Prizelogic to set up shop in Southfield, hire 110

In today's moribund economy, you might wonder where the action is. Surely, you're probably thinking, the action's somewhere. Some industry must be growing, you think to yourself, I probably just don't know what it is. Well, fret no more, we've got the answer - apparently, it's online promotions.

Prizelogic, an online promotions company currently headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., announced plans this week to move to Southfield, into an 8,000-square foot facility at Telegraph and 10 Mile roads. Prizelogic will hire about 110 employees over the next 10 years - about 25 employees in the next year, adding 10 to 15 each year.

The online promotions industry is growing - online advertising represents roughly five percent of all marketing dollars, according to a Prizelogic press release, but that number is expected to grow to 15-20 percent over the next five years, and 89 percent of all marketers are moving some form of their promotional marketing funds to the Web.

"Personally I think it's a great business economy," says 22-year Michigan resident Keith Simmons, president and managing partner of Prizelogic. "In the marketing field Detroit has historically been number three or four in terms of national perspective, driven by the automotive industry... it's a great marketing community with a lot of talent - a lot of talent that's up in the air right now."

The metro area is already home to ePrize, a company Simmons says has the largest chunk of the online promotions market share. Simmons was one of the founding principals of ePrize.

That company's closest competitors, he says, are doing a fraction of the ePrize business. Simmons hopes it's a niche Prizelogic can fill.

He's also looking at the big picture - Michigan, he thinks, can be an online marketing hub.

"In the offline promotional world, the traditional promotions - Connecticut is the Detroit of that space," he says. "Most of those companies were actually a spin off of one company. I think Detroit has that capability."

The Southfield office, Simmons says, should be up and running by Feb. 1.

Source: Keith Simmons, Prizelogic
Writer: Nancy Kaffer