Article on Pro Motion's Steve Randazzo was Featured on STL Today
Posted on Mon, Dec 20, 2010
See the article below about Pro Motion President, Steve Randazzo, that was recently featured on STL Today.
Marketing chief uses hands-on approach
BY LISA BROWN
When Gatorade sought a way to get closer to its customers this summer, the sports drink brand owned by PepsiCo Inc. turned to Steve Randazzo.
Working with Gatorade's advertising agency, Randazzo's Chesterfield-based event marketing firm, Pro Motion, converted a 53-foot trailer to a mobile locker room and trucked it to Kirkwood High School. From the mobile locker room, Rams defensive end Chris Long and nutrition experts from the University of Missouri-Columbia spoke to varsity athletes about the merits of proper hydration.
Pro Motion's past events include staging CNN's "Election Express Yourself Tour" in 2008 and Disney's "Give a day, get a Disney day" promotion last summer that gave away a million tickets to Disney World or Disneyland in exchange for a day of volunteering.
Randazzo's first job out of college was an assistant for the Kansas City Royals' marketing department. His career path included stints at Vess Beverages, Ralston Purina and McCann Erickson Event Marketing before he started his own agency Pro Motion in 1995.
Over the past 15 years, Randazzo has grown his business from a handful of staff to 40 employees.
How do you define the "experiential" marketing approach your business follows?
We want to get into the emotion of the consumer that creates an experience so it changes their behavior. We do product sampling for one of our beverage clients, Genesis Today, at Walmart and Sam's clubs. We find that the closer you get to the point of sale at a store, for example, the better your results will be.
How did your business change in the recession?
It hit us in October 2008. We didn't feel it at first because we had a backlog for six months.
Then one of our largest clients, an industrial products company whose business relied on construction, their marketing went to zero dollars.
Sixty-five percent of our business now involves trucks and trailers, and two years ago, it was 95 percent. We're focusing more and more on street teams, which is a good way to engage your customer, and it's a product of this economy.
Is business picking back up yet?
We have more in the pipeline today than we had all of 2010. More and more brands are spending money again.
What prompted you to open an office in Los Angeles this year?
More and more of our business was coming from LA companies, and more of our clients are there. There's so much opportunity on the West Coast.
How is technology changing your business?
Technology is increasing the reach of our experiential programs by providing more ways to build awareness of our clients' programs.
We're even more efficient because everything happens in real time. Online reporting, GPS tracking and other forms of technology have created an "instant on" business world. We're now careful to hire brand ambassadors based on their social media reach, including their number of Twitter followers and Facebook friends.
With all of the additional clutter generated by social media, we have to be smart about how to generate that additional buzz.
Pro Motion is an award winning nationally recognized integrated marketing leader that focuses on building relationships to grow brands. We specialize in the areas of experiential marketing, digital marketing, social media, strategy, creative and public relations.
Clients say we have measurably better ROI and activation and we GUARANTEE it! We believe participation builds relationships, relationships drive results and results are all that matter! For more information follow Pro Motion on Facebook or Twitter.