Odato Marketing Group, along with client Noble Tangerines of Winter Haven, Fla., won the 2015 Marketer of the Year award for retail presented by the American Marketing Association in Tampa Bay. The trophy was presented at AMA Tampa Bay’s inaugural awards ceremony last night at Centre Club in Tampa with more than 140 corporate, nonprofit and agency marketing professionals in attendance.
Unlike other awards competitions, Marketer of the Year is results-based. Odato and W.G. Roe & Sons, the family farming company behind the Noble Tangerines brand, worked together to brand, package and sell-out the entire 2015 and 2016 crops of Noble New Generation Tangerines. They also encouraged Florida farmers to plant more than a half million Roe- and state-developed new varieties of tangerine trees. The high-quality tangerines they bear support a premium price that helps farmers defend against serious threats from citrus canker and greening.
“We are honored to accept this award on behalf of Noble Tangerines,” said agency president and founder Rich Odato. “Like any successful marketing endeavor, this is the result of a quality relationship built on mutual respect and trust. The Roe family has spent nearly three decades cultivating these delicious new tangerine varieties, which will delight consumers and help Florida’s citrus growers find new ways to thrive. Now that the fruit is starting to come to market, we are humbled to have this opportunity to play a small part in their four-generation success story.”
The agency’s teams in Sarasota and Pittsburgh collaborated on this initiative, which also won a Marketer of the Year award in December from the American Marketing Association chapter in Pittsburgh. The agency’s previous work for W.G. Roe on the Noble Juice brand earned both an AMA Marketer of the Year award and the Florida Public Relations Association’s Grand-All Image Award in 2011.
