Posted by Keith Green on Thu, Aug 05, 2010
Synergy's New VP of Brand Experience, Tim Heath
Tim Heath has been named to the newly created position of Vice President of Brand Experience, announced Synergy Events president Peter Hurley today.
Heath will be responsible for working with current brand clients and cultivating new brand business relationships for Synergy, a nationally recognized leader in event marketing. He will be part of the company’s senior management team and will direct the brand-side communication process, as well as generate concepts, budgets and proposals for events.
“I am extremely pleased that Tim is part of the Synergy Events family,” Hurley said. “His event marketing background and experience working with top brands are the perfect combination to be a leader on our senior management team.”
Heath has more than 25 years experience working in high profile marketing and account development positions for Sports Systems, New York Junior Tennis League, Jack Morton and IMG. His most recent position was president of English Sportswear. Throughout his career, he has worked with the Canadian Football League, CA Technologies, Merrill Lynch, Nokia and Toyota, among many others.
“It is a privilege to join forces with an agency that is held in the highest regard, and possesses exceptional personnel, creativity and operational excellence,” Heath said. “I am excited to bring my brand communications experience to Synergy Events, and look forward to growing together with the team.”
Heath, 49, is a graduate of Boston University, where he received his B.A. in Sociology. A life-long tennis enthusiast and advocate for the sport, he is the volunteer president of the United States Eastern Tennis Association. Heath also holds a USTA Adult League National title and was ranked #1 in the 2008 USTA Eastern section in the 45 & over doubles division.
He resides in New York City with his wife, Cathy and their 14 year-old daughter, Sara.
Synergy Events is an independent full service event marketing agency that has executed more than 10,000 events in 150+ markets on behalf of global consumer brands, dozens of Fortune 100 companies, sports sanctioning bodies and top PR firms. The company's core capabilities include mobile marketing tours, PR events, PR stunts, product launches and sponsorship activation platforms.
Synergy's home office is located strategically in Ocean, NJ, just 50 miles from New York City and within 200 miles of four of the top eight media markets. The company, which celebrated its 18th anniversary last month, was recently named a Top 100 event marketing agency for the third consecutive year by Event Marketer magazine.
Posted by Keith Green on Mon, Jul 26, 2010
Synergy Events has teamed up with adidas for a traveling experience surrounding the 10th anniversary and 6th edition of the popular Barricade tennis shoe. Synergy custom-built two kiosks featuring 36" tennis balls to grab fans' attention at three ATP tournaments this summer.
Once fans enter their personal information (and USTA rating, if applicable) they vote on their favorite edition of the Barricade. After their vote is recorded, consumers are automatically entered into a drawing to win the Grand Prize of a day's training with tennis star Andy Murray in Miami. First place winners will receive the opportunity to design their own Barricade, while second prize winners will receive the latest in Barricade technology-the all new adidas Barricade 6. Before they complete their entry, consumers can share the link with friends through email or social media. Fans who aren't on site at the three tournaments listed below can enter by visiting the adidas Barricade 10th anniversary micro-site.
In addition the Atlanta Tennis Championships this past weekend, fans can visit the kiosks at the Farmers Classic at the LA Tennis Center-UCLA on July 26-August 1 and Western & Southern Financial Group Masters at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati on August 13-19 .
The traveling experience will culminate with an event at the adidas Sports Performance store at 610 Broadway in New York City. That event will take place on Friday, August 27, the day before Arthur Ashe Kids' Day kicks off the 2010 US Open.
Posted by Keith Green on Wed, Jul 07, 2010
This timelapse video shows how Synergy Events built a 30-foot M&M'S® on June 2 in New York City's Herald Square.
This was one of my favorite events in recent memory for a number of reasons:
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Even in New York City where experiential events like this are much more common, a 30-foot M&M'S® still "wowed" consumers.
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The M&M'S® brand is iconic and the structure alone, which doubled as a concert venue, drew a big crowd. As the show was set to begin, the M&M'S® opened at its equator to reveal a stage.
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Star Power: the top 10 finalists from this season's American Idol performed a free concert on that stage.... inside the M&M'S®!
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Surprise and Delight: not only did consumers get to take in a free concert, they received free packages of the new M&M'S® Pretzel Chocolate Candies (they are awesome, by the way!).
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A special thanks goes out to our group of terrific, enthusiastic brand ambassadors who distributed the candies around Herald Square for the event.
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Experiential events can be fairly simple or extremely complicated. This structure required engineering certification and time to carefully plan and execute. Kudos to our operations team for a job well done!
Posted by Keith Green on Wed, May 26, 2010
Yesterday, the NFL announced that New York-New Jersey (New Jersey, actually) will host the 2014 Super Bowl. The landmark deal created quite a buzz in the Synergy Events' hallways yesterday, since our office is less than 50 miles from the new Giants/Jets stadium in East Rutherford.
Naturally, this decision has sparked debate around the country, as the Giants and Jets will co-host the first Super Bowl in a cold weather environment. Fans will encounter a whole new form of experiential marketing, as cold weather may not only affect the big game, but the fans' experience at and away from the stadium. Clearly, New York City will be the centerpiece of the off-the-field activities, as the NFL's official partners might spend to activate their sponsorships unlike any other Super Bowl in history. Monitoring the guerrilla marketing, which undoubtedly will be spread throughout Manhattan, will be a huge challenge for the marketing team at NFL Headquarters.
The debate about having the Super Bowl in a cold weather environment was interesting to monitor on TV, talk radio and the internet yesterday. I don't buy the theory-supported by former NFL player Mike Golic of ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" that the weather shouldn't play a factor in the Super Bowl. Well, before the NFL title game was called the Super Bowl, the game was often played in the cold. Regular season and playoff games are obviously still played in the cold. And weather conditions-and not just cold and snow- certainly have been a factor in previous Super Bowls, including the driving rainstorm that marred Super Bowl XLI.
Another weather-related argument is that potential conditions could give a cold-weather team an advantage. Did anybody complain when the Rams and the "Greatest Show on Turf" won an indoor Super Bowl? Clearly, the Rams had an advantage playing that game indoors. Does anybody complain if a cold weather team plays in a Super Bowl against a warm-weather team in a warm climate like Miami or San Diego? These type of perceived "advantages" have taken place at other Super Bowls, just in a different form. And yet nobody has complained.
I also heard Sal Paolantonio from ESPN yesterday mention that it really won't be a "New York" Super Bowl since the teams will stay and practice in New Jersey. It seemed Sal wasn't too happy about that, since it seems most of his media brethren will probably stay near the sports complex and away from the bright lights of Manhattan so they can cover the teams easily.
I don't think anybody is pretending that this will be an all-New Jersey Super Bowl, as evidenced by the winning "New York-New Jersey" bid and the photo opp in Manhattan yesterday with New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck and New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis. (Photo: New York Post).
From the players' perspective, I heard a couple of different points of view yesterday. Tuck told WFAN in New York that the game "could be played on Mars" and most players wouldn't care. (I thought Tuck did an very nice job talking about how the game is great for New York-New Jersey. Kudos to the Giants and/or NFL PR staff). On the opposite end, Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was worried that the experience wouldn't be great since the game is "primarily for the fans" and shouldn't be played "in 20 below weather." Actually, he's wrong on both counts, especially if he's talking about hard-core fans. It's well-known that the Super Bowl crowd is more corporate, but if hard-core fans get to see their favorite team in the Super Bowl, do you think they will care how cold it is? I know I wouldn't. (And it most certainly won't be "20 below" as Suggs said. (The average high temperature for that time of year in New Jersey
From Synergy's standpoint, we're very excited that Super Bowl XLVIII will happen in our backyard. We've worked with dozens of partners over the years to activate their sponsorships at the Super Bowl, Olympics, World Cup, Daytona 500, NCAA men's Final 4, Breeders Cup and US Open, among many other high-profile sports events. Whether or not those experiential activations take place in New Jersey or in New York City, we are looking forward to partnering with brands as the Super Bowl comes to our home state!
Posted by Keith Green on Wed, May 19, 2010
We're excited to have two new employees in the fold, as Bobby Stern and Justin Theno recently joined our growing team here at Synergy Events.
Bobby is our new Account Coordinator. He has already proved to be a great asset to our clients as we continue to plan and execute experiential marketing events nationwide. He's jumped in with both feet on our got milk? Milk Mustache Mobile Tour, and will assist with other in-market promotions and events. Bobby is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he received a B.S. Business Management, Entrepreneurial Studies and played catcher on the baseball team.
Justin is our new Graphic Designer. Like Bobby, he's a New Jersey guy, having graduated from nearby Monmouth University with a B.A. in Fine Arts. Justin has already put together some crisp 3-D renders for our clients and potential clients. Graphic Design is such an integral part of helping our clients visualize what their mobile marketing tour, PR event, product launch or sponsorship activation program will look like, so we're excited to have Justin at Synergy Events to head up those efforts.
Welcome, guys! We're thrilled you're both here and look forward to a great 2010 and beyond!
Posted by Keith Green on Thu, Apr 22, 2010
Over the past two years, I've had the opportunity to represent Synergy Events by speaking at public relations and marketing communications conferences and seminars about event marketing.
Along with my colleague Stan Phelps (above, left with me after speaking at Bizarre PR put on by the Drexel University PRSSA chapter earlier this month) I like to leave the attendees with some practical information for planning their next experiential event.
We've received some great feedback on the "Top 10 Event/Experiential Marketing Tips" portion of our presentations, so we thought we would share the list, which is below.
If you have questions, comments or would like to provide your own tips, please let us know!
Experiential Marketing Tips
Posted by Keith Green on Mon, Mar 29, 2010
Recently, I wrote about how mobile marketing-at least as far as the event and experiential marketing industry is concerned- has suffered from an identity crisis since the mobile phone industry has inadvertently hijacked the term "mobile marketing."
For those of us in the event marketing industry, "mobile marketing" always meant taking a brand's message on the road as part of vehicle-based mobile marketing program designed to reach a target audience in the right place at the right time. These days, when somebody mentions "mobile marketing," more than likely you think of being engaged by an advertiser via your mobile phone.
Now, another event marketing term is going by the wayside as authorities in Philadelphia are combating violent "Flash Mobs" that have popped up throughout the city. According to this article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, last weekend "teenagers gathered using social-networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. By spreading the word on line, the kids were able to gather a big crowd. For a brief time, these teens fought in the streets, a few bystanders were beaten up, and several shops were vandalized."
Certainly, this is discouraging in a number of ways, with the senseless violence and vandalism being at the top of the list.
But somebody has coined the term "Flash Mob" for this type of activity and turned it into something negative. It used to be that a "Flash Mob" was something creative and fun, where people would "spontaneously" merge together in a public place for a cause or for a brand's new campaign.
This morning I googled "Flash Mob" and the negative aspect of this term is now the third listing.
Utilizing Flash Mobs are part of Synergy's took kit that we pitch to clients for ideas. It looks like our agency and others involved in the industry-along with brands looking to utilize this idea-will have to find a new moniker for this cool concept.
If you were a brand or agency, would you now pitch a "Flash Mob" for your next event? Either way, it looks like part of Synergy's next brainstorm will be dedicated to coining a new term for our next "Flash Mob" pitch.
In the meanwhile, enjoy this great video of an "old-fashioned" flash mob.
Posted by Keith Green on Fri, Mar 19, 2010
Last night in New York City, Synergy Events teamed up with Paine PR for an exciting launch event that unveiled Pampers new high performance diapers.
The celebrity-driven event drew a huge media contingent, but the real stars of the night were the babies who were on hand who tried out the revolutionary, high-tech Swaddlers and Cruisers with Dry Max in a special play area.
The red carpet event at Helen Mills Theater featured celebrities Padma Lakshmi, (Top Chef) academy award winning actress Marcia Gay Harden, actresses Ana Ortiz, (Ugly Betty) and Kelly Rutherford (Gossip Girl) and actor Matthew Settle (Gossip Girl); actress/singer Geraldine Bazan; Team USA Medalists Chad Hedrick and athlete Noelle Pikus-Pace; and mom designer Liz Lange, who designed a fashionable diaper clutch just for the product.
Dry Max technology offers premium leak protection as it helps lock in wetness for up to 12 hours and is up to two times drier than other leading brands. Not only do the diapers offer comfort and flexibility to both babies and parents, the diapers are better for the environment since they are especially designed to reduce energy demand and solid waste.
"After years of research, we are celebrating that our new Pampers Swaddlers and Cruisers with Dry Max have finally arrived on store shelves, featuring benefits that will score big with parents and babies while being one step better for the environment," said Jodi Allen, vice president of North America Baby Care at Procter & Gamble. "Just like the way technology is getting thinner, smaller and better than before, so is our new diaper line.
Photo: Actress Kelly Rutherford and daughter Helena Grace, along with actor Matthew Settle, at the Pampers Dry Max launch event in New York City. (Synergy Events)
Posted by Keith Green on Thu, Feb 18, 2010
A PRSA-NY workshop on Experiential Marketing is set for Thursday, March 4 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Synergy Events is honored to be part of the panel.
The evening program, "Leveraging Experiential Marketing to Drive PR: Planning and Executing Buzz-Worthy Events in New York City" will offer a guide to planning and executing experiential marketing events in New York City and beyond, whether it's product launch at the Museum of Modern Art, a PR stunt in Times Square, a guerrilla marketing event on the streets, or a mobile marketing tour with dozens of stops throughout the country.
The workshop, which will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and include admission to the Museum at the conclusion of the program, will also cover tips on staffing, site selection, logistics, permitting and budgets. A top 10 list of successful event tactics will also be discussed.
Panel speakers are:
- Keith Green, Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Synergy Events
- Kim Mitchell, Chief Communications Officer, Museum of Modern Art
- Nicholas Apps, Director of Special Programming and Events, Museum of Modern Art
Mary Buhay, Senior Director of Marketing for Gibbs & Soell Public Relations and Vice-President of Programming for PRSA-NY, will moderate the panel.
PRSA-NY members, ($55) non-members ($75) and students ($25) can register online here or download a registration form. Students are required to show I.D. upon arrival.
Throughout our 17 years, Synergy Events has planned and executed 9,000+ events in more than 150 markets and won dozens of industry awards. We work with Fortune 100 companies, global brands, top PR agencies and professional sports sanctioning bodies to create mobile marketing tours, PR events/stunts, product launches and sports sponsorship activation programs.
Photo credit: Timothy Hursley, copyright 2010.
Posted by Keith Green on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
Today was the (very unofficial) kickoff to the 2010 got milk? Milk Mustache Mobile Tour, as our six travel managers that will run the iconic program from the road met at Synergy's headquarters in Ocean, NJ.
It was fun to watch the group get to know each other, as today marked the first day of the group's two week training program before they hit the road later this month to take the got milk? message to more than 75 markets.
Part of the day's activities included team building exercises to build trust within each two-man travel team, since each group will be together literally every day for more than six months.
Pictured above are Sean (second from left) and Willis who will make up the west team, as they go through a team building exercise. No doubt, they are looking forward to spreading the message in the warmer western climate about the health benefits of milk!
Congratulations as well to Justin and Isaiah (east region) and Jon and Brent (central region) who will make up the other two travel teams. It's great to have all of you as part of the 2010 tour, so welcome aboard!