EMI Shuts Down After Brown-Forman Loss
Entertainment Marketing Inc. closed its doors last month, unable to recover from the March loss of key client Brown-Forman Corp.
On April 15, the staff, including CEO John Davidoff, was fired by parent Svoboda, Collins, a Chicago-based private equity firm. The firm is handling the liquidation of EMI’s assets.
Brown-Forman Corp. dropped Chicago-based EMI from its estimated $5.5 million in on-premise work on March 2. That loss — about 70% of EMI’s revenues — prompted the shop to lay off 40 staffers, leaving only 15 workers handling Anheuser-Busch and Target Corp. events. It is unclear how Anheuser-Busch and Target will reassign the work.
Davidoff had joined the agency as CEO in June 2003. He replaced CEO and founder Mitch Berk, who left the company at the end of 2002.
EMI ranked No. 19 in the 2003 PROMO 100, with 2002 net revenues of $7.7 million.
