After picking up U.S. consumer promotion and co-marketing duties on the Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, Senseo and Sara Lee brands, Lisa Hurwitz, senior VP-business development and marketing at Arc Worldwide, said:
“Retail is really the new consumer battleground. So you have a captive audience in the shopper and figuring out how to capture her attention at retail has become a real critical point for marketers, and [our] expertise at that point of retail is one of our key differentiators and something that really attracted Sara Lee” to the agency.”
Whoa. As a pitch, “We do POS really well” is about as lame as another TV-heavy media plan. Promotions agencies need to build relationships with prospects and buyers, just like ad agencies, interactive agencies and the rest must do. For point of sale to truly work, all the other points of contact must be aligned.