Meet Joe Pizzimenti of Bigfish Creative Group and AZ5C in Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Pizzimenti.

Joe, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in a blue-collar family with five older brothers and a younger sister in Detroit, where the family business was in auto supplies.

For the rest of my family, it was a no-brainer to work for the family after high school, but I just knew it wasn’t my path, so I moved to Arizona sight unseen in the 1980s to attend ASU.

During this time, Arizona lived up to its famous 5Cs: cotton, cattle, citrus, copper, and climate.

Of course, there was also the climate.

I lived for the heat of the summers – and all that time in the pool. And I woke up every winter morning thanking my lucky stars that there was no snow to shovel.

When I graduated, however, the family still expected me to come back to Detroit. Somehow, at just 22, I gathered the courage to tell my massive family no, and set out to make my own way in New York City. I would work in radio there and then in Michigan before deciding Arizona was my true home. I came back in 1992, where I continued to work in radio before starting a few of my own businesses with partners, which focused on the digital space.

I formed my first stand-alone, on-my-own firm, Bigfish Creative, in 2006. My mission: to be a big fish in what Arizona was starting to become, a much bigger pond. He also wanted to start thinking outside the pond… err, box… when it came to creative concepts and brand storytelling.

Today, Bigfish boasts more than 30 employees and a multi-story office behind Coach House in Old Town Scottsdale. From that perch – in addition to excellent views of Camelback Mountain – I’ve been able to watch how Arizonans responded to the financial and real estate crisis.

I don’t think I am alone in feeling the electricity pumping through the city – really the entire state. And it surely isn’t being fueled by cattle and cotton anymore. It’s time the world knew it, too.

Enter our firm’s passion project: The New AZ5Cs.

The New AZ5Cs is an interactive website, campaign, and platform Bigfish is using to shout from the rooftops how far Arizona has come in the areas of:

• Culture: The diversity, ethnicity, inclusivity, and pride of Arizona in everything from the food to the festivals.
• Community: The groups – from business to civic to volunteer-based – that bring us together as a people. All the things that we do working playing, uplifting and supporting each other.
• Connectivity: From start-ups to mom-and-pop shops to big business, Arizonans are competing and winning in when it comes to connecting people with jobs, goods, services and a better and better quality of life.
• Commerce: Arizona is now at the forefront of connecting data, ideas, processes and people in whole new and unpredictable ways — the world’s digitally shared tomorrow is being created in Arizona today.
• Catalyst: What we do and more specifically – why we choose to do it here. Arizona shapes efforts and fuels success.

Get a taste of it at https://az5c.com/

The campaign video can be directly downloaded at https://vimeo.com/287334575

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
With Bigfish, as you can imagine, I launched the company just months before the recession, which took a hold of Arizona and the nation for nearly a decade. But we persevered.

With AZ5C, because it is a stand-alone movement, we did find some pushback from folks in the beginning, all wondering if we were trying to garner advertising from them or wanting to know ulterior motives. But this is a holistic movement to change the way Arizona is seen on the national and international stage.

You can taste it in our chef-driven restaurant and bars, and see it firsthand as new buildings and businesses flood in by the day. Arizona is at the forefront of connecting data, ideas, processes and people in new and effective ways. Arizonans are competing and winning, while at work and at play like never before. We want to be a part of it.

Phase one of AZ5C includes videos detailing each of the new five Cs and then profiles of some of Arizona’s highest-profile business and community leaders including business owners, lawmakers, nonprofit champions and tastemakers sharing their stories of success along with which new Cs represent them best. We are posting them up now through the end of the year at https://az5c.com/stories/.

There will also be merchandise, and both an extensive paid traditional and digital campaign to support the effort nationwide.

Phase two, currently in planning phases, will launch in 2019.

Please tell us about Bigfish Creative Group and AZ5C.
Bigfish is a full-service agency specializing in branding, website design, social media, digital marketing, design, video, advertising, and strategy. Clients run the gamut and have included Scottsdale Healthcare, CISCO, Dial, Pacific Life, Service Arizona, Taser, Saleslogix and many more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://az5c.com/
• Email: joe@thinkbigfish.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theAZ5C/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAZ5C/

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