Catering to Kids A team of seasoned pros in premium-based promotions have opened the doors of a new Dallas agency that will go after the fast-growing kids market.

TIC TOC will specialize in promos built around custom-developed toys. The acronym stands for The Imagination Company- Tomorrow's Original Creations. The agency is based in Dallas with offices in Wilton, CT; Newport Beach, CA; Hong Kong; and mainland China.

"We started with virtually a blank tablet to create what we feel is the ultimate premium-based promotional marketing company," says TIC TOC ceo Mark Mears. "By leveraging the experience and best practices of our senior management team we can offer our clients a unique creative and manufacturing resource."

Mears is joined by chief creative officer Michael Hawkins and chief operating officer Michael Flecker. The three hail from Promotional Partners Worldwide, a Dallas-based premium manufacturer.

The managers left the company to form TIC TOC for Omnicom, the large and still-growing marketing conglomerate. The new agency is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Omnicom, whose holdings include BBDO, DDB Needham, The Integer Group, Rapp Collins, Alcone Marketing, and GMR Marketing.

TIC TOC fills a hole in Omnicom's line up. "They said, 'We need people to create the ultimate kids marketing company,'" says Mears. He had developed the kids program at Pizza Hut as director of national promotions there and worked on McDonald's at Leo Burnett.

"The creative talent we have are all self-proclaimed toy junkies who have literally grown up with licensed entertainment properties," says Hawkins.

The agency's services will include everything from consultation and creative development to manufacturing and fulfillment.

As part of an "imagining process" the partners have defined for creating promotions, TIC TOC conducts peer panels with kids and their friends at kids' homes. "It's all about staying close to kids. We've found these panels are refreshing to the creative development process," says Mears.

The firm has already been tapped by SmithKline Beecham to promote its Aqua Fresh toothpaste in a licensing tie-in with Disney's Tarzan next summer. More assignments will be coming through its association with Omnicom. TIC TOC joined a group of the subsidiaries for an on-the-road show last month where divisions will present their capabilities to each other. "We are already working on projects with some of the companies," says Mears.

Shaping the Future Will Flair Communications Agency's expanded headquarters "reshape" its thinking about promotions? Quite possibly. The Chicago agency breaks ground in August on a six-story, 45,000-square-foot addition that will house new creative and video conferencing centers. The estimated $12 million project should be completed in June, says Flair president Allyn Miller.

Chicago-based architects Lucien Lagrange and Associates Ltd. were charged with maintaining the integrity of the Flair House, an award-winning 1883 structure. Flair uses the house's image in advertising with the Winston Churchill quote, "We shape our buildings: thereafter they shape us."

"Our new building makes a positive statement about promotion marketing and the growth of the industry," says Miller.

"We are providing an excellent work space, and an environment to attract the best talent," says Miller. The agency will initially occupy four of the new floors. The new building's foundation will accommodate adding 90,000 square feet down the road.

Lagrange's design allows a new reception area to "flow" into Flair House's Frances Room, and uses a curved stairway to upper floors.

Graphics, copy, and strategy groups will work together in the new creative activity center where a state-of-the-art ISDN computer system fits into the setting. Account management will occupy the new offices, with executive functions remaining in Flair House.

Lagrange's projects include redesigns of the Paris and Chicago Stock Exchanges.

Rick Hill Leaves MCA All things must pass. After helping Marketing Corporation of America's promotions unit, Westport, CT, broaden its promotional methodology, Rick Hill has left to form his own "marketing-led business development service" in Boca Raton, FL. The move was family-related, says Hill, who commuted in his six-month tenure with the agency back-and-forth from his Boca Raton home to Westport.

"I was missing much of the growing up of my sons (boys aged 13 and 15). It would have been totally disruptive to move my family," says Hill. "It's a great group at MCA, and I miss them," he adds.

Hill's company is called National Marketing Corp. It's already landed a client in National Beverage, Plantation, FL. "Our focus will be on business development in the broad sense. I believe that mass market approaches are not going to work any more. Going forward, brands will have to pursue the trade and the consumer as if they are launching a new product," says Hill.

"We will work with the retail trade on account and store-specific marketing programs to create interest in brands," Hill adds.

With a resume from the client side including marketing chief at Triarc Beverages and Barq's Root Beer, Hill joined MCA to help expand its focus from strategic consultant to a leader in creative marketing.

MCA promotions has an infrastructure that supports innovation in solving clients' problems, says ceo and president Bob Petisi.

Petisi and Hill ushered in a concept they call "strategicreative" where "everything emanates from the brand strategy but we are always looking for the big idea," says Petisi.

"The infrastructure is in place, and it's working well. Rick is a unique individual. He has a classically trained strategic background, yet is a creative spirit and concept guy. It was a great six months and we are all the better for it," Petisi adds.

Two promotions from within will fill the vacancy: Jill Merino has been named senior vp, creative, and Simon Haddad, vp creative.

Sponsorship Event Clarion Marketing, Greenwich, CT. has launched a new division to focus on helping clients select events and sports marketing that provide measurable results. ClarionSports and Entertainment was formed with the merger of the agency's former Performance Properties and ISES divisions.

The division will provide one commonly branded organization for offering clients a spectrum of services ranging from sponsorship consulting to event development and execution.

"Companies are thirsting for analytical tools for justifying sponsorships. They want to get involved with partners and programs that meet all their marketing objectives. (This division) will enable us to stay ahead of the marketplace," says Mike Reisman. Reisman and David Grant are executive vps, managing directors of the new unit, and will run its day-to-day operations. Alex Nieroth, who was executive vp and managing director of Performance Properties, is the unit's president.

Marketers need help in getting their entire organizations behind sponsorships and in cost-justifying them, says Reisman.

The division will employ a new agency tool: Clarion S.T.A.R. (Sponsorship to Achieve Results), a planning system for clients.

"The sponsorship industry is getting larger and more sophisticated. Marketers are looking to maximize their sponsorship investments," adds Grant.

Question: What do marketers most often overlook when they promote to kids?

Marketers looking to reach kids, especially the younger two-to-seven-year-old segment, frequently overlook the obvious-the mom component. Too often they don't make mom aware of the offer, or don't make it relevant to her. There needs to be some benefit to mom that is salient. Does the toy provide some benefit to the child that will provide mom with personal satisfaction? Can the toy be used as a vehicle to bring mom and child closer together? Is there a cause marketing overlay that may be appropriate? Mom is bombarded with shin-kicking requests from children. To break through, relevant positioning to her is critical.

- Patricia Anastos, executive vp, managing director, Wunderman Cato Johnson, Chicago.

Today's kids are much more sophisticated and savvy than most marketers realize-they are different than we imagine them to be when we conjure up our own youth. Given the dramatic increase in single-parent households and the influx of multimedia, kids are growing up faster than ever before. Kids also look more for older siblings or peers for information and guidance, thus the aspirational effect tends to be compounded.

- Mark Mears, ceo, TIC TOC, Dallas.

To make a promotion exciting and fun-and see it from a kid's point of view-tune into Saturday morning cartoons, visit toy stores, and visit fast-food restaurants and order kid's meals. Observe kids playing, talk to them, run a kids focus group, and attend relevant trade shows and seminars. Premiums should provide value and ideally instant gratification, while passing parents' scrutiny. If the premium is unisex and has collectibility, all the better.

Recognize that kids are more sophisticated. So don't talk down to them or try to talk like them. They are in many cases the decision maker.

- Gretchen Parker, vp entertainment marketing, McCracken Brooks, Minneapolis.