Lola Red Public Relations Hires Reitan as President

Lola Red PR, is adding a new leadership position to the fold as it experiences the strongest first quarter in its 12-year history. Former Carmichael Lynch Spong senior principal Maria Reitan joins Lola Red PR as president and chief strategy officer immediately. Reitan will report to agency founder and chief executive officer Alexis Walsko.

Reitan’s new role comes as Lola Red PR adds many new brands including Dirty Girl Mud Run and Sparkling Fruit2O to the agency’s roster of retail, food and beverage, beauty and home. The agency has been experiencing at least 25 percent growth year of year.

“Maria’s leadership, experience and strategic approach to growing clients and business make her the perfect partner as we move into our next phase of business.” says CEO, Alexis Walsko, “her talent and passion for marketing to women will be put to great use across our entire roster of clients.” Reitan will lead client business strategy, operations, and staff development along with the organization’s day-to-day activities. Walsko will drive new business acquisition and creative output.

“Lola Red PR is expanding rapidly and its potential is limitless,” says Maria Reitan. “I’m excited to be joining the agency at such a dynamic time in its evolution and look forward to helping drive success for our current and future clients’ business.”

Reitan brings 25-years of award-winning communications experience to Lola Red PR, having spent more than 10 years at Minneapolis-based Carmichael Lynch Spong where she established and lead the Lifestyle Marketing practice with a focus on marketing to women, boomers and youth. Her weekly marketing-to-women radio show, PurseStrings, is in its seventh year.

While at Carmichael Lynch Spong, Reitan lead public relations efforts for household brands such as MasterBrand Cabinets, Tempur-Pedic, Select Comfort, and Therma-Tru doors. With sister agency Carmichael Lynch, Reitan managed integrated advertising and public relations efforts on behalf of Trane and American Standard. Prior to joining Carmichael Lynch Spong in late 2003, Reitan spent 15 years at various major market TV stations across the country as a news director, producer and reporter, including Twin Cities’ WCCO-TV. Her work has been recognized with both the PR and news industries’ most illustrious awards, including the Silver Anvil and Emmy. Reitan was also named PR News
Journal’s Top 25 Women to Watch that same year.
Account Supervisor of the Year in 2010 and was among the Twin Cities Business

Kona Ice South Minneapolis announced today it will be one of the vendors for Minneapolis Parks. The start date will be announced as we get closer to the beginning of the season. Kona Ice trucks will appear at numerous park locations including Theo Wirth (beaches), Minnehaha Park, Cedar Lake (beaches), Lake Hiawatha, Pearl (Diamond Lake), Ft. Snelling (Neiman Sports Complex/Park), Bossen Field, Stone Arch (Mill City Park) and Bryn Mawr Meadows.

“It is an honor and privilege to bring our Tropical Shaved Ice Experience to our city parks, the top rated park system in America,“ said PJ Fiske, Owner and Vice President of Fun, Kona Ice South Minneapolis. “We look forward to bringing additional joy and fun to our Kona Ice fans! Also, we will be giving back a portion of our sales to Minneapolis Parks, which will go directly to future park improvements.”

Kona Ice is known across the country for giving back to communities with contributions over $16 million to date. Each Kona Ice franchise is locally owned and operated. Last year, the two Kona Ice trucks serving the immediate Metro area gave back over $15,000 to Twin Cities area organizations and schools.

“It’s a win for our parks and a win for Kona,” said Shane Stenzel, Manager of Permits and Events for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. “We like to keep things fresh and Kona’s colorful truck, outstanding product, FLAVORWAVE, friendly staff AND the added bonus of a Kona Ice giveback was hard to pass up!”

Kona Ice patented FLAVORWAVE allows customers to “personalize” their shaved ice with up to ten flavors if desired for a one-of-a-kind treat. The Kona Ice menu serves up over 30 unique outstanding flavors.

Times, dates and locations will vary and Kona Ice South Minneapolis will post daily locations on Facebook () and Twitter ().

After blazing a trail of success in the public relations industry for 23 years, Carmichael Lynch Spong is refreshing its identity to reflect even more possibilities down the road. Beginning today, it will be known as Spong.

The move is based on the firm’s core beliefs as well as its continued evolution, according to Doug Spong, president and founder. “Since day one, we’ve been creating ideas that help our clients defy gravity. We believe ideas are not the property of any one discipline, but are conceived through insight, born from strategy and brought to life through creative execution. Creating more white space for Spong through a refreshed identity allows us to reimagine our service offerings without limitation.”

Deeply rooted in public relations, the firm has evolved and grown through holistic, 360-degree thinking that smartly solves its clients’ problems. The refreshed Spong identity reflects the firm’s growing service offerings — from traditional public relations services such as earned media relations, brand journalism, reputation management and crisis/issues management, to relatively new offerings such as community management, paid, social, SEO/SEM and all things mobile — and provides the flexibility to add more as new needs and technologies evolve.

Both the Spong and Carmichael Lynch brands will continue to celebrate their sibling relationship under parent company Interpublic Group, and to share a common purpose, values and culture. What has changed with the Spong brand are the visual expressions of its refreshed identity, including a new logo mark and its applications in a new website, www.SpongPR.com, its social channels, business systems and signage.
“Given today’s overlapping disciplines of PR, advertising, digital, social, mobile and experiential marketing, the confluence of earned, owned and paid media is stronger than ever before,” Doug Spong added. “We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished for our clients and we’re excited for our future.”

Grounded in core principles
Since its founding in September 1990, the firm has been guided by three core principles: 1) to represent a select but envied portfolio of big name clients; 2) to attract like-minded achievement addicts who desire to produce their career-best work; and 3) to be the undisputed champion of best practices.

These principles have helped build the firm to what it is today. Over the years it has earned a reputation as a leader in best practices and grown to become one of the top-25 largest PR firms in the nation. It was named 2013 Creative Agency of the Year by national trade journal The Holmes Report and is a four-time PR Agency of the Year as awarded by PRWeek, PR News and The Holmes Report. No other PR firm has won  more Silver and Bronze Anvil awards from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Today Spong operates globally and represents a portfolio of blue-chip clients including American Standard, Arla Foods, Bath & Body Works, First Bankcard, Genuine Thermos Brand, GNC, H&R Block, Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Lutron, MasterBrand Cabinets, Minnesota Public Radio, MOM Brands, Morina, Rapala, Sherwin-Williams, SUPERVALU, Trane and the University of St. Thomas. Spong and Carmichael Lynch also remain as committed as ever to integrated thinking and execution on behalf of the many clients they share, including new additions to the roster such as GNC.

A vision to inspire
The future of the firm will continue to be grounded in its core beliefs, according to Doug Spong. “Our vision is still to be the world’s most creative PR firm. Our mission remains to ignite and sustain momentum for a select but envied portfolio of clients. And our purpose will always be to inspire.”

Clarity Coverdale Fury released a new campaign for longtime client QUITPLAN® Services this week. The campaign follows 18 months of research on how tobacco users want help to quit. It acknowledges that they know they should quit and want to quit, and highlights how QUITPLAN Services provides free quitting support while leaving the lecturing and judging behind.