About Us
Pocket Hercules is an independent, full-service advertising, interactive, and public relations company that’s set up to be a lean, nimble, branding powerhouse. We pride ourselves in creating innovative, tailor-made solutions to complex marketing problems that directly produce brand momentum and sales. Our working model is simple, transparent, and highly efficient: top-level talent works directly with clients which forges deeper partnerships, more potent work, and the ability to respond immediately to opportunities in today’s ever-changing marketing landscape.The Name
The term Pocket Hercules has been used throughout history to describe larger-than-life heroes in surprisingly small frames. Perhaps the most famous was Naim Suleymanoglu from Turkey, who has been hailed as the greatest weightlifter of all times. Standing just 4 feet 11 inches, he could lift nearly three times his body weight of 141 pounds.Partners
Jack Supple, partner, chief creative officer
Prior to being named chairman and chief creative officer of Carmichael Lynch in 2000, Jack Supple held the positions of president, executive creative director and senior writer since joining the agency in 1979. During his 27 year tenure, CL emerged as one of the nation’s top creative agencies.No matter how large the brand, Jack helped CL to find the soul of that brand and to become a client’s trusted “keeper of the flame” with work that was smart and elegantly simple. Under Jack’s leadership, the agency grew and expanded its account list to include Harley-Davidson, Porsche, Northwest Airlines, Gibson Guitars, Rapala, A.G. Edwards, American Standard and Coca-Cola. As chief creative officer, Jack helped CL expand its long-standing creative reputation into award winning PR, interactive, relationship marketing and design disciplines.
Jack left Carmichael Lynch in July 2006, finding the role of chairman of the 300-person agency to be too distant from the work. In January 2007, he began working with some former employees at Pocket Hercules, helping to create a pool of senior talent who could offer hands-on work to national accounts.
Tom Camp, partner, creative director
After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Tom drove to New York where he couldn’t find a parking place but did land a job as a copywriter at Scali, McCabe Sloves. Next stop was Los Angeles where he wrote award-winning anti-smoking TV commercials for the California Department of Health Services. Then, Tom found his true home in the outdoor enthusiast culture at Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis where he worked for 12 years as a writer and creative director on some of the country’s most righteous brands: Harley-Davidson, Schwinn, IKEA, A.G. Edwards, Motorola and Salomon.He also squeezed in sojourns to far-away places for months at a time where he wrote magazine stories on subjects ranging from drinking hallucinogenic bark with shamans in Ecuador, riding a bike through the jungles of Laos, and jumping in the Ganges on the holiest day of the decade with 70 million devout Hindus.
His work has been featured in featured in nearly all of the advertising award shows including: The Kelly’s, The One Show, Communication Arts, The Art Directors Club, The Effies; and has also been displayed in both the MOMA in New York and the Gallery of Modern Art in London. He left Carmichael in 2005 to open Pocket Hercules with his longtime partner, Jason Smith.
Jason Smith, parter, creative director
Jason started Pocket Hercules in 2005 with his longtime partner, Tom Camp after leaving Carmichael Lynch where he had been since 1996. Before Carmichael Lynch, Jason attended the Creative Circus in Atlanta, Georgia after graduating from Mercer University with a degree in business marketing.Over the past decade as an art director, Jason created campaigns for Coca-Cola, Johnson Outboards, Stratos Bass Boats, Javelin Boats, Caribou Coffee, A.G. Edwards, American Standard, Polaris and Harley-Davidson – the account Jason took over as senior art director in just two short years into the ad business. In 2001, Jason won the Kelly’s Grand Prize ($100,000) for a Harley-Davidson print campaign before he was thirty years old. Jason’s work has been featured in most of the award booksaround the world, including: Communication Arts, The One Show, Print, Archive, The Addys, The Effies and D&AD.
In his spare time, Jason enjoys the maddening pursuit of the single-digit handicap.
Client List
Big Dog MotorcyclesCarl Zeiss Sports Optics
Key Surgical
Lakemaid Beer
Pearl Izumi
Rapala
Shimano Fishing
The Prairie Club
Vedalo HD Sunglasses
Public Relations Advertising - Minneapolis
About
The way we see it, fostering and maintaining a top-caliber, national, network of media connections and being able to get ink efficiently and quickly is the nuts and bolts of the game. Skills we’ve been honing for over 20 years. We believe that great public relations service goes far beyond the press release. It means bombarding our clients with ideas and insights ranging from operational issues and internal communications to branding, risk reduction and product development – virtually every aspect of a client’s business. That’s because our number one goal is generating momentum for our clients with significant, measurable results, and forging longer lasting, more passionate bonds between our clients and their customers and others who have stake in their future.Stephen Dupont, vice president public relations
For more than 20 years, Stephen has developed award-winning communications campaigns for a number of well-known brands representing a range of industries, from fishing and financial services to industrial equipment and medical tech devices. He has launched start-ups, ignited brand awareness for Fortune 500 companies, and handled corporate communications matters involving mergers and acquisitions, investor relations, turnarounds and crisis situations (identity theft, bomb threats, regulatory investigations, etc.).Prior to joining Pocket Hercules, Stephen served as head of communications for GMAC ResCap, the mortgage division of GMAC Financial Services, overseeing communications for the division and its operating units, including GMAC Mortgage, Ditech, GMAC Bank and GMAC Real Estate. He served as partner/director of media relations for Carmichael Lynch Spong Public Relations, where he launched the firm’s media relations practice, and as director of marketing for Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, a leading, Minneapolis-based corporate law firm.
An accredited PR professional, Stephen served as the 2001 president of PRSA Minnesota and his work has been honored with three Silver Anvil awards, the highest awardin the PR industry.
FLW Fantasy Fishing
In 2008, FLW Fantasy Fishing took the world of fantasy sports by storm, and in the process, injected a new level of excitement into the world of professional bass fishing. The $10 million online game was created by FLW Outdoors, which produces the world’s largest and richest professional bass tournament series, the Walmart FLW Tour.Pocket Hercules helped FLW Outdoors jump-start the first year of FLW Fantasy Fishing by implementing an exhaustive media relations campaign targeting local media. After each of six FLW Fantasy Fishing tournaments, Pocket Hercules conducted local media events in conjunction with Walmart stores to announce the $100,000 winner of each tournament. These events attracted local television, print, radio and interactive editorial coverage, which in turn, sparked more entries into fantasyfishing.com from as far away as Australia, South Africa and Estonia.
In addition to media relations, Pocket Hercules also developed advertising that telegraphed what fantasy fishing was all about and built buzz for fantasyfishing.com.
For FLW Fantasy Fishing's first season, Pocket Hercules' potent combination of public relations and branding generated more than 500 million impressions, and helped contribute to the growth of FLW Fantasy Fishing, which is now played in 123 countries throughout the world. This growth led to a full-page profile about FLW Fantasy Fishing in Time magazine.
Lakemaid Beer
Great fishermen deserve great beer, and in May 2008, they finally received it. Inspired by freshwater mermaids we called Lakemaids, Pocket Hercules teamed up with Rapala and Schell's Brewery, to create and launch a new American-made lager designed specifically to quench the thirsts of fishermen.Even though the new beer was only available in six Upper Midwest states, Pocket Hercules launched a nationwide campaign targeting avid anglers who live or travel to the states where Lakemaid Beer is sold. The social media campaign went to where avid anglers go to get "inside" information they need to feed their fishing addiction - blogs such as FishingFury.com, fishing forums such as the Frank Walsh's Bay Store Camp Lake of the Woods fishing forum, and hardcore muskie magazines, such as Esox Angler. The campaign also reached out to beer blogs, such as BeerAdvocate.com and Drinkhacker.com, where it received solid reviews for a first-time beer.
These efforts, combined with other marketing activities, created plenty of "boat talk" resulting in waiting lists at liquor stores and multi-state beer runs among some anglers. With this "sold out" demand for Lakemaid Beer, Schell's Brewery doubled production, and began making plans to expand the beer’s distribution to more states.
FindLaw.com
FindLaw.com, a division of Thomson Reuters, connects consumers and small businesses with law firms through a web portal that delivers timely, expert legal information and insight on everyday matters of law.To help consumers and small businesses connect more frequently, Pocket Hercules developed an editorial campaign to increase awareness and drive traffic to FindLaw.com. Drawing from the existing expert content on FindLaw.com, Pocket Hercules creates how-to news features offering easily digestible tips about everyday legal topics. These features are distributed to news organizations throughout the United States and Canada. The Everyday Law Campaign has covered such timely topics such as "How to Avoid Losing Your Home to Foreclosure," "How to Avoid Getting a DUI," "How to Avoid Becoming the Victim of a Scam," and "Tips on How to Get Out of Debt and Avoid Bankruptcy."
Launched in August 2008, the Everyday Law Campaign has generated more than 1,500 editorial placements reaching more than 52 million consumers and small business owners with an advertising value of $450,000. The program has generated editorial placements in publications such as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Tampa Tribune, the Newark Star-Ledger, the Buffalo News and the Charlotte Observer.
Contact
pocket hercules510 1st avenue north, suite 210
minneapolis, mn 55403
phone: 612.435.8313
fax: 612.435.8318