Member Spotlight: Mad Bear Productions - Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce

Posted by: Tampa Bay Chamber on Friday, January 31, 2025

“I love understanding why businesses, and people for that matter, do what they do. What drives them? Where do their passions lie? How is that unique?” explains Chamber Member Glenn Zimmerman when asked what he loves most about his chosen profession. For more than 15 years, the Founder, President and CEO of Mad Bear Productions has been telling the stories of companies from New York City to Ybor City, New England to the Tampa Bay region.

“The Chamber is like the bottom of a glass bottom boat,” he explains, “You get to explore all sorts of different ecosystems by simply looking through one viewing point. At any time, you can dive into the proverbial water, diving deeper and engaging in aspects of our community where you want to help make a positive difference.”

Mad Bear Productions has been a Chamber Member company since 2016. Heidi Marks is its Vice President and Creative Director. “I love what I do - both the process and the result. I love providing hope and excitement to our clients when pitching creative concepts,” said Marks. “I love bringing together passionate creatives who individually contribute a little magic to each piece we create together. I love providing those lightbulb moments to viewers who needed to see or feel what we conveyed.”

“We are changing the agency model by fundamentally changing the role of the agency,” explained Zimmerman. “In this high paced and complex media landscape, agencies need to be true partners WITH their clients. That means proactively thinking and planning. It’s no longer effective to simply sit back and wait for clients to tell the agency what to do and then have your Creatives on the project react.” Why is that change in agency mindset necessary? Zimmerman’s answer is immediate. “The agency needs to generate the helpful and immediate ways for clients to be successful.” That's the Mad Bear mission with every client. How do they do that? For starters, Zimmerman and Marks adapt, becoming a creative, strategic partner to clients. Services and deliverables are “customer service oriented” rather than reactive. “We are constantly thinking through new ideas that can help our clients,” said Zimmerman. “Even without them having to ask. We are equally excited when our clients have an idea, they want us to turn into reality.”

Most recently, the team of Mad Bear created magical moments during the Leadership Tampa Alumni (LTA) Annual Meeting’s. Moments before the Parke Wright III winner’s name was said aloud, the Mad Bear video rolled, dropping hints on the honoree until the final seconds with its big reveal! “Anything that has to do with video, we use as a tool. From big cameras to small, creative animations, motion graphics to drones… every single tool in the Mad Bear arsenal is used only when it’s right for the project,” explained Zimmerman. “Each concept is strategic. Every element to every story is strategic. Every sound and color is strategic. We are making sure that the story being told effectively communicates to all different types of viewers and connects on an emotional level to someone watching from feeling better to feeling proud and both walk away with what they need,” explained Zimmerman. "This strategy requires a deep understanding of our clients’ needs, detailed concepts and clear direction.”

The Mad Bear team certainly did that with its innovative approach to telling the Chamber’s success stories in 2024. The video debuted during the 139^th Annual Meeting December 6, 2024. It’s a labor of love for Leadership Tampa Class of 2017 graduate, a sentiment shared by Zimmerman's team members, who are also engaged in programming at the Chamber.

“The connections and friendships I made in LT were, and remain, some of the most important relationships I have in Tampa Bay. Since then, I have grown with the Chamber, most recently signing up for Benchmarking,” said Zimmerman. In 2025, the Leadership Tampa Alum, member of LTA, and frequent mentor added one more experience to his Chamber journey. The New York City transplant is now a proud member of the Chamber’s Board of Directors.

“From alerting me to policy issues affecting Tampa Bay to helping foster some of my closest relationships, the Chamber is at the center of it all.”

No interview with this team would be complete without asking about the origins of the company's name. Simply put, it's part family, part British! In 2008, Glenn Zimmerman combined his son’s nickname, “Bear”, with the British term for creative genius, “mad”. Think “mad scientist, creative, edgy, out of the box,” says Zimmerman, “Mad Bear was perfect!”

Video Gallery highlighting Chamber videos by Mad Bear Productions: