Jack Link's sends a marketing message with new office

Jack Link's new downtown Minneapolis office is one part modern workplace and one part jerky billboard.

The company recently finished moving about 200 people from less-spacious offices in the North Loop into 70,000 square feet of space in Mayo Clinic Square, a four-story complex on Hennepin Avenue next to Target Center and the First Avenue nightclub.

Its design sticks to the North Woods theme of its marketing with an added twist: giant windows that bring more light in for Jack Link's staffers and allow passersby on the building's lobby and skyway levels to see them at work.

The walls are covered in reclaimed wood, the color scheme plays off the red and black plaid of the company's jerky packaging and, in the reception area, there is even an 8-foot-tall mannequin of the Sasquatch that stars in its TV spots.

"It feels like an agency," Tom "TD" Dixon, the company's chief marketing officer, said of the new digs.

The office currently houses Jack Link's marketing, sales and research-and-development teams and has space for another 100 people. The company's headquarters remain in Minong, Wis., where it recently opened a community aquatic and activity center.

Jack Link's staff finished moving into the new space in February.

"We didn't have enough offices. We didn't have enough cubicles," Dixon said of the firm's previous workplaces.

The company also built a test kitchen with space that will open soon for guests. That will allow Jack Link's chefs and researchers to try different flavors and then replicate them to stage taste tests with consumers. A research process that would normally take weeks or even months may soon be done in a matter of hours.

"We can bring consumers here and we can get instant feedback," said Manuel Ortega, vice president of research and development.

The company is also involved in a Jack Link's-inspired restaurant that will open in another part of Mayo Clinic Square within the year, Dixon said.

The office in Mayo Clinic Square is just one of the ways Jack Link's has spread its name through downtown. Jack Link's has also partnered with the Hennepin Theatre Trust to open a lounge next door to the Orpheum Theatre this fall. Last November, Jack Link's opened its first retail store in Target Center.

Jack Link's continues to also expand its variety of products. Earlier this year, the company debuted jerky lunchbox packs and steak strip bars. It is also coming out with a refrigerated line of meat snacks paired with Wisconsin cheese.

Nicole Norfleet • 612-673-4495 Twitter: @nicolenorfleet