Official BLOG of CelebriDucks

JDS: What was your life like when you were young? Were your parent’s business owners, or show other entrepreneurial traits?

CW: Actually, there was really little business success in my family. I just assumed I would go to college and become some kind of professional and for a while it seemed like becoming a lawyer might be a possibility. But once I got to college, I quickly discovered I had no interest in pretty much any professional career. And bottom line, if I wasn’t moved to something emotionally, I just couldn’t motivate myself to choose it as a career choice.

JDS: Were there any business people you looked up to, or wanted to be like?

CW: Oh most definitely….Milton Hershey’s story was always very inspiring to me. And Walt Disney. And interestingly enough, over the years, I have collected almost every book I could find about the work and life of both these people.

JDS: What was your first work experience:

CW: I was a waiter at a summer camp. Shortly after I became a water ski instructor.

JDS: Why did you want to start your own business?

CW: After college, having no interest in anything, while in a store one day, I saw a picture of an original Mickey Mouse animation drawing. These are the drawings they actually used to create the animation color cels used in the final Disney cartoon that you would watch. I was blown away and fell in love with the raw passion in the artwork itself! Something about that drawing got all my creative juices going. I sourced out the best places to buy all the vintage original hand done animation Disney animation drawings from the 1920s and 1930’s and a business was born. I began to buy and sell these drawings and started the company, Name That Toon, Inc.

JDS: Were you entrepreneurial at an early age? For instance, did you sell lemonade on the corner, shovel sidewalks or deliver newspapers? And if so, did your parents push you that way, or was it more part of your DNA?

CW: I really only had one little business venture. A friend and I invested in a snow plow and in the winter would clear people’s sidewalks and driveways. It actually did pretty well. But business was the last thing my parents thought of as a career. It really never entered my mind either.

If yes: What happened with it?

CW: Well, the Name That Toon, Inc. was my first business. As it kept growing, I realized that there was the possibility to open galleries in Europe to market animation art since it really had not been done. So I moved overseas and did open galleries in England, Germany, and Holland. Then I got the rights to market the California Raisin artwork from Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon who created the Raisin characters. So I moved back to Portland and opened up this really far out museum/gallery with all these displays from computer animation and clay animation studios.

So one day, I put in a bid to market the Simpsons artwork, but didn’t get the contract. I was a bit disappointed, but then had a revelation. I was walking by a window display of vintage Coca-Cola machines. It was like an epiphany: why was not market the brilliant artwork from television commercials! The Coca-Cola Polar Bears were just hitting the airwaves….so I contacted Coke to try and describe what I was thinking. They had never marketed their artwork from their commercials before. Plus there was the added issue that the artwork was done on computer and how do you get it onto to acetate like a Disney animation cel. To make a long story short, we eventually worked out a deal and within two years we became the largest publisher of advertising/animation art in the world creating the first ever animation art lines for Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Bush, M&M/Mars, Pillsbury, Kelloggs, Hershey, etc. , etc. We even did it for Nike. We had quite a run there.

JDS: Did you ever have a business idea you didn’t act on? Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “Why didn’t I do that?” or was it more, “Thank God I didn’t do that.”

CW: Actually, no. When I finally figured out what moved me emotionally, I went right for it. It just took me a while to figure out what I was truly passionate about.

JDS: How did you get into the “business you’re in now”? How did the “Big Idea” come to you?

CW: Well this is interesting. So I have this animation business and it’s doing pretty well, but I get the feeling that I’m always working with other people’s creations. I mean I didn’t create the Bud Frogs, or the Coca-Cola Polar Bears. A friend one day, a little bit inebriated I do believe, had this idea of creating rubber ducks that looked like people. Seemed like kind of a crazy idea, but I had the extra time and money and thought…hey, maybe this can actually work.

JDS: Did you layout a detailed business plan for it, or was it more a napkin-sized outline?

CW: It wasn’t even a napkin sized outline….I didn’t have any idea if it would work, but in my head, it just seemed very cool.

JDS: How did you finance your start up? i.e. Savings, Family, Mortgage, Loan, Angel, Private Investors?

CW: The success of Name That Toon gave me all the money I needed to make a prototype overseas.

JDS: Depending on your financing, how did you share equity or ownership? Was it split the way you would have liked?

CW: You know for me, just the way I’m wired, I wasn’t into partnerships. So I retained complete control and still own the company 100% today. That being said, down the road, I can envision better people coming in and bringing the capital and manpower to grown it much quicker. But the way I do it is to grow it organically and always remain debt free and in the black…..and so far so good.

JDS: What are your thoughts about having and/or dealing with business partners? Some businesses partnerships seem to thrive, while it destroys others. If you had partners, how did you decide on an exit strategy?

CW: Right, in the past, there were a few little businesses I did with friends…but you know as the business grew, the friendship was strained over money, direction of the business, etc. So I knew that wasn’t the route for me. I learned a lesson early on…get your business agreements on paper and make it legal. I was young, we were friends, I was naïve…so I just kind of lost the business…it’s ok, live and learn..better things were ahead.

JDS: Did you have a detailed spending plan in place for the money you started with? If so, in ballpark percentage terms, how was the money spent; (product/inventory, marketing, employees, tools/equipment, location of operation.) Or was it more, I have this much money to start and I’m going to wing it the best I can?

CW: I have never had a formula for how to break down what I’ll spend in percentages. I have to admit I do everything from a gut level feeling. I don’t necessarily say it will work for everyone. It’s just the way I am. I don’t even have to look at the checkbook, but can pretty much know how much is in there at all times…just a feeling.

JDS: As your business progressed, was your growth self-financed through its own success? Or, did you need to raise outside money to grow? If you needed outside capital, how did you get it?

CW: Actually, the business financed everything…never had to look for outside funding.

JDS: What worked the best for you when you start promoting your company?

CW: Oh without a doubt, PR…we always really really pushed the PR side of the business…getting other people talking about us. And it really worked. I mean just look at our press kit letter which I’ll paste here. We use all our PR as a means to gather even more PR:

PRESS KIT LETTER:

CelebriDucks is the original creator of the first ever celebrity rubber ducks of the greatest icons of film, music, athletics, and history. They have produced CelebriDucks for the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, NASCAR, NCAA collegiate mascots and also famous people such as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, James Dean, KISS, Barack Obama, James Brown, The Blues Brothers, Mr. T, Shakespeare, etc.. To date they have created over 200 different CelebriDucks and have pioneered a whole new collectible.

The company has received a tremendous amount of publicity having been on NBC, Fox, CBS Evening Magazine (three times), CNN, ABC, Showtime, ESPN, VH1, TNT, A&E, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tony Danza Show, The Jimmy Kimmel Live show, and most other television networks, plus written up in Sports Illustrated, U.S. News and World Report, ESPN The Magazine, Maxim, The N.Y. Times, USA Today, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Sun, Playboy, The Chicago Sun Times, Fortune Small Business, etc.. CelebriDucks have been on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show twice and were featured in the Entertainment Weekly Holiday Gift Guide of the top 100 Gifts of 2001. The press only continues to build with more and more stories coming out about the company both nationally and internationally.

The company created a Tropical Parrot, complete with Hawaiian shirt and shades, for The Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville Cafés, and successfully sell their Blues Brother’s ducks at all House of Blues venues nationwide. They also recently broke new ground by creating the world’s first ever floating Pink Flamingo which debuted at The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.

ESPN ran a poll on their website for the fan’s favorite stadium give-a-way and CelebriDucks beat out Beanie Babies, Bobbleheads, Pez Dispensers, Lunch Boxes, and Match Box cars. Their ducks have been used by numerous teams in the NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball such as The Yankees, The Philadelphia 76ers, The Houston Rockets, The Chicago Cubs, and many many others which can be seen in the custom duck section on their website. Their promotional sporting events have been sponsored by companies such as Reebok, Dr. Pepper, Gatorade, AOL/TimeWarner, Southwest Airlines, Arby’s, Adidas, Mountain Dew, Chevrolet, Sprite, Dodge, Clarinex, Suburu, Pepsi, Office Depot, Sierra Mist, and many others.

Proctor & Gamble, the largest packaged good manufacturer in the world had CelebriDucks create 200,000 Will Ferrell wash poufs for an Old Spice promotion to tie in with Will Ferrell’s new movie, Semi-Pro.

Gorton Seafood, one of the largest frozen fish companies in the US did a four month national promotion which was tremendously successful with the creation of a CelebriDuck of the Gorton Fisherman. Not only did it sell out, but it was the most successful promotion in their history. This was followed up with another promotion with our duck on over one million packages

JDS: What DID NOT work for you?

CW: We have not always found good reps in the beginning which is a common experience of many companies. You really want a good fit there. But also some of my biggest mistakes were not creating the right characters. Hey, you might love laurel and hardy and I do, too, but they just don’t have a big market. So I had to constantly tinker to find the right characters for the line. It’s been a real learning experience.

JDS: Was there any big break that really got you off the ground?

CW: Definitely. One day the vice-president of the Philadelphia 76ers read about us in a small paper in Atlantic City. He got in touch and had us create an Allen Iverson Duck complete with corn rows, earring, tattoos, etc. When we finished that duck I swear it looked more like Iverson than he did. I mean we matched his tattoos on those little duck arms exact! The promotion was a huge hit and got lots of media attention….and then we did them for so many major sports franchises and corporations. The PR was fantastic. Suddenly I had a whole new company on my hands. I decided I couldn’t really run them both so sold off the animation part…and thus we became all ducks!

JDS: What is the smartest thing you’ve done while running your company?

CW: Don’t over expand! And try to keep your overhead as low as possible. That’s what kills you. You could be making a ton of money, but in the end be loosing money if your overhead and expenses are too high. Did you know that I outsource virtually everything. It’s a very quirky business model, but accounting, art department, warehouse, sales, manufacturing, everything is spread out over the country…over the world. That’s why in any economy, we’ll still be here.

JDS: What was the toughest time or “unexpected challenge” you experienced when you started your business, and how did you get through it?

CW: At one point, I had an arrangement with a manufacturer that the made the ducks and I just took a percentage. It limited my financial exposure. But in the end, I didn’t make enough and didn’t have the control I needed. Key for me was I had to control every aspect of the business and not let someone else decide if and when we could manufacture something. So I had to buy back all the inventory and took back total control and financial responsibility. Best thing I ever did. I found even better factories, lower pricing, better artists, etc., etc..

JDS: What do you think was/is the key factor that made YOU successful, when so many others have failed in starting and building a business?

CW: I love what I do. If you’re following your passion, you make a little, you make a lot, it’s still fun. Also, again, I didn’t get ahead of myself. I spend a lot of money, but I only spend money I feel I can afford to be without if things get tough. And finally, I don’t take any of it that seriously. Sure, I want to survive and make money, but I am keenly aware that life is very very short and no monetary situation is worth loosing your happiness over.

JDS: When you’re making business decisions, are you more likely to go with your head or your gut?

CW: GUT!!…do you know that to this day, I don’t even look at profit and loss statements…I mean never…they show them to me and I put them in a drawer…means absolutely nothing to me. I know that sounds completely crazy…but don’t get me wrong…I always have a 6th sense of where the business is at, but for me it’s not on a piece of paper.

JDS: When do you do your best thinking?

CW: When kicking around ideas with my friends and artists..

JDS: What would you HAVE to do differently today because of technological, industry, or buying behavior changes compared to when you started?

CW: Actually, it’s only become easier with all the technology…I always say that I could literally run this business with a cel phone and a lap top on a beach in Waikiki…but that’s because I have very good people, people much more talented than me doing their jobs and doing them well…

JDS: How have things changed in marketing since you started, and how has it stayed the same? What do you think the future holds for marketing your company?

CW: You know to me the basic principle of business haven’t changed. But I have to say that the internet and social network marketing in particular is a big part of the future and you really have to get on board with all that.

JDS: Do you have any worries about the future that may affect your company? And if so, what are you doing now to be prepared?

CW: I am paring down the line to more key SKU’s and letting slower models fade away. I am also creating more and more products for very specific niches. I’m a HUGE believer in niche marketing.

JDS: How educated do you think you have to be to start and build a business? Do you think you need a college education to be successful? Or do you think any average person can start and build a business in today’s world, if they work hard and are persistent?

CW: You do NOT need a college education. The best course I ever took in all my years of schooling including college: typing! I became a very good typist. Also, life experience can be just as much an education as college. That being said, for people who do make good use of college and the right business courses, it can be tremendously useful…I just don’t tend to relate to classroom learning as well….that’s me. But the expository English courses I took in college were very very useful!

JDS: Which is more important, talent or experience?

CW: Talent without a doubt. You can have all the life experiences in the world, but if you don’t know how to make use of it, you will never run a successful business. If you have both…it’s gold.

JDS: What is better, Money or Ideas?

CW: Oh ideas. A good idea attracts money. Just having money is no guarantee you won’t loose it. You need the ideas of how to use, keep, and grow money. Many people with a lot of money have lost a lot of money! Again, having both is ideal, but no always possible especially in the beginning.

JDS: What’s the best advice you’ve received?

CW: So goes your mind goes the world around you….in other words, it’s a psycho-physical world…your mind, attitude, disposition, greatly affects the way things tend to unfold around you and your business.

JDS: What most impresses you about a person?

CW: This is easy…their heart…how much wisdom and compassion they manifest….I couldn’t care if they were Donald trump…means nothing to me. The way a person relates to another person in human terms is the essence of all good business relationships in my book.

JDS: If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently?

CW: Not take things so seriously, trust my gut instincts more about doing business with someone, and giving more thought to the kind of brand I want to build right from the start….

JDS: What’s one thing they should have told you, about being a business leader?

CW: The best thing you can do is surround yourself with people smarter than you! And…if it doesn’t feel right in the gut….don’t do it!

JDS: In your experience and opinion, is there any industry/business you would advise people to stay away from today. If so, why?

CW: hedge funds!.. ok, seriously, I think apart from the restaurant business, the retail gift industry is a tough one. If you want to get into it, you better figure out what makes you unique and different because in a tight economy people really need a reason to buy things that aren’t of necessity. Retail is not easy. That overhead can be brutal.

JDS: Are there any areas you see right now that you think offer great opportunity to get into today?

CW: Definitely… I think teachers and nurses will do well…the whole industry in helping to serve older folks is an important industry that will grow…. I think affordable luxuries will always do well…people will still rent DVDs so if you can’t own Netflix, you might want to invest in them. Same with industries that offer value like a Costco or a Trader Joes. Also, key is to offer something unique. Like for us, no-one does what we do, so we pretty much own our niche. Also, it’s important to expand what you do. We started with ducks, but now we are a full service design company creating all kinds of products for all kinds of people.

JDS: Who inspires you now?

CW: I love the whole Ben and Jerry’s story (back when they owned the company) I love the story of the Disney empire as told by his brother Roy. The Scharffenberger chocolate company story is very inspiring. I love stories about people who followed their passion like Mondovi with Wine. I like it when it was all innocent before it became so corporate and lost its heart…. The Starbuck’s story as told by Schultz is fascinating….today, Ben and Jerry’s, M&M/Mars, Hershey, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Disney, etc. are very different companies from the innocent vision and heart when the founders began to develop their passion and their brand. Oh sure they had their issues and were far from perfect…but in the beginning, it is fascinating how it all developed from one seed of inspiration….. so I love reading about the conception of all these great brands….today, it’s not the same with the corporate structure becoming so dominant…but the kernel of what created it all is still very fascinating and inspiring!

JDS: What’s the most overrated secret to success?

CW: the MBA for one, second, that you need a lot of money to start a business…what you really need is a good idea and a good business model!

JDS: What’s the most overlooked secret to success?

CW: niche marketing – owning your category – being unique

JDS: Do you have any pointers or words of wisdom to give Entrepreneurs and small businesses that want to follow in your footsteps?

CW: Yes, do what moves you passionately, what inspires you….you may not always make huge sums of money to start and there will be ups and downs, but you will love what you do each day and that is soooo important! Also, don’t try and be all things to all people. Be the best and most unique with your brand.

JDS: Do you have any words to live by?

CW: Never take anything too seriously…no matter what…so goes your mind goes the world around you….nothing is forever so enjoy what you do…..take risks…but take calculated risks…get as much input as possible from as many people as possible for what you do.

When Bobbleheads go, CelebriDucks are ready to step up.

When demand for the Beanie Baby died down, the bobblehead was right there. Although bobbleheads will be given away by almost every Major League Baseball team this season, they already have a replacement Celebriducks.

The rubber duck, with an athlete’s face, is the next bit thing in the sprots promtoion world writes EsPN.com’s Darren Rovell

Promotional trend is simply ducky
by Darren Rovell

Rubber Ducky, you’re the one… you make ballgames lots of fun. sure, it might be one of the craziest ideas you’ve ever head of, as Craig Wolfe will tell you that’s why you’ve absolutely gotta have one!

CelebriDucks, rubber ducks that feature faces of celebrities or athletes, are emerging as the successor to the bobblehead doll, which replaced the Beanie Baby as the sports promotion of choice 2 1/2 years go.

Five years ago, Wolfe’s company was the largest seller of commercial animation artwork, And although there was enough M&M’s, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Budweiser Frogs and Coca-Cola polar bear commercials to make a good living, Wolfe decided to listen to a friend’s seemingly idiotic suggestion of making rubber ducks with familiar faces of celebrities.

Betty Boop was the first.

‘If you saw the original drawings you would have said, ‘Now this is an idea that should have never been born,” said Wolfe, a 49-year-old entrepreneur and founder of CelebriDucks.

CelebriDucks make their professional sports debut at a Philadelphia 76ers game on Jan. 11 when 5,500 Allen Iverson ducks were given away, after being escorted by four police cars to the First Union Arena. Since then, Wolfe said he has been getting calls at his California office from teams wanting to turn their star into a floatable, nontoxic vinyl duck that comes complete with a beak and a squeak.

“Bobbleheads are funny; CelebriDucks are hysterical, said John McDonough, the Chicago Cubs’ vice president of marketing, who is credited with first bringing Beanie Babies to ballparks. Not so coincidentally, the Cubs will be the first baseball team to offer a rubber duck.

The first 10,000 fans at Wrigley Field for the Cubs’ June 20 game against the Texas Ranger will get a Moises Alou duck, and those who show up early to the Aug. 1 game against the San Diego Padres can get their hands on the Sammy Sosa model. The New York Yankees will have two CelebriDuck giveaways of Yankees greats of the past and future: Babe Ruth and Jason Giambi.

In all, 42 bobbleheads are slated to be given away at 29 major-league ballparks this season. The CelebriDucks hype has been gaining momentum ever since Entertainment Weekly listed it among the top 100 gifts of 2001 in December. Wolfe said his company will manufactures 300,000 CelebriDucks this year and revenues are expected to reach $3million.

Sales haven’t always been so brisk, Wolfe acknowledges that the demand for the original CelebriDucks was “horrendous” but as the fad has begun to catch on, he since has been able to buy a nice house where he tests countless CelebriDucks in his hot tub. Today, Wolfe has 22 CelebriDucks in the company’s collection, including ducks with the faces of Goucho, Shakespeare and James Brown (who insisted his duck appear in a green suit). A Mr. T duck, complete with chest chains, is coming to a store near you in the spring.

And it doesn’t stop there. His company is the official rubber ducky of the NBA and will produce a line of 11 MBA stars suck as Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Latrell Sprewell, Tracy McGrady, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Iverson, Darius Miles and Gary Payton. they’ll hit stores in August with a retail of about $12 each.

And Wolfe isn’t ruling out morphing other creatures with the heads of celebrities. The Memphis Grizzlies, in the heart of barbeque country, are interested in commissioning a Celebripig featuring one of their players. And the Detroit Red Wings, whose fans are known for throwing an octopus onto the ice during playoff games, are talking about a Celebripus. Apparently there is no rest for a vivid imagination.

Wolfe even is making ducks for arena Football and minor-league baseball teams. The Portland Beavers, a Class AAA team in the Pacific Coast League, commissioned a CelebriDuck of its mascot, Boomer the Beaver as a duck before, Wolfe Says.

But while it must look like a rubber duck and squeak like a rubber duck, getting a CelebriDuck to float like a rubber duck took two years.

CelebriDucks have larger heads than your average rubber duck, so it kind of throws all the weighting off, Wolfe said. If I knew how difficult that was going to be, in a million years I wouldn’t gave gone as far as I have now. Apparently, no one who we spoke to in the entire country of China knew how to make a CelebriDuck float.”

Wolfe eventually found Assurance Industries, specialists in rubber duck engineering and manufacturing, that figured out how to keep the duck upright.

So far, no athlete has objected to becoming a novelty rubber ducky, Wolfe said and Aou, the Cubs outfielder, requested to become a duck and the initial guinea pig, Iverson, didn’t nix either since he has seen his likeness on a bobblehead doll and an “Alien” Iverson doll.

“Allen thought we were nuts anyway by then, but when I showed him a prototype of the duck, he smirked and said, “It’s Crazy, : but he approved it, Said 76ers executive vice president Dave Coskey who noticed the wacky idea in a local paper and called Wolfe. “I had a gut feeling that this was going to be huge, “Coskey said.

CelebriDucks are an ideal novelty for a spots promotion, Coskey says. He believes the rubber duck is something an adult can relate to, but a kid also can enjoy. That includes metal lunch boxes, Pez dispenser, Match Box cars, snow globes, View masters and bobbleheads.

As Wolfe points out, “Everyone had a rubber ducky as a child, Rubber ducks are an American icon that’s bout to get a whole lot bigger.”

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com