Streetsboro firm launching new, improved bobbleheads
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Janet H. Cho
Plain Dealer Reporter

The bobbleheads are back.

Corporate ImageWorks-Vanguard, a promotional products company that eight months ago created a feeding frenzy with the first LeBron James bobblehead, is back with a new limited-edition LeBron.

The new one, coming Monday, features the Cleveland Cavaliers sophomore in an action pose. Thanks to a sculptor in Xiamen, China, this one looks a lot more like LeBron than last season's figurine. But it still has the trademark nod- ding head and is al ready being offered on eBay for up to $150.

And today, Image Works rolls out a 4-inch-high likeness of 7-foot-3-inch Cavs center Zydrunas Il gauskas, the first of a series of mini-bobbleheads to celebrate the team's 35th anniversary.

Everyone at tonight's game against the Phoenix Suns will get Z and a cardboard basketball court to display him and the rest of the series (Jeff McInnis, Eric Snow, Drew Gooden and another LeBron).

Sports promotion is a growing side business for the Streetsboro company, which said it has annual sales of $10 million. It only started working for the Cavs a year ago, and still makes 80 percent of its money on corporate apparel, promotional giveaways for charity events and logo items.

"When my partner and I considered buying this business, we realized there was a void in the market in Northeast Ohio for a dominant promotional products distributor," said Chief Executive Stafford Worley, explaining that no other company was filling the niche. "We found that major customers were looking outside the area, outside the state."

Bruce Felber, education and publicity chairman for the Ohio Promotional Products Association and creative director of Traymore Marketing in Twinsburg, said ImageWorks' "marketing efforts may be more sophisticated than other people in town, but from what I understand their reputation is still being developed, because the Corporate ImageWorks name is so new."

The company touts its Northeast Ohio roots, its quick turnaround time, and its growing reputation for delivering more than clients expect.

Bill Miko, whose title is "chief idea guy," says the company helps businesses create and reinforce a brand identity with employees, vendors and consumers.
For example, when Miko, a Cavaliers season ticket holder for 20 years, won the Cavs promotional account last year, he not only scoured China for what he considered a higher-quality bobblehead than what was on the market, he also got his in-house artists to design a fancy peekaboo wine-and-gold package that made LeBron look more like a premium item.

To reinforce the idea that this was no ordinary bobblehead, Miko hired an armored truck to escort the dolls to Gund Arena, where thousands of fans had gathered 12 hours before the game started. Bids on eBay were up to $299 before the first bobblehead was handed out.

"What they've brought to the table are creative solutions," said Len Komoroski, president of the Cavaliers and Gund Arena Co. "Typically, with a high-quality item of this nature, the . . . first 5,000 fans at the arena would get the promotional item. We actually doubled that amount to 10,000 last year, and . . . we still had some people who were disappointed they didn't get one."

This year, thanks to an agreement with sponsor KeyCorp, the Cavaliers have ordered enough bobbleheads for all 20,562 fans at Monday's game, he said. This year's LeBron is wearing the vintage wine-and-gold "Hardwood Classics" uniform that the Cavs members will wear at six home games this season, which is expected to make it more valuable to collectors.

The hordes of fans outside Gund Arena caught the attention of the Cleveland Indians, who commissioned ImageWorks to create a giveaway for mascot Slider's "birthday" on Aug. 15. Miko proposed a 500-piece wooden puzzle featuring Slider and Indians players partying in the bleachers at Jacob's Field.

ImageWorks found a manufacturer that could make a durable all-wood puzzle for less money and designed a special tin to resemble the trademark gingham pattern on Smucker's jelly jars for event sponsor J.M. Smucker Co. Ten thousand fans, ages 14 and under, got the puzzle, which Miko said would retail for more than $20.

"We were very pleased," said Dan Foust, manager of special events and promotions for the team. ". . . It was a very unique item, one that we hadn't seen before, and it was very cost-effective."

Much more creative

The special efforts go beyond sports. Corporate ImageWorks-Vanguard created an unconventional direct mail campaign for the Fedeli Group, an insurance services company based in Independence. The campaign generated an unprecedented response rate and an average of 17 prospects a month for 12 straight months.

The first mailing sent potential clients a jar of tomato sauce and an invitation to "become part of the recipe." That was followed by a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and a package of pasta, each with an offer to discuss business collaborations over a home-cooked Italian meal at the company's corporate dining room. "It's not your typical direct-mail campaign," Umberto Fedeli said. "It's much more creative, much more cerebral. The recognition of who we are and what we do is over 90 percent [among targeted prospects]."

Miko and other ImageWorks employees conceive marketing campaigns and handle purchasing and distribution from theirs Streetsboro headquarters.
The company doesn't manufacture most of its products, but it does do finishing work like imprinting, embroidery, pad-printing and silk-screening in-house. For specialized items like bobbleheads, the company goes to Xiamen, a Chinese province that specializes in polyresin work.
If the toys were made in the United States, Worley said, "they would cost what they're selling on eBay for, and they wouldn't be in the giveaway category anymore."

Roots of ImageWorks

ImageWorks traces its roots to a company called Sherwood Promotions Inc. of Aurora. Worley and partner Jerry Stephens changed the name after they bought Sherwood in January 2002.

Just a few months later, the company won the Cavaliers promotional account, which meant the company was in charge of all game giveaways, including bobbleheads, magnet schedules, pennant, caps, T-shirts and minibasketballs."I told Staff [Worley], I really think there's an opportunity in sports marketing,' and Staff and Jerry were 100 percent behind me," Miko said. "That opened the door, and everything else kind of took off."

On Aug. 1, ImageWorks acquired Vanguard Promotions & Marketing Inc. of Beachwood. The company has since opened satellite offices in Atlanta and Scottsdale, Ariz.

By the end of the year, it expects to acquire another local company it wouldn't identify the firm, but said it specializes in golf-related products. That acquisition, ImageWorks said, would double its size and further solidify its position in the $16 billion-a-year promotional products industry.

Plain Dealer researcher JoEllen Corrigan contributed to this story.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jcho@plaind.com, 216-999-5069

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