For Ambrosi: Jean Ban 312-260-1819 jban@ambrosi.com For Second City Communications: Michael Tirrell 312-787-2426 cell: 312-953-5639 tirrell@michael.net
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ambrosi Teams with The Second City and the Retail Industry in a Send-Up of How Retailers Really Go to Market:
SKU You!
Ad Agency and Second City in Unique Roles at Retail Advertising Conference February 5 - 7
Chicago, IL (February 5, 2003)--Leading retail advertising agency Ambrosi is teaming with the corporate communications division of The Second City in an unprecedented event at the Retail Advertising Conference February 5-7 in Chicago, that is guaranteed to turn heads and provoke new industry thinking about how to better connect with customers. The event, "SKU You! Disintegrated Marketing and How to Avoid It" will use improvisation and comedy skits to explore the starts, stops, handoffs and overall disconnects that make up a typical integrated marketing process in the retail industry. Ambrosi is the event sponsor and provided authenticated content and script input through its network of retail industry contacts at national mass merchants, department stores and specialty retailers. Many industry executives contributed anecdotes and stories as part of the development process. SKU You! is a first-ever for the Retail Advertising Conference (RAC), the largest single gathering of retail marketing and advertising executives in the industry today. RAC 2003--the 51st gathering of retail advertising and marketing executives--takes place in Chicago from February 5-7 at the Hilton and Towers, Chicago. The SKU You! event is a major part of the RAC roster and is scheduled for February 5 at 4:10 p.m. more
Page 2 Ambrosi on SKU You! Chicago-based Ambrosi is a leading retail advertising agency, with more than 30 years experience crafting strategic marketing communications campaigns for clients as diverse as "big box" merchants, high-end department and specialty stores, and brands that sell at retail.
"SKU You! is a great opportunity to showcase the ins and outs of retail--including the obvious disconnects--and to have some fun with retail advertising in an industry that struggles to achieve a truly integrated approach to reaching customers. Our intent is to have people walk away with new ideas about how to achieve some of their integrated marketing goals. We'll also make them laugh harder than anybody ever has in 51 years of the RAC Conference," said Mark Pearson, Executive Vice President of Ambrosi. Custom Content Aimed at Retail Industry As the corporate training, business workshops and corporate entertainment division of Second City Theater, Second City Communications will use SKU You! to bring a unique emphasis to the Retail Advertising Conference. "We're excited to partner with Ambrosi to deliver a customized production about the retail industry. Our goal is to provoke an understanding and suggest some solutions to certain industry shortcomings," according to Tom Yorton, President of Second City Communications. "We typically do client workshops and larger productions like SKU You! that use our methods to deliver messages in a unique way and to help companies achieve important business goals. At RAC, we're going to take that approach industrywide and direct it squarely at the retail industry," said Yorton. Yorton brings an insider's view to the content of SKU You! as a corporate marketing executive and ad agency veteran with prior senior positions at the 3Com Corporation, Sears, Roebuck and Co., Hal Riney and Ogilvy & Mather. End
Contact: Jean Ban For Ambrosi 312-260-1819
jban@ambrosi.com
About Ambrosi: The Nation's Leading Full-Service Agency Specializing in Marketing at the Front Line
Founded in 1971, Chicago-based Ambrosi is the leading retail advertising agency specializing in marketing at the front line, where brands connect with customers making a purchase decision right now. Our solutions motivate consumer behavior, build brands and move product across all media. Ambrosi services include: • Brand development • Fully integrated advertising campaigns • Broadcast advertising • Catalog marketing programs • Direct response marketing programs • In-store visual marketing • Packaging programs • Web and e-commerce solutions
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Photography Digital imaging services Outsourcing
Ambrosi's client list reads like a Who's Who of American retailers. Case studies and additional information on Ambrosi services and philosophy is available online at www.ambrosi.com. One of the agency's unique resources is its state-of-the-art photography studios and digital imaging capabilities and the most in-depth resources in the country for product, room scene, fashion and food photography. The agency has over 450 employees and offices in Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Miami. Ambrosi is owned by Black Dot Group, a division of Applied Graphics Technologies (ASE: "AGD").
Contact: Michael Tirrell For Seocnd City Communications 312-787-2426 cell: 312-953-5639
tirrell@michael.net
About Second City Communications: The Corporate Training, Live Messaging and Entertainment Division Of The Second City Theater Company
Second City Communications (SCC) is the corporate training, business tools and corporate entertainment division of The Second City, the renowned improvisational theater company famous for launching the careers of such stars as Tina Fey, Horatio Sanz, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, Joan Rivers, Alan Arkin and a host of others. Founded in 1990, SCC helps corporate clients use improvisational techniques, unique communications methods and humor to: • Understand the power of humor to achieve certain business goals • Communicate strong brand messages and brand persona more clearly and effectively • Break through today's advertising clutter with unique, focused and targeted messages • Innovate new products and services through stronger teams and adaptive processes • Foster a more nimble, spontaneous and creative workforce that is flexible in changing business conditions • Create a company and brand image that is relevant, smart, empowering and fun SCC's innovative corporate workshops use elements of improvisation and theater to help clients develop: • Stronger teambuilding skills • More robust processes for creativity and brainstorming • More effective presentation and interviewing skills • Overall communications savvy SCC also draws on its strong legacy in humor, improvisation and wit to help clients create energetic and entertaining live corporate events, effective video and multimedia tools, memorable and on-target trade show presentations and product launches, and relevant training experiences. In all, SCC produces hundreds of live customized events for corporate clients each year, in addition to numerous corporate training workshops and sessions. Clients include Motorola, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kraft, 3Com, Leo Burnett, Abbott Labs, Toyota, BP Amoco, British Airways, Starcom, GTE and many others. End