Cramer-Krasselt - Chicago, Illinois

Cramer-Krasselt/New York has won the race to promote the Kentucky Derby. Led by the agency’s public relations operation, the firm will partner with Churchill Downs to develop a brand identity and communications strategy for the Derby that will broaden the reach and relevance of this national lifestyle and entertainment brand. This is the first time Churchill Downs has hired a national marketing agency to develop the Kentucky Derby brand. Brand initiatives, which will include PR as well as integrated marketing and promotions, will launch in the first quarter of 2009 leading up to the Derby in May.

C-K/Chicago is launching a fresh print and online campaign for Heinz brand Classico® with the tagline “We make it like you make it.” Print work, appearing in January publications such as Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal, features a Classico glass jar sans label so the ingredients – ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and garlic – are on full display. Online banners will allow users to “make” their own sauce by selecting which ingredients they’d use, then are paired with the Classico sauce closest to their “recipe.”

C-K/Chicago is strengthening its brand planning team with the recent addition of two industry veterans: SVP/Director of Brand Planning Nigel Carr and SVP/Group Planning Director Joan Colletta-Sapp. Carr was most recently senior partner at Ogilvy New York, and prior to that was planning director at Chiat/Day New York as well as launched the brand planning discipline at kirshenbaum bond + partners in New York and San Francisco. Colletta-Sapp joins C-K from Miller Brewing Company where she served as content planning director on multiple Miller brands.