Gigunda Group, Inc. Big Idea Incubator

Where do award-winning ideas come from?

To stimulate concepts, agency Gigunda Group, Inc. sets up in its conference room a 4-foot by 4-foot graphic, dubbed RFPopoly, a proprietary process modeled after Monopoly.

“We have to keep it light and fun,” says agency COO Scott Schoessel. “That’s part of the Gigunda Kool-Aid.”

Apparently, it’s working.

The company came out on top among agencies with the most wins and finalist nods in last fall’s Pro Awards and this May’s Interactive Marketing Awards, Promo’s two creative competitions.

Gigunda’s work for Procter & Gamble’s Charmin and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.’s Altoids brands especially impressed the judges reviewing Pro Award submissions last summer. The agency snared the highest category honors, respectively, for “Most Innovative Communications Strategy” and “Best Campaign Generating Brand Awareness and Trial Recruitment.”

Ryan FitzSimons, Gigunda’s founder and CEO, attributes its success to the collective talents of its 40 full-time employees, a quarter of whom worked previously for big-name brands.

Gigunda Group’s creative juices are concentrated largely in a core team of six: creative director Michael Petan, art director Chad Turner, production director Josh Sheets, marketing manager Kristi Mason, an operations leader and a sales leader. But other employees are also relied upon to help out.

“Sometimes that’s where big ideas come from,” Schoessel says.

Its mission in any campaign is to find what FitzSimons calls the “friction.”

“If you can find the pain, you can create fit. That’s never been lost on us,” says FitzSimons.

RFPopoly figured prominently in the conception of Gigunda’s award-winning Charmin NYC Restroom Experience — a temporary 20-stall restroom in New York City’s Times Square, fully equipped with the P&G brand’s toilet paper. The pop-up bathroom/Charmin boutique drew more than 400,000 visits.

Schoessel says P&G plans to return this fall with an even bigger program.

What’s in store for the future? FitzSimons is keeping mum, but he promises one thing: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

TOP CREATIVE

These 15 promotional agencies are ranked for attaining the most finalists and wins for best creative work presented at Promo’s Pro Awards in Sept. 2007 and the Interactive Marketing Awards in May 2008, as chosen by peer-review panels of judges.

And the list is …