Catapult Integrated Services Inc. launched itself onto the agency landscape this year with a resounding thump, as it snags the No. 22 spot in its PROMO 100 debut. The Westport, CT-based firm set up shop last year as an offshoot of D.L. Ryan Cos. The new “kid” on the block lists Dannon Co. Inc., Motts, Subway Restaurants and Novartis on its client roster. Revenues have grown 33% to $13.2 million in 2005 from $9.9 million in 2003, including revenues from Ryan.

Top-notch campaign work is the driver behind Catapult’s high-profile debut; the company took the No. 4 spot for campaign work executed in the past year.

Those creative ideas showed up in an integrated campaign the agency launched last year for client Sunbeam Products Inc. The household appliance maker wanted to boost its status in a competitive market. Catapult delivered, scoring a partnership with 20th Century Fox for the release of the film Robots, whose characters happened to be appliances.

The shop brought Sunbeam’s products to life with cool premiums linked to the movie. For three months, irons carried iron-on patches, baking mixers included cookie cutters, toasters added toast stampers, all in the shape of Robots characters.

“They demonstrated that they not only understood what our brand meant, but could create meaningful messages for our everyday appliances and extend that in the marketplace,” says Kevin Robb, brand manager, Jarden Consumer Solutions, Sunbeam’s parent.

The kid-friendly premiums were a hit for parents who wanted to get in and out of stores easily and gave Sunbeam an edge at shelf, says Steve Welker, chief creative officer at Catapult. Sales at Wal-Mart climbed 45% and the campaign earned a Gold Reggie Award, from the Promotion Marketing Association, and an EMMA. Catapult followed the Robots stint with branding work for Sunbeam during the remainder of 2005. The shop is Sunbeam’s AOR for advertising, as well.

“Promotional agencies traditionally focus on brands and consumers,” says Catapult COO Paul Kramer. “But [we] bridge the brand, consumer and the retail environment.”

Meanwhile, Catapult continues to put an impetus on winning over new clients. “We’re so determined to finish first in every business pitch we enter, we go into it with a preconceived notion that we’ve won it,” Welker says. “When we have, it’s because of that energy.”

I am so confused. No, really. I am more confused now than I’ve been in 20 years doing marketing. There are so many opinions out there. What is marketing supposed to be these days? I checked the bookshelf for an answer.

I started with the best-practices business bibles: James Collins’ Built To Last, Jack Welch’s’ Jack: Straight From The Gut, and Larry Bossidys’ Execution. Guess how much advice was dedicated to marketing? Virtually none. Marketing isn’t a core competency for business, apparently.

This worries me.

So I tried A Big Life In Advertising by Mary Wells Lawrence. Well, I’m jealous, but the future ain’t what it used to be.

Then I reread The Cluetrain Manifesto and Permission Marketing but they just aren’t the same after that whole dot.com implosion. Self-help books Learned Optimism (Martin Seligman) and Primal Leadership (Daniel Goleman) didn’t show me the future of marketing, either.

Plan B

So I chatted with a few senior-level clients and non-client friends in high places. We debated Wal-Mart’s smiley face “Rollback” TV spots — great advertising? No, but it’s effective and captures the Wal-Mart spirit. We dissected DiGiorno Pizza’s “Be the DiGiorno Delivery Guy.” Truly brand-centric, right on target. My favorite promotion of last year.

Then we got down to it:

• Is marketing a marathon or a sprint? Supposedly, CEOs are marathon runners and marketers are sprinters. Now that CEOs are sprinters, what is marketing supposed to do?
• Is marketing something you create, or buy (or rent)?
• Is marketing a few big ideas or the accumulation of a lot of smaller ideas?
• Is marketing about the brand or the consumer? This is a tough one.
• Is marketing poetic or mathematic?
• Is marketing about creativity, or flawless execution?
• Should marketing be integrated and optimized holistically, or specialized and measured separately?

“Well, Jim, the answer is easy. It’s all about connecting the dots,” said a client friend. Yes, but connect them to what? And, if I connect them, what does the picture look like? It’s like “thinking outside the box” — hell, outside the box might be dangerous, or wrong. What’s in the box, anyway? Is that any good?

So instead of finding answers we tried to define the problem. There are lots: Wall Street pressure, short-term thinking, shrinking budgets, powerful retailers, lack of talent. But the root problem is that there’s just too damn much marketing out there. We’re an over-marketed society. The average person gets blasted with about 3,000 ad-type messages a day. But you can’t ease up, because then you’d be under-marketing and your competition could gain an edge.

Over-marketing is like over-medicating. After a while, it gets less effective. But it’s hard to stop.

Over-marketing puts quantity over quality. Some manufacturers are very successful with this. Take Kraft: It’s not known for award-winning ads, but it wins the consumer vote. (Okay, and mine, for DiGiorno.) Kraft should get an award as best mathematical marketer.

Now look at Dell: A back-to-school sweepstakes giving $50,000 a day. How does this help the Dell brand? I like what Steve the Dell dude says about the brand a lot better than this cash-based promotion. Where’s the marketing poetry here?

What agency can best help clients avoid over-marketing? The one that acts as brand advocate, with passion. (Clients aren’t allowed to be passionate anymore, but someone has to be.) The one that can demonstrate brand benefits in a compelling way and activate purchases. That can turn constituents into consumers and keep them consuming. That writes beautiful poetry and factors quadratic equations. That has big ideas that pay out, break through, turn over-marketing into brilliant marketing that is brand-centered and resonates with consumers.

I’m not so confused now. I’m jazzed by the challenge.

Jim Holbrook drinks his coffee black at Zipatoni. He can be reached at [email protected].