Brand Theater Makes a Big Splash

Brand Theater Makes a Big Splash
Fury's firm, Clarity Coverdale Fury, owns Parachute Design, which works on Clarity accounts and also has its own client list. Fury and Marcia Miller, Parachute's vice president and director of brand development, are looking for opportunities to get the design firm involved in what they call "brand theater."

They're wrapping up one effort today: an anti-smoking display at the State Fair. Research showed that anglers are twice as likely to smoke as those who don't fish.

So Parachute installed a pontoon boat at the fair from which counselors pass out literature while a "Billy Bass" chorus of singing fish belts out an antismoking tune.

"No doubt, it's working," said Richard Bonk, a smoking-cessation counselor with the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco. "We're getting good exposure."

Brand theater may simply be event marketing by a different name, but Fury and Miller argue that they have a distinctive approach. They point to some recent work on behalf of a couple of projects for Barry Berg and John Wanninger, two Coldwell Banker Burnet agents who specialize in multiunit housing developments.

"Real estate marketing has never been an area that's high-design," Miller said. "But the loft market is getting very cluttered. It's important to differentiate yourself."

Parachute planned and produced the kickof