A Veteran Is Bidding Farewell to Ads
The top executive at the second-largest ad agency in Los Angeles said Monday that he is dropping out of the ad business because the state of the industry--particularly in this market--is on the skids.
“It’s time to see what life is like beyond the world of advertising,” said Stephen Hayman, executive vice president and general manager of Foote Cone & Belding/Los Angeles. “This is not the business I got into 20 years ago--or even five years ago when I was named head of this office. It’s time to try something else.”
Hayman, 44, said he has no plans for the rest of the summer except “to spend time with my children.” Hayman’s replacement--who will be an ad executive from the Los Angeles area--will be named today, said Jack Balousek, president of Foote Cone & Belding Communications.
Hayman’s decision to jump from the industry that he has worked in for two decades seems to be yet another indication of the increasing difficulties faced by many Los Angeles agencies. Most of the headaches that agencies face here--such as the ongoing recession and client cutbacks in advertising--are not unique.
But executives say these problems are compounded by the fact that Los Angeles agencies are overly dependent on big retail advertisers who are often among the first to cut back on advertising when times are bad.
“It’s a tougher go in Los Angeles,” said Balousek, who works out of the firm’s San Francisco office. “It’s not an easy business anywhere, but the heavily retail nature of the Los Angeles market makes business even harder there.”
Some Los Angeles ad executives take strong exception to the notion that the industry--and the business environment here--is different or on the decline.
“I don’t believe in my wildest dreams that the Los Angeles situation is any different structurally than anywhere else,” said Robert Kresser, chairman and chief executive of Kresser/Craig, a Los Angeles agency that recently won the Albertsons grocery chain advertising business away from Foote Cone. “The changes here are cyclical.”
For Foote Cone, it has not been an easy year. Some of its biggest clients, such as Mattel and Mazda, have cut back on ad spending. And its Los Angeles office has picked up little new business. Hayman strongly denies that he was forced out of the agency.
“Twenty years of coming into an agency every morning is a long time to do the same thing,” Hayman said. “I lost my passion and enthusiasm for the day-to-day challenges.” Hayman, who set up the agency’s entertainment division in 1982, said he will likely look for employment in the entertainment industry.
“I’m not saying that advertising is a bad business,” Hayman said. “I’m saying that this industry is in a difficult time and I don’t think it’s going to change.”
Also Noted
Los Angeles agencies may soon be chasing after the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy advertising campaigns that have been put into review by Nintendo. . . . “Prime 9 News” at 10 p.m. on KCAL-TV Channel 9 plans to broadcast a three-part series this Wednesday through Friday on advertising in Los Angeles. . . . The Rev. Michael L. Pfleger has called a press conference in Chicago this morning to announce new actions in his battle against tobacco and alcohol billboard advertisers.
