Alcoa Selects Westport's Catapult As Lead Agency for Promotions

Catapult Will Manage Integrated Planning For Alcoa's National Marketing Efforts

WESTPORT, Conn., Sept. 2006 - The leading producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina, Alcoa, of Pittsburgh, Pa., has awarded the marketing promotions business for its consumer products division to Westport's Catapult Marketing.

"Catapult Marketing's integrated planning process and 'action-biased' marketing strategy is what we need to make Reynolds foil products indispensable to the food preparation process," Alcoa Consumer Products Division Chief Marketing Officer Randy Zeno said. "Catapult has a deep understanding of integrated marketing, and they have the big ideas that support their brand propositions on a national level."

Reynolds Foil Is Number One in Brand Equity

Catapult COO Paul Kramer said the agency will be collaborating with two top talents in Zeno, who joined the consumer products division from Kraft and most recently Birds Eye, and Alcoa Consumer Products Division President Eric Beringause, who previously was senior vice president at Novartis.

Alcoa has operations in 43 countries. In addition to aluminum products, Alcoa makes and markets consumer brands that include Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil. Reynolds foil is rated Number One in overall brand equity in America, according to Harris Interactive® Brand and Reputation Practice's EquiTrend®. After Alcoa acquired Reynolds in 2000 for $5.8 billion, what had been the world's third largest aluminum producer became the new Alcoa Consumer Products Division.

Catapult not only won the national promotions assignment, but also will be leading Alcoa Consumer Products Division's integrated marketing process. Other agency members of the team are: Saatchi & Saatchi, handling advertising; and Manning Selvage & Lee, for public relations.

Single Point of Client Contact Is Key

"Catpult's guiding five-word principle is 'single point of client contact,'" Kramer said. "While some agencies recognize the importance of having an integrated process, where they fail is in trying to get their separate operations in separate silos to support a single brand. At Catapult," he explained, "'we have a silo-less' approach; we do it all under one roof."

The Catapult COO noted that integrated planning is vital in ensuring that the brand message is consistent throughout the marketing process. "You've got to communicate the 'brand promise' at each point at which you come in contact with your consumers. That means," Kramer explained, "your advertising, interactive marketing, public relations, consumer promotions, and, at the retail level, in your in-store merchandising, all have to connect with the same message.

Kramer added: "Integrated planning is without a doubt the single largest opportunity for an enterprise like Alcoa Consumer Products. Catapult understands the integration concept better than anyone," he said, "because we approach things from a 'media-neutral' perspective, with equal emphasis on the brand, consumer, and retail elements. Our solutions completely align with our clients' brand objectives."