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Sarasota executive Jim Abrams will be one nervous TV watcher May 2.
That's the night Abrams' company, Clockwork Home Services, will be the focus of NBC's “Celebrity Apprentice.” Celebrity teams vie for charity winnings on the show by doing various business tasks, all under the watchful eye of Donald Trump.
This years' cast includes former U.S Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders; disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich; and ex-major league baseball player Darryl Strawberry.
In the May 2 episode, contestants create a series of commercials for Clockwork's trio of franchise-based home services repair brands: Ben Franklin Plumbing, One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating and Mister Sparky.
Abrams, the Review's Entrepreneur of the Year for the Sarasota-Manatee region in 2008, flew to New York last November to tape his roll in the episode. He tells Coffee Talk he flubbed a few lines, but he had several takes to get it right.
The show's airing, however, is a first and lasting impression of the company's brand on a national stage — the show says it has about 14 million viewers. And Clockwork had no say over the cuts and takes in the episode.
That makes Abrams nervous.
Still, he says the doing the show was a calculated risk he thought was worth taking. “It's hard to get a national brand image,” says Abrams. “When you have an educational message it can be complicated and challenging.”
Abrams says he thought about the idea last year while watching the show at home. Clockwork then reached out to the show's producers through a series of networking calls initiated by Heather Ripley, a marketing staffer who has since left Clockwork to work for a Sarasota advertising firm.
The producers put Clockwork through a month-long interview process to vet its financial records and its franchise data. The company, with more than 650 franchise units in North America, had revenues of $215 million in 2008.
Abrams says he isn't allowed to talk about the winners or how the episode plays out. He did say three contestants liked Clockwork so much they already hired the company to do some work.
Abrams also said he was impressed with the presence of Trump on the set. “He's a nice guy,” says Abrams. “But everyone knows he is definitely in charge.”
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