Crackerjack was formed in 1990 by Pam Glaser, who had recently emigrated from South Africa, where she was one of the youngest marketing managers of Sun International, a global casino group and owners of Sun City.
The Farmers Santa Parade soon became Crackerjack’s first annual event, which it ran every year since, while adding an array of diverse new clients. These included corporate, award, charity and festival events, including an annual Irish Festival, Buskers Festival and every major sport homecoming, from All Black Victory to the America’s Cup ticker tape parade through Auckland.
Crackerjack has established a reputation for delivering more than it has promised. This is shown in the loyalty of clients, who on average have stayed with Crackerjack between 15 and 25 years.
The supporting team are “her girls”, the relationship being of Pam the mother (and a rather demanding one) and her daughters. And the quality of their work reflects this relationship. They genuinely love what they do and love getting in and amongst all the action as the team prepares to execute someone’s dream event.
Uncompromising quality drives the team culture. A small example would be the event in a sports centre where cabinets filled with silver trophies made up the backdrop for the evening.
These were black from years of neglect, prompting Pam mere hours before the guests arrive to call in a team of teenagers and a gallon of Silvo to shine up the trophies while others cleaned marks off the walls.
Even the client thought this was madness, but the demands were made not by a client but by Pam’s personality which just couldn’t bear guests taking photos that showed blackened trophies in the back.
