Brand Names

It took an awfully long time for Dorothy to meet The Man Behind the Curtain. She and her companions (the Cowardly Lion, especially) were awed by his work well before they realized it was one simple guy doing all that magic. ▪ In this business, the work usually speaks for itself. But every year we indulge in a peek behind the curtain. It’s our chance to put a face to the (brand) name, to introduce readers to the individuals behind the campaigns they see in stores, in the street, and on awards-show stages. ▪ It’s never just one guy behind the curtain, of course. No one knows that better than these Marketers of the Year, who stand (sometimes reluctantly) as representatives of their teams, and their brands. From the Brawny Man’s high-profile p.r. cameo to CoActive’s home run for Safeway, these are the folks behind some great and powerful marketing. We think you’ll be pleased to meet them.

Macho ManMichael Adams pumps up Brawny

Georgia-Pacific Corp. inherited a 90-pound weakling in Brawny paper towels, which suffered from anemic marketing and an inconsistent message under Fort James Corp. (It merged with Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific in late 2000.) Michael Adams [far left] knew Brawny had to show some muscle. “We thought, ‘What do we own that nobody else has?’” says the senior brand marketing manager. “The icon.”

That fostered the Do You Know a Brawny Man? contest, inviting women to nominate a rugged guy — husband, father, brother, or friend. Twelve semi-finalists came to New York City to pose for a 2003 Brawny Man calendar, and consumers voted online for their fave. Firefighter Mario Cantacessi won; his mug appears on Brawny packages for a limited run (via DVC Worldwide, Morristown, NJ). “We didn’t have anything to do with picking the finalists but when we met Mario and his wife, they were exactly what we were looking for,” says Adams.

Brawny garnered 4,131 photo-and-essay entries, and nearly 40,000 votes. The real coup was the p.r. coverage: National media ran close to 500 stories for a total of 100 million media impressions. “Any time you do a program that can lead to changes for an icon like this, it generates a lot of buzz because consumers get pretty nostalgic,” muses Adams. “For the participants, being in a calendar and getting a new truck were great but the real motivator was being on the Brawny package, even for a limited time.”

A former senior brand manager for H.J. Heinz’s Ore-Ida and a brand manager at Tropicana, Adams knew the promotion needed to work on an emotional level. “We weren’t just trying to bring consumers back, we were trying to reinvigorate the brand and shake up the market,” says Adams. Brawny’s household penetration rose 10 percent and volume grew 12 percent.

Guardian AngelHoward Beales drives FTC’s privacy protection

Hello, this is your conscience speaking. As director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Howard Beales is steward of the FTC’s push to safeguard consumer privacy.

He helped set plans for the pending national Do Not Call list for telemarketing, and settled with two companies that deceptively gathered, then sold high-school student data to marketers. The FTC settled with Eli Lilly Co. in April over an e-mail gaffe that revealed Prozac users’ addresses, and in October launched an education campaign to teach online security through Dewie, a cartoon turtle. All this before convincing psychic Miss Cleo to return $500 million to consumers.

And the FTC keeps chipping away at spam, which has gotten so bad that even the Direct Marketing Association changed its stance this year to favor federal regulation. If the telemarketing Do Not Call list passes constitutional muster, watch for the FTC to pursue a Do Not Mail list to halt spam.

The Washington, DC-based bureau has been pursuing marketers who mishandle sensitive data or break their privacy policies since October 2001, when FTC chairman Timothy Muris outlined plans to enforce existing privacy laws (January 2002 PROMO). This year the bureau began vetting offline activities with the same fervor it has for online infringements.

“Muris and Beales’ economics background brings a level of discipline and consistency that [marketers] need,” says Reed Freeman, partner with law firm Shannon Collier Scott, Washington. “They enforce the rules in a predictable way. They’re not interested in playing a game of ‘gotcha.’ Private-sector [companies] have a huge regard for both men.”

“They give us a heads up on their priorities,” says Ken Florin, an attorney with Loeb & Loeb, New York City. “They don’t assume all marketers are bad. They’re willing to work with us.”

Beales — an economist by training — joined the FTC in 2001 for the second time: He spent 10 years there (part of that as assistant to the director in the Bureau of Consumer Protection) before leaving in 1987 to teach strategic management and public policy at George Washington University. He’s been a highly visible and frank spokesman for the FTC since his return.

Priceless PrizesRobin Blunt extends MasterCard’s signature ads

A national media buy: $200 million. Naming rights to a stadium: $40 million. Running a sweepstakes: $100,000. A successful ad campaign with a limitless tagline: Priceless.

Since joining MasterCard International in 1996, VP-global marketing Robin Blunt has seamlessly expanded the five-year-old Priceless campaign (via McCann-Erickson) to promotions.

“This was not embraced right out of the gates when I started at the department,” says Blunt. “It took awhile, and the [Priceless] campaign had to build equity first, but we really nailed it with Memorable Moments.”

MasterCard tapped its Major League Baseball sponsorship for the summer push that asked fans to vote for the best baseball memories of all time. Despite fear of a strike, 1.3 million entries were collected in stadiums and at mlb.com; it was the league’s biggest effort ever.

This holiday, Priceless Memories gave away Get Together packages, including weekend trips, dinners, and five $40,000 grand-prize trips to use anywhere with anyone. It was first work from new agency-of-record Integer Group, Dallas.

“We had a significant promotion to develop and get out the door in a short amount of time,” says Integer group president Kathy Leonard. “But Robin moves fast, and has a deep understanding of Priceless and its link to the MasterCard brand.”

Blunt, who did stints at Carlson Travel Network and American Express Travel Related Services before joining Purchase, NY-based MasterCard, is always ready for the next project. “It’s like Robin to say, ‘I think we will hit a home run in the fourth quarter, but take a deep breath and let’s get going again,’” Leonard says.

A (Big) Apple a DayNatasha Caba is seeing red, white, and blue

Natasha Caba can probably tell you how many dollars in gold there are underneath the Federal Reserve. She learned that trivia while researching and marketing a book for New York’s 1998 Centennial Celebration. Now VP-strategic marketing and partnerships at NYC & Company, the official tourism-marketing arm of New York City, she still uses skills garnered in past jobs.

The born-and-bred Manhattanite, a former producer at PBS’ WNYE affiliate, knew how to make do with limited resources after the Sept. 11 attacks. She jumpstarted tourism efforts by tweaking the decade-old Restaurant Week, when the city’s best eateries price their lunch menus to match the year ($20.02 for 2002). It’s traditionally held in January and June, but NYC & Company ran it in October 2001, and added a dinner component.

“New York’s unique spirit allows a marketer to expand and make promotions much bigger,” says Caba. “We’re creating signature marketing campaigns to help New York City in slow times, like winter.” (NYC & Company’s annual Paint the Town program this winter offers a variety of travel packages for visitors.)

“Not only does she drive the marketing programs, but she realizes that no promotion is successful unless … we can say, ‘Look at the numbers,’” says Rhianna Quinn Roddy, district director of civic and promotional affairs for Delta Airlines in New York. As a corporate member of NYC & Company, the airline teams with fellow sponsors American Express and Coca-Cola for promotions year-round. Currently, New York Chefs in Flight offers Delta Business Elite passengers flying between New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles menu items from popular New York City restaurants.

NYC & Company kicked off the first year after Sept. 11 with Touchdown in New York to hype the NFL’s season launch. Bon Jovi headlined a concert in Times Square and an NFL/NYC & Company TV, print, and radio campaign lured visitors to the city. NYC & Company hosted radio promotions with 15 NFL teams, offering tickets to games in New York.

Oh, those bars of gold? They’re worth $75 billion.

Confection ElectionGamgort and crew made voting sweet

The folks at Masterfoods USA are old hands at clever promotions — the Snickers team was named PROMO Marketing All-Stars for the hilarious 1998 sweeps Shock Zone (January 1999 PROMO). This time around, accolades go to Masterfoods President Bob Gamgort and his team, including Marketing Director Brian Zeug, VP-marketing Mark Mattia, VP-marketing services Peter Littlewood, and Brand Manager Cathy Abramski.

Masterfoods (formerly M&M/Mars) ran its biggest-ever campaign in 2002, the Global Color Vote for M&M’s. More than 10 million chocoholics in 200 countries voted for the new color (purple won).

Hackettstown, NJ-based Masterfoods showed its online mettle with two campaigns that won silver Dialog Awards (December PROMO). The Hit the Code, Win the Cash instant-win sweeps put game codes under the wrapper, awarding 1,000 cash prizes each day. The spy-themed site (one game let players complete a “mission” with M&M characters) drew more than 2.2 million registered users, and boosted sales 14 percent. A separate effort for Snickers tied to CBS’ Survivor: Marquesas to extend its popular Don’t Let Hunger Happen To You campaign. Players used under-the-wrapper codes to vote contestants off the show and win Survivor gear or $1,000. Site traffic jumped 370 percent. DraftWorldwide, Chicago, handled both.

An 11-year veteran of Kraft Foods who also served as president of Major League Baseball Properties, Gamgort joined Masterfoods in 1998 as VP-marketing, and was promoted to General Manager of the Chocolate Business Development Team in December 2000. He took over as President of Masterfoods USA in August 2002.

Josh and Nate’s Excellent AdventureYoo-hoo fanatics parlay enthusiasm into jobs

Just a few short years ago, Josh Harrold and Nate Smithson were freshman at Pepperdine University, bonding over bottles of Yoo-hoo. This year they rode around in a garbage truck as official brand ambassadors.

The duo began as Yoo-hoo groupies hosting their on-campus radio show, “The Midnight Yoo-hoo Extravaganza,” and giving away the chocolate drink. When they launched a campus TV show “Hoo in the ‘Bu’ (that’s “Yoo-hoo in Malibu”) and asked the company for Yoo-hoo freebies, history was made. “Yoo-hoo became synonymous with us,” says Harrold.

After graduation, Harrold had a tough time finding his dream job (sportscaster) and Smithson’s corporate stint was equally uninspiring, so “we begged Yoo-hoo to take us,” says Harrold. “We didn’t care if we had to be their office monkey.”

The gig put the 23-year-olds on the road this summer in a tricked-out garbage truck to tout Yoo-hoo’s Pick Your Own Stinkin’ Prize sweeps. They’ve crashed the line at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to hand out samples and T-shirts, and toured the Yoo-hoo plant for a piece on The Food Network’s Unwrapped .

“Rather than the usual ‘talking head’ from the marketing department, we felt it would be much more genuine and authentic to have Yoo-hoo’s two biggest fans talking about the product,” says Marketing Director Kristin Krumpe.

Their red and blue Mohawks and Yoo-hoo tattoos draw crowds. “People come up to us all the time and ask what we’re doing,” says Smithson. “The man on the street is blown away by what we do. They think it’s the coolest job.”

“Our families are amazed that we turned this craziness into a job,” adds Harrold. “We don’t see this ending any time soon. We’ll keep doing it as long as they want us.”

Breeding BlockbustersGeorge Leon moves Sony on to the next big thing

A successful Hollywood promotion does not require a long-term alliance, says George Leon, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s senior VP-marketing and product placement. And he and his department at the Culver City, CA-based studio can prove it, thanks to a blockbuster-breaking season this summer.

“Long-term alliances don’t matter because if you meet your objectives, [partners] will come back and want to work with you again,” says Leon.

Hamilton Watches did just that. The Weehawken, NJ-based company teamed with Sony for the original Men in Black in 1997 and reprised for a bigger partnership for the sequel. Meanwhile, Men in Black newcomer Burger King was a happy customer for the sequel.

“[Leon] is there from the very beginning of an idea to make it happen promotionally, and is a real partner in the 11th hour when things shake up,” says Brian Geis, director of youth and family marketing for Miami-based BK.

By August, Sony Pictures broke its own record (set in 1997) for the highest studio gross in a calendar year, thanks to Spider-Man, Men in Black II, Stuart Little 2, Mr. Deeds , and XXX . Promotions ranged from a Dodge Viper tour with Cingular for Spider-Man to retail programs with Hamilton Watches for Men in Black II .

“If you’re lucky you get one great film per year, and all of a sudden we had a summer of four big films,” Leon says. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life — we worked with 30 different partners in one season and kept each campaign specific to the separate films.”

It was about “first-time evers” for Spider-Man . With Men in Black II , the goal was to be specific to distribution channels; for Stuart Little 2 it was creating a wholesome, kid-appropriate image; and for XXX , Sony went after edgy partners.

Before joining Sony in 2000, Leon worked at Fox Family Worldwide/Saban Entertainment, Camelot Licensing, and Larry Harmon Pictures Corp.

Leon has moved on to Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and SWAT next summer; meanwhile, he’s already in talks with partners for the Spider-Man sequel.

Baby PicturesBrett Merrell helps raise Gerber’s franchise

He’s been on the job since he was three, selling eggs door to door from a Radio Flyer wagon.

These days it’s baby food. As Gerber Products Co.’s VP-marketing, Brett Merrell leads the team behind the “Funny Faces” ad and direct-mail campaign that won Best Creative at this year’s PRO Awards, and a Gold Effie from the American Marketing Association (New York chapter). Eight “portraits” made of fruits and veggies show Gen X moms how fun Gerber’s organic line, Tender Harvest, can be.

But it’s Gerber’s other PRO Award — for the most effective long-term campaign — that best illustrates how the company has earned parents’ trust for 75 years. Its “no sugar or starch” message from 1997 added info on NatureLock processing in 1999, then in 2000 folded in “Grower’s Story” to tell how Gerber can trace foods back to certain farm fields. “Having that trust all the way back to the ground helps our credibility,” says Merrell. “[Founder] Dorothy Gerber wrote letters to moms 75 years ago. What we’re doing today is not far off from that.”

Gerber will spend the next two to three years on an ambitious education campaign, Start Healthy, which broke in August, and converts to plastic jars for all foods by 2005 (at moms’ requests). Noble & Associates, Chicago, is agency of record.

Merrell joined Gerber in 1997 as director of marketing for Gerber’s baby care business, then added the Wellness business (skincare and healthcare) before shifting to the baby food side in April 2002.

That’s when Gerber’s baby care group moved to parent Novartis’ Parsippany, NJ, office, joining the baby food division that moved from Gerber’s hometown of Fremont, MI, three years ago. Most of the marketing staff has young kids, so they “live and breathe babies at home and at work,” say Merrell, himself a father of six.

Gerber has a small window of opportunity — most parents serve baby food for only about a year — and uses direct marketing to reach new parents with info, offers, and a toll-free advice line. “We’ve had new moms call in the middle of the night to ask how to calm a fussy baby,” says Merrell. “Most of the people who answer the phones are moms or grandmas.”

Gerber rigorously protects its large, dynamic database, with strict rules on how names are acquired and removed. Mail is addressed to parents, and Gerber never uses babies’ names, gender, or age. “We’ve always been cautious,” Merrell explains. “Of all our assets, parents’ trust is our No. 1 strength.”

Gerber execs get high marks from Noble, which handled both PRO winners. “They know their target audience, and stay within tone,” says Noble President Elizabeth Sanderson. “They’re a joy to work with because they get it.”

Merrell joined Procter & Gamble’s food and beverage division after earning his MBA at Northwestern University, with an eye on eventually running a company. “I’ve worked at so many companies that put their mission on a plaque in the lobby but very few employees can recite it,” says Merrell. “Here, every employee knows our mission: Help parents nurture and raise healthy, happy babies. That unity of focus drives our success year after year.”

Screen SavingLoews’ John McCauley makes sponsorship the big picture

You don’t have to be a CPA to work in the marketing department at Loews Cineplex Entertainment. But it can’t hurt — especially if the company has filed Chapter 11. Marketing VP John McCauley joined the New York City-based theater chain just months after it filed for bankruptcy protection in spring 2001, and made partnership dollars his top priority. So the marketing department silos were broken down, combining 30 staffers handling new business, discount tickets, and promotions under one roof.

Then, McCauley — who’d worked stints at Merrill Lynch, Nike, and most recently the NFL — set out on a sponsorship crusade, recruiting Coca-Cola, Cingular, General Mills, and MasterCard for annual deals with the 167-theater chain. “A sponsorship model works best since we are focused on the top 10 markets,” McCauley says. “Advertisers can reach the influencers and hope to have a ripple effect.”

Highlights include the Picture Perfect Summer campaign. Cut-out cards on the back panels of one million packages of Mills’ Pop Secret microwave popcorn offered free refills of popcorn or soda. Pop Secret hosted Popcorn Olympics in more than 10 markets, which pitted consumers against one another in popcorn-bag filling and other kernel-related contests.

Now, McCauley & Co. is rebuilding the Loews brand image in preparation for its centennial in 2004. (The company emerged from bankruptcy last March.) Targeting mothers is one route. This fall Loews teamed with UrbanBaby.com (an online resource for young, cosmopolitan parents) for a ReelMoms program of weekly first-run film screenings for moms and babies in New York City. Accommodations included changing tables, healthy snacks, lowered volume, and play areas.

“You can bring any kind of idea to John and he’s open to it,” says Kenneth Marinelli, executive vp of New York City-based Marinelli Communications, Loews’ lead agency. “He’s totally taking [cinema marketing] in a new direction.”

Through its Holiday Escape campaign in 2002, consumers could plug in their ticket stub number at enjoytheshow.com to enter a sweeps for an SUV. And through a partnership with Sony Pictures, Loews showed outtakes from Men in Black II and directed consumers online to answer trivia to win merchandise from film partners Hamilton Watches and Ray-Ban.

Road WarriorsScott Moller and Julie Guida keep Marketing Werks on a roll

Other agencies may be scrambling to promote their newfound expertise in event marketing, but co-managing partners Scott Moller and Julie Guida let Marketing Werks’ experience speak for itself. “Over the past couple years we’ve seen a lot of new agencies entering the experiential field,” says Moller. “We’ve been doing this for 15 years. I think that gives us a certain level of credibility in this business.”

And how. Chicago-based Marketing Werks cracked the Top 10 in the PROMO 100 agency rankings in 2002, with two-year revenue up a whopping 177 percent. The agency has set the benchmark for successful mobile campaigns, spicing up efforts for traditionally conservative marketers such as Hershey Foods with the Kissmobile and this past spring’s Jammin’ with Jolly Rancher Tour.

Marketing Werks also won a PRO Award (best multi-discipline campaign) for the Discover Card Gets You On GameDay Challenge. (That effort won an EMMA last spring for Discover Card.) The campaign and tour — which dangled the chance for sports nuts to appear on ESPN’s wildly popular College GameDay — drew 1.1 million attendees, recorded 3,330 auditions, and generated over 825 million impressions.

Marketing Werks also helped Lego solidify its successful U.S. launch with the Power Lies Beneath Tour for Bionicle. “Some agencies work for you, but Marketing Werks works with you,” says Molly Wilson, director of brand marketing at Archer Daniels Midland Co. “The success of our mobile marketing tours is directly attributable to their ability to work side-by-side with us.”

The partners met at Carbondale, IL-based entertainment venue SIU Arena. Guida went on to head up Charger Advertising. Moller worked in broadcast media sales, promoting events for PACE Theatrical Group, then became VP-advertising and marketing at SRO/PACE Promotions.

The best may be yet to come. In 2003, Marketing Werks will refresh several long-standing programs, including Hershey’s six-year-old Kissmobile, according to Moller.

Brand WashingMichael Murphy polishes Unilever’s Master Brands

Michael Murphy’s been to Hell and back, and loved it.

The fall 2002 Degree in Hell sweepstakes trip to the Cayman Islands (and the town of Hell) is the kind of work Murphy fosters as director of promotions for Unilever Health & Personal Care: “The concept homed in on the essence of Degree. It wasn’t just some crazy idea; it was intrinsic to the brand.”

That’s Unilever’s Master Brands strategy: Marshal resources behind fewer brands, bring them across categories, and integrate marketing to court top customers (August PROMO). Take Dove, whose mall tour with Lifetime and tie-in with Bally Total Fitness — think health-club locker wraps and sponsored classes —were among Murphy’s 2002 highlights. (Bally work will grow this year.)

“Promotion is on the cusp of significant change because of this phenomenal blurring of the lines,” he says. “We need to understand promotion’s role: to drive short-term sales, and connect with our best customers through retailers.”

A purebred promo guy (“that’s not very common these days”) who cut his teeth at General Foods, Murphy spent many years in packaged goods and a few years each at Ryan Partnership and AT&T before joining Unilever in 1999. “I really wanted to come back to packaged goods,” he says. “The challenge is that promotion isn’t always the lead horse, but we have to be willing to let different [disciplines] run it.”

Murphy has incorporated Lever Brothers, Chesebrough-Ponds, and Helene Curtis brands and now “we’re ready to blow some brands out,” in the U.S. and abroad. Murphy is quick to credit his team of five promotion managers and strong brands for Unilever’s success. “I’ve been so fortunate in my career to work on just great brands,” he says.

Murphy has turned down brand management jobs to stick with promotion because “it’s the microcosm of marketing; you can see your results,” he says. “I’m passionate about this industry.”

Spoken like a true Hell raiser.

Fountain of YouthVince Rubino and Chuck McLeish keep Lego hip

Keeping a 70-year-old brand relevant in the day of video games and here-today-gone-tomorrow toys isn’t a one-man job. For Lego, it took a bold new toy line and comprehensive relationships with the biggest names in professional sports.

The 2001 introduction of Lego’s new Bionicle line was a resounding success. With higher brand recognition in 2002, Lego had to decide between more mass-market promotion to reach as many kids as possible, or stick to the grassroots, face-to-face approach that had served it so well.

“I told our agency [Marketing Werks] to emphasize targeted touches,” says marketing program project manager Vince Rubino [on right]. “I want to know who we physically interacted with, who stopped by the tour, who [took] a comic book, and so on.”

Rubino joined Lego Systems in 1988 as quality control technician of special events. From 1991 to 1998 he served as special events project manager before taking over as manager of retail and special projects.

Rubino organized the 10-week Power Lies Beneath Tour 2002, which featured two-person crews hitting more than 1,300 skate and family-oriented events to distributing Bionicle booty. The tour generated 393,138 “targeted touches” and 7,3 million total impressions.

“Bionicle was even more rewarding this year,” says Rubino. “Kids were aware of the brand from the start, but now we had parents flagging down the trucks, saying how much their kids liked the brand.”

As a 24-year Lego veteran with positions ranging from group manager of market planning and information to director of licensing, Director of Marketing Chuck McLeish gets face-to-face with partners as well as customers. McLeish has bolstered Lego’s partnerships through Lego Sports initiative: Toys use NBA logos and player attributes. This spring, Lego will launch a new line of National Hockey League-themed products and sponsor the NHL’s Hockey Rules Ice and Inline Hockey Tour in NHL cities across the U.S. McLeish’s next deal is with the Gravity Games extreme sports series. “The players’ endorsements help communicate what Lego Sports is all about,” he says.

Racing for a CureSusan B. Komen Foundation’s Cindy Schneible is taking awareness mainstream

Fighting breast cancer can be a lot like campaigning for a congressman. There are corporate donations to solicit, events to plan, and relationships to forge. When Cindy Schneible joined the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1992, she found there were a lot of similarities between her new job and her previous position as political director for a Texas politician.

She’s already made an impact. Schneible, now VP-national programs at the Dallas-based nonprofit, was recruited to manage Komen’s then nine-year-old Race for the Cure. That year, there were 24 races. Today, there are 112. As the nation’s largest 5K series, Race for the Cure attracted more than one million participants in 2002.

Among many programs, Schneible heads up the six-year-old BMW Ultimate Drive program, which has two BMW caravans tour the country asking consumers to test-drive the vehicle. For each mile driven, BMW donates $1 to the foundation.

For the past two years, Susan G. Komen has teamed with Loews Cineplex Entertainment for a campaign during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. In 2002, the program was enhanced with an eBay auction of popcorn buckets designed by celebrities.

“She’s done a great job in looking into areas that the foundation does not have a footprint in,” says John McCauley, VP-marketing at Loews. “She has a great strategic eye and all of their programs are done in a tasteful way.”

Breast-cancer awareness promotions have become so popular, it wasn’t so surprising that marketing tie-ins — including some Komen partnerships — caught flack this year from advocacy group Breast Cancer Action. The coalition launched a Think Before You Pink p.r. campaign criticizing companies that make minimal donations to breast cancer groups through promotions.

“I think that their message — that consumers need to be fully informed of company’s programs — is right on target,” Schneible says. “But I think the piece that was missing is that it’s not just about funds raised, it’s about the ability to raise awareness.”

Coach PotatoRod Taylor set Safeway’s champion roster

Most Valuable Player? Maybe. Rod Taylor wrote the play-book for Safeway Inc.’s Eat Like a Champion, then pulled together the team to do it.

Taylor created, then negotiated with 15 produce marketers, eight professional soccer players, and the 5 A Day folks for a month-long program that boosted kids’ appetite for fruits and veggies and bolstered participating brands’ sales at Safeway 35 to 61 percent. The campaign won this year’s top PRO Award (November PROMO).

“All those touchpoints,” says the CoActive Marketing Group senior VP. “Twenty five approvals. Well, we got ‘em.”

Safeway stores adopted local schools, where kids tracked fruit and veg servings on a classroom chart to earn soccer-themed goodies from teachers. “We knew the kids would like trading cards; we didn’t know how much the teachers would,” says Taylor.

A sports buff who served as field marshal for the 1984 Olympics, Taylor has used U.S. Soccer in promos for 10 years. He cut his teeth on multi-brand promos overseeing Procter & Gamble’s annual Special Olympics tie-in. “I learned at P&G that the bigger the promotion, the better the results — and the cheaper the cost,” he says.

Taylor spent 24 years at P&G, mentoring brand assistants on promotion: “They’d come up with these Rube Goldberg promotions and I’d say, ‘The retailers will throw us out.’”

Pitching retailers taught Taylor how stores work; he parlayed that by jumping to U.S. Concepts (now CoActive’s Cincinnati office) in 1996. Agency work appealed because “I wanted to do my own ideas rather than wait for a cue from a brand guy.”

Fresh Express called CoActive for a plan to use Safeway’s long 5 A Day alliance and boost its profile in neighborhoods. Taylor added soccer — a favorite with kids and Safeway director of produce marketing Don Harris — and ran the field.

“He has so much credibility with the retailer because of his background at P&G,” says Fresh Express Director of National Accounts Brent Carr. “His seniority, credibility, and ability to pull it all together were essential. None of us [produce marketers] could have pulled it off ourselves.”

CoActive Account Executives Jennifer Murphy and Shannon Kammerer (now at P&G) handled daily details, getting all partners’ approval on P-O-P and recipes, while Taylor negotiated produce vendors’ contracts with Safeway, using Fresh Express’ deal as a model.

When local stores called schools to adopt, teachers normally a reluctant bunch — requested materials. Soccer stars loved chatting with kids at assemblies.

“My mom was a principal,” Taylor shrugs. “I have an affinity for what works in schools.”