DDi - April/May 2013 - (Page 28)

28 | Joe Feczko wins DDI Markopoulos Award By Erin M. Loewe Photos: Courtesy of Macy’s Inc. E | April/May 2013 ach year, DDI Magazine presents the Markopoulous Award, honoring one outstanding professional from the visual merchandising and store design industry. It is named in honor of the late Andrew Markopoulos, whose tenure as senior vice president of visual merchandising and store design for the department store division of Dayton Hudson made an indelible mark in the field and elevated it from a trade to an art form. This year, the 17th recipient of the peer-awarded honor is Joe Feczko of Macy’s Inc. As the senior vice president of marketing innovation and integration at the Cincinnati-based department store giant, Feczko says what started as a part-time job at Bloomingdale’s launched him into a rich career that spanned time at Duty Free Shoppers, Neiman Marcus and Avon, before heading back to Federated Department Stores. “When I started working at Bloomingdale’s, I thought salespeople did windows,” Feczko says. “It’s been a long, fabulous journey of 30-plus years.” Over his career, Feczko created many noteworthy projects, like Neiman Marcus’ “The Book;” the QR-code campaign “Macy’s Backstage Pass;” and “Believe,” Macy’s award-winning holiday advertising campaign. He served as executive producer on the Emmy Award-winning animated special “Yes, Virginia,” a 30-minute branded content program for Macy’s. In addition, he was associate producer and a retail consultant for NBC’s reality show “Fashion Star.” Feczko says that he is flattered to have been recognized by people he knows and admires by winning the Markopoulos Award, and that he is most thankful for having had the opportunity to work and build friendships with such visionaries as Stanley Marcus, Terry Lundgren, Marvin Traub, Candy Pratts Price, Ignaz Gorischek and Andrea Jung, among others. “What I’m probably most pleased about is the chance I had to know and work alongside Andy Markopoulos,” he says. “Andy was one of the true innovators of his time. Going back to the 1980s, one of the big tech concepts for the downtown Minneapolis Dayton Hudson flagship was to make a massive video wall, about 30 big TV sets all wired together...It made the news, and I made it a point myself to go see it, because it was so breakthrough. Macy’s now owns that Dayton Hudson. So, we were recently having a technology meeting, and someone was saying, ‘We have this huge video wall we have to do something with.’ I just had to laugh to myself, because if you hang around long enough, you’ll see things again. We decided to upgrade the idea to flatscreens though, to get away from the monitors that weighed 1,000 pounds each.” Feczko says he is constantly learning and

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - April/May 2013

DDi - April/May 2013
Table of Contents
From the Editor
From the Show Director
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Visual Perspectives
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot
Design Snapshot
Markopoulos Award
Tazo Tea
Tiffany & Co.
Experience Makers
Piperlime
Mattel Experience
CookHouse
Aéropostale
Paris Kids Department
Technology & Customer Engagement Section
Technology Trends
Big Data Column
In-Store Technology
Product Spotlight
Design Leaders 2013
Right Light
GlobalShop Coverage
Special Events
Conference Schedule
Chicago Retail
Exhibitor Products
Calendar
Advertisers
Classifieds
Shopping with Paco

DDi - April/May 2013