Patrick Pharris

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 (Hansen Natural Corporation), Sprint/Nextel, Princess Cruises, Harrah’s Entertainment, and Sunrgi Solar Energy, 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, at the time 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 ENTREPRENEUR A year after leading several accounts for Mahoney Wasserman, including Hilton Hotels Corporation, 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.

PHARRIS MEDIA In 2007 Mr. Pharris founded Pharris Media to provide public relations, marketing communications, and media sales services to a select list of clients. Current clients include SUNRGI (a solar energy company), Hansen’s Beverage Company (makers of Monster Energy Drink), Linkin Park (the rock band), Monster Media (a well-known out-of-home media company), an agency that specializes in media relations, and a venture capital firm that specializes in the development of Internet social networks.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSMAN, CORPORATE SPOKESPERSON, 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.