For 2 N.Y. Ad Agencies, It’s California Here They Come

Madison Avenue is sticking its hands into the Los Angeles advertising cookie jar again.

Two major New York agencies revealed plans this week to open offices in the Southland. Young & Rubicam, which just won the estimated $30-million to $35-million 20th Century Fox Film Corp. media-buying account, said it plans to open a Los Angeles office near Fox within weeks. And Lowe Marschalk, which recently won the estimated $60-million Prudential Insurance advertising business, plans to open a Costa Mesa office this month.

The chief executives of both agencies insist that their new Southern California offices are only being opened to service the clients each of them recently won. But the history of many New York agencies that enter the Los Angeles market is that about a year after they establish themselves they go on the prowl for new business. That new business is usually snatched from other agencies in town.

“It’s bad news for agencies like us,” said Greg Helm, president of the 1 1/2-year-old Los Angeles agency Stein Rorbaire Helm. “It brings two more agencies into the fray.”

The move west flies in the face of relatively recent problems the Eastern shops have experienced in Los Angeles. In 1987, William Esty left town when it lost the Nissan business to Chiat/Day/Mojo. And in 1988, Scali, McCabe, Sloves closed its Los Angeles office less then two years after it opened.

Certainly, Young & Rubicam knows firsthand how difficult Los Angeles can be. It has opened an office--and closed it--in Los Angeles once before. After Y&R; lost the business for Walt Disney Productions in 1987, it closed its local office. The agency continues to have part ownership in the Los Angeles agency HDM.

Meanwhile, Lowe Marschalk expects to hire up to 15 employees for its first office in Southern California, said Andrew J. Langer, chief executive. The office will primarily service the Costa Mesa-based Prudential Real Estate Affiliates.