Thunderstorm Integrated Marketing Acquires Young & Associates; Creator of the Milk Mustache Campaign Offers Added Value to Companies Through Merger

Business Wire, August 15, 2000

Business Editors

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2000

What do you get when you mix the marketing savvy of the man who reinvigorated the dairy industry through the "milk mustache" campaign with one of Denver's veteran ad agencies? The possibilities are actually endless, as Thunderstorm Integrated Marketing, owned by Jeff Tripician, announces the acquisition of Young & Associates, Denver's 20th largest ad agency. The new company will remain in Denver and be known as Thunderstorm Integrated Marketing.

Jeff Tripician and Thunderstorm Integrated Marketing

Jeff Tripician's career has been spent primarily working with consumer products companies and organizations, including the International Dairy Foods Association, where he spearheaded the famous "milk mustache" campaign to reposition the milk industry. With experience managing marketing and sales divisions for Fortune 500 companies and leading companies in the natural products industry, Tripician began building his consulting business a year and a half ago. He found his talents were a blend of marketing strategy, business alliance development, guerrilla marketing and traditional communications. Having worked for the best in food, beverage and natural products companies, he discovered that his consumer products marketing skills proved to be an innovative asset for business-to-business clients as well as consumer goods manufacturers. In order to provide the full spectrum of his strategic marketing services to his clients, he began searching for a fit with a business-focused creative group. He found the perfect one when he met the team at Young & Associates.

"We're genuinely excited to offer clients the talent and resources of this new company," states Jeff Tripician, President of the new Thunderstorm Integrated Marketing. "Young & Associates has been a real workhorse of the Denver advertising community for two decades, with an impressive local and international client base. Thunderstorm now offers clients the same high quality service and creative with much expanded strategic capabilities."

Tripician continued: "Our creative approach to helping our clients achieve their business objectives is what most inspired me when considering this acquisition. With our expanded marketing, advertising, and creative team, we deliver superior plans that link multiple communication tools together and leverage a unified and focused message to our client's target audience. In essence, we seem to create a thunderstorm of activity around our clients' products and services that compels their target audience to act. In addition, our team has been able to effectively integrate traditional marketing tools with top-notch interactive and internet skills. Our broad-based marketing approach to client relations coupled with our client-side experience results in our team's delivery of effective messages in a clear, concise and motivational manner. We believe that clients old and new will not only value, but will benefit greatly from this merging of business resources."

When asked what sets the new company apart from the competition, Tripician added: "We offer much more than your typical ad agency. Thunderstorm blends the best of marketing consulting with hard-hitting ad agency know-how. Thunderstorm is not afraid to recommend marketing strategies that don't involve advertising. We don't make money on media so we don't force a buy on our clients that they don't want or need. Our plans and recommendations focus solely on how to best motivate our clients' customers to take the desired action - period. We seek to surround the target customers with our clients' message everywhere that makes sense. We integrate one tightly honed message across many delivery vehicles. This ingenuity and direct approach to marketing and communications consulting makes for honest client relationships, not to mention more effective marketing results and integrated solutions."

Bill and Sandy Young

After 14 years of running the agency, Bill and Sandy Young were looking for a new leader who could provide the energy and broader skills to take the agency to the next step, offering clients a more advanced approach to strategic marketing. The merging of these two great talent pools allows the joint entity to deliver a higher level of strategic business consulting and communications to its clients locally and throughout the country. With the addition of Tripician, the staff has expanded its marketing, brand building and sales consulting capabilities.

"We've always been a business person's agency - one driven by planning, overall marketing and sales understanding - not just our creative talent," stated Bill Young, founder of Young & Associates. "Jeff Tripician and Thunderstorm are building on that strong foundation."

Bill and Sandy Young will stay on during the transition, before retiring in the mountains of New Mexico. "We're excited to see the growth and transformation of the firm," Young continued. "We have worked to build an effective agency; now it's time to leave the company in the hands of someone who can build on our successes and maintain our hard-working, client-oriented philosophy. We are confident that along with our experienced staff, Jeff will accomplish that, and much more."