Caution: Dangerous curves ahead.
Beware: Falling rock zone.
Next rest stop: 100 miles.

At Route 66, the marketing firm of choice for premium brands in the entertainment and automotive industries, production challenges are not roadblocks to be avoided but rather, adventures to be met head on. Need a marketing campaign generated about a movie yet to be scripted? Need a live event in a month that looks like its been in production for a year? Then Route 66 is the place to start your journey, according to Alejo Mo-Sun, the company’s senior vice president of business development.

“One thing that’s unique about what we do is that a lot of times studios come to us with just a kernel of an idea - no script, no cast, just a brand name, and we have the strategic teams that can create a buzz throughout the industry,” he said.

A dozen years of dedicated service to clients in the entertainment and automotive industries has also created a buzz about the quality of work produced by Route 66. From helping Harry Potter find his wings to introducing soul into the MINI Cooper and intricate style into Spider-man’s web, Route 66 has gained a reputation as the strategic marketing firm for message-driven live events and media.

“We thought we were a small company, but we’re quickly discovering we’re a formidable company. The face of Route 66 is starting to become synonymous with extraordinary live motion picture and automotive events,” Alejo said. “We’re blossoming and now we can be light and nimble yet still have a reputation of launching the world’s most prolific entertainment & corporate brands.”

Alejo attributes the company’s success to president and co-founder Deena Suffin and chief technology officer and co-founder Jane E. Shore, two women who 12 years ago decided to take on the entertainment industry.

“We are a 100-percent woman-owned business,” he said. “When you have women at the helm of any company there is a spirit of consultation and cooperation from the top down that invariably translates to the client.”

Calling them the “two most integrity-driven persons I’ve ever worked for,” Alejo said that the blending of Deena’s background in theater arts and Jane’s expansive knowledge of technology helps the company produce live events and marketing campaigns that have an extraordinary balance of artistry and technology.

“Anything our clients or we can dream up ... we produce,” he said. “That’s the advantage of having a theatrical background mixed with a technology company. We can actually make our clients dreams come true.”

Route 66 executives know that one of the ways to do that is by developing launch events and campaigns that help targeted audiences understand how a product connects to their world.

"When we launch a product, whether it be a car or a movie, the general experience is an emotional connection to the product," Alejo said. "Not only do we show you the value of a movie and show you its machinery but we help you connect to its heart and help you find yourself in the product. We realize when there's a personal connection to the product it will perform better in the marketplace."

Personal connections are important to Route 66 executives, who define success not by a dollar figure but by their ability to retain some of the industry’s most prestigious clientele for more than a decade.

“We tend to look at this as a longevity game, making sure that a client succeeds over a 10-or-20-year span. We’ve been able to create this real sense of loyalty by putting the needs and wants of our clients above ourselves. The mission of Route 66 is as each client succeeds, we succeed.”

While the firm has received numerous industry awards, including 20 Tellys and seven Auroras, Alejo said the company’s real reward is the continued patronage and repeat business of its clients.

One of the reasons Route 66 is so successful is its ability to expand and contract the size of its staff based on the needs of the client. Therefore, no one client is ever supporting a massive overhead, Alejo said.

Just as the best of the best are looking to Route 66 to produce and deliver message-driven live events and media, so too is Route 66 looking to the best of the best for employment within the company. Executives are finding that because the firm has a reputation of working with “every studio in every medium” they are attracting highly-skilled candidates who want to participate in every facet of the industry.

“We attract the best and the brightest employees simply because everyone wants to have fun and work everywhere,” Alejo said. “We’ve fostered an open, family atmosphere. If an employee has a brilliant idea or artistic thought they’re always encouraged to bring it to the table and those ideas will be welcomed and well received.”

As Route 66 has grown, one of the unique goals that’s been established is a “zero-defect policy,” Alejo said.

“It means we don’t need to make mistakes,” he explained. “When a company approaches the smallest and biggest task with that frame of mind we can only have huge results.”

The next logical step in Route 66’s progression is to transfer the integrity, quality and commitment the firm has to motion picture and automotive brands to television and the digital entertainment industry as those markets become more dominant in their need to compete at launch events.

“We will put together systems and infrastructure that will help transfer all the skills, savings and attention to detail to the television studios and digital entertainment marketers in their efforts to buy and sell media,” Alejo said.

Much like its namesake, Route 66 is an avenue used to connect ideas, messages, and most importantly, people. Route 66 is a company that has the tenure, skills, compassion and integrity to launch premium brands, but company executives realize also that in the end, the events that move audience members to action are the events that move them first as human beings. A Route 66 launch is as much about invoking emotion as it is about reinforcing, reinventing and reinvigorating a brand.

“The company has really opened the door and has taken on some very, very big work and is excited and eager to take on even bigger,” Alejo said. “This is a company that is not sitting back and enjoying the fruits and laurels of its path. Instead, this is a company that from the top down has decided to take on an even bigger share of the marketplace.” •