Mercury Communications Group is a Sports Marketing company that focusing on brand management of athletes and entertainers. Five of the six team members are T-Birds.


Mercury Communications

January 19, 2006

Mercury Communications Group (MCG) was spawned at Rugby Alumni Weekend, March 2004 when Mike Rubel '01 approached Ryan Timms '02 and Jason O'Brien, (faculty member at the time) about a sports marketing opportunity that he had been pondering.

Before entering Thunderbird, Rubel had been fulfilling fan mail for Mike Alstadt, an all-pro lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His job was to manually respond to all fan mail the old fashioned way while entering data into a rudimentary excel program. Mike knew there was a more efficient way to do this process and realized the market potential. Ryan and Jason left their jobs and the partners began doing the research and due diligence to write the business plan. The team pitched to private company in January of 2005 and received its funding in April of 2005.

The patented technology scans all postal and electronic mail from fans. All incoming correspondence is scanned, catalogued electronically, and a personalized and customized response letter is generated.

MCG offers four main channels of direct marketing information services, including direct mail, e-mail, customer relationship management and data management. These channels provide clients with a fully integrated information management platform that allows MCG clients to transform data into business intelligence resulting in effective marketing decisions and campaign strategies.

MCG launched its product in December 2005. Less than one month after a quiet launch, we have clients from the sports and entertainment segment. We are in discussions with the Canadian Olympic Committee, NHL, MLB and NBA teams as well as some major sports and talent agencies.

MCG's Team Members

Ryan Timms '02 – Co Founder, Executive V.P. Operations
Jason O'Brien, faculty 1999-2004 – Co Founder, Executive V.P. Sales and Marketing
Lia Colabello '02 – Marketing Director
Danny Hughes '05 – Marketing Director
Mike Rubel '01 – Michelin N.A. Manager Emerging Business Ventures, MCG Co Founder, Board Member
Lloyd Eisler – President (2 time Olympic medalist and World Champion)