Associated enhances food marketing expertise with addition of group VP
Food industry veteran Bill Fialka brings extensive marketing/branding experience to agency’s growing food client lineup
 WICHITA, Kan. – February 12, 2007 – Associated announced today the expansion of a core business group – food marketing – with the addition of Bill Fialka as Group Vice President, Food.
Fialka will oversee strategic account direction, consumer research and new business development initiatives for the agency’s food marketing group. Associated’s existing food-related clients include Super Suppers, the nation’s leading meal assembly brand; Cargill Meat Solutions (Honeysuckle White® and Shady Brook Farms® turkey brands); and regional franchise operations for Pizza Hut and Long John Silver’s.
Associated CEO Mike Snyder says that this is just another step in cementing the agency’s food marketing strength.
“Not only is this a solid move forward for our clients, but it is also a good strategic move for the agency,” says Snyder. “With a senior executive taking the helm of our food marketing group, we now have more power in terms of understanding the industry and all its players and moving parts, from creating great consumer brands to moving them through the grocers.”
Fialka comes to Associated with a rich career of marketing and brand building experience within the food industry—from consumer packaged goods to foodservice.
Fialka has experience on both the “client” and “agency” sides, having been a brand manager for Interstate Bakeries Corp. and Keebler. He has helped build brands such as Gerber, DelMonte, Johnsonville Bratwurst, Mazzio’s Pizza and Mrs. Smith’s. Most recently, Fialka was director of sales and marketing with Vance Publishing in Lenexa, Kan., where he mined and marketed industry data to agricultural and meat producers.
He also has extensive knowledge and expertise in consumer insight and behavior, new product development, strategic planning, sales force integration, promotions and retailing.
According to Fialka, the food industry is constantly changing because consumers are constantly changing. Ideas, products and trends that are hot today will not necessarily be hot tomorrow. Advertisers and marketers must be looking ahead, around the curves, keeping their eyes on the next consumer trends.
“Consumers, not marketers, establish and define trends in this industry,” says Fialka. “You have to be one step ahead, anticipating those trends.” And to identify those trends, a ‘food chain’ must be established, from the company and the brand, to the agency, to the consumer and back again.
“It’s about bringing a team of industry experts together to the benefit of our clients,” he says. Last year, Associated recruited an executive creative director with extensive experience that includes building leading food brands.
Snyder says the agency’s food marketing group will help position and prepare Associated for a more substantial presence in food marketing and branding at the national level.
“Bringing our food industry clients under one banner is a step in the right direction for us,” says Snyder. “Unified leadership and strategic insight—coupled with integrated and meticulous execution—in our food marketing group is necessary for our continued success in this industry.”
Still, Fialka says success in the food industry is only the tip of the iceberg for Associated. “Consumer trends in the food industry usually translate to consumer trends in other industries,” he says. “By identifying those trends and acting upon them accordingly, we can bring added value to our non-food industry clients.”
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