Last year David Raymond joined us for a lengthy interview while he was busy entertaining as Sport.  David has long been a fixture in the world of sports entertainment.  He set the baseball mascot standard as the original Phillie Phanatic and then as Sport.

Recently David started his own company, the Raymond Entertainment Group.  We caught up with this very busy executive as he ramps up the new touring character, Reggy, as well as creates a broad business plan for the company.

It is always a pleasure to talk with David.  As a true industry leader his insights are as useful for a rookie mascot as they are for a veteran team executive.

Once again David has a lot to say, so April’s interview will be posted in two parts.

Part One:  The new business plan
Part Two:  Mascots, performers and the Raymond Entertainment Group staff

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Gameops.com [Jon Cudo]:  Last time we talked you were back at Acme Mascots making waves as Sport.  We talked about a lot of topics including connecting with your clients on the web and some tips for young mascots. (read the May 2000 Interview on Gameops.com).  Bring us up to date with how you got from there to your present situation and tell us about your new business.

David Raymond:  During the last year I developed a business plan with my brothers help.  We surprisingly got investor support very quickly, that type of investor we would call an angel and truly that is what we found.The nuts and bolts of the plan is really a template of the work that I did with the Phillies.  We first created a brand new live entertainment feature named Reggy.  

Reggy is a generic character that can entertain in any type of crowd at any event.  We have already booked Reggy at minor league baseball events, but there has been a great deal of interest from local corporations, charities, conventions and non-profit organizations for live entertainment needs.  We want to have Reggy available for that type of performance as well.  

The biggest change in this business plan is the creating producing and delivering of complete character programs for not only sports entities, but corporations as well.  We call this character branding.  Its all about, you know, money making fun.  Delivering a message with entertainment.  That is a very powerful tool that both sports and corporations understand.  

There has been some tremendous growth in this area from both colleges and universities lately.  Colleges have been hiring MBA's to head their marketing and merchandising efforts.  These people understand the value of the university's mark and their mascot in delivering their message and competing for new students and national recognition.  Those colleges are going to need new and creative ideas to brand their message.  We are uniquely positioned to service all of these market places.  We can deliver full character branding programs including a first run of merchandise quickly, efficiently and affordably.  In essence Raymond Entertainment Group is selling franchises,  We can support those franchises with everything they need to make them profitable.  From unique designs to training performers to event production, we are a one stop shop.

One of the most exciting aspects of the support for us is the creation of new and unique character toys.  The merchandise is where we see the most prospects for growth.  We have raised the bar with our merchandise programs.  The beanie babies and things everyone has seen, we can do those.  But we also create new and interesting toys that have not been seen in the marketplace.  We have relationships with novelty and apparel companies, and we hold college and minor league baseball licenses.  So we will work with team to create character specific merchandise and turn their character into a profit-center.

Remember,  it's money making fun.

Cudo:  What percentage of your clients now are in sports, and what percentage are you after?

Raymond:   First we needed to capitalize on the marketplace where we have already established relationships with the clients.  In minor league baseball and the colleges we already have strong relationships who know us and trust us.  We will use Reggy as our own character branding program to convey the Raymond Entertainment message.

Now we have also created a characters for the New Orleans Saints, Lakewood Blue Claws, Lake Elisnore Storm, and Kannapolis Intimidators.  These are our pilot projects.  We will build on those successes and hopefully make the cross over to the corporate world soon.

It's nice to see the business model put to the test in the real world, and now I actually want to look for more financing.  We want to excite people who want to invest with us further.  We really want to spend a great deal of time on marketing and getting the word out that we are strong and we know characters.  We are the people you need to talk to when you have concerns about an existing character or when you want to start a new character.

Cudo:  So you are creating and building the characters from the ground up?  You are a turnkey operation in terms of creating a branded character.

Raymond:  Yes, exactly.  One of our mottos is: “We don’t build costumes, we create characters.”  We want to impress upon people that we don’t just ship you a costume and say, “see you later”. This is about full service. Like I said we are creating franchises.  We are the people who helped make the Phanatic a success and we are ready to do it for you.

Cudo:   I like that you have grown the business and the scope of the business.   It sounds like you have realized what you have to offer.

The Pursuit of Wow! by Tom Peters Save 20% now at Amazon.com

Raymond: Yes.  What we are trying to sell is fun and excitement.  We are railing against the political correctness in terms of marketing.  I am a huge fan of Tom Peters.  Tom Peter’s book In ursuit of Wow is one of the most enlightening books I have ever read and I recommend it to anyone in small business.  I have molded my business plan based on a lot of the things he talked about in that book.  It's being unique and bucking the system a bit.

If you follow the marketing model and what marketing teaches you to the letter, you will never get anything done.  Marketing is a schizophrenic beast.  In one regard its “Make sure you go test it and research it”.  So we do our due diligence in market research, however we don’t have a great market research company at our disposal.  We firmly believe that there is an enormous marketplace out there that is growing and its related to characters and merchandise.  Teams and corporations are realizing that it is a tremendous source of revenue and a way to reach out in their community.   People will remember who they are and what their message is.

It’s always been that way, but I think this is a new wave.  According to Tom Peter’s, if you feel like you have things under control then you are not moving fast enough.  The best thing we have going is our size.  We are small and quick like a flea.  We are doing whatever we can to make the clients happy.

For example, we did a project with the University of Delaware. The toy was is custom football with the mascot’s head and tail coming out of the ends.  We were able to get the ball sponsored by a local bank and we gave it away at homecoming at Delaware.  The comments were excellent, the University of Delaware said they had never seen a product that was so fun, so different and so affordable.  They were thrilled.  We now are planning to take that model and template it for other universities.

A lot of people ask me what is the goal for my company…I want to be Disney.  I want to do characters, merchandise, licensing, products for TV and movies.  Am I ready for that?  We are getting there.  We think we can do things like that.  Our heads may be in the clouds on some of this, but you have to have those dreams and believe you have the abilities to do those things.

This business model we have really has an opportunity for that.  We are looking for young performers and young interns. I’d like to create new characters every year for minor league sports marketplace.  Because I think they can use them.

I also want to again thank David for his time.  We conducted this interview nearly a month ago and the process of transcribing and reviewing the interview has taken a lot of his time during the start of his busiest part of the year. 

In Part 2 David has great advice for young performers and introduces the staff at Raymond Entertainment Group.

Read Part Two with David Raymond

If you would like to contact David or the Raymond Entertainment Group you can use the following email or web site links:

David@raymondeg.com
www.Raymondeg.com

• Philadelphia Phillies team site
• Kannapolis Intimidators
• Dale Earnhart Inc.
• New Orleans Saints
• Lakewood Blue Claws
• Lake Elisnore Storm
• Tom Peter’s In Pursuit of Wow
• Raymond Entertainment Group