Industry Profile: Rick Zeiler

— By Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen

Rick Zeiler, director of marketing and brand development for Sidney Frank Importing of New Rochelle, N.Y., is the brainchild behind the Jagermeister Music Tour, now in its third year.

Rick joined Sidney Frank Importing, Co., the importers of Jagermeister, Grey Goose Vodka, Corazon Tequila and other ultra-premium brands, in 1994. Prior to that, he was a golf pro at Rancho Santa Fe Farms Golf Club.

Starting out as a personal assistant to liquor industry legend and company chairman, Sidney Frank, Rick was given the opportunity to learn the business from the best. He advanced his career over the years from assistant to sales representative to marketing manager to a marketing director position.

A born marketer, Rick collaborates on many of the company's biggest promotions. He is constantly brainstorming new opportunities for the Sidney Frank brands to reach its target consumers. In 1998, he was given the Jagermeister band sponsorship program to build into a more legitimate promotional tool for the company. The program essentially utilizes its relationships with local and national bands to help cross promote their music and the Jagermeister brand.

Within four years, Rick has grown the program from 10 bands to 160 sponsored bands throughout the United States. Taking it to the next level was only logical and in 2002, Zeiler & the Sidney Frank marketing department developed the Jagermeister Music Tour, which, according to Revolver Magazine, is now one of the country's top five heavy metal tours just trailing Ozzfest.

The first Jagermeister Music Tour kicked off in March 2002 featuring Drowning Pool, Coal Chamber, Ill Nino and 40 Below Summer and local Jagermeister sponsored bands. The tour played 37 cities and did 90 percent business. The second tour began in March 2003 featuring (hed) Planet Earth, and Saliva along with Breaking Benjamin, Stereomud and Systematic and local Jagermeister sponsored bands. It played 35 cities and did 86 percent business.

The third tour kicked off in October 2003 and featured Slayer, Hatebreed, Arch Enemy and a local Jagermeister sponsored bands. The tour played 37 dates and did 91percent business. The fourth Jagermeister tour started March 2004 featuring Slipknot, Fear Factory, Chimaira and local Jagermeister sponsored bands. The tour played 32 shows and sold out 30 of 31 of them. The tour did 97 percent business. The fifth Jagermeister tour is set for October 2004 and will feature Slayer once again.

Rick is a Southern California native and avid golfer. He is married and the proud father of a baby daughter and two English bulldogs.

Does Jagermeister do charity golf tournaments within the music industry?
We just started sponsoring the Punk Rock Pro Am here in San Diego. Most of the proceeds go to charity. Each year guys from No Doubt, Lit, Kotton Mouth Kings, The Offspring and many other bands play. Jager had a blast being there this year. We set up a booth, did giveaways to all the artists and ended up winning the tournament!!!!

How does Jagermeister select its bands?
Early on, bands didn't know the program existed so we flew to music conferences around the country scouting out the best bands. We brought on Drowning Pool and a few other solid bands that way. Now, we get over 75 submissions a week. It's tough choosing the best bands so we decided to demand that Jager bands play a minimum of six- to 10 shows a month. This way, our bands are always active. Understand that Jager isn't just looking for great bands, we're looking for great bands that love Jagermeister and don't mind promoting it on stage. We could have Metallica as a Jager band, but if James doesn't drink, Metallica doesn't make sense for us.

Who books and promotes your tours?
Clear Channel handles most of the promoting for the Jagermeister tours. Basically, we choose the best possible headliner for the tour and then work with their booking agent to route and book the tours. It's worked great so far! For us, Clear Channel is the one-stop shop since they own most of the venues and radio stations. Plus, Rich Levy and Jen Knuepple from CCE are both super nice people and really understand our goals. We feel fortunate to have a great team of people working on the Jagermeister tour. Trust me, it's not easy working with our company. CCE does in fact book and promote the tours nationally. Booking agents for the respective bands on the tours then book and route the tour.

We have a specific way we like to conduct business and you're either on the Jager boat or in the water. We also run national print ads in FHM, Blender, Billboard, Revolver and all the guitar magazines. We've been really successful in getting the word out about the tour each year.

Has Jagermeister encountered any problems being a sponsor at a music event where many of the concertgoers are under the legal drinking age?
The concertgoers for the Jagermeister tour are older, so no. We choose bands that appeal to an older audience. Case in point - Slayer is a band that's been around for nearly 20 years and has an older fan base.

Why market just the hard rock/heavy metal audience?
We've really carved a niche in metal and hard rock music. Jager and metal go together like salt and pepper. It's just a natural fit; both are edgy and hard core, not for everyone.

Do you have any marketing dealings with Grey Goose or your other brands?
I was responsible for putting the Grey Goose tours together last year. They featured 8 Ball and MJG, Lil Jon and Eastside Boys, Music Soulchild and many other artists. Lil Jon and I still talk twice a month and share a great friendship. He's a big fan of our brands both Jagermeister and Grey Goose. The tour was called The Grey Goose Music Tour. No other brands were involved or are currently involved in music promotions.

First concert attended
I'd like to say the first concert was Motley Crue, unfortunately I can't. Never did get to see the Crue and ended up going to Midnight Oil back in 1986, at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. All I can remember was how BIG the show was and the number of people there. I never imagined that someday I'd be partly responsible for a show at Universal.

First concert worked
The Jagermeister tour a little over two years ago with Drowning Pool and Coal Chamber headlining. It was an incredible experience for me. I didn't really enjoy being on the road for all that time, but each show was new and exciting. I hadn't really had a chance to visit all of America's cities until that tour, and I'm really glad to have done it.

First industry job
Unlike a lot of your other profilees, the music business fell into my lap. I was a golf pro when the liquor mogul Sidney Frank invited me to be his personal golf pro, which is over 10 years ago. I played golf with Mr. Frank, as he likes to be called, and his clients/business contacts for about four years before a brief sales job, then eventually took over the Jagermeister band sponsorship program in 1998. At the time, Jagermeister sponsored about 28 bands, including The Bloodhound Gang and Lit.

Career highlights
Seeing Jagermeister sell over 1,000,000 cases a year. When I started with Sidney Frank Importing Company, we sold about 300,000 cases. Of course, the success of the Jagermeister tour is my single largest career highlight.

Career disappointment
I really haven't had all that many disappointments. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any. Since starting with Jagermeister, things have gone really well. Year after year they just keep getting better. It sounds a little corny, but I've been blessed!

Greatest challenge
Predicting the hottest bands. Jagermeister has always sponsored a lot of metal and hard-core bands, and one never knows who's going to blow up and who's not. So far, we've had a lot of luck in choosing the right talent for the tours.

Best business decision
The Jagermeister Music tours. Jagermeister receives a lot of publicity and brand awareness. We've been able to do what most other companies dream of and that's to create an event where the brand is every bit as important as the show itself.

Best advice you received
The chairman of our company, Sidney Frank, has been like a father to me over the years and has given me a lot of great advice. He's always told us to "call the president." Basically, if you're not getting the answer you want, keep going to the top until someone sides with you. He also would tell me to always pack a pen and paper in my back pocket and write down absolutely everything. To this day I keep a small pad of paper and pen in my back pocket.

Best advice to offer
To always try and think outside of the box. Companies have 100 people to choose from that can come up with the same boring ideas for marketing and advertising. It's the people who are innovative that really make the difference.

Most memorable industry experience
To see how much the Jagermeister tour has actually grown. I was watching ESPN the other day and saw someone wearing a Jagermeister tour T-shirt. I can't remember what state they were in, but it was nice to see.

What friends would be surprised to learn about you
A lot of people would be surprised that I was a former golf pro turned liquor marketer. What a life changing experience.

Industry pet peeve
Consolidation! Large corporations are buying out too many companies and in doing so, jobs are lost. I hate to see good people lose their jobs.

Office paraphernalia
Hmm, this is a good one. I have a 6'2" Jagermeister surfboard, six guitars (all signed by different artists including Pantera, Slayer, Sliplknot, (hed) pe, Kerry King and Tommy Lee, Bose CD player and two snoring bulldogs!

If I weren't doing this, I would be...
...in some type of other business on my own. Hopefully, I can continue to come up with good ideas and help Jagermeister sell 10 million cases!!!!

Industry mentor
Rich Levy, a VP for Clear Channel, who does an incredible job. Probably the most straight up guy you'll ever meet.

Rick can be reached at: (858) 759-6859; e-mail: rzeiler@sidneyfrankco.com

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