Wharton grad wins Super Bowl TV time

Ice-Cream entrepreneur Jeremy Kraus will appear in a 30-second TV spot. Nevermind the score. This year's Super Bowl on January 31 will feature more than just pigskins, pads and helmets. A 30-second commercial during the second quarter of the NFL championship -- worth $1.6 million -- will air the face of 1998 Wharton graduate Jeremy Kraus, founder of Jeremy's MicroBatch Ice Creams, a wholesale ice cream company he created as a Wharton junior fewer than three years ago. As the winner of the second annual nationwide "See Your Small Business on the Super Bowl Search" contest for small businesses sponsored by Mail Boxes, Etc., Kraus will star in the commercial and showcase the ice cream which bears his name and headshot during the most-watched, most-hyped television event of the year. Super Bowl XXXIII is expected to attract 130 million viewers. After entering the contest in early fall at the 3741 Walnut Street Mail Boxes, Etc. store, a panel of MBE and advertising executives announced yesterday morning that they selected Kraus to appear in the Super Bowl commercial from a field of thousands of entrants. Kraus -- winner of the 1997 Pennsylvania Young Entrepreneur of the Year award -- will also receive $5,000 in prize money from MBE. The "compelling nature of [Kraus'] business idea, his presence" and his response to two questions posed by the contest sponsor enabled the 22-year-old ice cream maker to stand out, explained Bill Anderson, the owner of the off-campus MBE. According to MBE spokesperson Karen Gajewski, the panel was impressed that Kraus "graduated from Wharton and could have worked for any company in the world, [yet] he decided to strike out on his own and pursue his dreams." When he was a junior, Kraus derived his trademarked "MicroBatch" concept from the "microbrew" idea previously instituted by such beer giants as Samuel Adams and Pete's Wicked Ale. Financing the company with $70,000 worth of stock market earnings, Kraus was involved in several stages of his business' development -- including designing the brand label that bears his face, telephoning retailers and actually distributing his product. Kraus, who concentrated in entrepreneurial management at Wharton, deferred to his management professors for tips on how to market his product. "My food marketing professor told me that a special process, great ingredients and fabulous flavors weren't enough to compete in the cutthroat ice cream business," Kraus wrote on his World Wide Web site, explaining why his own face is on the label. Kraus' business -- which he operates with two friends from Penn -- has certainly grown since the days when it was sold in Penn commissaries and local convenience stores. Today, Jeremy's MicroBatch ice cream -- which comes in six flavors such as Fuzzy Navel, Coffee Extravaganza and Chocolate Down Under -- is sold in 11 states. When creating his business, Kraus set up an MBE mailbox as his company's official business address, a move which enabled him to develop a relationship with the store. Kraus also uses MBE to ship 25 pints of his ice cream per week in specially insulated containers. "Using MBE on the Penn campus made it possible for me to juggle school and my own business," Kraus noted in his entry to the contest. Still, while there is every indication that the Super Bowl commercial will allow Kraus to reach higher levels of sales and fame, Kraus has not yet requested a larger mailbox.

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