring. “We put a couch out to see if people would actually sit and play with the idea,” says Richie Glickman, creative director at JWT. “Part of the charm is that people will share in the midst of the chaos of a busy street.”

Of course, participants signed release forms for JWT to use their likeness in ads.

That's a trickier task on shoots for “truth” ads, the anti-tobacco campaign that stages alarming demonstrations to illustrate the damage done by tobacco. A cowboy rides into Manhattan, then sings around a campfire — through the tracheotomy hole in his throat. Ten half-naked men get their backs shaved with the chemical that's in hair remover — and cigarettes. It's the unvarnished reaction of passers-by that drive the message home.

While “truth” agencies Crispin, Porter + Bogusky and Arnold Worldwide shoot the spots live, production assistants scan the crowd to see who reacts, then asks those pedestrians to sign a release form to appear in the spot. “It's a lot of work to run around and get people to sign the forms,” says Trish O'Callaghan, a spokesperson for the American Legacy Foundation, which runs the “truth” campaign.

GMR is Recognized with Mulitple Awards in 2006

2/28/2007 12:00:00 AM

Intel Cyberathletes Professional League
2006 Reggie Awards: Promotion Marketing Association
International / Global Promotion
GMR worked with Intel and their existing sponsorship of the Cyberathletes Professional League to establish the first ever global computer gaming competition. Events were held in nine countries with 50,000+ gamers/consumers participating in the tournament. At the NYC Grand Finals, the top 32 players battled for $500,000 and bragging rights as the world’s best gamer. Program extensions included “beat the pro” competitions, live entertainment, on-line live stream broadcast to 98 countries, and a 30 minute TV special titled “From Game to Fame” that aired primetime on MTV reaching over a million households.

Kimberly Clark Scott Common Sense Tour
2006 Ex Awards: Event Marketer Magazine
Best Mobile Marketing Program (B-to-C)
Kimberly Clark wanted to leverage its unique “common sense” brand positioning, generate trial of their SCOTT products and launch the new SCOTT Extra Soft Tissue. GMR created “The House that Common Sense Built” and took it on the road to give smart consumers a chance to share their common sense tricks and learn from other pragmatic consumers. The 55 foot pop out “house” had a kitchen, bathroom, kids’ room and living room and was filled with “take a tip” dispensers and common sense advice. In the end, over 1,010,000 common sense tips were shared during the six month 13 market tour, and SCOTT Extra Soft enjoyed a brand growth from number four in dollar sales in the category to number two.

Wrigley Winterfresh SnoCore Tour
2006 Ex Awards: Event Marketer Magazine
Best Activation of an Entertainment Sponsorship
This fully integrated traveling lifestyle/music tour hit 39 cities in the US and Canada targeting the tough to reach teen/young adult demographic. On behalf of Wrigley, GMR negotiated the title rights, leveraged existing media buy, developed a tie in with MTV2 for custom programming, and secured tour artists’ rights for extended use on the brand’s interactive website. The tour generated over 30,000,000 impressions, and the brand enjoyed a 10% sales increase across tour markets during the tour.

AXE College Ambassadors
2006 Pro Awards: Promo Magazine
Best Campaign Targeting a Micro Audience
2006 Globe Awards: MAAW
Best Brand Building Campaign
GMR took AXE to the next level with a wink and nod to show college men that AXE knows what it takes to succeed in the “mating game”. Ambitious, bright, popular brand evangelists infiltrated campus’ social networks across the country executing never before seen initiatives such as unique theme parties, guerilla seeding tactics and customized kit distributions. The brand enjoyed a 27.3% incremental sales lift in Ambassador markets and was featured in a Time Magazine article about the power and effectiveness of word-of-mouth and buzz marketing.