Agencies that lead bring more value than order takers

By Robert Wheatley

Hugh MacLeod is a creative and insightful expert who regularly exposes the soft underside of the marketing world — and helps us laugh at ourselves. His thoughts, expressed as graphic images, can be down right powerful. Today’s post in some respects is a perfect foil for a few of his engaging ideas. (Check out gapingvoid.com – and subscribe to his daily image emails).

Great work falling from great ideas can transform the future direction and growth of business. Yet more often than not, by definition, it will require clients to stretch, to have faith and take risk. And none of this will see the light of day unless agencies step up to passionately support and defend solid out-of-the-ordinary thinking. This is often the price of strategic concepts that are unique, unexpected and disruptive (in a positive way).

An insightful article on this subject was published today by Cory Treffelett of Catalyst SF. You can read it here . In his excellent piece he accurately describes the difference between a vendor and partner style relationship between agency and client. Essentially the order taker vs. the leader.

Good agencies are in the strategic idea creation business. Clients make investments in programs and concepts that will grow business, build brand reputation and attract or retain new customers. No easy task. And I can recount over the years in virtually every instance of needle-busting results, innovative concepts always supplied the accelerant. Thus risk and leadership is demanded of the agency.

The path of least resistance is easily followed and at times it feels much safer to stay within the comfortable bounds of serenity — a quiet surf made calm by the absence of tough discussion that can whip up a big wave or two along the way.

Fear – collectively our greatest enemy
What stands in the way of great ideas and game-changing initiatives? It’s fear. Fear of rocking the boat. Fear of losing the account. Fear of failure. Fear of disagreement. Fear of ruffling feathers. Fear of slaying sacred cows. Fear of the unknown. Fear of folded arms and taught expressions. Fear of shaking heads. Fear not being loved. Fear of losing the budget. Fear of the boss. Fear of mistakes. Fear of conflict. Fear of perception leading reality. Fear of risk, of making the big bet. This insidious human condition interferes so many times, closing the gate on otherwise powerful moves that may occasionally require a willingness to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

This is not a call to arrogance and conceited behavior by the way. What is in the client’s best interests at all times will be growth and development of their brand and their business results. The fact that innovation is often at the fulcrum of transformative periods only means that risk will be part of the mix in bringing these things to fruition. Clients who are challenged by their agencies to accomplish more through bolder initiatives are needed now more than ever. And are often in short supply for all of the reasons mentioned above. Just take the order, do the work and make sure everyone is happy and smiling all of the time? No great thing was ever accomplished by simply riding the existing wave. Blazing a new trail will be required of us.

Agencies and Clients Together Offer the Best Formula…
There’s an old saying, “an agency is only as good as its client.” Well in some end-game sort of reference I suppose this is true if all you ever hear is no. Should clients run from risk and punish their agency for bringing bold ideas then Houston, we have a problem!! Ultimately however, agencies have an obligation to bring this kind of thinking routinely. It should be the rule rather than the exception.

Clients can help this process by openly inviting and encouraging their agency partners to challenge them, to say no when its necessary, to think big, to look for new territory to trail-blaze. In essence to disrupt the category conventions and accepted brand behaviors that can deter major leaps ahead. Clients also acquire an obligation: to be willing to approve and fund campaigns with risk involved. And be prepared to accept a mistake along the way and learn from it.

This kind of healthy give and take — lively discourse built around discovery and epiphany — is essential if transformative programs are to get out of the developmental garage. Our daily mantra should be to make this quest genuinely a part of our culture and operating philosophy. To do less is to compromise the values and integrity of what we’re on the planet to accomplish.

What do you think?

By Robert Wheatley


This is the story (heads up this is a feature-style post) of crazy commitment, of all-nighters and pushing beyond the limits we often place in front of ourselves. The effort delivered success for a brand and taught a person (me) what you can accomplish when you’re willing to dispense with fear (and sleep) to do something big.

It was 1990 and I had just walked off the edge of the cliff. For 11 years, ten of them in a relative state of happiness and personal growth, I had been working for Ogilvy & Mather – a wonderful firm that invested heavily to teach its emerging talent how to create powerful communications ideas and how to run profitable agency businesses. My last year was not so fun, filled with trepidation around a career move I did not want (so ordered by my boss) to a city I had no plans to live in (sorry Windy City but at the time I was living in LA and had client roots there) doing work that was not so challenging (vast difference in point of view between West Coast group I ran – progressive – and the Chicago office of Ogilvy – conservative).

And then it happened. After seven already unhappy months Ogilvy was sold in a hostile takeover to Sir Martin Sorrel and the final unraveling began in earnest. By March of 1990, after just 15 months in Chicago, I resigned from the place I thought I would be for the rest of my career and started a firm from scratch, working out of my partner’s storage room in her apartment.

We had just convinced Sara Lee to take a big risk, too. To hire a brand new agency to represent this venerable and iconic business at a moment in its 50-year history when it was most vulnerable. Years of share and profit declines had finally caught up and the brand was on the ropes. We had been talking to Sara Lee about a relationship while at Ogilvy but a conflict arising from the New York O&M advertising office stopped the conversation dead in its tracks.

How to resolve a client conflict? Surgically remove the conflict by starting a new firm (thus producing said cliff to jump off of). Our deal with Sara Lee was unique: they would literally own our firm for a year as we agreed not to solicit any new accounts. In return we got the business and a healthy budget to get our agency in motion. What got us to the deal table? A very BIG idea — one that involved risk all around but had the potential to arrest Sara Lee’s decline.

This is the PR business, and if you want to secure the kind and quality of media coverage that can transform your business outcomes, you need to go big. Events make news. And we were about to do the mother of all media events.

Something extraordinary and disruptive for a brand that had been around since the late 1940’s: in six months time we built The First International Symposia on Dessert. We had struck a moment in food brand history when dessert was getting hit right and left by news of new reduced fat products and technologies, coalescing over concerns that dessert was a major contributor to growing American waistlines.

People decided certain kinds of sweets (baked goods for one) were bad and stopped buying them. While new brands were emerging with low fat technologies to cut calories. Sara Lee was left flat-footed in this time of “no thank you” to dessert options and so-called “full calorie” products.

So, with a portfolio of new reduced fat products in the wings, plus an agreement to bring the real Sara Lee out of obscurity to become the face of the brand (named after her by her father when she was nine years old), and a strategy to revitalize and re-stage Sara Lee as a relevant and contemporary brand — we set in motion a major media experience…

Vienna, Austria: land of dessert, palaces and Mozart

Our event concept was predicated on capturing the hearts and minds of top food media from the US and Canada. To do this, we needed to give them content that was unique and compelling in a setting that would engage their imagination. We were determined to “own” them for at least three days time, away from their offices and schedules in an environment we controlled.

Vienna is the dessert capitol of the world. Dessert as we know it (cakes, pastries) was invented here. To be an acclaimed pastry chef in Vienna is to achieve our equivalent of culinary superstardom. We brought the idea to the Viennese tourism board, the Austrian economic chamber, Imperial hotels and Austrian Airlines. All bought in to the opportunity to host a large contingent of US food media, knowing the coverage opportunities this could offer. In return we got access to palaces at no charge, free ground transportation, cheap airline tickets and hotel rooms.

We worked literally around the clock to do all of this within six months of our being hired. We constructed a three-day schedule of seminars, events and hands-on experiences we knew would supply editorial angles appropriate to an array of food media from Good Housekeeping to Associated Press. Also ladled in was entertainment for the editors on a scale that we knew would trump anything they had seen previously. This included an exclusive concert with the Vienna Symphony just for them in the very palace where Mozart performed his first concert when he was six years old.

In total 56 editors and writers went to Vienna. All of this would be carried off by our team of six people, plus the master pastry chef from Sara Lee. Adding to the pressure was the CEO of Sara Lee Steve McMillan, the head of marketing and the founding Lubin family all in attendance.

You just push yourself…

We recruited the top seven pastry chefs in Vienna to create new recipe ideas for home cooks using Sara Lee products as a base. We secured a dessert psychologist from the University of Vienna who did a remarkable presentation on the psychology of eating dessert. She spoke poetically about the guilt issues Americans experience that is absent in the European mentality about sweets consumption. The Viennese by the way are not fat even though the pastry shops outnumber McDonald’s.

We brought a US food historian to chart the evolution of baking and sweets in our nation, including the birth of Birthday celebrations and our cake traditions. A special seminar on chocolate was held in the oldest operating bakery in the world, opened originally in 1535. We introduced the editors to the real Sara Lee (they were awestruck), launched a new line of desserts at a dramatic “dessert fantasy” reception inside one of the most important palaces in Vienna.

We designed the Symposia to cover every aspect of dessert, why it matters in the American diet and to rekindle our love affair with the sweet tooth with a nod towards balance and moderation.

We positioned Sara Lee as the expert brand on the evolution of dessert in America….

To do all this required total commitment — mind, body and spirit. Nights, weekends leading up to the event were spent creating materials, securing editor attendance and handling the logistics of moving a large group of people from venue to venue flawlessly. Hotel rooms had to be meticulously selected based on editor preferences and personal needs.

The editorial concept development work was a monster, creating angles appropriate to each title and editorial slant, while developing supportive materials and sources for each one. Once in Vienna we had 56 editor “stars” to watch over and then our top client executives to boot. I did not sleep at all for four days. We worked around the clock making sure every detail was handled without mishap.

I distinctly remember sitting on the bus next to the Food Editor of Bon Appetit as we took them to the airport for their departure back to the states, literally zoning in and out of consciousness as we talked about her experience and story plans. It was a monumental undertaking and a huge homerun in the making. The media coverage coming from this event was unlike anything the brand had ever seen in its history. The turnaround was launched.

It was an experience I will never forget. There were moments along the way when you would hit the wall and declare, “I’m just done.” But you go on, knowing what’s at stake and push yourself a little further. I would not recommend this as a way to live your life on an ongoing basis, but a few of these experiences along life’s trail can elevate your game a bit — for a lifetime. Yes, its scary and yes you may tell yourself there’s just no way to do something of this scope in six months time with a small staff – and then you muster up the courage and press on.

We helped restore luster to an iconic American brand, and that was worth every minute. The only way to know what you’re really capable of is to test the limits and then go past them.

Gold Sabre finalist rounds out heady award season…

Wheatley & Timmons took home two Silver Trumpet awards this year from the Publicity Club of Chicago annual campaign competition. The winning work was for Sargento Foods in the Sponsorship category for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival product launch of their Artisan Blends Authentic Mexican cheese; another Silver — this time in the New Media (as in social and digital) category — for the MOTHERHOOD program on behalf of Thermos brand.

What’s more, the Sargento work was also named one of five finalists for the coveted Gold Sabre – our industry’s top award, also in the Sponsorship category. Unfortunately the final nod went to Procter & Gamble for their Swiffer brand effort, but it was a remarkable achievement to make it through the hundreds of top-level submissions to hit the finalist “best-of-the-best” group.

We don’t by nature, personality or belief look at client work as a means to secure awards or generate a pat on the back. Rather we enter periodically to see how our strategies fare against other top-flight efforts in an independent review. So we thank the judges but even more we thank our great clients and our terrific staff for the work well done. Sargento kudos and recognition belongs to Kerri Erb, Carrie Becker, Krista Cortese and Jill Delaney. The Thermos triumph comes from the star quality efforts of Betsi Schumacher, Mary Clare Middleton, Krista Cortese and Jill Delaney. Bravo!!!!

In the end the final judge of our strategies and ideas is the consumer and their willingness to buy more of our client’ products more often. According to IRI’s April numbers, Artisan Blends continues its rise, up 135% overall in a tough, commodity category. The Thermos program was their first foray into social media and beat all of their objectives for audience building and engagement. So we’re especially happy with that – and pleased that our industry peers found the work laudable too.

Cheers…

Shedding light on the evolution of effective PR in the digital age…

By Bob Wheatley

Every so often this question comes up. Partly because we cast our firm as the “merger of brand strategy guidance and PR.” I mean, aren’t clients really covering that brand strategy thing all on their own? And what does that have to do with PR anyway? Isn’t PR a tactic focused on editorial media communication – code for getting reporters, producers and bloggers to publish something favorable?

• There are so many wrong-headed thoughts and clichés bleeding from the last graph. It’s time to shed some light, shine a beacon on a new understanding of what great PR truly is. And bring a clear rationale to the reason why brand strategy guidance and PR should be, and in our case are, married.

Granted in varying degrees, some companies treat agency resources in more of a silo fashion – essentially keeping the terms of engagement focused on tactics. But here’s the rub: the difference between communicating for awareness’ sake and the kind of communication that helps build brands and open new markets, is firmly attached to how brand strategy and outreach tools feed from one another.

Successful brands now are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning to their users. We called this a “higher purpose” or strategic mission. And often in the early stages of an engagement with a new client, we are doing the spadework necessary to unearth the right path to alignment between the brand’s DNA and the lifestyle passions and interests of core customers.

It is in the grist of this strategic mission that we find the unusual coalescing of communication that is sought out and engaged by its prospective audience (the consumer is now in control of engagement, not the other way around), and our ability to construct a meaningful relationship with the brand – one that can withstand the tests of competition and even a bad economy over time.

Sure you can cast PR as an outreach tool that simply translates features and benefits through an “earned” media pipeline that runs alongside paid (ads) media as another message delivery vehicle – albeit one that is understood to be more credible. But that’s not going to result any longer in demonstrable, measurable connections between the deployment of PR strategy and bottom line business growth. Simple awareness or being in the presence of a message is not the same as acting on it.

Any PR is good PR?

Is mention in an article really the main thing? Well certainly it represents an achievement because you can’t buy it. But that’s only going half way to paradise. The real deal here is when your message truly connects with the audience on a consistent basis and in areas that go far beyond product features and benefits. Sure product coverage is important but it can be so much more when done in the context of an over-arching strategy for the brand that is chocked full of greater meaning and intrinsic value to the consumer.

PR is no longer a below the line tool anyway. PR has now merged with “owned” media to become a brand publishing and media platform universe. It combines what’s long been known as editorial outreach, with building online communities and social networks that make brands media players themselves – and in doing so jumps the shark of editorial gatekeepers to message directly to consumers (but in a fashion that’s very, very different from advertising).

• So brand strategy guidance naturally must spring from a deep dive into the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Combined with a working and thorough understanding of the brand’s competitive set and category behaviors. As well as respectful efforts to fully understand a brand’s historical legacy and cultural fabric.

Most importantly, however, is the requirement to invest in consumer insight so we can know with some measure of confidence what those lifestyle passions and interests look like. This sets in motion a platform for communications and PR strategy that resonates, engages, delights and validates what we hope consumers will believe about a client brands relevance and value to them.

This is our calling. Our path. Our way. Our point of view about PR.

What’s yours?

By Robert Wheatley

Image c/o Getty Image

When I first got started in the PR business, I was impressed with our unique ability to bring a higher standard of proof, credibility and demonstration to new products and brand promises. But additionally I was concerned by an all-too-frequent focus on tactics (read: publicity) and what appeared to me to be an absence of connecting the dots between our work and business strategy. You know the old saying, “if the only thing you do is a hammer then the answer to every problem will be a nail.”

Just seemed to me that a stronger business proposition was to help client’s better understand their barriers to growth and success – before applying the cure. And in doing so to make sure the remedy laddered back to specific business outcomes, not fuzzy claims of “increased awareness.”

My first attempt at changing the view that PR was the province of press releases came in the form of a brand guidance plan developed for a regional food company called Nalley’s Fine Foods, based in Tacoma, Washington. My client didn’t ask for the plan, instead I treated this as “extracurricular” homework that might open the door to a larger playing field for our firm. It did.

In its day Nalley’s was a successful brand playing effectively in categories dominated by national stalwarts like Kraft, Frito-Lay and Vlasic – from salad dressings to snacks, canned meals, pickles and other packaged food categories. The platform I worked on was a refined recipe for go-to-market strategy and new product development behaviors appropriate for a business that sat in between generic store brand and large national players.

To get it done I had to study the categories and more fully acquaint myself with the channels of distribution and the growth drivers within each product category my client was competing in. There was no mention of PR in the brief. It was a great exercise and I learned a lot. The client was impressed that a PR guy would come to the table with this sort of perspective. Their opinion of what we did and were about changed. It was interesting to watch the transformation in their views and opinions. The experience had an impact to this day.

Wheatley & Timmons is a unique joining of similar strands of thinking – that the craft of editorial and social media forms of communication are enhanced and our value to clients improved as we marry our great creative work more closely to brand strategy guidance and the consumer insights required to make that leap.

It would probably be easier just to continue cultivating our best practices along traditional lines and devote all of our energies to being great tacticians. We think that’s table stakes. We fundamentally believe the world needs a better, more strategic PR firm and so we’re not satisfied with the traditional scope. My partner, Rich Timmons, shares this view and it’s our collective mission to redefine what a PR firm is all about. Missionary work to be sure given the perceptual baggage we carry with us — that “get me on Oprah” thing.

I couldn’t be prouder of the great people who’ve joined our team and their ability to embrace our calling and to deliver on this promise every day in the services we provide. It’s a challenge, but I think part of what makes you successful is your willingness to embrace a higher calling – to tackle something that goes beyond the communications training you’ve had. Makes you stretch.

Have we got it all figured out? Not by a long shot. Everyday is a learning experience, a chance to grow and refine our premise and our capabilities to deliver. We remain steadfastly determined on this path. Persistence can be a great ally, so we forge ahead and believe it’s by “demonstrating and doing” that all of this comes to life. This agency’s work for Sargento Foods is an example of bringing new perspective and ideas to the table about a brand’s future business opportunities in their category. Much the same as Rich and our team has done to such dramatic effect for Thermos brand and for Crescent in the art framing business.

We’re in the early stages of a new relationship with Crown Imports and the Corona beer franchise. It’s exciting. And not just because we know the beer business, but also we believe we can play a measurable role in helping improve their business outcomes and relevancy to a consumer — who is evolving right now.

The future

We believe that earned media (various forms of editorial media from conventional to digital) will continue to be vital but also see incremental growth for “owned” media – content created, published and distributed by brands themselves. Technology now allows us to leapfrog reporters, editors, producers and other media gatekeepers, to talk directly to consumers in environments that are more interactive and thus seen as honest.

Profoundly we see the mix of media solutions moving to embrace social platforms and other venues where brands and consumers can meet each other on more equal terms. Thus the over-arching need for relevancy between brand propositions and the lifestyle interests of their users.

One lesson remains true, from the days with Nalley’s to our work at Wheatley & Timmons over the next ten years: whatever we do in communications must be tied to a foundation of consumer insight and understanding. It’s what will inform our future and our ability to change and improve the growth path of the brands we represent.

I for one am looking forward to it. Cheers…

Happy couple now resides in Springfield, MO

By Robert Wheatley

From left to right — Andy Hopson, strategist and consultant to our firm and Noble, Bob Noble, CEO of his namesake agency and Rich Timmons, President of W&T standing in front of Noble’s 50-foot fork totem –an iconic nod to their firm’s heritage and expertise in food communications.

Our agency, like many these days, is in a constant state of reinvention as we work to align ourselves with the changing media landscape and resulting client communication needs. Chief among the requirements of effective communications and brand strategy guidance is the overwhelming need for up-to-the-minute insight into trends, consumer attitudes and behaviors.

We’re about to introduce you to CultureWaves…

Just a little background to start: We happen to believe in strategic partnerships, especially when a combination can change math so that 1 + 1 = 3 or more. And so it is that we are embarking on a partnership with Noble, a fascinating advertising, test kitchen, new product creation, Internet media and insight firm run by the visionary Bob Noble and his team of experts from, of all places, Springfield, MO. Yes they have a growing Chicago office, but the nerve center of Bob’s operations flows from his loft building environs on the business end of a shopping mall plaza in the Show Me state.

Bob’s unique take on the changing landscape is to re-think the agency business model. Voila, we had a simpatico going right out of the chute from our first meeting, as we share the same view that old agency business models and tactical capabilities simply won’t cut it in this increasingly social media-driven world.

So Noble has launched a unique, proprietary “human insights engine” called CultureWaves. Key to its functionality is the software underneath that Noble created called Neemee. So what’s it do, you ask? CultureWaves is fueled by hundreds of “farmers” – essentially a large group of intensely curious human observers who contribute articles and ideas to a searchable Thought Bank. So the magic isn’t in algorithms but in thoughts and perspective that flow from real people.

W&T now plugged into Neemee and CultureWaves…

Candidly we’re still in the training mode over here, so we have much to learn about extracting insights. What we can tell you is this — the entire process is much about discovery and the ability to aggregate information in one place in such a way that patterns and trends become noticeable. And that in turn can lead to new ideas and observations around emerging human needs and interests.

The end game is simple. We want to increase our value to clients by helping them see emerging trends and needs on the horizon that they can meet and fulfill. At the end of the day, brand relationships are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning. And how can you possibly expect to divine the elements of relevance without firm human understanding of what people are into these days.

Human behavior rules…

Often said that agencies exist to help brands better understand how to influence consumer attitudes and behaviors, and in doing so to earn permission for a relationship – one that hopefully drives brand preference and thus sales. So knowing more about human behavior serves to fulfill our primary mission.

So far the journey proves to be fascinating. In the coming weeks, we’ll reveal more details about the CultureWaves model and share our learning with you.

Stay tuned.

W&T comes up big in awards season

By Robert Wheatley

There’s winning and then there’s winning. Our firm struck gold twice for Nature’s Variety pet foods. And silver once for Thermos brand. It’s award season, the time when industry peers assess and evaluate the finest work out there to determine the campaigns worthy of a best-in-class trophy.

For W&T the win isn’t in the trophy. It is in the validation of our strategies, insights and work by those who arguably can tell the difference between medium and outstanding. Interestingly the Gold level recognition is for the same program on behalf of Nature’s Variety pet foods.

Bravo to all of our brilliant team members who made this happen and at the source of all the effort and great ideas that led to this outcome…

Publicity Club of Chicago has awarded a Gold Trumpet in the Marketing category to W&T for Nature’s Variety, and a Silver Trumpet in the same category for Thermos brand’s Hydration For All campaign. At the hotly contested national Sabre Award competition, Nature’s Variety is one of five finalists for the top prize in marketing, the Gold Sabre. Getting to this level is no easy task as the largest global brands on the planet participate. Our work bested a broad field of iconic household names with very deep pockets.

The Rotation Diet campaign for Nature’s Variety was an outcome of a close collaboration between agency and client. Our goal was to identify the right path to building distinction and differentiation into an emerging pet food brand that is fighting for growth and share. In the end the victory is found in the client’s business results. So here’s to 20 percent year on year growth at the bottom line! This outcome is really our finest hour. And importantly an hour now acknowledged by our peers and colleagues.

Likewise the strategic campaign for Thermos similarly helped fuel sales and distribution growth in a difficult economy. The core idea: leverage Thermos as part of the rising tide of consumer interest in moving off of drinking water in plastic bottles and on to more environmentally appropriate solutions. The project put Thermos in the center of public and media discourse on the evolution of hydration and water consumption.

As a former national award judge, I understand the criteria separating winners from the rest. It is not just a judgment on the freshness of an idea or its superlative execution. Rather, it is the result that weighs heaviest. The goal of marketing communication investments for any brand is acquiring and keeping more customers. The extent to which W&T’s work contributes to client business growth is the real measure of excellence. That our peers agree is just icing on the cake.

By Robert Wheatley

Sponsorship yields opportunity for national attention

Events and brand experiences are vital to creating tangible meaningful connections with consumers. Especially when the audience consists of those most dedicated and interested in the category where you do business, above and beyond the opportunity for media coverage.

The ability to touch and interact with consumers can be priceless in creating an authentic relationship with people who are potentially your best and most devoted customers. Importantly though, events offer enormous leverage for even greater benefit in communications. We wanted to share a recent example with you. Here’s the story:

Client Sargento Foods is launching an important new item in its Artisan Blends line – Authentic Mexican Cheese blend of Artisan and Sargento cheeses – a product that further drives a wedge of uniqueness in the supermarket dairy cheese business. Under economic conditions that push consumers increasingly toward private label options on anything they perceive to be a commodity, this product launch bears strategic significance as we work to elevate and differentiate the Sargento brand.

Enter the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, one of the nation’s largest and most well attended culinary events. We developed a significant and integrated sponsorship package for Sargento, as a platform to support the launch of the new product.

This is an example of sponsorship strategy at work. While it is true that the festival affords a wonderful sampling opportunity for a new product like this in an environment populated with culinary glitterati and food influencers, the real excitement is connected to how this was used as a backdrop for outbound communications on a national level.

The key ingredients:

See photo coverage of the projects below…

Celebrity Chef Michelle Bernstein became the centerpiece of the effort, creating recipes for the new product and adding significant cachet to the launch from both festival and media perspectives.

South Beach serves as a newsworthy platform for coverage around the nation, secured by kicking off the event with a live national satellite media tour in 27 cities. Chef Michelle conducts real-time cooking demonstrations featuring the new Sargento Artisan Blend in each segment with the festival as the draw for bookings.

NBC Today Show’s coverage included a live segment with Al Roker from the event. Chef Michelle was booked for a top-of-the-hour interview with Al at 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning, when viewership is peaking. The product package has prominent placement on the set. The interview creates a stampede to the Sargento booth that morning to sample the Chef’s creations and meet her.

Meanwhile the client participates in a Reuters wire service story about how festivals are faring in the difficult economy. The story includes multiple quotes about the Sargento participation and goals. The story goes national and garners additional pick-up.

Content creation in the digital age is simply an opportunity waiting to happen. So the agency team blogs the event with daily video posts “live from South Beach” to help spur traffic a artisancheesecenter.com — a subject relevant web platform hot-linked to Sargento.com.

The culmination of all these activities helps support traffic to the Sargento booth where hundreds of hungry consumers meet the chef and sample a unique dish created especially for the Mexican Blends product.

The Sargento sponsorship is extended to include a presence at Burger Bash, one of the most popular consumer venues at the South Beach festival. A chef competition to create new gourmet burgers presents an ideal platform to promote the brand’s natural sliced cheese business – Sargento products were featured in winning Chef Spike Mendelsohn’s recipe.

By Robert Wheatley

Motivated humans not processes build brands and business

In the end all brands and organizations are led, developed and built by people. It is our expertise, vision and decisions that impact what we do, what we sell and how we go to market.

All processes and tactics aside, behind every business are the individuals who pilot the ship and make things happen. Sure businesses have a certain amount of inertia and momentum based on their history and other “entrenched” conditions that seem to push things forward no matter who is in the drivers seat. But I see this always as a glass half full or half empty proposition.

People can take something that’s successful and make it much more so. Witness the deluge of press about Steve Jobs, his influence on Apple’s progress to date and thus the alarm over a leave of absence. He is an inspirational, iconic figure and no doubt a driver within the company for innovation and ideas.

However, we ALL have the capacity to make a difference, to be extraordinarily influential in defining a new destiny for the businesses and brands we’re helping build. Sure you can see yourself as a functionary, an important cog in a good machine. For the most part I think it is human nature to enjoy, seek out comfort and to resist discomfort. So fear holds many people back from doing the extraordinary. Why? Because there is risk involved. There is always potential for a mistake to occur. Compounded further by the thought that criticism of a bad performance may be lurking in the wings.

There’s that little knot in the pit of your stomach when you believe your head is out there, exposed.

Head Liners

I say it’s time we all step up to be Head Liners. To put ourselves out there. To enjoy and embrace the discomfort and purposefully disrupt the environment around us when we feel the natural tug to get too comfortable.

That said there is also a magic ingredient underneath that helps this process along!!

Empowerment…

Our organization is in the thralls of change as we make improvements in our structure to help position the agency for incremental growth. Two of our key people have been asked to step up and take more responsibility. In parallel with this added charge comes empowerment: permission and authorization if you will to make key decisions and implement them without inordinate oversight or interference.

The idea of empowerment springs from trust, confidence and faith in the individuals who receive it. The effects are fascinating to observe. Empowered people move with palpable enthusiasm, with dedication, with ideas, with strength, with passion, with grace under pressure, with confidence and wisdom. It’s a form of “permission” that can unleash the limitations we self-impose at times.

All this is vital and important in a business driven by the ideas and experience of people. So who knows, if we continue down a path of empowerment, what could happen? What do you think?

Recognition Follows Brains and Talent

Agencies love awards. Love getting them, love having them lined up in the office lobby. Love the recognition and validation of great work. Love the events (except maybe the rubber chicken and cold peas part) where we receive them and the opportunity to see other examples of top performances up close, all in one room.

As a former Sabre Awards judge you know what to look for in the “instantly recognizable” creative arena Read More»