History

Event Marketing Strategies (EMS) has been involved in the marketing, sponsorship and promotion of concerts, fairs, festivals, sports events, as well as other live events since 1981.

During the early 80’s, the very infancy of sponsorship as a marketing strategy, we helped forge unique partnerships between cause events like “Hands Across America” and the media, better known back then as cross promotions. In the latter half of the decade we began work in the entertainment and sports industry, representing acts such as Kenny Rogers, and athletes such as one time World Heavy Weight Boxing Champion, Buster Douglas, with product centered promotions and sponsorships. Also during this time, we were the first company to bring non-traditional, corporate sponsors to U.S. fairs, and have grown that list to include dozens of nationally recognized brands and hundreds of fairs and festivals nationwide.

As we grew our sponsorship and promotion clientele through the 90’s, we began to create and execute more and more event marketing programs for companies like Borden, Sara Lee and Advance Auto Parts through our FairAmerica™ and Festival USA™ networks while also representing the sponsorship initiatives for several state fairs in the Midwest. We also furthered our work on behalf of the Ohio State Fair, enhancing and growing the sponsorship and event marketing program to include more and more activation opportunities for a wider variety of industry categories, from health and beauty to telecommunications.

As we entered the 21st century, we continued to focus on developing tailored, total turnkey event marketing programs for brands such as Ensure, Krispy Kreme and Cutco. We focused more on developing ROSI™ results (Return On Sponsorship Investment) through targeted access. We took that messaging focus to a new level by developing long standing relationships with Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, AEP Ohio, Nationwide and Ohio State University Department of Athletics by creating and executing campaigns to impact consumer awareness and behavior. Meanwhile, as we celebrated over a quarter century representing the Ohio State Fair, we succeeded in enhancing our program with turnkey services designed to accommodate the ever popular and fast growing mobile marketing industry, while creating affordable event marketing options for non-profits and local businesses.

As we entered a new decade in 2010, we embrace the changing landscape of event marketing that focuses more and more on measurable ROI and the delivery of relevant experiential marketing.