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THE ULTIMATENETWORKER

Charles Ward has been an entrepreneur in the US luxury marketing andcommunications industry for over three decades

Charles Ward and Dallas Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones, enjoy the champagne divot stomp at SantaBarbara Polo & Racquet Club

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Conner’s 1987 America’s Cup victoriousyacht racing campaign.

Using creative techniques and directmarketing campaigns, Ward’s group raisedover US $16 million in sponsorships anddonations for Stars & Stripes. He also co-ordinated the America’s Cup victory cele-brations, including a reception at theWhite House with President RonaldReagan and a ticker tape parade downFifth Avenue, New York City, sponsoredby Donald Trump.

Charles Ward started his media andbroadcasting career while a journalismstudent at the University of Texas. “I waslucky, in my early twenties, to become apopular TV news anchorman at KTBC inAustin,” he said. “Then, by the time Istarted my marketing company at the ageof twenty-six, I was a minor celebrity inmy town, and business flowed in.”

Ward still has a weekly radio spot,The Lord of Luxury, on the Biz RadioNetwork, Houston and Dallas, featuringinterviews on private business jets, exoticcars, exquisite jewellery, exclusive privateparties and five-star resorts. He is also afrequent guest on XM Satellite Radio.

In the 1970s, Ward founded andbecame the president of Media Commun-ications, an AAAA advertising andmarketing agency whose clients includedreal estate developers, resort properties,financial institutions, legal and medicalassociations, state agencies and hospitalitydevelopers.

The company developed the award-winning Texas traffic safety campaign,Drive Friendly, which involved interna-tional celebrities on public servicebroadcast programmes and highwaysignage throughout the Lone Star state.The agency grew to $20 million in annualbillings, with forty employees in Austinand Houston.

O ne of the greatestcompliments paid toCharles Ward must be

that from Jesse Pruitt, president of LasColinas Polo Club in Dallas, Texas. “Ourclub changed dramatically from the day Imet him,” said Pruitt. “Within a fewmonths of taking on the club, he broughtin sponsor contracts worth hundreds ofthousands of dollars, and made our clubone of the best known in the USA.”

In the past four years, Ward’s Texas-based company, Idea Works Inc, hascontracted to represent the ten leadingpolo clubs in the US and Mexico indesigning and obtaining sponsorshipprogrammes.

The company, established a quarterof a century ago, consults on marketingcommunications, sports sponsorship andstrategic alliances, specializing in wealthmarketing. Ward and his team havedesigned programmes and partnerships forBombardier Business Aircraft, Tiffany &Co, Lamborghini, Marsh, KPMG,Nabisco, Ford, Motorola, AmericanExpress, the States of Hawaii and Texas,Hibernia Bank, Mellon Bank and manyothers.

Polo is not the only sport to havebenefited from Ward’s expertise. In 1984,opening a branch office in La Jolla,California, he assembled the sponsorshipmarketing team for Stars & Stripes, Dennis

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Ideas Works created the annual Lamborghini Polo Cup at Las Colinas Polo Club in Dallasand has brought the Lamborghini Polo Cup to Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, too.Team Lamborghini at Las Colinas Polo Club: Jesse Pruitt, Brent Mirikitani, Gary Seale fromLamborghini Dallas, Billy Mudra and Sain Joseph

Marketing meeting in the sky! Charles Ward (right centre) conducts a polo planning sessionon board a Bombardier Global Express with Brant Dahlfors, Santa Barbara Polo & RacquetClub president Chuck Lande and Ambassador Glen Holden

He has also served as a co-founding director of Capitol CitySavings, a regional financialinstitution, and on the board ofdirectors of the Insurance Corporationof America, a national medical liabilitybody. He is also vice-chairman, Luxury

Marketing Council, with officesaround the world.

Tourism has also been a string toCharles Ward’s bow. His Honoluluoffice completed a four-year marketingassignment of economic and tourismdevelopment in the USA and Asia for

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the State of Hawaii. The programme was developed aroundthe theme, Hawaii – The Pacific Link, and was broadcast inEnglish, Japanese and Chinese.

Polo, yacht racing, motor sports – all are grist toCharles Ward’s enthusiastic mill; and he is aware that, if hestays in the wealth market, there will always be plenty ofclients.

“Today, the wealth market is exploding,” he said. “OurLamborghini client in Dallas sold so many new Lambos thatthe dealership became the number one in North Americain the first fifteen months of operation – and was awarded asecond dealership in Houston.”

Ward says that his job provides him with an adventurelifestyle. “It’s not like work to organize polo events for theblue ribbon clients we work with. We get great satisfactionfrom seeing our clients get a return on investments from ourefforts.”

There is no doubt that Ward is held in high esteem.Dorothy Mason, Texas director of Tiffany & Co, said:“Charles is the ultimate networker. He has a keen sense ofhow companies and individuals can benefit by workingtogether, and he makes it happen. I enjoy watching himwork.”

Gary Soloff, of Bombardier, said: “Charles presented uswith new opportunities in the sport of polo, and forged theway for Bombardier to become one of the dominantsponsors in US polo in a short period of time.”

Publisher Lance Avery Morgan has no doubt thatCharles Ward gets results. “His strong connections with theluxury market extend across the US and also international-ly. He is the first one we call when we want to do somethingthat will be awesome and brilliant.”

Ward with Dorothy Mason, vice-president Texas market for Tiffany & Co, and manager of regional marketing for Bombardier, Gary Soloff

Ward with the America's Cup in 1987