Michelle Latorre, Art Director, brings over nine years experience in delivering exceptional graphic design solutions for a variety of clients including: Sprint/Nextel, Salesforce.com and UnitedHealth Group.  When Michelle is not busy in our creative studio, she enjoys finding a sense of calm in her yoga studio.

Hilary Rieger, Account Executive, joins with four years in providing outstanding Account Service, most recently working on the Safeway O Organics and Eating Right brands.  In her free time, Hilary loves to travel and has even climbed pyramids in Egypt!

We are excited to have these two join our team and look forward to continuing a year of growth throughout 2010.

Some people eat to live; I on the other hand live to eat!  Since I’m constantly being asked for restaurant recommendations, I thought I’d start a list to share with everyone.  I plan on updating this list throughout the year with new favorites, but below are my top five restaurants for dinner in San Francisco. Happy Eating!

Range – Undoubtedly one of the best restaurants in the city (the Michelin review agrees) but it is unpretentious, inexpensive and simple.  Start with one of their great cocktails and don’t forget the chocolate soufflé for dessert!

Delfina – Favorite Italian restaurant in the city.  Recommend the calamari over white beans and the burrata for appetizers. The profiteroles for dessert are a must (or skip dessert and walk to bi-rite for ice cream, but that’s another review).

Luella – Neighborhood gem in Russian Hill.  Right off the cable car line so ambience is spot on.  Best coca-cola braised short ribs I’ve ever tried.

RNM – Located in the Lower Haight.  Tried almost everything on the menu at least once, musts are the pulled pork on tostada with crème fraiche and the wild mushroom pizza for appetizers.

Frances – A new comer to the SF food scene and one of the hardest restaurants to get into, unless you consider a three hour wait manageable!  Put your reservations in now as I see this restaurant getting more press throughout the year.  Musts are the chickpea frittes and the green garlic chicken.

Until next time…

SAN FRANCISCO, February 5, 2010 – BARC, a San Francisco-based integrated marketing agency celebrated 20 years in business by adding three new clients to a roster that includes such recognized names as Smuckers, Dole, Sutter Home, and Warner Bros., among others.
BARC was selected after a competitive agency review by Tree Top, a Washington-based agricultural cooperative owned by over 1000 apple and pear growers throughout the Northwest. Tree Top, #1 apple juice in their markets and the #2 brand in the U.S., chose BARC to help design and implement consumer promotions and in-store shopper marketing leveraging its 50th anniversary celebration.
Brooke Goodrich, Tree Top’s Senior Marketing Manager, said, “What BARC brings to the table is the kind of packaged goods experience you usually find only in the bigger firms—but without all the management layers.  We know we’re getting partner-level attention from day one.”
Atlanta based Rinnai America Corporation, a subsidiary of giant Japanese appliance manufacturer Rinnai Corporation, selected BARC to develop strategic initiatives to leverage their participation in the 2010 HGTV Dream Home and Green Home programs. The company is the leader in tankless water heaters in the U.S, as well as the leading manufacturer of gas appliances.
The third new client is Ménage a Trois, a wine produced by Napa-based Folie a Deux.  Menage a Trois currently has three blends, a Red, a White and a Rose, plus a new Chardonnay. BARC has been signed to develop a Holiday 2010 in-store promotion.
BARC Chief Executive John Randazzo said, “It’s exciting to start 2010 with three new clients to complement our on-going client relationships. 2009 was certainly difficult for clients and agencies alike, but we’re definitely seeing increased spending of marketing dollars and that may reflect a rebounding economy.”
BARC was founded 20 years ago by John Randazzo, who remains as President/CEO following the arrival in 2008 of a new management team that includes Brian Gillespie, VP Creative Director, and John Anthony Randazzo, VP Management Supervisor. Brian and John joined BARC from The Integer Group Denver where they collaborated on in-store and shopper marketing programs for P&G’s Family Care business.

BARC has been a PROMO Top 100 agency for 16 consecutive years. The independent firm has developed integrated communications programs addressing every major retail channel from grocery to mass merchandisers, hardware to office supply, convenience to on-premise and food service. The agency’s definition of promotional marketing encompasses any activity that can influence the sale of a product or service, regardless of the medium.
(For information contact John Anthony Randazzo (415) 992-4838)

Two words: STOPPING POWER. BARC not only gets consumers to stop in store, but our work got recognized by POPAI, the global association for marketing at retail. BARC recently won second place at the POPAI 2009 West Coast Point of Purchase Show for our Sutter Home Holiday national display. The innovative, cost efficient temporary display incorporated a unique, 3-dimensional snow globe that incorporated die-cut Sutter Home bottles within the snowflake design. The display delivered the message “Bring Sutter Home” with contemporary creative to achieve the Sutter Home objective of reaching a new, younger target audience.

The new client is San Francisco based Kikkoman Sales USA, Inc. and is representative of the diverse range of category sectors BARC services, including consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare, spirits and wine. They also have additional new assignments coming from current wine and spirits clients, Diageo and Sutter Home.

To further extend the ability to deliver integrated marketing solutions, BARC has developed a strategic alliance with ePrize®, LLC, the world leader in online promotional marketing. The new services resulting from this alliance include a robust offering that combines the power of BARC’s strategic creative with ePrize’s optimized interactive promotion and loyalty platform to achieve integrated sales and marketing success for their collective clients.

“Providing our clients with strategic, creative and innovative web solutions to attract and acquire new customers, while closely tracking the return on their marketing dollars is a necessary combination in today’s economic environment,” said John Randazzo, chief executive officer, BARC.  “This alliance is about introducing new audiences to the benefits of online marketing through the integration of two leading strategic agencies to help our clients succeed in today’s highly competitive marketplace.”

“The Web has quickly become the most powerful retail sales tool for companies who want to win in today’s economy,” said Josh Linkner, founder and Chief Executive Officer of ePrize®. “Combining the deep retail talent and experience of  BARC with the cutting-edge online strategy and infrastructure of ePrize helps our clients find and keep customers engaged online to ultimately drive their continued sales success.”

About BARC
BARC is a full-service integrated marketing agency specializing in channel and shopper marketing for Fortune 500 brands. The team at BARC is comprised of seasoned professionals, serving clients from the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.barccom.com

About ePrize® LLC
In 2008, ePrize® was named to the Red Herring 100 as one of the top private technology companies in North America. More than 325 professionals are dedicated to delivering extraordinary service, along with immediate and measurable results.  Headquartered in Detroit, the company also has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta. For more information, visit www.eprize.com

-end-

This summer, the BARC team fled the fog of San Francisco and headed to Orrville, OH where they were immersed in 90 degree heat and peanuts. Yep, that’s right, peanuts. Our team was invited by our client to get a sneak peak into how peanut butter is made so we have a better understanding of their product benefits. Giant bags of only the finest peanuts, enormous roasters that guarantee fresh-roasted taste, and really cool gadgets and gizmos that apply the labels and lids. We gotta say, there is nothing like warm peanut butter fresh off the line!

We were also able to visit the company store where Andrea Fernandes (Account Director) met her favorite pudgy baking character. She attempted to get a signed autograph, but his puffy hands had a hard time holding a pen.

During this tough economic climate, consumers are constantly seeking value. Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines came to BARC with a challenge to remind consumers during the summer timeframe that their BV Coastal brand provides great wine at a value price. BARC developed the concept “What Do You Value?” with a pay-off of “Long Summer Days and Even Longer Summer Nights.” The double-entendre messaging reached consumers on an emotional level as consumers are spending more time entertaining at home and also reinforced the great value that BV Coastal provides.

For another example of “value” messaging, see our Sutter Home case study.