Smart Guy’s Ad Agency Does Well Against Big Guys

Tim O’Donnell’s visit to a jeweler to buy an engagement ring turned up more than a diamond.

The advertising writer walked out with a ring and a new client, Hovik Jewelers. The television commercial that O’Donnell and business partner Pat Zimmerman eventually created for Hovik led to their young company’s first major award.

Smart Guy’s Co. in Huntington Beach took home one of the top prizes awarded Saturday night at the 36th annual Orange County AdClub’s contest. Its commercial for the Santa Barbara jeweler was deemed “Best of Show” in the broadcast category.

The TV ad, which aired only in the Santa Barbara area, depicts an average Joe telling the audience about gifts he has purchased for his wife.

He mentions a combination blender/bunion remover, and a giant boxing glove smacks him. He mentions a Jane Fonda workout tape, and the glove knocks him again. But then he mentions Hovik Jewelers, and the glove stops short, saving him from more punishment.

“It’s about making bad gift choices, which we all have done,” said Zimmerman, the ad agency’s visual artist. “The repercussions can be phenomenal.”

Smart Guy’s is one more small firm that is showing the major ad agencies that creativity is not limited to the big guns in town. Having worked for large agencies, O’Donnell and Zimmerman like the freedom of being both the creators and the decision-makers.

“Great ideas get killed in an agency because it has all these layers” of bureaucracy, Zimmerman said. And creative people don’t work directly with the client, so communication is second-hand, she noted.

They met two years ago and formed Smart Guy’s six months later.

“We had a similar philosophy about doing ads, that they should push the envelope,” Zimmerman said. “We both love doing advertising so much, we do it in our spare time.”

Zimmerman was educated in Buffalo and worked free-lance in Denver before moving to Orange County. O’Donnell worked for two major agencies, J. Walter Thompson in Detroit and Dellafemina McNamee in Los Angeles.