By Anne W. Semmes
Bobbi Eggers first brought her impressive creative talents to Greenwich in 1989, moving here from New York City with husband Steve Eggers and their young family of two-to-be-three. With her worldwide marketing and advertising skills she found, “Greenwich people have a language all their own, different from other cities and towns…We’re just an elevated group here.” And with her marketing skills as creative director of such companies as London’s Saatchi & Saatchi, Coca-Cola, and Revlon, she felt immediately, “I can tap into that.”
Count first her efforts as a Junior League member to bring the Byram Pool to Byram Park. “The League asked me to work on it, creating the marketing materials…We raised two and a half million dollars for the Pool… It was a real feather in the Junior League’s cap as a great gift to the community, showing people how we work well with the community.”
With her marketing skills reputation “spreading quickly,” she kicked off Eggers Communications, and was soon rebranding the Greenwich Housing Authority. “We renamed it Greenwich Communities. Number one, they’re not like housing authorities in other cities… It’s all about respect. It’s all about treating people with dignity.” Next came the rebranding of the building the Senior Center is located to “299 on the Avenue,” and the rebranding of the Commission on Aging, working with the Director, Lori Contadino and her team.
Relatedly, Eggers would give her energies to the River House, with a “fundraising strategy and collateral materials.” She would work to “refresh” Neighbor to Neighbor with the opening of their new building. Add to the list her consulting with Sue Bodson on the Town’s Parks and Recreation Department, the 125th Anniversary for the Policeman’s Ball, and Parsonage Cottage.
The growing Eggers family
Meanwhile Eggers’ two daughters and a son were growing up in her busy time, with husband Steve in the oil business often traveling to Nigeria which would bring a new member to the family. An adoptee, Sean Obi – a Nigerian youth, speaking English, age 15, a year older than her son Hunter, and a bit taller at 6-feet-9 inches. “Steve got a call about a young man who was a talented basketball player” and “This kid deserves a shot at being in the United States and having a good education.” “Can he live with us?” ventured son Hunter. With his mother’s help, Sean Obi would be accepted into Hunter’s class at Greens Farms Academy in Westport. “His first book read was ‘Oedipus Rex,” said Eggers, “I salute this kid every day of my life…. He’s working in New York. He’s got a girlfriend, and he’s happy.”
Eggers’ successes in the nonprofit world would bring an offer from Christ Church Greenwich to create a campaign called Vision 2025, working with a team to raise the money to “hire more staff.” “It was very successful,” she said. “I love what I do because it’s helping people – this is my way of giving.”
Eggers would be hired by Christ Church fulltime in 2021 as Director of Marketing and Communications. “My job is solely dedicated to Christ Church, and I oversee Dogwood Books.” But count also next-door Neighbor to Neighbor. “We just did the British Bakers Luncheon for Neighbor to Neighbor.” And here’s where Eggers’ pre-Greenwich, extraordinary worldwide career surfaces. “One of the British Bakers is a close family friend, Tom Arden” – a winner in a British Bakers competition, who crossed the pond to speak.
Taking her talent across the pond
Prior to meeting up with to-be husband Steve in New York City, Bobbi John – her single name, coming from Shaker Heights, Ohio – would work first in New York with Wyse Advertising on Park Avenue. But along came an irresistible offer to be a creative director at London-based Saatchi & Saatchi, the multinational advertising agency, with additional travels to Paris and Amsterdam. Her clients would be Proctor & Gamble, Dannon Yogurt, and British Airways. “I was the girl they brought in to pitch new business,” she noted, “because I was comfortable with presentations.” And, in those six years her necessary travel across the pond to New York would be via the Concorde. “I did the advertising for the Concorde, so I got to go on it all the time.”
Then came a new job offer from New York City with McCann-Erickson serving Coca-Cola as creative director “with a small team” working on a “Don’t Say the P-Word” campaign. And then came Steve Eggers. “He was hard to resist…He asked me to marry him on the first date.”
Bobbi Eggers would move on to Revlon, hired by owner Ron Perelman. “He hired me as his Creative Director because I specialized in image advertising…I did a series of television commercials for the Oscars called ‘What Makes a Woman Unforgettable’ – 24 celebrities answering that question… Richard Avedon used to photograph them.” Add her hiring David Fincher to film Cindy Crawford for Halston. “I was working with supermodels… on fashion and beauty.” Add too her working with filmmaker Antoine Fuqua – “His movie ‘Michael’ about Michael Jackson has just come out. It was such a great experience to work with these people. I loved them all.”
“I know it’s cliche to say,” Eggers noted, “But love what you do. And if you don’t love it, find that thing and make sure that you can make a living at it.”
A move to Greenwich
Now with a couple of kids, such demanding jobs were a challenge. But she couldn’t resist the call from Miller Beer (owned then by Philip Morris). “I had this great group of men who we worked well together. We were in the Chrysler building, half a floor. I put a bar in there to keep my guys working so they would work late. I installed games and pool tables… I called myself a ‘Mad Woman.’ It was in the 1990s.”
But there would be a move to Greenwich. “I didn’t want to raise my kids in the city… We looked at a bunch of other cities, but we went into restaurants in Greenwich and I thought I could have a cup of coffee with these people. I could relate to this… Greenwich felt like home to me.” She likened it to her hometown of Shaker Heights. But her work carried on at Miller Beer while having that third child until that day when her “overworked” nanny quit. Eggers would do the same. “It was time to stay home.”
So, Eggers, with her impressive marketing skills, beneath the umbrella of Eggers Communications would take on advertising for nonprofits, “putting their fundraising materials together.” But “There’s a huge learning curve,” she noted, “to be successful in promoting your nonprofit… you need to partner with the people who have that megaphone.”
“Beth and Peter Barhydt at the Greenwich Sentinel have that megaphone,” she told. “They know the town, its people, and they write with passion. I too love being entrenched in this community and reaching out to people to light a fire for them.”
