Promo - June 2008 - (Page 46)

100 Promo CRE ATIVE SPOTLIGHT: BIG IDEA INCUBATOR Where do award-winning ideas come from? To stimulate concepts, agency Gigunda Group, Inc. sets up in its conference room a 4-foot by 4-foot graphic, dubbed RFPopoly, a proprietary process modeled after Monopoly. GIGUNDA GROUP, INC. GIGUNDA TOPS THE LIST OF PROMO’S CREATIVE AWARDS “We have to keep it light and fun,” says agency COO Scott Schoessel. “That’s part of the Gigunda Kool-Aid.” Apparently, it’s working. The company came out on top among agencies with the most wins and finalist nods in last fall’s Pro Awards and this May’s Interactive Marketing Awards, Promo’s two creative competitions. Gigunda’s work for Procter & Gamble’s Charmin and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.’s Altoids brands especially impressed the judges reviewing Pro Award submissions last summer. The agency snared the highest category honors, respectively, for “Most Innovative Communications Strategy” and “Best Campaign Generating Brand Awareness and Trial Recruitment.” Ryan FitzSimons, Gigunda’s founder and CEO, attributes its success to the collective talents of its 40 full-time employees, a quarter of whom worked previously for big-name brands. Gigunda Group’s creative juices are concentrated largely in a core team of six: creative director Michael Petan, art director Chad Turner, production director Josh Sheets, marketing manager Kristi Mason, an operations leader and a sales leader. But other Gigunda Group staged pop-up shops in New York, Chicago and Miami around Valentine’s Day to lure Altoids users to try Dark Chocolate Dipped Mints. The agency set up posh chairs to look like chocolates against dark chocolate wallpaper, drawing 20,900 people during the eightday promotion. TOP CREATIVE These 15 promotional agencies are ranked for attaining the most finalists and wins for best creative work presented at Promo’s Pro Awards in Sept. 2007 and the Interactive Marketing Awards in May 2008, as chosen by peer-review panels of judges. And the list is 1. GIGUNDA GROUP, INC. 2. A SQUARED GROUP 3. DRAFTFCB 4. THOMAS J. PAUL 5. CATAPULT MARKETING 6. ARC WORLDWIDE 7. OGILVYACTION 8. BRIGANDI & ASSOCIATES 9. EQUITY MARKETING 10. STUDIOCOM 11. MILLSPORT 12. GRAND CENTRAL MARKETING 13. THE MARKETING ARM 14. THE RED GROUP 15. TRACYLOCKE Methodology: Each win was awarded two points and each ﬁnalists one point. employees are also relied upon to help out. “Sometimes that’s where big ideas come from,” Schoessel says. Its mission in any campaign is to find what FitzSimons calls the “friction.” “If you can find the pain, you can create fit. That’s never been lost on us,” says FitzSimons. RFPopoly figured prominently in the conception of Gigunda’s awardwinning Charmin NYC Restroom Experience—a temporary 20-stall restroom in New York City’s Times Square, fully equipped with the P&G Gigunda Group turned a black box into the Pottery Barn of bathrooms for P&G’s Charmin brand in 2006 and 2007. Last fall, in a second effort, people visited an average of 24 minutes. brand’s toilet paper. The pop-up bathroom/Charmin boutique drew more than 400,000 visits. Schoessel says P&G plans to return this fall with an even bigger program. What’s in store for the future? FitzSimons is keeping mum, but he promises one thing: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”—Amy Johannes 46 June 2008 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - June 2008

Promo - June 2008 Contents Editor's Note 51st State? Brand Weaver Hip Candy Viva Beisbol Hola or Adios? Commentary Agency of the Year: Digitas The 2008 Promo 100 Draftfcb Next Marketing Oddcast All Terrain Gigunda The Agency Center Resource Center Take a Stand Index of Advertisers

Promo - June 2008

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