Greetings all,
Noticed this story in the National Post this morning.
Slogging suds in the summer
A little-known promotional company raids Canadian campuses for party animals to hire for summer beer and pop promotions. They don't have to look far
Paul Brent
Financial Post
College Pro Painters may be the biggest recruiter at the country's universities, but students who want a really cool summer job e-mail their resumes to S&MG.
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The little-known Mississauga, Ont.-based company finds the dudes for the Mountain Dew Dewds promotions, the kids to drive the vintage "Mug Bugs" for Mug Root Beer events, and party animals to promote Labatt's Budweiser, Blue and Kokanee brews.
Owned by nearly-as-obscure parent Mosaic Group Inc., S&MG (Sales & Merchandising Group) has what is likely the most sophisticated recruiting system in the country, collecting about 3,200 resumes each year, which it winnows down to fill 300 to 400
summer positions.
Soft drink maker Pepsi-Cola Canada Inc. has been with S&MG since 1988 and gave it the annual task of operating the Pepsi Taste Patrol promotion, which was designed to convince teens it wasn't hip to drink the other guy's cola.
Today S&MG finds Dewds for Pepsi, cool guys who talk like the
lifeguards on Baywatch, can rollerblade and skateboard and be
responsible enough to drive $140,000 Hummers.
<snip>
Besides running the Kokanee Mountain Patrol and Budweiser promotions, S&MG is the defacto sales force for Labatt Brewing Co. in Alberta. It has also fed an unspecified number of students into Labatt's sales and marketing operations over its seven-year association with the brewer.
Besides the fun special events jobs, the company provides the troops to do the ground level grunt work most companies would rather outsource. For the last dozen years, it has worked for Cadbury Chocolate of Canada, ensuring thousands of corner stores carry its promotions and give the best display space to their products. Its biggest client remains Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which appointed the firm to run its in-branch promotions and recently hired the people for the PC Financial joint-venture with Loblaw Cos. Ltd.
S&MG's parent Mosaic is determined to become one of the world's largest providers of so-called "below the line" advertising and marketing services, such as direct mail and direct sales in Canada, the United States and Britain, making a staggering nine acquisitions over the past year.
This past week, it purchased London-based Stretch The Horizon,
which Mosaic claims puts it into the top 10 marketing services
companies in Britain with the addition of clients such as BSkyB,
NatWest Bank and Renault.
Mosaic, which went public three years ago and trades on the
Toronto Stock Exchange, said it expects revenue to rise to
$400-million this year, up from $255-million last year.
Its chief financial officer, Ben Kaak, lamented this week that Mosaic
receives little media coverage from journalists who follow the
advertising industry, although it appears to do little make itself more appealing. Its 1997 annual report features a dull beige cover and the inside is full of buzzwords such as "integrated outsourced marketing services."
Perhaps they should bring the Dewds to the next shareholder meeting.
nationalpost.com |
