Riney Grasps for Ring, but Saturn May Bring Him Down to Earth
Hal Riney is famous for creating laid-back advertising characters such as Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes, who seemingly haven’t got any problems in the world.
But these days, Riney’s San Francisco ad agency, Hal Riney & Partners, must be feeling squeezed like grapes in a wine press.
The firm is struggling to create an ad strategy for Saturn, the car that GM plans to introduce this fall in an already glutted market. The agency is developing a new ad campaign for troubled Perrier that will ignore completely Perrier’s current headaches. And in a mini-revolt, several key executives left the agency earlier this month to start their own. On top of all that, Riney’s agency is rumored to be on the block.
But Riney, whose agency may be best known for creating the wine cooler advertising slogan “Thank you for your support,” talked like an easy-going character from one of his commercials in an interview in Palm Desert on Friday. He played down those challenges in the interview and during a speech to executives attending the annual meeting of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies.
“We haven’t been sold and we’re not looking to be sold, although we do hear from people from time to time,” Riney said. “Those who have inquired about buying the agency have asked me to sign a 10- to 15-year contract. I can’t do that. I can barely get out of meetings with some clients without quitting.”
Of course, the client that Riney will be meeting with most for the next few years is Saturn.
“There’s this perception that if you get a large account like Saturn, you all go nuts,” said Riney, whose agency employs more than 200 and posts annual billings of more than $300 million. “But just the opposite is true. When you get a large account you can afford to hire more staff. Yet we know we’ve lost out on some new business because people all think we’re too busy with Saturn.”
Saturn, which GM hopes will rival some of Japan’s best compact imports, will show up in showrooms this fall. And Riney’s ad campaign for the line is expected to debut by midsummer.
Executives say the campaign may be the biggest challenge that Riney’s agency has ever faced. “An auto account requires a lot more than advertising,” said Bob Wolf, chairman of Venice-based Chiat/Day/Mojo, the ad firm that took Nissan on as a client less than three years ago. “You have to service auto accounts every hour. And Riney will be facing a dealer body that wants to move sheet metal this week. I think this will be a real test for Riney. The question is, can he deliver?”
It won’t be easy. Take it from Chuck Kushell, general manager at the Marina del Rey office of Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos, which creates ads for Infiniti. “It will very quickly become a pressure-filled situation for Hal to sell cars,” said Kushell.
Riney refuses to talk about his agency’s plans for the campaign. But it won the account several years ago on the basis of a videotape it created that featured interviews with kids in Spring Hill, Tenn., where Saturn will be built. The kids were asked to draw pictures of what the Saturn will look like.
Riney, 56, still signs off on virtually every advertisement the agency produces. And because his is the only name on the agency’s door, many clients demand to deal only with him.
Besides creating the ads, Riney also is the off-camera speaker in many, including campaigns he has created for Gallo wine, Perrier bottled water and Alamo rental cars.
But Riney insists that placing his personal imprint on every ad is more legend then reality. “That hasn’t been true for a long time,” he said. “The more you tell people what to do, the more they inevitably do it. That makes for lazy people. So I’ve backed away from that.”
Those who have formerly worked with Riney say it is no picnic; but they say they always leave the agency better able to create breakthrough ads. “It isn’t a country club,” said Dan Mountain, who recently left Hal Riney to become creative director at Hill Holliday. “It’s like playing for the Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi. You get a lot of championship rings, but you have to work for them.”
One former executive who recently left the agency to form his own said it’s hard for some employees to make their own imprint, and that’s why they leave. “Hal’s name ends up on almost everything,” said the executive who asked not to be identified. “There’s a blurring between Hal Riney the man and Hal Riney the agency.”
Some say that might not matter because in the end, the agency’s work is usually top rate. “The strength of Hal Riney is that he always does something unexpected,” said Hall (Cap) Adams Jr., chairman and chief executive of the Chicago ad agency Leo Burnett, which creates ads for McDonald’s. “And his premise that you’ve got to be different to get noticed is right on the money.”
