Tralliance Corporation, the .travel Registry

Founded Tralliance Corporation, the .travel Registry, the Internet's first major global vertical Top Level Domain devoted exclusively to the tourism and travel industry.

Fare 1

Co-founded fare 1, Inc., a company focused on the mission of putting travel agents back into travel. 

With travel agents under siege and faced with commission cuts from airline partners, he emergence of Internet travel companies offering new ways for consumers to reserve travel online, and suppliers encouraging consumers to book direct, travel agents face the most serious crisis in the history of their profession.

fare 1 brought simplicity and order to an industry in transition by giving travel agents the tools they need to join the Internet revolution and profit from it, while providing their clients with the best fares available.  

The first Internet aggregator of the lowest fares, fare 1 is a one-stop, travel pricing research and booking service that utilizes the databases of airlines and air ticket consolidators initially, with an intended roll out to cover car rental companies, hotel chains, cruise lines and consolidators of their products worldwide.  A business-to-business site that automatically searches, locates and presents the lowest available fares-from the entire universe of fares, fare 1 provides real-time bookings and payment to travel agent subscribers on demand.   

fare 1 began as a discussion between Ron Andruff and his travel agent in July 1999.  In May 2000, fare 1 was sold to U.K.-based, World Travel Holdings plc, which subsequently went public on the London A.I.M.  Exchange in September 2000, realizing a 60,000,000-Pound Sterling (US$100,000,000) market valuation. [1999-2001]

Founded DYNADX Technologies Company, Inc. for the purposes of developing, manufacturing, and marketing a proprietary, rotational poster advertising system, DYN-AD-X.

Programmed to operate independently or in concert with other units, each unit displays one backlit advertisement, and then scroll to the next ad, and so forth.  

With the advent of the DYNADX, the sports advertising paradigm was dramatically changed. For the first time, location became irrelevant within the multitude of disparate advertisers. With DYNADX, each advertiser's name and logo was exclusively and periodically presented around the entire stadium.

The shift from location to time dramatically increased both revenues and advertiser exposure.  Both large and small advertisers can now participate in major events where all advertisers are guaranteed television exposure and the rate card (revenues) are increased substantially.

At the company's inception, the technology was immediately adopted by the NBA's New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, and Utah Jazz.  Today, most NBA teams utilize this technology, as do most Major League Baseball teams, and colleges.  It can also be found in non-sports locations, e.g., at airports and in bus shelters.  [1989-93]

 

McDonald's Corporation

As exclusive marketing consultant to McDonald's System of Europe (the restaurant chain's European operations) created and implemented a 5-year, pan-European marketing plan.  

A key element in the plan was the fulfillment of McDonald's first-ever athlete endorsement program with Jimmy Connors.  Under the banner, Jimmy Connors and McDonald's - Two Great Americans Known Around The World, a turn-key, multi-lingual marketing campaign was executed in all restaurants in eight European nations (Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland).  Each spring and summer, over a three-year period, children 8-14 years old were enrolled at the restaurants and taught the basic elements of the lifetime sport of tennis at local clubs.  In all, over 20,000 children went through the program while significant sales increases were posted at virtually every participating restaurant, across all eight markets. [1985-89]

 

European Broadcasting Union

Authored model used by the European Broadcasting Union* ('EBU') to maximize cost saving from its sports television rights acquisitions.  The unprecedented formula calls for each EBU member to expand the coverage (viewership) to increase the cost/value of the advertising signage around the playing field.  In return, EBU members that broadcast the sports program receive a share in the advertising revenues, which are traditionally owned by third party advertising rights holders.  Under the model, both the EBU members and the advertising rights holders equitably share in the significantly increased advertising income.  This formula was a breakthrough in 1985 and, to its merit, has stood the test of time. [1985]

*The EBU is the central clearinghouse for all of Europe's national broadcasters and is responsible for all pan-European television rights negotiations. 

Foreign Policy Association

Authored white paper on The Internet and Emerging Electronic Media, detailing the origins and impact of the Internet on the non-governmental organization, Foreign Policy Association.  The eight-month study addressed access, content, the key players, the products and services "on the horizon", and the tools made available through this extraordinary technology, The White Paper identified the "one-to-millions" potential of the Net and brought to the light the field of possibilities that this phenomenon would make available for the Association. [1994]