It’s 8:15 on Tuesday morning and the Marketing Services department at Interactions is already in full swing. Made up of a compact team of six, Marketing Services provides creative support for all of Retail Services, from program/event concept all the way through execution. As Director of Marketing and Global Brand Development David Deal puts it, “We bring the creativity and emotional impact to experiential marketing events that’s needed to deliver the most immersive experience possible for our retailers and CPG brand partners.”
This morning, Marketing Coordinator Eileen Muñoz is working on the seasonal event calendar for one of Interactions’ newest retailer partners, SUPERVALU. She explains the calendar and custom sales collateral is used to entice vendors to sponsor sampling events during key weeks in the retail season. The sheets are often built around seasonal themes, like the Backyard BBQ, New Year-New You and Spring Allergy Relief.
Just steps away, Jillian Alcee, also a Marketing Coordinator, is speaking with OMNI, the sourcing division of Daymon Worldwide, regarding the manufacture and shipment of SUPERVALU’s new event stations. For each new retail partner, Marketing Services develops customized event carts, program logos, graphics and signage. The logos also carry through to other event collateral, such as branded apparel and POP signs (which the team also coordinates the printing, kitting and shipping of) to tie together the whole look of a new event program.
Deal explains that this flurry of work is the culmination of a business development process that has been months in the making. Under his direction, Marketing Services’ graphic designers King Manuel and Natasha DiMatteo supported the creation of the business development sales presentation, which included designs and illustrations to show SUPERVALU exactly what its new program would look like. This included a visualization of a new indoor farmer’s market event concept that would highlight and invite shoppers to try out items from the store’s fresh departments.
With preparations for the SUPERVALU program well under way, Deal and Digital Marketing Manager Benjamin Johnson are already set to work on attracting more business by planning enhancements to Retail Services’ global web presence, search rankings and digital marketing tools.
When asked about all his team accomplishes, Deal says, “Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we’ve put together a full-service advertising and marketing agency within Retail Services that can compete with any leading global agency. And with just four years since our inception, we’ve only just begun.”
