Outsiders Prefer Local Ad Talent
When out-of-town agencies open branches in Los Angeles, most competitors welcome them with Bronx cheers--at best. Local advertisers often respond with equal enthusiasm.
But lured by the prospects of fat ad revenues, agencies from New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and, most recently, Seattle have all amassed here to grab the mythical brass ring.
Some have closed within just a few years. Others remain--despite years of losses--to impress big East Coast clients. A few have flourished. However, a growing number of these out-of-town branches have figured out one crucial step to making it here. They are hiring locally bred talent for top positions.
Hungry for new clients, the 2-year-old Los Angeles office of Boston-based Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc. recently went on a binge of hiring familiar local talent.
Similarly, when Seattle-based Livingston & Co. opened a Venice office several months ago, it wisely brought aboard one of the top creative directors in Los Angeles. And trying to expand its client roster, the Los Angeles office of the Japanese agency Hakuhodo Advertising last year recruited as its No. 2 man the former chairman of a Los Angeles agency.
“This is a surprisingly small ad community,” said Clifford Scott, who just joined Hill Holliday as director of business development. “Either you’re on the inside or the outside.”
Scott was formerly associate partner at the Los Angeles agency Scott Lancaster Mills Atha, which was acquired by Evans Advertising last year. He is one of a dozen local executives that Hill Holliday has hired in recent months to overcome its lingering image as an East Coast ad shop.
The agency, which handles the $100-million-plus Infiniti account, has been unable to build a client list beyond the Japanese luxury car maker. Some say it’s because the firm has remained somewhat aloof from the Los Angeles ad scene.
By beefing up with local talent, “we hope this office will be viewed as a Los Angeles agency, not a Boston ad shop,” said Jack Sansolo, president of the agency’s U.S. operations, who relocated to Los Angeles.
When the Seattle agency Livingston & Co. decided to open a Los Angeles office late last year, it changed the name of its local office to Livingston & Keye to reflect the fact that Paul Keye--one of the most respected creative directors in the city--joined as a partner.
“There’s no question that it helps to hire people who know their way around here,” said Roger Livingston, the agency chairman, who recently relocated to Los Angeles.
Trying to attract more local business, the Los Angeles office of Hakuhodo Advertising eight months ago hired one of the most familiar advertising names in town--Tom Burr.
Burr, who was recently named managing director of the office, was a founding partner of Abert, Newhoff & Burr, the creative but financially strapped agency that went under less than two years ago. “It’s not so much that the Los Angeles ad market is parochial,” Burr said. “But after decades of growth here, why does anyone think we need to be shown how to do advertising by someone from Chicago or New York?”
More Ad Jobs in Orange County
With El Pollo Loco’s decision to consolidate its estimated $8-million ad budget at an Irvine agency, at least half a dozen new ad jobs are suddenly available in Orange County.
DeYoung Ginsberg Weisman Bailey was handed the entire account last week when the Irvine-based fast-food chain took the core of its ad business away from the Los Angeles office of McCann-Erickson.
Layoffs at McCann will be “minor if any,” said Peter Serchuck, senior vice president. Meanwhile, DeYoung plans to hire six employees, said President Dan Ginsberg.
Cherokee Lassos New Agency
The Cherokee clothing brand is not as familiar as giants Levi’s, Guess? or Jordache. But in a bid for more name recognition, the Sunland-based apparel company last week handed its $7-million ad business to Los Angeles-based Davis, Ball & Colombatto Advertising.
“Our creative strategy will be to design advertising that not only makes Cherokee a household name,” said DBC President Brad Ball, “but ends up part of daily conversation in American’s lives, like in a Jay Leno or David Letterman monologue.”
Briefly . . .
Want to be in a Levi’s television spot directed by Spike Lee? The firm is looking for “amazing stories” of things kids do in their jeans. Call (800) 24-LEVIS with yours. . . Della Femina, McNamee/Los Angeles was handed the $2-million Toshiba Facsimile Products account formerly handled by Foote, Cone & Belding. . .Southern California Edison has abruptly dumped George Burns and Betty White as spokespersons.
