Company: Jack Morton Worldwide, New York, USA
Company Description: A global leader in experiential marketing, Jack Morton Worldwide creates experiences to improve performance, increase sales and build brands. Each year, Jack Morton creates over 1,000 experiences for a broad base of Fortune 100 clients, integrating expertise in internal branding, BtoB marketing, consumer marketing and public events.
Nomination Category: Company, Office & Product Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company

Nomination Title: Jack Morton Worldwide

1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved in the past year (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:

Jack Morton Worldwide’s experiential marketing programs improve performance,
increase sales and build brands. The agency is known for its 360-degree live
experiences—leveraging environments, audience-focused content and cutting-edge
media to engage audiences. Annually, Jack Morton creates over 1,000
experiences for Fortune 100 clients, integrating internal branding, BtoB marketing,
consumer marketing and public events.

2004 marked particular innovation points for Jack Morton in thought leadership,
creativity and scale of projects.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP:
Jack Morton published the 2004 Experiential Marketing Survey, conducted with
market research firm Sponsorship Research International (SRi). While countless
agencies cite experiential marketing as an area of expertise, Jack Morton
displayed depth of understanding of how experiences stir the senses and develop
loyalty between people and brands—crafting a survey that clearly framed its
approach and value for clients, partners and employees. The survey found that
experiential marketing drives fast results, increases return on other marketing
investments, enhances brand perception and resonates strongly with women and
Gen Y. (A 2005 survey will build on 2004’s findings.)

KNOWLEDGE-BASED CREATIVE:
Jack Morton created and executed innovative initiatives like the Microsoft Tablet
PC Airport Demo program. The agency targeted a notoriously-rushed consumer
base (mobile professionals) where it would be most convenient for them to try a
new gadget: airport waiting areas past security, where they are confined for 30
minutes prior to flights. The agency cleared heightened-security hurdles and even
installed wireless hubs in some airports. Business professionals responded—
welcoming the chance to pass those 30 minutes interacting with brand
representatives and trying the newest wireless technology. Rooted in audience
alignment and the craft of experience design, this award-winning program
exceeded its goal for demonstrations conducted by 25%.

BRAND EXPERIENCES ON A GLOBAL SCALE:
Jack Morton produced the Opening & Closing Ceremonies for the Athens 2004
Olympic Games—as the first non-indigenous company ever to produce Olympic
ceremonies. The Athens Organizing Committee (ATHOC) sought not only to
deliver pageantry, but to change international perceptions of Greece. Athens
endured negative publicity leading up to the Games, and looked to Jack Morton’s
branding expertise to dispel stereotypes and reintroduce Greece as vibrant and
contemporary— ancient roots supporting high-tech marvels.

Jack Morton was engaged 20 months in advance, while previous engagements on
this scale had included up to three years of preparation. The agency opened an
Athens office and coordinated 850 employees and 8,500 volunteers. Load-in at the
Olympic Stadium was concurrent with venue construction.

In spite of these challenges, Jack Morton delivered technically audacious and
visually stunning ceremonies: flooding the stadium with 600,000 gallons of water,
creating a reservoir system that could drain it in less than three minutes;
designing a 10.5-ton Cycladic head that rose (on state-of-the-art rigging) then split
apart, its suspended fragments serving as projection surfaces; thrilling 75,000 live
attendees and four billion TV viewers with pyrotechnics and flaming Olympic rings.

Each audience's experience was crafted. Those in the stadium rang bells
and held lights aloft at choreographed moments; audiences at home viewed
elements specifically designed for TV close-ups. The athletes were unified in
pulling a 99,781-square-foot image of the globe above all their heads—the largest
photograph ever printed.

An ATHOC survey found that the top two “most memorable moments” from the
Games were the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, despite the two weeks of
competition. 79% of Greeks concluded that hosting the Olympics was the right
choice—in large part because of the success of these groundbreaking ceremonies.

2. 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.mediainfo2004.gr/cgibin/hweb?-A=1587&-V=news&-w==
http://www.jackmorton.com/releases/04_11_01.asp
http://www.jackmorton.com/news/04_oct25.asp
http://www.jackmorton.com/PDF/NY_Times_12-04.pdf
http://www.jackmorton.com/PDF/hogans_alley.pdf
http://www.jackmorton.com/PDF/8-04_Exhibitor_Microsoft_Article.pdf
http://www.jackmorton.com/PDF/SI_AdvertisingAge.pdf
http://www.jackmorton.com/PDF/Adweek41hours.pdf
http://www.jackmorton.com/who/awards.asp
http://www.citmagazine.com/news_story.cfm?ID=765
http://specialevents.com/mag/events_great_expectations/index.html
http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/news/news_story.cfm?ID=3857

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

Josh McCall (CEO) is responsible for leading Jack Morton Worldwide and
furthering its vision to be the world standard for experiential marketing. First joining
Jack Morton in 1984 as an account manager, McCall embraced the company’s
core vision and values, ultimately assuming the role of CEO in March 2003
(following Bill Morton and company founder Jack Morton). Upon becoming Jack
Morton’s senior leader, he identified as key priorities growing the agency’s
business globally and enhancing the core practice areas of internal branding, BtoB
marketing, consumer marketing and public events. McCall spearheaded the
founding of the agency's Athens office (in support of the Olympic ceremonies) and
has escalated the agency’s ability to support multinational clients with
collaborative, consistent global service.