CORRECTING and REPLACING Creative Artists Agency Announces CAA Culinary, Taps Veteran Talent Manager Andrew Chason to Lead the Division

Fifth paragraph, last sentence of release dated May 24, 2016, revised into two sentences.

The corrected release reads:

CREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY ANNOUNCES CAA CULINARY, TAPS VETERAN TALENT MANAGER ANDREW CHASON TO LEAD THE DIVISION

Newly Launched Group Harnesses the Agency’s Resources, Reach, and Relationships to Deliver Comprehensive Suite of Services in the Culinary and Hospitality Business

Leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced today that it has launched CAA Culinary, a full-service culinary marketing and hospitality arm. CAA Culinary will be led by veteran talent manager Andrew Chason, who joins the agency from Vector Eats, a talent management agency he co-founded and that specializes in representing high-profile culinary personalities. The CAA Culinary team will work collaboratively across CAA to create new business opportunities for clients and the agency in such areas as television, marketing, publishing, digital media, corporate consulting and sponsorship, licensing and merchandising, corporate hospitality, and events.

“CAA is the gold standard in entertainment and sports, and I couldn’t be more excited to join the team,” said Chason. “From the surge in popularity of high-profile chefs and food-based television to the explosion of culinary festivals around the world, food culture is as prominent in the zeitgeist as entertainment, fashion, or sports. As food and chefs increasingly become a fundamental part of pop culture and consumers place a higher value on experiences, rather than material goods, we see tremendous growth opportunities in this area of business.”

Within the culinary space, CAA represents many of the world’s most renowned chefs and food personalities, including Gordon Ramsay, Roy Choi, Duff Goldman, Christina Tosi, Tyler Florence, Curtis Stone, Ted Allen, Carla Hall, Richard Blais, Katie Lee, Graham Elliott, Nancy Silverton, Daphne Oz, and Michael Mina, among others, for whom it has orchestrated lucrative brand and business-building opportunities. All of Chason’s high-profile culinary clients will be joining him at CAA, including Aarón Sánchez, John Besh, Amanda Freitag, Andrew Carmellini, Alon Shaya, Alex Thomopoulos, and Jonathan Waxman.

“CAA Culinary marries CAA’s global resources, innovative-thinking, and collaborative approach to provide clients with a single-source entrée into culinary marketing and hospitality,” said Kevin Huvane, Managing Partner, CAA. “Andrew Chason is among the most accomplished executives in food, and we are thrilled to have him guide the efforts of this group and further solidify our position as the leader in the epicurean space.”

CAA has a solid track record of success in building new lines of business on behalf of its culinary clients. The agency has brokered multiple deals for Gordon Ramsay, including a global partnership with Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton to launch Gordon Ramsay by Royal Doulton, a quality home and lifestyle product line available worldwide, and a deal with GLU Mobile, in its first celebrity chef partnership, for Gordon Ramsay DASH, a mobile game that will deliver an innovative experience for Ramsay’s 10.5 million global social followers and foodies worldwide. It has created numerous product lines for Duff Goldman in the food and home categories, including a line of cake mixes and cake decorating tools with Gartner Studios, which is sold at major retailers nationwide and features more than 300 SKUs. Additionally, CAA helped the Ace of Cakes star conceptualize and launch Duff’s Cakemix, a do-it-yourself cake decorating establishment. CAA worked closely with Bethenny Frankel to expand her Skinnygirl brand into multiple new categories. Skinnygirl product categories range from non-alcoholic beverages, water enhancers, sweeteners, chips, pretzels, popcorn, hummus, salsa, salad dressings, coffee, and candy, to appliances, shapewear, and beyond.

The agency’s world-class hospitality, event management, and marketing practice, CAA Premium Experience, combines the creativity, innovation, and state-of-the-art client service of the world’s most accomplished corporate hospitality executives with CAA’s unmatched resources and relationships to deliver world-class VIP experiences for customers globally. Within the past year, the agency has executed more than 200 unique culinary experiences for its customers worldwide, many of which transcend traditional culinary-driven events. These include private catered dinners, meet-and-greets, and cooking demonstrations by some of the world’s best-known chefs, in addition to high-end tailgates and once-in-a-lifetime experiences at major sporting and entertainment events, including the Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Game. Additionally, CAA’s industry-leading Sports Consulting group has developed and executed culinary programs for clients, including Time Warner Cable, JPMorgan Chase, Mondelēz, and others.

Throughout the past decade, CAA Marketing, the entertainment marketing division of CAA, has worked on behalf of many the biggest brands in the food and beverage space, including Chipotle, The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, Moët, AB/InBev, Keurig Green Mountain, and Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches.

CAA Marketing was the driving force behind Chipotle’s Cultivate campaign, one of the most critically acclaimed campaigns of the past four years and winner of four Cannes Grand Prix, the Grand Clio, Webby, Annie, and EFFIE Awards. Inspired by Chipotle’s ongoing mission, Cultivate was originally conceived to initiate conversation about the people and ideas changing food culture. The campaign, which garnered more than one billion earned media impressions, includes the animated short film “Back to the Start” featuring Willie Nelson covering Coldplay (#1 song on the iTunes Country music chart), its follow-up “The Scarecrow” (#1 iPad Adventure Game), and the Cultivate Festival, a free, all-ages food, music and ideas celebration, featuring renowned chefs and sustainable farmers, local artisans, brewers, and bands.

Most recently, CAA Marketing created Diet Coke’s It’s Mine campaign, featuring rising star Andra Day covering Queen’s classic "I Want It All,” garnering nearly 71.5 million impressions and more than five million engagements; and, with CAA clients Jason Blum and AB/InBev, conceived and developed Zona Paranormal, a 30-day immersive live horror experience in the heart of Buenos Aires for leading Argentine beer brand Quilmes, expanding into multiple territories Halloween 2016.

CAA’s industry-leading television division has packaged dozens of scripted and non-scripted food series for broadcast and cable, including Young & Hungry, Hotel Hell, Next Great Restaurant, Ace of Cakes, Food Court Wars, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and Guilty Pleasures. Most recently, the agency brokered a deal with All3Media to launch Studio Ramsay, a fully independent company solely owned by Gordon Ramsay that will produce unscripted and scripted television and develop new talent, and completed a multi-year deal for client Ted Allen to continue as the host of Chopped, the longest running series on the Food Network, and its wildly popular spin-off Chopped Jr.

ABOUT CREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY

Leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) represents many of the most successful and innovative professionals working in film, television, music, video games, theatre, culinary, and digital content, and provides a range of strategic marketing and consulting services to corporate clients. CAA is also a leader in sports, representing more than 1,000 of the world’s top athletes in football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis, and golf, and works in the areas of broadcast rights, corporate marketing initiatives, licensing, hospitality, and sports properties for sales and sponsorship opportunities.

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