Philly Bread Wins AB&C’s Lightning in a Bottle Competition
Pete Merzbacher and Philly Bread will receive a free year of marketing services from AB&C.
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Philly Bread is the inaugural Philadelphia business winner of the Lightning in a Bottle Competition, which was announced in a live awards ceremony held on Thursday evening at the Quorum at the University City Science Center. The competition for city businesses was the brainchild of Aloysius Butler & Clark, a full-service marketing communications agency.
Philly Bread, located on North 5th Street, is in the initial stages of introducing an improved English muffin, dubbed the ”Philly Muffin.” The company was awarded a year’s worth of free marketing services from AB&C as a result of the competition.
“San Fran has the sourdough loaf, New York has the bagel and Paris has the baguette,” says Pete Merzbacher, founder and owner of Philly Bread. “My intention is to make the Philly Muffin as world famous as our cheesesteaks.”
On Thursday evening, AB&C, which received entries across numerous industries, invited its ten finalists to the ceremony. The finalists, judged by a blue-ribbon panel, were evaluated on the following criteria:
- How will the idea help Philadelphia grow?
- What is the idea’s potential impact?
- Is the idea marketable? Sustainable? Scalable? Realistic?
Scott Bille (right), Interactive Director at AB&C, congratulates Pete Merzbacher.
Showcasing its ideas earlier this month at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Philly Bread left its mark with the panel, which was evident in their commentary.
“[Philly Bread] could have high impact on the local economy, has good growth potential and can be easily leveraged by marketing assistance,” remarked Joel Vardy of Innovation Leadership Forum.
Rip Tilden, faculty at The Wharton School and chair of Senior Executive Group of Philadelphia, added, “Wonderful combination of entrepreneurial zeal and business savvy, solid Philly base and an innovative product for our market.”
“As the Philly Muffin seeks to rise to new heights, the AB&C team will now bake a marketing strategy for Merzbacher and Philly Bread,” said John Hawkins, CEO and President of AB&C.
Aloysius Butler & Clark is a 43-year-old full-service marketing communications agency with offices in Wilmington, Delaware; Philadelphia; and Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Established in business-to-business and consumer marketing, the agency brings creative intelligence to local, regional, national and international accounts in a variety of industries. Ad Week selected the agency as the 2013 “Top Shop” in Delaware.