$10-Million Job Gives Ayer-Tuttle Shot in Arm

After months of scrapping for new business, the Los Angeles ad agency Ayer-Tuttle got a much needed lift Friday when it picked up the $10-million Doubletree Hotel ad account.

The win would seem to at least temporarily guarantee the survival of the agency, which has gone through some rough times the past year. “I hope we’ve turned a major corner,” said Donna F. Tuttle, who was named chairman of the office a year ago.

Doubletree becomes the office’s largest client. It lost its previous biggest client, the Computer Systems division of Toshiba America Information Systems, in January. At the time, with its annual billings at only $10 million, rumors spread that the office might close.

But things are looking up. While doing project work for Phoenix-based Doubletree this year, the firm added a handful of employees to boost its staff to 26. Tuttle said the office, which now posts annual billings of $22 million, plans more hiring.

Tuttle, the Commerce Department’s undersecretary for travel and tourism during the Reagan Administration, had been viewed as an ad industry outsider. But her tourism connections are starting to pay off at the agency, which also creates ads for Iberia Airlines and Olson Travelworld. The firm will try to position Doubletree, which has 59 locations in the United States, including 12 in California, as a national chain. Doubletree was recently purchased by Toronto-based Canadian Pacific Hotels & Resorts, which has big expansion plans.

“The chain doesn’t have a clear identity,” said Tuttle. “We can help them develop a brand identity and give them something to stand for.”