ENGLISH CHANNELING: Marketing Store Worldwide is making bigger waves in the U.S.

Faithful promo readers know the name Marketing Store Worldwide well. They’re the chaps who always seem to earn a boatload of promotion marketing awards in the U.K. (the Sales Promotion Consultants Association’s “Bests”) and Europe (regional World PRO Awards of Excellence) for work with such clients as Walkers Snacks and Bass Brewers. They’ve also gained recognition for impressive work in Asia as well.

This year, the Marketing Store scored its first big hit in the U.S. Working with Gloucester, MA-based Cyrk, Inc.’s Simon Marketing division, the agency developed a tie-in for McDonald’s that turned the standard Happy Meal giveaway into a true continuity program by serving up Walt Disney Co.’s Inspector Gadget one body party at a time. Although some parents weren’t exactly thrilled with being held over a barrel premium-wise, the campaign was anointed a success in just about every other circle: It generated a six-percent sales lift for McDonald’s, and earned the two agencies a Silver Reggie for National Consumer Promotion Over $1 Million. “The complete toy may be the most memorable aspect of Disney’s forgettable summer film,” praised collector’s magazine Toy Shop in rating the premium as one of the 10 best toys of the year.

Mind you, the Marketing Store (No. 33 in its first year on the promo 100) isn’t exactly a newcomer to the Colonies: The shop has been working with McDonald’s here for decades. But since its merger with Chicago-based M-B Sales in early 1998, it has been working to develop a stronger presence in the States – and to use that positioning to build a wider global network.

Marketing Store ceo Graham Kemp came across in ’98 to get things started, and industry veteran Kevin Astle, who sold his own Toronto-based agency to BBDO Canada several years ago, was brought in as executive vp-managing director for the Americas.

Marketing Store first set up a full-service shop in Toronto, then began fortifying the Chicago office. Total company net revenues rose 38 percent to $52.3 million between 1997 and 1999; U.S. revenues rose about eight percent last year, despite a nine-percent company-wide slip caused by the renegotiations of some worldwideaccounts. The agency also moved away from working with Pepsi-Cola in Europe last year to instead assist Coca-Cola. As one of McDonald’s leading supplier partners, Coke provides better synergistic opportunities for the agency’s projects, says Astle.

“They’ve undergone a lot of changes in the past 18 months, and they’ve done a great job reinventing themselves to meet the needs of today’s marketers,” says Mary Miller, Oak Brook, IL-based McDonald’s assistant vp-global marketing.

The agency is setting up operating units for promotions, advertising, sponsorships, direct marketing, p.r., events, and customer care – to make good on the promise of its name. But the business will have “one single bottom line and no revenue silos,” explains Astle. “We want to make sure no department out-shouts the others.”

A Miami office will serve as the connection to South America, where Marketing Store now has offices in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. North American operations will include a satellite office in Los Angeles as well. The agency also has offices in Australia and Hong Kong. “If you want companies to consider you a true partner, you have to put the resources in place,” says Astle. “You have to stand behind the programs you develop, and recognize that you are accountable.”

“They instill a high degree of confidence in you that you’ll get what you want and it will be done extremely well,” says Miller. “The other nice feature is that they’re all over the world – they have the knowledge and perspective of what can be done in different countries.”

Elmhurst, IL-based Keebler Co. is using the Marketing Store for two projects this year, a back-to-school tie-in with Scholastic Entertainment and the launch of a new Sesame Street-branded snack line (May promo). “We were drawn by their kids marketing expertise,” says Mike Jurgensen, Keebler’s director of market planning and promotions. “We’ve found them to be a highly creative agency, and we’ve been very pleased with what they’ve done.”

Marketing Store recently gained business from Honda to relaunch the Civic in Canada, and just completed its first work for Coke in the U.S. – some of the “first tastes of success” for the recent North American initiatives, says Astle.

More successful tastes like those will make for a Happy Meal, indeed.