For Hollywood Ad Agencies, Getting Fired Is All Part of Show Business

About all Jack Fiman can do is wait.

His tiny Santa Monica agency, Martin & Benedict Inc., has been purchasing commercial time for films made by Cannon Pictures since 1979. Fiman’s firm, which employs just 12 people, has long relied on Cannon as its largest client.

But Cannon--which mostly makes C-grade action films such as “Penitentiary III”--recently ran into financial troubles and underwent several management changes at the top. Along with those changes, the studio has put its estimated $20-million advertising account up for review.

Fiman hopes--and expects--to hang on to his biggest client. But he has been around Hollywood long enough to know the score, and he isn’t complaining about the review. “I understand why this happens,” he said. “The film industry is a high-profile business and there’s a lot of shuffling. When that happens, just about everyone goes up for review.”

But Cannon is just a very small piece of a very large picture. These days, it seems half of Hollywood is out looking for agencies to plan and purchase media time.

Last week, Paramount Pictures (“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Star Trek V--The Final Frontier”) fired the ad firm D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles from its $70-million account. And two weeks ago, the Tri-Star division of Columbia Pictures Entertainment (“Look Who’s Talking,” “Steel Magnolias”) took its estimated $150-million spot TV media buying business away from AC&R; Advertising and handed it to McCann-Erickson. In November, 20th Century Fox Film Corp. (“War of the Roses,” “Enemies, A Love Story”) said it was taking its estimated $30-million network business away from the J. Walter Thompson agency and planned to purchase the media time itself.

Cannon, which is not expected to name its agency until February, refused to discuss specifically its review. But Cannon executives were willing to talk generally about why studios seem to change agencies so often. “The marketing task in this industry is enormously complicated,” said Allan Freeman, senior executive vice president of marketing at Cannon. “Introducing a new movie isn’t like introducing a new brand of dog food. When you bring a new dog food on the market, you don’t have 400 people around the country writing a critique on it that weekend.”

Some major film studios seem to change agencies almost as often as the movie theaters change the film titles on their marquees. But why are so many Hollywood studios prowling around for new agencies right now?

“When you have changes in management, the new people often like to bring in their own teams,” said Miles Turpin, chairman of the Western division of Grey Advertising, which purchases media time for Warner Bros., the studio that brought “Batman” to the screen last year. “Keep in mind, this was a fairly soft Christmas. A lot of films didn’t live up to expectations.”

Of course, that won’t stop agencies from chasing after film studio accounts. After all, of the estimated $4 billion spent annually on advertising in Southern California, an estimated $1 billion of that is spent on film advertising. A studio will commonly spend as much as $10 million hyping a single major release.

“If you’re an advertising agency in Los Angeles, you’re not going to have critical mass unless you have an entertainment or (Asian) automotive account,” said James Agnew, executive vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles office of J. Walter Thompson. “It would be like being in Detroit and not having an auto account.” Although Thompson recently lost Fox as a client, it still purchases media for Universal Television.

One film executive says marketing a film can be a no-win situation for a studio’s marketing department. “If a movie is a big success, people often say it’s because the film was good and it was booked into the right theaters,” said Barry Lorie, senior vice president of marketing at MGM/UA. “But if a movie fails, the marketing department gets the blame because people say the ads were lousy.”

One key measure of success in the film industry is box office market share. Paramount, which ranked No. 1 in box office share in 1987 and second in 1988, fell to fifth last year. It should be no surprise then that Paramount brought in a new marketing chief--who last week fired the studio’s agency, D’Arcy.

“Advertising a new film is like being asked to successfully introduce a new product in one week,” said James Helin, managing director of Paramount’s former agency, D’Arcy’s Los Angeles office. “That’s a very difficult thing to do.” In the film business, that first week--if not the first 72 hours--is often critical to the failure or success of a film.

“It’s the giant crapshoot of all time,” said MGM’s Lorie. “And it attracts the best crapshooters.”

Hakuhodo Advertising Wins Suzuki’s L.A. Dealers

It isn’t exactly sweet revenge--but for all of its work, at least the Los Angeles office of Hakuhodo Advertising didn’t come out empty-handed.

Last week, it won the estimated $600,000 account of the Greater Los Angeles Suzuki Dealers Assn. That win comes just a few months after the agency finished second in the running for Suzuki’s estimated $20-million national automotive ad business. That account was won by Asher/Gould Advertising.

“When we didn’t get the national business, we decided to continue pursing the dealers’ associations,” said David Parmenter, vice president and management director at Hakuhodo. The agency is also doing some creative projects for Suzuki dealer associations in San Diego and Phoenix.

With good work for the dealer associations, Hakuhodo hopes it can land the national account eventually. Sure, Suzuki has only a few models right now. But, joked Parmenter, “We think Suzuki’s saving us for their luxury division.”

Zacky Switches Firms but Not Spokeswomen

A new agency is under wing, but popular spokeswoman Lillian Zacky will continue to crow about Zacky Farms’ chicken in radio commercials.

Last week, the El Monte company--which sells about 1 million chickens every month--handed its estimated $2-million creative account to Italia & Associates in Los Angeles. Western International Media will continue to handle media buying.

For months, Zacky has mostly relied on free-lancers to create the folksy radio ads that for more than a year have featured Lillian Zacky, wife of company President Robert Zacky. In the ads, Lillian Zacky often talks about her fictionalized attempts at the grocery store to get people to buy Zacky Farms brand chicken.

“When I go to food shows, many people tell me they buy Zacky chicken because of the commercials,” said Lillian Zacky. Some people have even begun to ask for her autograph. “Can you imagine that?” she said. “I’m flattered.”

Creators May Buy Back Stake in Growing Firm

Controlling interest in a fast-growing Los Angeles agency may be repurchased by its local management within the next year. The two namesakes of the firm Kresser-Craig, which creates ads for Atlantic Richfield Co., are negotiating with giant Omnicom Co. to repurchase the one-third interest in the agency that they sold to Omnicom just five years ago. The two men already own a one-third interest between them. The remaining one-third is owned by Japanese ad firm Dai-Ichi Kikaku.

“The discussions have been too informal to even be news,” said Robert Kresser, chairman of the agency. But Jean Craig, the agency’s president and creative director, said the deal could be completed within the next year. Why buy back the one-third interest? Replied Craig, whose agency has increased its billings to $80 million from about $20 million over the past five years: “We’re doing terrific.”

Suissa Returns to Puns for Sports Connection Account

If an ad campaign appeared to work well for a former client, is it OK to use virtually the same campaign for a new client?

David Suissa seems to think so. Last year, his Santa Monica agency, Suissa & Associates, created those pun-filled billboards for the Marie Callender’s Family Restaurant chain. The billboards had short snappy sayings like “Yankee Noodle Dandy.” Suissa’s agency lost the restaurant chain’s account late last year.

But Suissa recently picked up the $2.5-million Sports Connection ad business. And last week, Sports Connection billboards began to appear with this saying: “Happy New Rear.”

Is Suissa just rehashing an old campaign for a new client? “We put our egos aside,” said Suissa. “The thing that counts is whether or not a campaign works. I don’t mind criticism if I’m building my client’s business.”