Sarasota advertising, marketing firm owner dies at 65

Marketing and advertising entrepreneur Joe Grano, who worked with clients from Sarasota to South Africa, died Wednesday, June 11, after a five-month battle with cancer. Grano was 65. 

Grano founded Next-Mark LLC in 2005 and moved the company to Sarasota in 2010. The company’s list of local current and past clients, for which the firm worked on public relations, strategic marketing and advertising, among other tasks, includes the City of Sarasota; DWYLA Landscape Architects; John Cannon Homes; Willis Smith Construction; St. Armands Circle; Sweet Sparkman Architecture and Interiors; Michael Saunders & Co.; Yarnall Moving and Storage; CitySide Apartments; and the Barancik Foundation. 

The firm announced Grano's death in a statement released late June 12.

Commenting at the company’s 20th anniversary celebration in February, Grano, who was born Joseph S. Grano, noted the company’s growth and connections, saying, “we have built more than just a company; we forged a legacy,” according to the announcement. 

Courtesy image

Grano’s son, JT Grano, will transition from his role as vice president to president, the company says, where “he will maintain the legacy of Next-Mark while keeping the core values that his father instilled in him. JT has spent the last five years learning under Joe and has been an integral part of the agency’s expansion.” 

“Our commitment to excellence and detail for all clients remains the pillar of our mission, and I look forward to continuing the success we have had over the last 20 years of serving not only our clients but the Sarasota community as well,” JT Grano says in the statement. 

Joe Grano had ties to Western New York and New England, with an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MBA from the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College in Massachusetts. Prior to Next-Mark he held executive management positions in health care, technology and financial services. That includes roles as chief marketing officer at two public health systems and as vice president of marketing for a health information organization and a pharmaceutical technology firm, in one case leading marketing efforts that grew revenue from $40 million to $120 million, according to a bio on Next-Mark’s website. 

When he launched the company in 2005, Grano, on a blog post on the company’s website celebrating its 20th anniversary, says he still remembers “the night this dream took shape — a former corporate guy scribbling ideas to create a marketing communications company that was more strategic, but could also harness creativity and produce cutting edge solutions. Inspired by my entrepreneurial family and decades of experience in health care, tech and finance, I asked myself: How are you going to make your mark? That question became Next-Mark — next-generation marketing solutions with a purpose.”

Clients today are in health care, hospitality, government and more. Outside the local clients, others that Next-Mark works with include Comcast/NBC, LexisNexis, Elsevier, Nuance Communications and CMX/Cinebistro.

Outside work, Grano served on the boards of the Salvation Army and Boys & Girls Club. He was also a keynote speaker on marketing and advertising topics on a national scale, while closer to home he was a frequent panelist for local events in marketing, media and public relations.