Brown & Brown, Inc. has offered a comprehensive range of insurance services and solutions since 1939 and is the fifth largest independent insurance brokerage in the nation. The Brown & Brown story began in Daytona Beach, Florida, and to honor that history as well as help revamp the downtown Daytona Beach area, Brown & Brown decided to develop the Beach Street Campus. This building serves as a cultural and training center for the organization, and it was of the utmost importance that the campus properly represented the brand.
What represents a brand better than its signature mascot? For Brown & Brown Insurance, that is the cheetah. For Brown & Brown, the cheetah represents vision, swiftness, strength, and agility and embodies their company culture. It has served as a symbol for Brown & Brown since the 1980s. Working with experiential marketing company MC2, Entech Innovative Engineering was tasked to create the rockwork display for the Brown & Brown cheetah to be proudly displayed on top. Brown & Brown commissioned local artist, Paul Baliker, to create a beautiful statue. Standing on a 13-foot rock base, the cheetah watches over the new campus outside the building at the corner of Beach Street and Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard.
To construct the Cheetah rockwork, Entech worked with Zibitz Design Studios to create a 1/16 scale model for Mr. and Mrs. Brown and MC2 to scrutinize. The Browns were very helpful in directing the overall appearance, right down to the colors of the rock and the position the cheetah. The cheetah is cast in bronze by a local artisan and was said to weigh 700 lbs. With this in mind, Entech designed a support structure of galvanized steel to carry the cheetah statue weight. This gave Entech the freedom to build the rockwork form from rebar and lightweight concrete. The rebar was bent and formed by hand to match the scale model. Then the rebar was backed with wire reinforced paper before the concrete was applied. The concrete was carved while it was still wet, creating the appearance of rock and meeting the expectations of Brown & Brown, Inc. and our client MC2. After the concrete was fully cured, four colors of paint were applied to emulate the colors of the Tanzanian rock the Browns loved so much.
The unveiling of the Cheetah statue was an event that Brown & Brown set up to include 100+ employees, keynote speakers and a DJ for musical entertainment. The cheetah installation took place over the weekend before the unveiling and required the use of a crane service to lift the cheetah into place. Today the cheetah stands proudly as a testament to all the coordination and efforts of all those involved.
At the unveiling ceremony, Brown & Brown CEO J. Powell Brown spoke of the cheetah and how it represents speed, intelligence and ability to adapt to changing circumstances in an instant, and how the cheetah’s characteristics have defined the culture that has powered Brown & Brown’s success. So now, the cheetah’s powerful stare watches over the Beach Street Campus, with the entirety of the piece being over 20 feet tall, serving as a strong representation of the Brown & Brown brand. Entech Innovative was able to combine our engineering expertise with our extensive knowledge in creating iconic branded elements to deliver a powerful depiction of what they feel defines the company.
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