We create and execute integrated marketing programs and promotions for more than 100 brands. These programs and promotions are typically grounded in what we call "the emotional platforms," which are:
--Entertainment (music, TV, film, gaming, celebrities)
--Sports and motorsports (all of the major leagues, teams, properties, and venues)
--Causes (from finding a cure for cancer to building affordable homes in the community)
--Culture (Hispanic, African American, and Asian American)
These are what people get excited about. From tailgating at a college football game on a beautiful autumn afternoon, to volunteering for a worthy cause, to watching your favorite TV show -- these are our passion points.
Do you do advertising?
No, we're not a traditional advertising agency. Thirty-second TV spots isn't what we do. Our programs are designed to engage consumers -- surprise and delight them, give them stories to share -- while building and strengthening ties between consumers and the brands we represent.
When you say "integrated marketing," what do you mean?
By "integrated" we mean programs that engage the consumer along multiple touchpoints and via multiple channels -- events, social media, sponsorship, in the store, at the stadium, online and on their mobile device, as they watch a movie or their favorite TV show, while they play a videogame, etc.
I need an event marketing agency. Do you do event marketing?
Yes. We have 25 years of event marketing experience with deep expertise in creating and executing vibrant, innovative, live branded experiences. Check out some of our event marketing case studies here.
Is sports sponsorship right for my brand?
That depends on your objectives and who you're trying to reach. We were one of the first full-service sports marketing agencies in the U.S. Today, we manage more than 300 sports properties on behalf of our clients. Since 1975, we've helped many of the world's leading brands with the sports sponsorship strategy, activation, negotiation, and measurement.
To help brands decide on what teams, leagues, venues, events, or athletes to partner with, we've created the Sports Property Index (SPI), the first independent index to quantify consumer perceptions of nearly 1,000 sports properties. And our Celebrity Index -- the DBI -- captures consumer perceptions of more than 2,800 celebrities, including nearly every major athlete, both active and retired. These tools help you make better decisions when it comes to sponsorships and celebrity endorsements.
What happens after a brand has partnered with a sports team, league, venue or event?
We develop a sponsorship strategy to help them activate it -- bring it to life, leverage it, and put it to work in achieving the brand's marketing and business objectives. How? Again, that depends on the goals and the audience, but it might include activating at the stadium or arena with events and promotions, digital activation (online, mobile/wireless, social media), corporate hospitality, in-store and shopper promotions, media integration, and on and on.
What's The Marketing Arm's history? Who started the agency?
In 1993, 28-year-old Ray Clark founded The Marketing Arm. In June 1999, Clark sold the agency to Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), a leading global advertising and marketing communications services company. Clark remains active with the agency as its CEO. In addition, a number of The Marketing Arm's early employees remain with the firm, including Brad Penman (chief operations officer), Chris Smith (chief strategy officer), Jeff Chown (president, celebrity talent & IP), and Darin Perry (director, sports marketing).
The Omnicom acquisition fueled the agency's growth. Between 2003-2005, The Marketing Arm merged with four other Omnicom agencies: Usmp (event marketing), Davie Brown Entertainment, Millsport, and Ipsh (mobile marketing). Initially, these agencies operated as branded business units inside of The Marketing Arm. Today, they are practice areas within The Marketing Arm.
Does The Marketing Arm have digital capabilities?
Absolutely. We understand the consumer, their media habits, as well as their migration to the digital world. As an agency, we bring highly-engaging digital immersion and extension strategies to the discussion that provide cost-effective activation of nearly all of our programs. For more than a decade, our digital word of mouth and social media marketing practice has been helping brands reach and engage consumers through online and emerging media. And our mobile marketing practice is the North American leader in wireless media and marketing services.
You list "entertainment" as one of the emotional platforms. What sort of work do you do in entertainment?
We were one of the first agencies to truly connect brands with consumers through entertainment. Consumers naturally make the conscious choice of entertainment over traditional advertising media. We use the emotional connection created by the consumer’s passion for entertainment to integrate brands and their messaging into that cognitive moment.
Based in Los Angeles, our entertainment marketing practice consults with brands on their overall entertainment strategy. We have deep experience in integrating brands into the storylines of movies and TV shows. In addition, we develop original branded content for our clients, help them license key entertainment properties, negotiate sponsorships for film and music festivals, and conduct celebrity outreach and seeding.
Evidence of our success: Our clients were featured in nine of the top 20 box office films in 2009. We worked with more than 200 films, resulting in 240 placements for our clients. In TV, our clients were seen by more than 2.3 billion TV viewers across 122 shows. We had more than 1,200 placements and 40 integrations in nearly 450 TV episodes. On the music front, we signed more than 100 artists and licensed more than 150 songs on behalf of brands and managed three major tours for our clients. And in gaming, we’re leaders in every aspect of gaming AOR for brands that use gaming as a platform.
How often do you work with celebrities?
Our celebrity licensing and intellectual property group works with celebrities, their agents, and partners every day. We’re “celebrity scientists” across all channels, armed with a strong belief in our philosophy and the process we use to understand and harness the passion consumers have for celebrities. We’re pioneering the science of understanding what celebrities mean to consumers and how they can influence purchase behavior.
To help our client's brands identify and sign the celebrity endorsers who are best for their brands, we created the Celebrity DBI, an independent index that quantifies consumer perceptions of more than 2,800 celebrities, from actors and singers to reality stars, athletes, and business icons. We’re the global talent buyer for Unilever, the No. 2 marketer in the world, and we’ve signed current celebrity endorsers for a number of major brands: Luke Wilson (AT&T), Tiger Woods/Roger Federer/Thierry Henry (Gillette), Kiefer Sutherland (BofA), Patrick Dempsey (State Farm), Antonio Banderas (Nasonex), Rob Lowe (Office Max), Ed Harris (Royal Bank of Canada), and Mike Rowe (Lee Jeans and Grainger).
How much experience do you have with CPG brands?
Our shopper marketing practice has a long history of working with a unique mix of CPG, manufacturers, and retail clients. We've created, executed, and measured shopper marketing programs across all points of contact. We take pride in understanding the motivations and mindsets unique to every shopper and their shopper occasion. Our shopper marketing services include shopper insights and analytics, mobile marketing, social media, retail and experiential events, in-store design, and shopper promotions.
My brand is interested in reaching Hispanic consumers. How do you engage multicultural markets?
Everything we do as an agency, our multicultural marketing pratice can do: Event marketing; sports marketing and sponsorship consulting; promotions; mobile marketing; corporate hospitality; shopper marketing; and cause marketing. Identical services and capabilties. The difference is, our multicultural team develops big ideas and programs that reach Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans.
I'm interested in working for The Marketing Arm. What's it like to work there?
As we all do here at The Marketing Arm, Ray Clark, our founder and CEO, takes great pride in our culture. As we have since Ray started the agency nearly 20 years ago, we have a number of events designed to get people out of the office and away from their desks.
For our annual “Mistake at the Plate” event, everyone loads onto buses and we head for the Ballpark in Arlington for the season-opener of the Texas Rangers. And our “Mistake at the Lake” event helps us kick off the summer as we pile onto a giant house boat and float around Lake Grapevine. From afternoons at the bowling alley to trips to Disneyland, we understand the importance of energizing our staff and keeping are folks inspired.
A few years ago, we created and launched the “Journey To Greatness,” which sent 10 agency staff members across the country in an SUV to live, experience and communicate our agency’s core values to our staffers around the country. The “Journey” blog is still live and includes updates from the road and plenty of photos and video.
The agency life can be tough. Long hours. Consistently delivering big ideas that change the game for our clients, which include many of the world’s most respected brands. Lots of balls in the air.
Making sure our employees are refreshed and able to generate a number of creative ideas and solutions is critical to our success.
When hiring, what do you look for?
In addition to having the skills and experience necessary for a particular position, the most important criteria is culture fit. We ask the question, "Is this candidate a good match for The Marketing Arm’s culture?"
With so many practice areas, a dozen offices, and 400 or so staff members, how do you work together?
In an agency staffed with various subject-matter experts (e.g., sports, entertainment, digital, events, multicultural, etc.) spread across a number of offices, it’s critical that we collaborate with each other in order to provide the smartest solutions to our clients’ challenges. Many of the world’s most respected brands come to The Marketing Arm to help them engage their customers with big ideas and campaigns that resonate with consumers and drive business results.
To help ensure we’re consistently delivering the best ideas, we’ve created a number of tools:
--Idea Link is an online tool enables us to tap into the creative resources from across The Marketing Arm at a moment’s notice.
--Our “Cabinet of Curiosity” is a brainstorm-in-a-box designed to improve each employee’s ability to run a creative session.
--The “Teams of Three” program brings together three staff members from different disciplines to develop fresh ideas for clients.
--Open to all staff members, “Creative Soup” is an every-Friday-morning event at which employees work collaboratively to develop solutions for client-specific challenges.
There are other tricks we use to stay connected and enhance our collaborative culture, but those shall remain secret...
What are The Marketing Arm's core values?
1. Fun
2. Passion
3. Teamwork
4. Accountability
5. Ambition
6. Integrity
Who are some of your clients?
We work with more than 100 brands. You can get a feel for who we're currently working with by visiting the case studies section of the site.
