Patrick Pharris has been involved in the field of marketing communications for more than 25 years. His experience spans sponsorships and media sales, sponsorship activation and management, public relations, sales promotion, and advertising.

Since 2002 Mr. Pharris has sold sponsorship programs worth more than $100-million. The media relations campaigns he has created and implemented have made more than two billion media impressions for a wide range of clients.

While Mr. Pharris has provided strategic and creative services to more than 500 companies throughout his career, he recognizes ‘first ever’, ‘technology breakthrough’ and ‘world record breaking’ campaigns and projects for General Motors, Monster Energy Drink, Sprint/Nextel, Princess Cruises, Harrah’s Entertainment, Sunrgi Solar Energy, and Linkin Park (the rock band) among the most significant.

In The Beginning

In 1983 Pharris joined the ranks of the advertising industry in the San Francisco office of Foote, Cone & Belding, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. His work on the Levi Strauss & Company, Pacific Bell, Dole Pineapple and Alaska Division of Tourism accounts led him to a position as the Vice Chairman of the San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf Marketing Task Force and general manager of Pier 39’s San Francisco Experience. Three years later Pharris answered a call from the Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau and accepted an offer to become the director of publicity and promotions for the tourism marketing entity.

The Spring Board to National Media Connections

Shortly after Pharris took the job with the convention and visitors bureau he met celebrity mayor Sonny Bono at a social gathering. Taking a liking to Pharris, Mayor Bono offered his celebrity to the desert resorts community and positioned Pharris to be a key player in his destination marketing programs. Through his relationships with Bono and the media Pharris was actively involved in the formation of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Palm Springs Celebrity Road Rally, securing the Miss California Pageant and its broadcast rights for the City of Palm Springs, and for dozens of destination marketing initiatives that led to a rapid rebirth of Palm Springs. It was here that Pharris was tapped to lead protocol for visiting dignitary Gennady Gerasimov, the foreign ministry spokesman of the former Soviet Union, during his “Perestroika” tour to Southern California. Shortly thereafter, Pharris was asked to join legendary Hollywood public relations firm, Mahoney Wasserman, to help lead the growth of the firms’ corporate public relations division. Upon hearing the news of the Mahoney Wasserman recruitment Bono contacted former Sonny and Cher PR man Jim Mahoney and negotiated a bigger salary for Pharris and of course, commission for bringing the Palm Springs public relations account to the agency.

The Entrepreneur

A year after leading several accounts for Mahoney Wasserman, including Hilton Hotels Corporation and the Prime Ticket Television Network, Pharris brought an idea to Mahoney and his long-time friend and client, Barron Hilton; produce newsworthy footage about the opening of the Hotel Conrad Hong Kong (a Hilton property) and distribute that video footage to television stations throughout the United States and around the world thereby promoting the Hilton brand. Pharris’ hook: an on-camera sound bite from Hilton stating “…we want Hilton Hotels to be the conduit to capitalism in the new communist governing of Hong Kong.” The monumental success of this campaign spawned Pharris’ first company, Perri Pharris Productions, which became one of the most successful broadcast public relations agencies in the United States. During the next five years Pharris’ company provided services to hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies. His vision led to an evolution of the company that combined broadcast public relations with web development and Internet PR. The company was renamed Electronic Media Communications and grew exponentially during the following five years. It was here that Pharris and his team created and launched nearly a thousand campaigns for such well know companies as General Motors, Princess Cruises, the Recording Industry Association of America, The Walt Disney Company, Suzuki, MGM Grand, Harrah’s Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, and many others. While the Internet was in its relative infancy, Pharris combined multiple technologies to create Internet Press Kit, a unique application of Internet technologies for the e-mail distribution and user-monitoring of multi-media content to the media and special interest groups, which was instantly provided to the agency’s extensive client base.

Growing Las Vegas

Pharris and his team were recruited to produce dozens of broadcast events for the rapid expansion of Las Vegas in the 1990s, including: the Grand Opening of the MGM Grand; the Grand Opening of the Stratosphere Hotel, Casino and Tower; the Grand Re-Opening of Harrah’s Las Vegas; Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden at The Mirage; the Ground Breaking and Grand Opening of Star Trek The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton; the Grand Opening of The Resort at Summerlin; the Consumer Electronics Show; COMDEX; the SEMA trade show, and countless others.

On the heels of this success Pharris was chosen to co-author an investment grade advertising revenue study for the soon-to-be-built Las Vegas Monorail. Upon completion, Pharris was asked by project leaders to present the revenue plan to bond raters, insurers and buyers and serve as part of the road-show team which ultimately raised $650-million to the develop and operate the monorail. Pharris’ plan was put into action where he led all out-of-home advertising and sponsorship sales for the Las Vegas Monorail Company securing contracts worth more than $70-million from General Motors, Sprint/Nextel, Hansen’s Natural (Monster Energy Drink), Sony, Paramount, Bank of Nevada, and others.

International Businessman, Corporate Spokesman, Published Author

Throughout his career Mr. Pharris has provided strategic and creative publicity and promotions counsel to various business and governmental entities in the former Soviet Union, Romania, the Principality of Monaco, England, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Canada, and throughout the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

Mr. Pharris has served as a media spokesman for Princess Cruises, Las Vegas Monorail Company, Paramount Parks, Novell, the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Joint Powers Authority of the Coachella Valley, the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, Pier 39 in San Francisco and the San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf Association. He has been a public speaker on the topics of public relations and sponsorship development and activation at The Harvard Club in New York, San Francisco State University, California State University Sacramento, California State University Long Beach, SEMA (the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association – Automotive Industry), the Business Marketing Association (Orange County), The Public Relations Society of America (Orange County and Las Vegas), The Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Hotel Sales & Marketing Association of the Coachella Valley, and The San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf Association.

He has been on-camera talent for Group W Westinghouse Television (syndication), KESQ-TV (ABC – Palm Springs, CA), and Dimension Cable (Palm Springs, CA).

Mr. Pharris is a published author with more than 50 newspaper and magazines articles to his acclaim and his work appears in by-lined sections of two text books on public relations. He has also been interviewed by dozens of print, broadcast and Internet news outlets on the topics of marketing, pubic relations, consumer e-commerce and business-to-business marketing communications. Since 1990 more than 200 articles about Patrick Pharris, his companies and the campaigns he has created and executed have been published in newspapers, trade publications and general interest magazines throughout the United States and around the world.

Creation of Pharris Media

In 2007 Mr. Pharris founded Pharris Media to provide turn-key sponsorship services to industry leading blue-chip companies, venues, groups, and individuals. Pharris Media current clients include: Hansen Beverage Company (makers of Monster Energy Drink); Premier Exhibitions, Inc.; Linkin Park (the rock band); Windsor Media’s “Rising” Presented by Steven Spielberg; the Las Vegas Monorail; and, SUNRGI, a solar energy company.

In 2007 Mr. Pharris founded Pharris Media to:

• Represent blue-chip companies in their search for, and activation of sponsorship programs on a local, regional and national level.
• Represent the venues, organizations, teams, and individuals who are looking for sponsors to provide financial and in-kind support of their various endeavors.
• Pair these two entities in meaningful and viable relationships that enable both parties to realize their goals.