Fruchtman Marketing of Toledo is celebrating 30 years in business in 2011 — and the launch of a national consumer advertising campaign for a major client.

Ellen Fruchtman started the business out of her home in 1981 while raising two children. Fruchtman, who has a background in television production, said she saw an opportunity to make some income through her own business.

“I thought local TV ads were terrible and thought I could do better,” Ellen Fruchtman said.

She established Ad-In Concepts and produced TV commercials for a former retail client in Toledo, using a freelance designer and media buyer for the campaign.

Fruchtman began producing advertising for Harold Jaffe Jewelers in 1994. The firm has also created advertising and marketing for two long-time local clients, Gross Electric and Tom’s Tire & Auto.

Ellen’s husband Michael joined the firm as a partner in 1997 to focus on the business side. He previously served in executive roles for his family’s businesses and has 30 years of marketing and financial management experience.

Today, Fruchtman Marketing is a full-service marketing firm specializing in the jewelry industry, which comprises about 90 percent of its business. She said they represent some of the finest jewelry manufacturers, retailers and industry organizations such as the American Gem Society and Palladium Alliance International (PAI). The PAI promotes the attributes and use of palladium, the third most expensive metal behind platinum and gold, in jewelry.

Palladium reportedly has all the attributes of platinum but is lighter and less expensive.

Fruchtman Marketing launched an $8 million national consumer advertising campaign for palladium that debuted in the September issues of fashion magazines with a digital premiere on Facebook and other social media.

“It’s the big time for a small agency from Toledo, Ohio,” Ellen said. “We wanted to do something totally different to educate people about palladium jewelry.”

They created a campaign that features three well-known celebrities, including actresses Pamela Anderson (“Baywatch”), Rose McGowan (“Charmed”) and Kelly Osbourne (E! series “Fashion Police”), daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.

The full-page print ads feature one of the celebrities wearing palladium jewelry with the headline, “I’m so over heavy metal.” The ads appear in Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s BAZAAR, In Style, Marie Claire, People, People Style Watch and W.

“The celebrities we selected are very recognizable. We went to LA to work with a world-renowned fashion photographer and had a fabulous experience shooting all three celebrities in one day,” Ellen said.

The local agency also produced a separate trade campaign for the jewelry industry sponsored by the PAI and Stillwater Mining Company, a large palladium miner in the U.S.

The firm was hired most recently by a large foreign jewelry manufacturer that sought them out for their worldwide reputation in the jewelry business, Michael said.

With other new accounts in addition to PAI, the agency recently added several positions and promoted some staffers to cover the new business.

“Like many of our clients, we are growing despite the economy. The growth is a positive trend for the Toledo area,” Michael said.

“Where we come from has never been an obstacle to our business,” Ellen said. “The majority of our clients are not in Toledo but we chose to stay in Toledo because we believe in it and our people are here.”

“Our best ideas come from the people who work here. We really have a sense of family, respect people and their families, and don’t succeed at the expense of family,” Michael said.

“We empower people who work here to be the best they can possibly be professionally and personally with no ceiling or limitations. We built our business by treating our employees, vendors and suppliers as friends and partners in our business,” Ellen said.

Michael said their success has given them “great opportunity to give back to the community.”

The firm supports its employees who do charitable work in the community.

Angela Ash started as an intern in design and is now  a senior account executive. She currently serves as president of the board for Susan G. Komen For the Cure.

The company also supports local charities such as the American Red Cross of Toledo and the Northwest Ohio Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the firm established a scholarship at the Gemological Institute of America, where individuals receive training to become professional jewelers.

The Fruchtmans pointed out the difference between advertising and marketing. The latter is how you sell yourself to your customers and is a package of advertising, media planning, interactive media, public relations, promotions, research and so much more, according to the couple.

“Think about your marketing as a holistic approach to your business — a unified approach with creativity,” they stated on the firm’s website at www.fruchtman.com.

Tags: American Gem Society, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Ellen Fruchtman, Fruchtman Marketing, Gross Electric, Harold Jaffe Jewelers, Harper’s BAZAAR, In Style, Kelly Osbourne, Marie Claire, Michael Fruchtman, palladium, Palladium Alliance International, Pamela Anderson, People, People Style Watch, Rose McGowan, Tom's Tire & Auto, W

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2011 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Marketing, Toledo Business Link.
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A bonfire of Hallmark greeting cards, bellowing sickeningly sweet drifts of smoke. Cleveland Indians mascot Chief Wahoo lying in drifts of snow, staring at the great wide sky for the last time. Silent stares of contempt and derision aimed at an unhoused man as he walks the Toledo streets.

These and scores of other images were part of a June 16 poetry reading that featured more poets than audience members.

Toledo Free Press sponsored a stop on the June 16 Art Walk, a signature event of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. We opened our warehouse on Huron Street, set up chairs and a makeshift podium and invited a group of local poets to read their works. Michael Grover led an outstanding line-up of poets — Arnold Koester, Jonie McIntire, Greg Peters and Bob Phillips.

With the cluster of activity on St. Clair and Adams streets, there was a dearth of passersby on Huron Street to look in and see the reading, but each of the poets gave it his or her best, reading original material that inspired laughter and reflection to the few people who joined us.

There is a thriving poetry scene in Toledo, but it seems like a backburner element compared to music and gallery arts. Most of my exposure to the scene comes from the published works of longtime Toledo Free Press arts writer John Dorsey, who is producing a body of work that is growing in size and national acclaim.

It’s a tougher challenge at home in Toledo.

Phillips told Toledo Free Press Staff Writer Patrick Timmis, “Poetry’s like the poor uncle of the arts.”

Grover is keenly aware of how some people view his art. He said many people stereotype poetry as bad and boring — epithets he thinks many poets deserve. He said he wants to make poetry fun again, although many of his pieces are dark and questioning.

Grover read a number of his “American Outlaw” poems, making each piece a compelling performance.

Peters read an epic poem about being unhoused in Toledo. After working nearly 30 years for Chrysler, he is waiting for news on his pension while he gets by the best he can. Peters told Timmis he has written 800 poems in the past three years. Reading live, the words tumble out of him in a cascade of alternating anger and amusement.

“Poetry is to make a point and make a difference for someone’s life,” he said.

Phillips, with his shock of Einstein-like white hair, read poetry about his backyard observations and baseball memories. His work is specific and intimate yet universal in its wise evocation of the larger gears at work in life.

Phillips told Timmis he started writing poetry as a child. He grew up in Toledo.

“Most everything I learned was at the public library — the poor people’s university,” Phillips said.

His first poems were humorous, but puberty made his poems angsty and depressing, he said with a smile. When he discovered the Beats at age 11, he felt liberated by their style.

“You always thought a poem had to rhyme and be about flowers or autumn or something like that,” he said.

Poetry has always resided just outside my grasp, not as impactful as music but just as mysterious in its creative process. Words are fluid, live building blocks, but the way a poet shapes them isn’t the way I push them around or the way a songwriter manipulates them. And while many people believe they can be writers (I work just a few blocks from some of the region’s most high-profile failures), truly inspiring works of poetry and songwriting (the two are not the same thing, although some lyrics read like poetry) are intimidating.

In an effort to promote this special art, Toledo Free Press is co-sponsoring the Aug. 6 “Zygote in My Fez Poetry Festival,” from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Collingwood Arts Center. Red Fez and Zygote in my Coffee are the primary forces behind the event, which will feature nearly two dozen poets reading their works. We are also looking to find a more high-profile location for our remaining ACGT Art Walk poetry readings, July 21, Aug. 18 and Sept. 15.

Let’s take the poor uncle and show him a few special nights on the town.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Since you asked, my single published poem, “Newsstand Love,” was published in a modest college anthology alongside real poems from real poets:

“Newsstand Love”

She has a Playboy body,

Penthouse eyes,

And a Cosmo mouth.

Her man had a World News sex drive,

But a National Enquirer mind,

And People depth.

She left him for a man with a GQ wardrobe,

An Esquire lifestyle

And a Wall Street Journal career.

But in her bed: Reader’s Digest.

She left him for a man with Sports Illustrated energy,

Rolling Stone hipness

And Vanity Fair ambitions.

But in her bed: National Lampoon.

Now she’s renewed her subscription with her first man.

If looking at the pictures keeps you satisfied,

Skip the fine print.

Tags: Arnold Koester, Art Walk, Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, Bob Phillips, Chief Wahoo, Cleveland Indians, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, GQ, Greg Peters, John Dorsey, Jonie McIntire, Lighting The Fuse, Michael Grover, Michael S. Miller, National Enquirer, National Lampoon, Penthouse, People, Playboy, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustarted, Toledo Free Press, Wall Street Journal, World News

This entry was posted on Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 12:05 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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