Agency Veterans Form New Integrated Marketing Agency; Strategy & Beyond Focuses on Customer Acquisition, with an Emphasis on First Time Buyers.

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 18, 2003

Today, marketing industry veterans Michael Mesic and Ilan Geva announced the formation of a new marketing communications company - Strategy & Beyond. The Chicago-based agency will work along side a client's existing agencies, to understand the needs and fears of new category buyers and to create and develop specialized integrated marketing programs that will lead those new category buyers to a client's brand.

According to Mesic and Geva, Strategy & Beyond's method of new customer acquisition encompasses intelligent research and targeted brand positioning in addition to the informational, emotional, visual and tactile elements of integrated marketing communications programs.

The basis of Strategy & Beyond's approach is an in-depth interviewing process called Psyche(SM), and a proprietary surveying system called First Experience(SM). Designed to discern the needs, uncertainties, and concerns of inexperienced buyers, both methodologies allow Strategy & Beyond to gain insights which form the basis for integrated marketing programs that specifically entice First Time Buyers(SM), who are new to a product or service category, to overcome their hesitations and embrace brands for the first time. This allows clients to broaden the appeal of a new product or service or expand the market for an existing brand.

"It is our mission to discover the needs of our client's prospects and to help the client respond with products and programs that will turn prospects into customers," Mesic said.

Geva added, "Creating cohesive targeted brand positionings, and using them across all disciplines and channels for new and existing products and services helps us achieve dramatic results for our clients' brands."

Strategy & Beyond harnesses the combined experience of its principals, Mesic and Geva, as well as its senior team, many of whom have held senior roles at major agencies and clients, such as Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, FCB, DDB Needham, Frankel, Brann, Sears and Citibank.

About the Principals:

Michael Mesic directs strategic planning for Strategy & Beyond's clients, including leading research efforts and strategy assessments, and developing strategic positioning for corporate clients and not-for-profit organizations. He has extensive retail, travel, packaged goods, and financial services experience, including work as principal copywriter for the fledgling Lands' End catalog in the early '80s and as creative director and then general manager at Ogilvy & Mather Direct (now OgilvyOne) through the '80s and '90s. He directed teams on Sears, American Express, and Kraft, among other accounts. He has also been the senior manager on the United Airlines Mileage Plus business (at Brierley & Partners), the IBM direct marketing account (at Ogilvy), and the Citibank cards and retail banking business (at FCB). Prior to the founding of Strategy & Beyond, Mesic was President of Strategic Solutions Group Consulting.

Ilan Geva directs the development of corporate branding and identity, advertising campaigns, promotions, direct response, electronic marketing, and production. Geva's work for many of the world's largest corporations has won more than 100 awards around the world including Clios, Addys, Tellys, Echos, and many others for advertising, TV, direct marketing, and graphic design. Geva started his career in Israel and moved to Ogilvy & Mather as Design Head and Creative Director in Johannesburg, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Later he also held senior creative positions with Leo Burnett and Frankel & Co. in Chicago, and served as VP Creative Director at Kragie Newell in Des Moines and Gage Marketing in Minneapolis. Prior to the founding of Strategy & Beyond, Geva was a Principal with CMYK & Beyond.

For additional information, please call Michael Mesic, at 773-472-1500.