Synergy Events Names Tim Heath Vice President of Brand Experience

 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 18^th anniversary last month, was recently named a Top 100 event marketing agency for the third consecutive year by Event Marketer magazine.

Synergy Events VP Part of Experiential Marketing Workshop at MoMA on Thursday, March 4

 

 

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.

 

• 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.

 

 

The Third Principle of Success for Experiential Marketing

OK, we're back on track today with my third Principle of Success for Experiential Marketing. We've noticed our blog viewership going up, so thanks for visiting...and please comment if you have some thoughts on our topics!

For the past two years, a team from Synergy Events has attended the PRSA International Conference to connect with public relations professionals about how our experiential marketing events drive PR for our clients. At one of the workshops in San Diego in November, Daryl McCullough from Paine PR presented his Seven Principles of Success during his terrific "Best in Buzz" workshop. This list was inspired by Daryl's talk.

Here are the first two principles we reviewed last week:

1. Integrate your events. Click here for the full post.

2. Last week, we chatted about the second principle, Knowing Your Audience.

Today's topic, "Making it Stick" refers to making your event unique or "sticky."

One of my goals in my former life as the Director of Public Relations at Richmond International Raceway was to create press events that had a hook and would be fun for the media to cover. This concept is no different when putting on an event: try to create something that's never been done before or if the concept isn't unique, find a compelling angle for your target, whether it is the media or the consumer. Even if your idea isn't worthy for the 6:00 p.m. news or the New York Times, equip your team with its own tools (invest a couple hundred bucks in a Flip Camera or a decent digital camera) to make your event viral. Times have changed so rapidly that your idea can be so cool that it still works (or can work better) if it doesn't make the 6:00 p.m. news.

 

One of the questions we get asked often at Synergy is "Who comes up with the ideas for your events?" Often the idea originates with the brand, but sometimes it's the agency or our internal team at Synergy that comes up with the concept. Coming up with that winning idea isn't always easy, so here Seven of Synergy's (many) brainstorming rules to help your idea "Stick":

 

1. Invite as many people as possible. Sure, it's tough to coordinate schedules on short notice or jam more than 20 people in a conference room, but we subscribe to the theory that the more creative brains, the better.

2. Don't forget the smart college kids. From the interns to the C-Suite, invite a wide range of people on your staff, you never know who is going to come up with a brilliant idea.

3. Special Interest. If you have a proposal that is fitness related, go find the yoga instructor or muscle head in your office and get them involved.

4. Secretary of State. Assign a note taker. The person running the brainstorm shouldn't be the same person taking the notes. It's too distracting and can cause the entire brainstorm to be unfocused and unorganized.

5. Location, location, location. If possible, change the location of your brainstorms every once in a while. Move it to the hallway if you must. A different environment keeps the mind from wandering.

6. Don't be a hater. No ideas suck and wacky, out-of-the-box thinking is encouraged. This is probably the number one brainstorm rule, but I see it broken all the time. We even encourage our team to build on ideas they don't like, since it can spur another thought from someone else.

7. Provide and Prepare. Give everybody a brief on the opportunity before the brainstorm and make sure all participants have ample time to review the info so they can come to the brainstorm with at least two ideas.

The 2nd Principle of Success for Experiential Marketing

 

 

Today is the second entry of our Seven Principles of Success for Experiential Marketing. For the past two years, a team from Synergy Events has attended the PRSA International Conference to connect with public relations professionals about how our experiential marketing events drive PR for our clients. At one of the workshops in San Diego in November, Daryl McCullough from Paine PR presented his Seven Principles of Success during his terrific "Best in Buzz" workshop. This list was inspired by Daryl's talk.

 

1. Integrate your events. Click here for the full post.

 

2. Today I want to talk about the second principle, Knowing Your Audience.

 

Here are 3 steps:

 

Focus on Your Core - This may sound incredibly simple, but it's important to remember who your primary target is when planning an event. Obviously, it's fine to have more than one target group (e.g. media, mom's between 28-40, tweens, etc.) but that's often where the problems start. For example, if a brand is launching a new beverage aimed at young professionals, but has a primary goal of driving media impressions through an event, then a straight sampling program at Bryant Park isn't going to work.  

 

Timing is Everything - Another factor in knowing your audience is when to do the event. Again, if you want a media focused event in New York City for example, check potential conflicts and pick a convenient time for the media to cover the event. If the budget allows, hire a freelance B-roll shooter and still photographer so you have a backup plan to service the press in case a breaking story or other unforeseen factors lead to a light press turnout.

 

Key to Engagement - Be sure to factor what will make your audience stop and take notice. If you're executing a press-driven event like the Crown Royal contest reveal above, (a sports activation prior to the 2009 Daytona 500) make sure the idea is unique and newsworthy (we'll talk more about this on Thursday). If you are conducting a product launch and want to sample, make the extra spend to have your teams in branded uniforms.  And be sure the Brand Ambassadors have the personality and persistence to engage the target.  

 

Stay tuned for the remaining principles of success in the coming weeks:

 

3. Make it Stick! (January 28)

 

4. Leverage Technology. (February 2)

 

5. Be authentic to your brand. (February 4)

 

6. Select the right spokesperson. (February 9)

 

7. Pick the right location. (February 11)

 

Seven Principles of Success for Experiential Marketing

For the past two years, a team from Synergy Events has attended the PRSA International Conference to connect with public relations professionals about how our experiential marketing events drive PR for our clients.

 

At one of the workshops in San Diego in November, Daryl McCullough from Paine PR presented his Seven Principles of Success during his terrific "Best in Buzz" workshop.

 

Inspired by Daryl's talk, I have put together a list of Seven Principles of Success for Experiential Marketing. While all seven of the principles are listed, each of the next blogs on this topic will offer more detail on one of the Seven Principles, including some cool event marketing programs we've either executed or seen in the field.

 

1. Integrate your events. Events should not occur in a silo. Whenever possible, events should incorporate as many marketing disciplines as possible including advertising, grassroots, PR, social media and sponsorship initiatives.

 

An experiential marketing event by Snickers and David Arquette this past summer is a great example of taking an integrated approach. Arquette lived in a lounge on top of the Madison Square Garden marquee for part of two days to draw attention to the brand's "Bar Hunger" campaign and Feeding America, the nation's leading domestic hunger organization.

 

As you can see in this video, the event was fully integrated. Advertising, PR, grass roots, social media and retail tactics were used to help make the event a smash hit for Snickers.

• Advertising: Note the giant Snickers ad on the billboard behind the lounge on top of the MSG Marquee.
• PR: David Arquette, chairman of the entertainment council for Feeding America, was obviously the media hook. The story was everywhere, from the Today Show to Howard Stern to the newspapers on the west coast. The event component (the lounge) in a non-traditional location (on top of the Madison Square Garden Marquee) made the story even more interesting.
•  Grassroots: Snickers-branded ambassadors distributed information and collected money for the cause from people around MSG. Arquette also ventured outside of the lounge and utilized a large Snickers bullhorn to get the attentions of passersby.
• Social Media: Snickers started a Bar Hunger Facebook page to collect funds from consumers and Arquette tweeted about his experience during his two day stay.
• Retail: The Bar Hunger messaging appeared on millions of Snickers bars and on P.O.P displays at retail outlets across the country.

Is a fully integrated approach always possible? No. But remember, it doesn't necessarily take a big budget to have a fully integrated experiential marketing event that leads to a huge win for a client.

Here's a schedule of our upcoming posts on the Seven Principles of Success for Experiential Marketing:

2. Know your audience. (January 26)

3. Make it Stick! (January 28)

4. Leverage Technology. (February 2)

5. Be authentic to your brand. (February 11)

6. Select the right spokesperson. (February 16)

7. Pick the right location. (February 18)

 

If you are interested in subscribing to Synergy101 click here.

 

Synergy Events is an independent, experiential marketing agency that works as a silent "behind the scenes" partner for top brands, PR agencies and sports leagues.  For more than 17 years, Synergy has connected brands to consumers via mobile marketing tours, PR stunts, product launches and sponsorship activation programs. If you are planning such an event or may have the need in near future, contact Stan Phelps via sphelps@synergyevents.com.