Dan’s April 9 presentation will uncover how consumer-packaged goods companies (CPGs) can create omni-channel experiences that engage consumers and ultimately increase sales. Attendees will learn how current social, mobile, and digital trends impact consumer experience touchpoints while also uncovering ways to optimize shopping experiences in an ever-changing digital realm.

The Summit, which will take place April 8-10 in Schaumburg, Ill., presents an opportunity for product marketers, retailers, agency executives, and solution providers to collaborate, share insights, and discuss the ever-evolving path to purchase.

Want to learn more about how you can attend this industry event? Visit the Shopper Marketing Summit website.

The Feb. 13 event featured renowned educator and visionary Geoffrey Canada, who serves as Harlem Children’s Zone’s president and CEO. Geoffrey shared a compelling speech and offered a solution for improving Central Ohio schools and neighborhoods.

The Big Red Rooster team was proud to support our community and serve as a media sponsor for the event, providing stage graphics, designing print materials, and offering additional creative support.

Want to learn more about the Champion for Children event? Head to United Way of Central Ohio’s website.

Set image courtesy of Mills James.

Our associates enjoyed a chance to chat with one another, meet like-minded peers and reconnect with old friends. Thank you to the Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel for hosting us!

DDI Magazine held its first event in San Francisco on May 16. Keep watching DDI’s updates to uncover details about the next citySCENE affair.

Big Red Rooster partnered with Escape Enterprises to execute the format’s brand identity, store design, store planning, visual merchandising, visual communications, and more. Our team’s experience-design-focused lens helped Escape Enterprises understand consumer behavior, refine its brand to enhance relevance and authenticity, and develop visual merchandising that keeps stores fresh while inspiring guests.

Our Roosters recently had a chance to check out the new restaurant format and test its updated menu offerings at the New Albany, Ohio location. Allow us to give you a quick tour of the hot new format below.

The exterior introduces guests to the new brand before they step inside.

Grill it, fill it, and add to it. A large menu board makes navigating through offerings and ordering a breeze.

Load it up! Fresh vegetables deliver healthy options for Steak Escape Sandwich Grill’s consumers. A glass partition allows guests to experience the food preparation process.

It’s all about the details. The Sandwich Grill’s brand is easily identifiable throughout the store: from bold graphic treatments to tea dispensers.

Industrial-inspired booth lighting provides a sleek, urban vibe.

If you’re unable to visit the New Albany, Ohio restaurant (located at 5371 New Albany Rd West,) don’t sweat it. Steak Escape Sandwich Grill is set to debut additional locations in Ohio, North Carolina, and Mississippi, too.

Brian Silver is a vice president at Big Red Rooster. He’s a Cleveland sports fan who’s passionate about retail marketing and media. Want to connect? Find Brian on

One of the numerous benefits of living in the “Windy City” is the vast array of retail design and shopper insights conferences Chicago gets to host. I recently had the opportunity to attend Shopper Insights in Action, which gathered CPG, retail, and shopper marketing executives to discuss activating research and data-driven insights at retail.

As a baseball enthusiast (and tortured Cleveland Indians fan,) Billy Beane’s keynote address really struck a chord with me. If the name Billy Beane doesn’t sound familiar, you may recognize him as the notorious MLB Oakland A’s General Manager. The movie “Moneyball,” which stars Brad Pitt, chronicles Beane’s life story of transitioning from a top MLB baseball prospect (who never quite made it or lived up to baseball scouts’ lofty expectations) to a groundbreaking Major League Baseball executive who changed the way the game was played.

During his keynote, Beane highlighted his approach to evaluating, scouting, and acquiring players while working within the constraints of having baseball’s lowest payroll and operating budget. His methodology was based on the objectivity of statistics and data, as opposed to prior decades of evaluation and decision making based on antiquated techniques (such as the “eye test.”)

Beane outlined how he shook up long-held player personnel norms and models by utilizing data and identifying and leveraging key metrics, which were vastly undervalued in the baseball marketplace. These newly observed metrics served as more accurate predictors of team wins and losses (on-base percentage vs. batting average, or WHIP vs. ERA, for example.)

Perhaps surprisingly, there is indeed a strong correlation between Beane’s approach and shopper marketing strategies. Beane not only used objective data to make key decisions, which resulted in great successes for his organization, but he uncovered the hidden or undervalued statistics that created competitive advantages in spite of limited financial resources.

Big market spenders and industry leaders eventually emulated his methodologies, which led Beane to change the game once again. He began acquiring talent based on emerging metrics such as defensive efficiency.

His address served as a compelling and fun reminder of how retailers, CPGs, and restaurants and can utilize strategic insights and undervalued data to “win” consumers’ hearts and wallets.

Want to learn how Big Red Rooster translates shopper insights into actionable solutions that measurably change consumer behavior? Send Brian an email.

By day, Michael Stephenson is a senior strategist at Big Red Rooster. By night (and sometimes during the day, but don’t tell his boss,) he’s active on social media. Want to connect? Shoot him an email or follow him on Twitter.

The IRDC Roadshow presented opportunities for retailers, brands, and strategy/design firms to discuss one of the hottest retail topics in town: Millennials. This non-hierarchal, tech-savvy generation sparked tons of insightful discussion at IRDC 2011, which encouraged the conference to host a one-day event highlighting ways to attract and retain this growing shopping segment.

I joined several Roosters at the Roadshow event (Big Red Rooster had an opportunity to present our proprietary Millennial parents study,) and it solidified what we already knew: Millennials can’t be ignored. Retailers and brands must explore ways to engage this growing generation if they want to stay competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.

Some of my key takeaways from the IRDC Roadshow include:

• Millennials aren’t made of money. Marian Salzman kicked off the day by sharing insights into the generation’s demographics, shopping motivations, and buying power. I found the employment and debt stats interesting, as they shed light on the generation’s frugality. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 55 percent of 16- to 29-year olds have a job. The average 20-something has $45,000 in debt. I find it intriguing that although they’re frugal (and frankly broke,) Millennials are willing to trade up (and step up) to buy the things they value.

• They demand informed, interactive experiences. WD Partners’ Michelle Fenstermaker shared what food shopping may look like once Millennials move into the driver’s seat. She shared tons of great insights, with the key takeaway being that Millennials crave information, inspiration, and interaction. Grocers, and frankly any retailer, that provide an informed, interactive experience will win the hearts— and wallets— of Millennial shoppers.

• Parenthood changes Millennials’ purchase decisions and shopping behaviors. As a Millennial parent myself, I truly understand how a Millennial’s shopping habits evolve once he or she enters parenthood. Thirty-four percent of Millennials are already parents, and this number will only continue to grow. Our Big Red Rooster team discussed how role of parenthood forces Millennials to rely on a network (which involves the inclusion of the child,) to re-examine their frugality (and wear it as a badge of honor,) and live a converged life (between physical and digital experiences.)  It’s extremely critical for retailers and brands to understand the role children play in the shopping process while catering to Millennial parents’ newfound priorities and needs.

• Make mobile part of the Millennial shopping experience. Nicole Rehfuss from Little shared many examples of how Millennials are attached to mobile phones. They’re texting, pinning, researching and making mobile purchases: all while they’re standing in your bricks-and-mortar store. Nicole shared a stat that I found fascinating: Two-thirds of Millennials will check out a retailer’s website after a friend “checked-in” there. Beyond mobile, she shared really cool retail examples that appeal to Millennials, including the Neiman Marcus service app, Vanquish smart hangers, and C&A Fashion Like. She stressed that if you give them what they want, when they want it, it will leave them wanting more.

• Design with your audience in mind. The afternoon concluded with two case studies from brands targeting Millennials: Macy’s and Starbucks. The VP of Merchandising at Macy’s stressed Millennials’ importance, noting that they “can’t blow this” because if you make a mistake, everyone will know it due to their propensity to share via social media. I liked his summary of the department store: They are blessed with the breadth of merchandising, but cursed with the burden of creating a compelling point of view. Starbucks’ Senior Concept Design Manager presented the Evolution Fresh case study, which has exceeded results and will soon roll out to other markets. The current concept store in Bellevue, Wash. was designed with the Millennial in mind: from in-store elements and the products its sells to the samples offered to visitors.

If you missed Big Red Rooster’s Roadshow presentation or if you’d like to see it again, you can view it below. If you crave more context, one of our associates would be happy to help you navigate through the content. Please send us an email, and we’ll connect with you.

If you attended the IRDC Roadshow, what was your top takeaway? What would you like to learn more about? 

Baby Boomers’ social, non-hierarchical, tech-savvy offspring are finally coming of age. They’re graduating from college, landing jobs, buying homes, forming relationships, and having children.

Millennials will be 85 million strong by 2015, making them part of the largest living generation in history. Retailers and brands that want to attract this consumer group must take strides to understand Millennials’ purchasing decisions and shopping behaviors.

The IRDC Roadshow: Millennial Edition aims to help retailers engage and attract Millennial shoppers. The full-day program will take place on Thursday, June 7 at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza.

The Roadshow offers a wide range of presentations, roundtables, networking events, and case study presentations that hone in on Millennials’ wants and needs. Big Red Rooster VP Emily Miller’s presentation will highlight how parenthood affects Millennials’ attitudes, purchase dynamics, and shopping behaviors.

Visit the IRDC website to view the full agenda. Registration information is also available on the IRDC Roadshow site.

We hope to see you there!

From homemade fudge and dark chocolate peppermint bark to sugar cookies and thumbprints, our annual holiday cookie exchange produced more than 1,300 cookies to share with our families. With M&M’s eyes and pretzel antlers, Marketing Coordinator Shannon Raymond’s reindeer cookies took home the “most festive” prize.

In honor of great holiday baking, we’re sharing her prize-winning recipe. If you’re hungry for more cookie exchange photos, head to our Facebook page.

Reindeer Cookies

1 roll of pre-made sugar cookie dough (if you have a favorite sugar cookie recipe, you could pre-make your own dough)
¼ cup flour (omit if you make your own dough)
Small pretzel rings
Green and red M&M’s
1 bell-shaped cookie cutter

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
•  Open the pre-made sugar cookie dough roll and mix in ¼ cup flour. Lightly flour the table, then roll the dough out to ¼” thickness.
• Use the bell-shaped cookie cutter to cut 12 bell cookies.
• Lay the cookies (with the bell facing you) on the cookie sheet. Now, turn the cookie sheet around so that the bells are upside down. This is your reindeer face! Place red M&M’s as noses and green M&M’s as eyes. Use one pretzel on each side as the ears (see photo.)
• Bake for 10 minutes or until very lightly browned around edges. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes. Move to cooling rack.

If you’re ever in the area, feel free to stop by and check out our new space!