Agency of the Year

Every Friday afternoon, somebody breaks out the wine and cheese at Catapult Action-Biased Marketing offices across the country. The employees sip and chat, basking in a hard-earned break.

“We work incredibly hard,” says COO Paul Kramer. “We want to let them know it’s appreciated.”

It takes ingenuity, courage and steadfast resolve for any promotion agency to withstand the battering economic winds that have forced many marketers to slash budgets 15% or more.

Catapult is one of those agencies.

The firm reported $28.5 million in 2008 U.S. net revenue, a whopping 69% increase over 2006. The growth comes from three areas: a new interactive discipline, geographic expansion and additional work for existing clients.

Catapult prides itself on being a one-stop shop. It offers services across a wide arc of disciplines and delivers those services through a single point of contact, minimizing the need for clients to work with multiple divisions, contacts and contracts.

Digital upgrade

Catapult Interactive, which debuted in January 2007 as a way to round out the agency’s services, has proven to be a “great engine” for organic growth, says Bill Hewson, president, Interactive.

As a result of the move, the agency has the capabilities to expand work for its clients, including Pedigree, Intel and Subway.

“Interactive was a burning platform requirement for an integrated agency to build expertise in,” Hewson says. “We’re finding that engaging with shoppers and consumers in digital experiences is driving what is becoming scalable engagement and impacts on sales volume, brand purchase, customer loyalty and all these metrics that are so important to our clients.”

The services include taking “a hard look” at social media’s role as it relates to both shopper and integrated marketing. A relatively new offering focuses on mobile marketing.

“These are places where the shopper is actively engaged not only in consuming information, but in providing information,” Hewson says. “If we can activate our brands’ biggest supporters, then we can supercharge our efforts and drive even greater brand participation and, ultimately, sales.”

Catapult has its own Twitter feed, @Catapult_mktg, and a blog at marketingballista.blogspot.com.

Geographic expansion

Last year, Catapult formed Catapult Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. The division is a joint venture with Gosh Advertising in Singapore. It offers its clients shopper-marketing services in Southeast Asia, with the exception of Mainland China. Both the Subway International Franchisee Advertising Fund and Intel are clients of Catapult APAC.

Catapult also opened a Nashville office to work more closely with its Mars Pet Care business.

The agency has also been successful expanding its relationships with clients by adding more levels of work.

Subway is a longtime client. The agency first developed a rapport with the chain about six years ago, working on merchandising at its restaurants. That work has expanded to national programs, including Subway Scrabble, Subway’s largest tent-pole promotion, says Peter Cloutier, president, East.

The most recent iteration just debuted and incorporates hundreds of millions of game pieces on Subway cups and sub wraps. Each year, the agency improves response by incorporating new best practices.

“Catapult does an excellent job of delivering quality work at the volume we require,” says Tony Pace, the chief marketing officer at Subway. “They are willing to take on complex assignments and are there with us in the trenches as we make the changes that the business requires. While some folks might shy away from those circumstances, they seem to relish the challenge. We really appreciate that attitude.”

Building blocks

Catapult has also built on its relationship with Foster’s Wine Estates. A few years ago it began executing retail merchandising programs for Australian import brands Rosemount Estate and Lindemans. That work has since grown to include integrated promotions. Additional brands have been added, including Beringer, Meridian, Bohemian Highway and Little Penguin, says Matthew Jonas, president, West.

As an example, Catapult struck a deal for the Rosemount brand with Gordon Ramsay, the star of the Fox Network reality cooking show “Hell’s Kitchen.” In July, the brand will be integrated into the show with retail promotions around the placement.

“When you have a relationship with a company and an understanding about how they work and what their objectives are, you can add value to other parts of their business or brands,” Jonas says.

Stop and shop

One of Catapult’s core strengths is shopper marketing.

“In today’s marketplace you need to have programs that are as appealing to the shopper as they are to the retailer,” Kramer says. “We influence what people actually do, not what they say they will do.”

Catapult owns a proprietary database, Retail Monitor, which provides a wealth of data on the country’s top 200 retailers. It also conducts consumer research, focus groups and quantitative surveys.

Creative touch

The agency also shows strength in its creative work.

Last month, Catapult was awarded the Best in Show in the 2009 Promo Interactive Marketing Awards for its Pedigree Million Dog Mosaic campaign. The campaign generated funding for a new Pedigree foundation dedicated to helping dogs find good homes. A Web site, which received about 1 million page views, became the rallying point and a place where people uploaded 55,000 photos of their dogs. These were then woven into a mosaic image of a cute puppy. Each time a new photo was uploaded, Pedigree donated $1 to the foundation.

Catapult was also a finalist in four categories in the 2008 Pro Awards for its Pedigree Dog Adoption campaign: Best Multi-Discipline Campaign, Best Cause-Based Promotion, Best Campaign Targeting a Micro Audience, and Best Creative.

Catapult launched in September 2005 as an independent subsidiary of privately-held D.L. Ryan Companies, founded by Kramer, Cloutier and Jonas. Hewson joined in 2008.

The agency, headquartered in Westport, CT, has offices in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Rogers, AR, and Nashville, TN and has 144 employees.

“We saw a white space in the industry for an organization that was truly integrated [and] that was growing organically,” Kramer says. “We wanted to create a place to work across disciplines, bring people under one company with one P&L, the same logo and business cards. We’re all richer as a result.”

Now that’s worth a sip of wine and some Brie.