Shalek Wins Fox Network’s Big Media-Buying Business

The Shalek Agency grew up Monday.

The Santa Monica ad firm was handed the estimated $20-million to $30-million account to buy broadcast commercial time and print and billboard advertising space for Fox Broadcasting Co. The account was handled until a year ago by giant Western International. Executives at Fox and Shalek declined to state the exact amount of billings.

The win nearly doubles the 2-year-old agency’s annual billings to $65 million. Its staff size also has more than doubled in the past year to about 63 employees. Almost overnight, the agency seems to have been transformed from a creative boutique to a major Los Angeles agency.

“Instead of a big small agency, we’re now a small big agency,” said Nancy Shalek, who at 35 is regarded as one of the most influential executives in the Los Angeles advertising community.

“I want to give respect back to the ad business in Los Angeles,” said the outspoken Shalek, who contends that Los Angeles has lost its reputation as a creative center for advertising. “I want to be a leader of the Los Angeles ad community.”

For Shalek, whose agency successfully completed a 10-month trial period with Fox, the win represents a key change in direction for the firm. Until now, the agency has been best known as a tiny ad shop with exceptional strategic planning and creative expertise but sorely lacking in major media buying clout. That clout is usually achieved by a West Coast agency when it lands a major entertainment or Asian automotive client.

“Much of what the Shalek Agency is about mirrors what we are about,” said a Fox executive who asked not to be named. “They are young and energetic, as are we.”

But ad executives say the Shalek Agency will have its hands full. Three-year-old Fox has already gone through several agencies that have bought its print and broadcast advertising space. When Fox first established its cable network, it turned to Chiat/Day/Mojo for some unusual promotional support, including one highly publicized stunt when Fox temporarily changed the Hollywood sign to read “Fox Hollywood.”

Much like its new agency, Fox is regarded as a maverick among its peers. With some recently successful shows like “The Simpsons” and “Married With Children,” Fox finally has something to brag about. The question is, does the Shalek agency have the media buying clout?

Even Fox admits Shalek doesn’t have the experience. “What it lacks in experience it makes up for in the talented people it has hired for media buying,” said the Fox executive. Two years ago the agency had three media buyers. Today it has 15.

“Nancy is a world-class advertising person,” said Renee Fraser, general manager of the Los Angeles office of the Bozell agency. “What she doesn’t have in (media-buying) clout she can make up for in brains. She certainly has plenty of that.”

Those who have worked closely with Shalek say she is utterly driven by a desire to succeed.

“Nancy is determined to make a name for herself, no matter what it takes,” said Michael Albright, formerly the Shalek Agency’s creative director, who recently left to start his own agency. “Nancy does a very good job promoting her agency. It’s probably better known than most of its clients.”

Indeed, last year the tiny agency, which creates ads for Gibraltar Savings and Teleflora, won honors at the West Coast’s top advertising competition, the Belding Awards, for offbeat print ads it created for former client Gotcha Sportswear. The ads featured pictures of oddball characters over the headline, “If you don’t surf, don’t start.”

But the agency quickly lost Gotcha, just as it also lost the surf wear client that replaced it, Ocean Pacific. Now it is creating unusual swimsuit print ads for a new client, Speedo. Perhaps the agency’s biggest rap is what some executives say is its inability to hang on to many clients for very long. And now there is the additional burden of convincing clients that Fox will not demand most of the agency’s time and talent. Some say the bulk of that talent begins and ends in Shalek’s office.

“Nancy is one of the brightest persons in the business, but she is a very tough leader,” said Herbert D. Fried, chairman of W. B. Doner & Co., the Baltimore agency that left the West Coast two years ago and sold Shalek its Los Angeles office. “Sometimes it works in her favor, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Greg Helm, who recently formed his own agency, Stein Robaire Helm, said that her talent “often overshadows everyone else in the company. That can be dangerous.”

Shalek is familiar with that criticism. After all, even the agency has only her name attached to it. But Shalek said that Fox selected the agency, not just the person running it. The Fox executive agreed. “The whole agency is tough and aggressive.”

No matter how big the agency gets, Shalek said, only one thing is really important to her. “Advertising is power, and most people abuse that power,” she said. “I want to create honest ads. I want people to know what an honorable profession advertising can be.”