Epic Advertising

Company: Epic Advertising, New York, NY
Company Description: Epic Advertising is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers and agencies with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary technologies, and over 40,000 publishing partners, Epic provides its advertising clients with performance and direct response marketing services, search engine marketing, media planning, and targeted, worldwide online reach.
Nomination Category: Marketing Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Team of the Year

Nomination Title: Epic Advertising's Web Marketing Team

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2008 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Epic Advertising’s Web Marketing team is a small, focused team of 3 (8 including
all web designers). But don’t let the size of the group fool you: this team is
responsible for supporting the entire company with revenues in excess of $150
million.

Entering 2008, the company was faced with declining revenue over the previous 6
months; bad morale; no marketing direction, strategy or identity; and no
industry/trade “voice” which negatively impacted our ability to attract
advertisers looking for our services. The first changes, right after January 1,
2008, were the naming of a new CEO and an entirely new marketing strategy
spearheaded by the newly-hired CMO. The challenges listed above needed to be
overcome with 23% less marketing spend for 2008 (a budget that was set from the
prior regime with zero input from the CMO).

By April 1, 2008, this small team of people had been entirely responsible for
all elements of a successful corporate rebranding (to our current name). The
team delivered the rebranding for less than $10,000, and delivered – soup to
nuts - all aspects of it (new corporate site, materials, communications, PR) in
less than 8 weeks. All the work was done entirely in-house. As a measure of
success, the team was recently named a 2009 ReBrand 100 winner awarded to the
most successful rebranding efforts in the world chosen from companies in all
industries and sectors.

Throughout the course of the year, the team raised Epic’s visibility at trade
shows and in B2B/Trade publications (like WSJ, Ad Age, Paid Content, Adotas)
resulting in brand buzz and recognition never seen in the company’s 9-year
history. Additionally, the team managed to completely overhaul the company’s
Sales materials, undergo another website redesign (a phase 2), and execute on a
500-person promotional event at the industry’s largest trade show (Ad:tech New
York) that drove tens of thousands of dollars of incremental advertising
business. Through the efforts of 3 people, everything was “gutted” and executed
right on the 23% lower budget.

The company also opened a London office in 2008, and under the umbrella of the
restrictive budget, the Marketing Team also managed to support an entire office
(and new international business division) start-up while also supporting all
other aspects of the company including Sales, Distribution, Product, Operations,
Legal/Compliance and Finance.

The marketing team itself has been responsible for the company garnering several
industry awards, including Creative Services and Design recognition (IAC),
“emerging company” recognition (Inc.5000 & AlwaysOn) as well as internal company
goodwill that cannot be measured or quantified. The team also instituted the
company’s first-ever philanthropic program and a “Green” initiative in 2008,
which are programs they will greatly expand in 2009.

The marketing team is composed of the CMO (strategy and vision, as well as some
tactics), a Creative Director, and a Senior Marketing Manager. The group’s
responsibilities formally include all PR and communications, trade shows, trade
marketing, Creative Services, Company-hosted events, Philanthropy and more.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.adotas.com/2009/03/epic-advertising-redesign-recognized/
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/epic-advertising-announces-london-office/story.aspx?guid={0D65AA4B-1F81-42A5-9B1B-736E955D072C}
http://www.adotas.com/2008/12/ideas-on-effective-management/
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/epic-advertising-selected-by-alwayson-as-an-ao-global-250-winner,476294.shtml
http://www.adotas.com/2008/04/azoogle-rebrands-as-epic-advertising/

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Michael Sprouse (CMO): oversees all marketing strategy for the company, public
relations strategy and management, Creative Services, trade marketing, internal
communications, and strategic input on business & corporate development
initiatives.

Prior experience includes: Senior Vice President of Marketing for Playboy
Enterprises, Inc.; Program Manager at MBI, Inc (The Danbury Mint); world-ranked
ATP men's professional tennis player.

Sprouse graduated from the University of Notre Dame, with a BBA in Accounting
(Magna Cum Laude). Sprouse also earned the Arthur Ashe Award for achievement,
leadership and sportsmanship given to one Division I collegiate tennis player
each year.