Cramer-Krasselt - Headquarters

Last Modified: 02-22-2022

https://www.c-k.com
Ownership: Privately Held
Size:

Overview

Company Summary

About Cramer-Krasselt Cramer-Krasselt is one of the largest independent agencies with over $500 million in billing and 74% of our revenue from digital and social. More than integrated, we are totally interconnected to optimize and synergize every marketing communication effort for maximum impact. With a mission to Make Friends, Not Ads®, C-K has built a reputation for changing perceptions and behaviors that significantly move the purchase needle. It’s how we helped Porsche achieve 11 years of consecutive record-breaking sales, how Corona continues to be one of the top imports, how Pacifico grew 19% to become the ninth largest selling beer in just two years and how Tropicana broke all PepsiCo brand testing records, just to name a few. We have done it by a very different organizational structure, interconnecting an ever-expanding range of disciplines from strategic branding to digital, social, analytics, media/programmatic, e-commerce, SEM, PR, UX, influencer and more. Major brands include Alzheimer’s Association, Cedar Fair (Knott’s Berry Farm, Cedar Point and 13 additional properties), Cintas, Corona Extra, Pacifico, Porsche, Spirit Airlines, Cat’s Pride, Naked and Tropicana. www.c-k.com

Contact

225 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60601
P: 312-616-9600
F: 312-616-3839

Karen Seamen
President, Chief Operating Officer
[email protected]
3126162363

Offices

Cramer-Krasselt
225 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60601
312-616-9600

Cramer-Krasselt
246 E. Chicago Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414-227-3500

Global Service Capabilities

Staff

Total Number of Employees

Office Employees:
Total US: 201-500
Total Worldwide: 201-500

Peter Krivkovich
Chairman/CEO
Peter Krivkovich is a man on a mission: to make Cramer-Krasselt the largest independent marketing and communications agency in the country. And he's made great progress since assuming the CEO title in 1998, guiding C-K to its position as the nation's second largest independent with more than 500 employees and $1 billion in annual billings across its four-office network.

Dubbed "the hardest-charging independent" in the business by Advertising Age, C-K's diverse and enviable client roster includes Corona Extra, Heinz, Panera Bread, Porsche, Edward Jones, Cedar Fair Amusement Parks, Patron and BRP (Can-Am, Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo).

Born in Bad Ischl, Austria, Krivkovich moved with his family to the United States when he was eight. He started his professional career at Kemper Insurance where he became an assistant advertising director and was involved in public relations and lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. He was later a partner at Nader-Lief Advertising before joining Leo Burnett as an account manager. Krivkovich went on to co-found Chicago agency Hackenberg, Normann, Krivkovich, which was acquired by Cramer-Krasselt in 1981, helping to jump-start C-K's rapid growth from a regional $25 million agency to national prominence today.

Krivkovich strongly believes that success in building brands hinges not merely on good creative thinking, but on strong analytics that help find the key strategic insight that truly changes the client's category conversation and leads to a transformational business-building idea. C-K has been highly acclaimed for doing just that: From helping Corona surpass Heineken as the number one imported beer, catapulting CareerBuilder.com past Monster.com, to creating a pop-culture phenomenon with its fresh take on pharmaceutical advertising for Rozerem, to launching Porsche's first-ever, highly-successful, four-door sports car – the Panamera, to helping Heinz roll out the most successful product launch in its history—Steam n' Mash, to winning an EFFIE for the "Everyday Magic" repositioning of the Porsche 911.

A long-time advocate of holistic marketing focused on behavioral insight and engagement strategy, Krivkovich put C-K on the path toward integration long before it was trendy to do so, building a creatively driven shop that draws on PR, digital, interactive, engagement strategies, advertising and a high level of analytics as it needs to. C-K's diverse disciplines—all under one roof with best-in-class talent—have won nearly every major acclaim in the industry.

One of Ad Age's "Ten [Executives] Who Made Their Mark" in 2007, Krivkovich is regularly quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Adweek, PRWeek and Crain's Chicago Business, which featured him as one of the "last great ad men" in the industry. Krivkovich is on the Board of Directors for the Ad Council, the Off the Street Club, Terra Foundation for American Art and Friends of Prentice Hospital. He also served two terms on the Board of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) and six years on the Board of MB Financial. He enjoys collecting vodka, antiques and Asian art. He is an avid international traveler and fluent in Russian, but getting rusty with his Polish.

Married for more than 40 years, Krivkovich and his wife, Linda, have a son and daughter who are both married with very accomplished careers in San Francisco.

Karen Seamen
President/Chief Operating Officer
Karen Seamen has spent more than 20 years at Cramer-Krasselt, and C-K is better off because of it. As C-K’s President and first-ever Chief Operating Officer, she’s played a pivotal role in building what Advertising Age dubbed “the hardest-charging independent” in the business.

Karen’s managed some of the agency’s most complex pieces of business and is responsible for some of its most stunning successes, including the firm’s dramatic growth of more than 60 percent since 2006 as General Manager of the Chicago headquarters office, with the addition of clients such as Heinz, Panera Bread, Porsche, Cedar Fair Amusement Parks and Edward Jones. She has a deep and intuitive understanding of branding and brand architecture and has been a driver of C-K’s “no silos” approach, which has allowed the agency to be truly integrated and focused on developing ideas that work across platforms.

Karen earned a B.A. from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, her hometown, and serves on the board of the AAAA’s, as well as on the local boards of the Chicago 4As, the Chicago Advertising Federation and the Garfield Park Conservatory. She was a 2010 Crain’s Chicago Business “Woman to Watch,” a 2006 Advertising Age “Woman to Watch” and one of Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s “Top Women from Pittsburgh.” Her hobbies include conference calls, salads and juggling.

Marshall Ross
Vice Chairman/Chief Creative Officer
Marshall is bald and allergic to everything that tastes good. That ought to say it all. But for the record, he joined Cramer-Krasselt in 1995 and is part of the management team behind the agency’s rise to the second-largest independent agency in the U.S., with more than $1 billion in annual billings and an enviable roster including: Porsche, Heinz, Corona Extra, Edward Jones and Panera Bread.

As chief creative officer, he’s crafted award-winning campaigns for numerous clients, garnering everything from Effies to Webbys to Cannes Lions. Marshall’s creative passions are never ending. His ability to nurture cross-platform creativity—paired with the agency’s integrated structure and culture—has helped the agency consistently deliver on its mission to “Make friends, not ads”(R) long before it became trendy to do so: from CareerBuilder’s “Monk-e-Mail” viral sensation to helping Corona fans “Find Your Beach” online, offline or wherever they find themselves to enlisting passionate Porsche-philes to create new relevance for a revered icon with the “Engineered for Magic. Every day.” campaign.

Before joining C-K, Marshall was a copywriter and creative supervisor at Foote, Cone & Belding. At the age of 27, he started a creative boutique, Mitchiner, Ross & Kahn, which after a successful six-year run was acquired in 1992 by Campbell Mithun Esty, where Marshall assumed the post of executive creative director.

Clients and Brands

Client & Brands	Start Date
Corona Extra Corona Extra	N/A
Kroger Pick ''n Save, Metro Market	N/A
Cedar Fair Amusement Parks Cedar Point, Knott’s Berry Farm and 10 others	N/A
Spirit Airlines	N/A
Alzheimers Association Alzheimers Association	N/A
PepsiCo (Tropicana, Naked Juice) Tropicana	N/A
Cintas Cintas	N/A
Porsche Cars North America Porsche	N/A
Pacifico Beer Pacifico Beer	N/A

Billings & Revenue

Billing / Revenue Ranges Number of Clients

Total Gross Media Placed by this Office

Allocation Percent of Media Placed by this Office

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Service Offering Revenue

Industry Experience

Agency Profile