Idea Grove Is a Finalist for Marketer of the Year Award

Idea Grove is a finalist for a big award, the Marketer of the Year Award from the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the American Marketing Association. The 16 finalists include other Dallas marketing firms and some familiar names in Dallas-area business circles.

The Marketer of the Year will be announced next month along with the Collegiate Marketer of the Year and the CMO of the Year. Kent Huffman of BearCom Wireless, an Idea Grove client, is one of two Chief Marketing Officer finalists. Idea Grove is a finalist alongside other agencies and the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.

Idea Grove’s nomination was for its work for ShopSavvy, the leading mobile shopping application. Idea Grove President Scott Baradell put together a public relations program leveraging news releases, media pitches and video and culminating during retailing’s most-visible period: the kickoff of the holiday shopping season well known to consumers as Black Friday.

Scott also created an online forum to systemically win allies for ShopSavvy, its value propositions, and its leadership. That vehicle, The Future of Retail Alliance, launched in the summer and grew as a platform throughout the fall, adding an average of three articles a week on mobile retail.

Application Set Records for Product Scans

ShopSavvy was featured during November and December in dozens of reports on television and radio and by online outlets as diverse as Shopper Marketing, Good Housekeeping, Mashable and VentureBeat. Television coverage was extensive. One television report was picked up on more than 25 other TV stations.  Consumers responded, in November and December they downloaded the application some 200,000 times. The company set records for numbers of product scans, gaining a peek at the national Christmas gift list.

Last fall, Scott was a finalist for the PR Professional of the Year award given as part of the PR News PR People Awards. His writing has earned him awards from the International Association of Business Communicators, Texas Public Relations Association, and Associated Press Managing Editors of Texas.