Fishing for an Ad Agency? Consultants Help Clients Reel in the Big Ones

Less than two years ago, Don Johnston was one of the most powerful men on Madison Avenue. As chairman and chief executive of JWT Group, he ran the giant advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

Until this week, Donald F. Dorward was one of the top-ranked advertising executives on the West Coast. He was chairman of U.S. operations for the Australian advertising agency, Mojo, which creates ads for Qantas Airways.

What do these two ad men now have in common? They’ve just opened separate advertising consulting firms. And suddenly, the consulting business has Madison Avenue’s full attention.

Top ad executives are increasingly beginning to discover that there may still be a lucrative calling for their skills outside the agency business. That is, there are clients looking for ad agencies--or ad agencies looking for clients--who can use some tips from the pros. Consultants say they will advise on anything from how to select an advertising agency to what fees an advertiser should pay a client. And they’ll also help ad agencies find top executives--and new clients.

“It’s becoming a hot issue,” said Alvin Achenbaum, a top Madison Avenue consultant with the firm Canter, Achenbaum Associates. Two years ago, his agency helped client Nissan select the Los Angeles ad firm Chiat/Day.

But advertising agency executives have mixed feelings about Achenbaum--and some of his fellow consultants. Achenbaum, for example, is well known as a tough negotiator who can persuade ad agencies to accept far less than the traditional 15% commission. And some agency executives view these consultants as “middlemen” who simply cut into the shrinking pie of advertising dollars.

“Most ad consultants are bottom feeders,” said Guy Day, retired co-founder of Chiat/Day, who said he has turned down several lucrative offers to consult, although he has offered free advice to some former clients. “Some consultants are like catfish. They swim way down low and suck at the mud.”

Not all advertising executives take that position. “The old adage of a consultant as someone who is out of a job has become passe,” said Leonard Pearlstein, chief executive of the Los Angeles ad firm Keye/Donna/Pearlstein. “From an agency standpoint, there’s a growing market for consultants.”

Consultants can wave some very convincing bait at prospective clients, too. If advertisers are prepared to spend many millions of dollars on advertising, isn’t it worth spending $5,000 to $100,000 more for a consultant to help select the right agency--or negotiate a fair fee?

“For the first time in my life,” said Johnston in an interview, “I can decide on purely personal grounds who I want to work for. That’s a nice position to be in.”

Johnston was forced out of his post at J. Walter Thompson shortly after the company was acquired in a hostile takeover nearly two years ago by WPP Group, the British marketing firm that is acquiring the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency.

But a bitter Johnston still refuses to discuss the WPP takeover. “That’s the past,” Johnston said of his 22 years at J. Walter Thompson. “This is the future,” he said of the Stamford, Conn., consulting firm Matthews & Johnston that he operates along with Leonard Matthews, retired president of the Assn. of American Advertising Agencies.

Johnston said his 1-week-old company specializes in advising mid-sized agencies how to hang onto clients that grow to become international companies. “That becomes a breaking point for many mid-sized agencies.”

Meanwhile, from his new office at Dorward & Associates in San Francisco, Dorward figures that advertisers should be willing to pay for the privilege of hearing him warn them about his past mistakes. “If I haven’t made all the mistakes that an ad guy can make,” he said, “I’ve certainly seen them all.”

Dorward--who stepped down from his top post at Mojo after Chiat/Day made a bid to acquire Mojo several months ago--said his consulting firm will specialize in helping clients select agencies. “Most clients don’t know the territory,” he said. “Because they don’t know which agencies to see, they often see too many.”

Perhaps one of Madison Avenue’s most widely publicized consulting ventures was one that took place two years ago in Los Angeles. The client was Nissan, which was searching for a new advertising agency. For help, it hired Alvin Achenbaum, the consultant with New York’s Achenbaum Associates.

Achenbaum spent nearly three months consulting Nissan executives before the Japanese car maker eventually selected Chiat/Day as its ad firm. “Al (Achenbaum) kept us on track,” said Terry Foutz, former national car advertising manager at Nissan. Foutz is now vice president and management supervisor at rival Daihatsu’s Los Angeles advertising agency, Kresser/Craig.

As the consultant, Achenbaum suggested a number of different ad firms to Nissan, but he was careful to let Nissan make the final selection. “In the end, a client has to pick its own agency,” said Achenbaum. “After all, when all is said and done, I don’t live with the agency. The client does.”

Fired Ad Agency Gets the Last Laugh on Zoo

There must be some red faces at the San Diego Zoo--and not just on the baboons.

Phillips-Ramsey, the San Diego advertising agency the zoo fired last year, won the “Academy Award” of the billboard industry last week for a three-part billboard it had designed for the zoo.

The “Best of Show” award was presented to Robert Kwait, creative director at Phillips-Ramsey, by the New York-based Institute of Outdoor Advertising at its annual OBIE awards ceremony. The prize was for a series of billboards that promoted the new “Snake River” exhibit last year at the zoo. The billboards showed a snake twisting its body to form the word “Zoo.”

“We’re very proud,” said Martha Baker, director of marketing at the San Diego Zoo. But as far as any embarrassment among zoo officials is concerned, she declined to comment.

Pepsi Puts Some Magic in its Endorsement Life

Magic Johnson has joined the Pepsi Generation.

The superstar Los Angeles Laker guard on Monday signed a three-year contract with Pepsi to promote its soft drinks. Although Pepsi would not reveal the amount of the contract, industry sources estimate that Johnson will earn more than $3 million for appearing in a series of broadcast commercials and print advertisements, as well as making a number of personal appearances.

Clearly, Pepsi is taking a far more conservative approach in signing up top-name celebrities. Earlier this spring, Pepsi dropped Madonna as a spokeswoman after one of her videos upset several religious groups. But Pepsi spokesman Jeff Brown said: “This reaffirms our whole strategy behind the use of celebrities in advertising. It means we’re not rolling back from it.”

Celebrity brokers say Johnson, who is also a spokesman for Converse athletic shoes, has turned down numerous commercial opportunities in recent years. “He waited for the right one,” said Alann Heldfond, a celebrity broker with Hollywood-based Ingles Productions, “and he got it.”

Ad Club Will Play Host to Meeting on Trends

If you’re looking for a job in advertising--particularly in the creative end of the business--head over to Wednesday’s monthly meeting of the Advertising Club of Los Angeles.

Five of the top creative minds in the business will take part in a panel discussion on current trends in advertising. Among the panel members scheduled is Hal Riney, chairman of San Francisco-based Hal Riney & Partners, which created the original Bartles & Jaymes ad campaign. The noon luncheon meeting, which is open to the public, costs $45 for non-members and takes place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

At its June 21 luncheon, the Ad Club will host the “Big Debate” between talk show host Morton Downey Jr. and KABC-TV commentator Bill Press. The topic will be “Trash TV,” and debate will be carried live on KABC radio and moderated by radio personality Michael Jackson.

Superfluous House Ads Win Lulu of an Award

Just maybe there is some justice in the ad world, after all.

At least, that’s the way Anne K. Morris figures it. More than a year ago, her Newport Beach ad firm, Morris Advertising & Design, put together a snazzy, three-part print ad campaign for a Yorba Linda housing development. A few days after the first ad ran, however, the development built by Baldwin Co. completely sold out. Alas, there was no need to run the last two print ads that the ad firm spent weeks creating.

But Morris hated to see the ads for “Country Estates” go unrecognized. So she entered them in last week’s 43rd Annual “Lulu” Awards, sponsored by Los Angeles Advertising Women. The unusual category--”It’s A Rough Business”--was for advertisements that have never before appeared anywhere. Morris won.

Of course, Morris admits, the award probably says as much about the Southland housing market as it says about the local advertising business. After all, the starting price for the homes advertised was $330,000--and that was more than a year ago.