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.

A PR Stunt for the Ages: Building a 30-Foot M&M'S® in New York City

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:

 

1. Even in New York City where experiential events like this are much more common, a 30-foot M&M'S® still "wowed" consumers.

2. 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.

3. Star Power: the top 10 finalists from this season's American Idol performed a free concert on that stage.... inside the M&M'S®!

4. 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!).

5. A special thanks goes out to our group of terrific, enthusiastic brand ambassadors who distributed the candies around Herald Square for the event.  

6. 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!

 

 

Synergy Events Teams Up with Paine PR and Pampers for Celebrity-Driven Product Launch Event in NYC

 

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)

                                                                                         

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)

 

Synergy Events and the got milk? Great Gallon Give

 

got milk?

 

Some lucky consumers got free milk at Times Square in New York City yesterday as Synergy Events teamed up with Weber Shandwick and the Milk Processor Education Program to launch "The Great Gallon Give."

 

The event was featured on Good Morning America.

 

The new program-part of the National Milk Mustache ‘got milk?' Campaign-will give away hundreds of thousands of gallons of milk (the equivalent of more than three million servings) to help raise awareness of the important role milk plays in building strong families.  Synergy is executing these 20 experiential events from from coast-to-coast to give out the free gallons. Families can also register to win a year's free supply of milk and find out if the "Great Gallon Give" is coming to their city at www.whymilk.com.

 

The "Great Gallon Give" will also make it possible to help families in need by passing a virtual gallon of milk to friends on Facebook www.Facebook.com/MilkMustache.  For every virtual gallon passed, $1 will go to Feeding America, up to $100,000. Feeding America is the country's largest network of food banks that serves more than 25 million people facing hunger in this country.  In addition, milk processors will be donating thousands of real gallons of milk to local food banks in the Feeding America network.

 

Synergy Events also plans and executes the annual got milk? Milk Mustache Mobile Tour that visits more than 75 cities annually. That tour kicks off in the spring and continues throughout the summer.