What if someone opened an ad agency and said they would use only radio?

With “What’s Best for the Client” as her mantra and mission statement, Corissa Embro did just that.  

Corissa’s career covered both the selling side and the agency side of radio, so she was well aware of the power of radio, used right, to sell. Corissa understood the full spectrum of a radio station’s influence. She became comfortable early on with the emerging technologies side of radio and was quick to incorporate them into her campaigns. She also understood the incredible power of the personal connection to consumers of radio personalities. She knew she and her client could profit from this. And they have.

The Famima!! story is typical of Corissa’s M.O. 

About 35 years ago, Famima!! started in a small Japanese neighborhood as FamilyMart. In fact, the name Famima!! comes from an abbreviation of FAMIlyMArt. Since then, FamilyMart has remained virtually the same, offering fresh goods, a selection of grocery items and popular quick-foods that can be eaten on the run or taken home as a meal.

FamilyMart’s nearly 13,000 stores are located throughout Asia - in Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and China - all offering FamilyMart’s trademark convenience.

Then in 2004, Famima Corporation USA was established with the idea to introduce the same FamilyMart goodness to America, but with a styling and upscale décor that is both modern and unique. Corissa explains, “Famima’s goal was to brand and drive traffic to their stores in the Los Angeles area and get folks familiar with what’s available in the stores.”

“To accomplish this we put together a significant spot schedule to run over three weeks with humorous creative. We then set up 15 station appearances promoted on-air with significant time sensitive giveaways such as concert tickets, High School Musical 3 tickets, Official Beijing Olympic gear (the timing of the Summer Olympics was grand) as well as Famima gift cards. It’s easy enough to get people to show up at the stores but we REALLY wanted them to earn their prizes by going into the store and looking around. So at each station appearance we had a list of trivia questions the personality from each station would ask in regards to items in the store, i.e. “what 3 flavors of Icee are available in Famima”, the crowd would have to rush into the store and look everywhere until they found the answer and then the first person to report the answer back to the personality won one of the highly sought after prizes. This was VERY successful in getting folks familiar with what they can find in any Famima store."

“We also had a station put together a 'Trip to Japan' giveaway where listeners were encouraged to go into any location and enter to win. (Famima is from Japan and carries a lot of Asian products so it was a natural destination). Famima carries a lot of ready to eat gourmet items so we also did some on-air contests to with large Famima gift card giveaways so the whole winning office could eat. This was key to reach hard working folks that don’t have a lot of time for lunch and introducing them to the convenience of Famima. All of this running concurrent with On-Air sponsorships and live endorsements by Ryan Seacrest.

“It was so successful we repeated it again in October again taking advantage of the timing. We gave away Madonna tickets, successfully tied in with The Queen Mary Shipwreck for Halloween, and at one store we set up a whole family pumpkin carving area in the parking lot along with a costume contest with large cash prizes. We had several prominent djs from several stations at these appearances along with live call-ins having listeners continually visit throughout each appearance to keep the traffic up.
Every single element of these appearances (30 total) was utilized through the radio stations and let me tell you, they did a phenomenal job. The crowds at each appearance were ENORMOUS to say the least. The client was very happy with their introduction into North America utilizing radio.”

Whether it was getting Ryan Seacrest to endorse her client Famima or coordinating the perfect prize with the right personality endorsement campaign, or creating an online viral campaign using radio station websites and mobile capabilities to drive success, Corissa knew she could do “What’s Best for the Client” by using radio.

Her clients agree. Dave Cruz, Marketing Development Manager of California Avocado Commission cited her “outstanding attention to detail” and “tremendous job in securing promotions.” 

Dianne Dreyer, SVP Group Account Director and Chihiro Shinoda, Account Supervisor at Dentsu America both work on the Famima account. The results of the Queen Mary Halloween Party ticket give-away “blew the client away. Consumers were actually lined up at the store the night before…to get their free tickets. Even better, store sales were dramatically up,” reported Dreyer. “Corissa went above and beyond…really helped to get Famima on consumers’ radar,” said Shinoda.

Maria Mitchell, Marketing Manager of FastFrame Expert Picture Framing is an IMS and Radio believer. “We have found that through the creative thinking, well-executed promotions and strategic spot placement by IMS, Inc, radio is a very affordable and dynamic traffic driving resource for us.”

Susan Hobbs, AMD of Dentsu summed it up best. “When done with the professionalism and integrity of media companies like Corissa Embro and IMS, you really can’t beat the benefits of Radio. They really believe in ‘What’s Best for the Client.’ Radio should be a part of almost every media mix.”