Marketing Hogman’s Gameday Superstores, and So Much More

Allie Brown

Allie Brown is a proud University of Central Arkansas alum, but make no mistake, she knows how to call the Hogs.

As the new director of digital marketing for Jenkins Enterprises, she promotes the company’s four Hogman’s Gameday Superstores, which sell University of Arkansas-themed apparel and everything else, it seems, including soap dishes, earrings and a Hog piggy bank.

But a big part of her new position, after years as a TV news producer and a public relations stint at Mangan Holcomb Partners in Little Rock, is to spread the Jenkins story to a bigger fan base.

“Jenkins itself is a wholesale company, and this has been a fun experience, revamping their digital space and launching a new website; we’re giving the social media sites new looks, new copy, everything,” Brown said a month into the job. “I hit the ground running.”

Her new bosses include Alan Jenkins and his wife, Kay, who started the company in 1976; Steve Jenkins, the current owner; and Vice President Bill Tibbett and Executive Officer Beth Woolley Carlisle. Paul Rickelton directs information technology and licensing.

“We sell all sorts of merchandise to wholesalers and retailers, so it’s not just the Razorbacks, though that is one of our top things,” Brown said. “When you go to a gas station and see an item that has ‘Oklahoma’ on it, though not related to the [University of Oklahoma] Sooners, there’s a good chance that came from Jenkins. We have all kinds of branded items, and we do our printing in-house.”

One offbeat but fulfilling line of business is Pia and Poppy, a custom jewelry line with a focus on adoptions and memorials. Sales can also defray adoption costs for families. “Steve Jenkins’ wife, Julie, was adopted, and that’s where the inspiration came from,” Brown said.

The company, in an industrial area near Interstate 440 in eastern North Little Rock, has about 70 employees. Brown couldn’t divulge revenue figures for the private company, but she said it’s thriving and ripe for a marketing push.

“Being the new kid, I kind of expected to have to sort of wade the waters a little, but everybody has been so welcoming, it’s been a constant flow of lessons about this company and what it has to offer, particularly its commitment to community.” Brown showed her own community commitment after last year’s record flooding on the Arkansas River, helping to lead a fundraiser that generated $50,000 to repair the heavily damaged Miracle League of Arkansas youth ballfield off Cantrell Road in Little Rock.

Serving a single company is a change for Brown, whose agency PR work involved many clients, but since Jenkins has several divisions, she doesn’t suffer from a lack of variety. “I’m switching gears pretty frequently,” she said.

It was Brown’s second transition in a little more than two years; she moved from TV news to marketing in 2018, joining Mangan Holcomb.

A North Little Rock High School graduate, Brown’s 2012 degree in broadcast journalism spawned internships and then a full-time job producing the morning newscast at KARK, Channel 4, in Little Rock. “I’m kind of a news nerd; I like to be in the know.”

But she’s found a new mission at Jenkins. “I think now more than ever, people need to feel some normalcy out there,” Brown said, referencing the economic and psychic pain of the pandemic. “We love Arkansas and our customers, and we want to make sure they know bigger and better things are coming for the state.”