57.5 F
Laguna Hills
Monday, Mar 18, 2024
-Advertisement-

New Owner Expanding Johnson/Ukropina, er, “J-U”

Donna Carter, who recently bought Irvine-based Johnson/Ukropina Creative Marketing, has wasted no time bringing in more work and talent.

The shop, which now goes by “J-U,” landed several accounts and expanded work with others.

“Our clients still get the same great service they’ve always enjoyed” from an “evolved” agency, Carter wrote in a recent e-mail to clients.

J-U just landed advertising work from Woodland Hills health insurer HealthNet Inc. focused on its senior business, Carter said.

The shop also was tapped by Beachwood, Ohio-based Wastequip, a maker of waste hauling compaction units, to develop a training program for its Waste Management University.

Plus, J-U is getting ready to launch a multimedia advertising and outreach program for the Metropolitan Water District, which exercised a $5.4 million, third year of its contract with the shop to promote conservation.

New work will break in July and August and “emphasize how easy it is to save water,” Carter said.






AlPunto work for InterContinental: done in Argentina

J-U also is putting final touches on a bus pass sales program for the Orange County Transportation Authority, which breaks in September.

The shop picked up the transit authority’s work again after a five-year break.

Other new work: Cypress-based Real Mex Restaurants Inc. tapped J-U to develop a local marketing program for its Acapulco Mexican restaurant chain.

In other news, J-U recently promoted Robbynn Lystrup to vice president, director of client services. The shop also brought in Sandra Luciano as vice president, executive creative director. Luciano left Young & Rubicam in Irvine where she was senior vice president, group creative director.

Carter said she also expects to hire another five or so workers this year as new work comes in.


Mas AlPunto

Last week, I gave a glimpse of the new work Tustin-based alPunto Advertising is doing for client InterContinental Hotels Group PLC.

Since, I’ve gotten a few more details.

Tony Stanol, alPunto chief business strategist, said the shop used the same production company and directors in Argentina to create campaigns for InterContinental’s Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotel chains.

The move let the shop “maximize efficiencies for the best possible production quality,” Stanol said.

AlPunto has worked with InterContinental since 2003.

The new campaigns will run this year and in 2008, Stanol said.

“For now, it’s just TV but we’re working on some radio campaigns and Spanish language Web sites as well,” Stanol said.


Protos Winners

The winners are in for this year’s 32nd Annual Protos Awards.

The event, hosted by the Orange County chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, recently was held in Newport Beach and honored OC’s top public relations professionals, groups and students.

There were awards given in 46 different categories, including community outreach programs and multimedia presentations.

About 250 people attended.

The top honor, Best in Show, went to PainePR in Irvine and Rocket XL for the consumer program they created for Blockbuster Inc.

This is the second year PainePR took home the top win.

Other big winners: Orange County Transportation Authority, which got 18 awards; Bock Communications in Costa Mesa (12 awards); Costa Mesa-based Global Results Communications, Costa Mesa-based Idea Hall and Porter Novelli of Irvine (six awards each).

Individuals who were honored included Bill Prichard, senior specialist of internal communications at Allergan Inc. in Irvine, Melinda Morgan, owner of Morgan Marketing & Public Relations LLC in Irvine, and Rick Reiff, the Business Journal’s “OC Insider” columnist and host and executive producer of KOCE-TV’s “Inside OC.”


Larger Idea Hall

Costa Mesa-based Idea Hall continues to grow.

The public relations and marketing shop recently hired three people. Sonia Aujla will handle public relations and marketing counsel and oversee strategic planning for accounts and project teams. Korina Kannedy is developing the design of ads, logos and collateral materials. Michael Frazier is assisting the senior art director and production artist with client marketing and design projects.

The shop said it made the hires after bringing in more work, including environmental marketing, which was mentioned in last week’s column.


New Hill & Knowlton Boss

Hill & Knowlton USA has a new general manager for its Irvine and Los Angeles offices.

The public relations shop said Hope Boonshaft will take the top spot and report to global Chief Executive Paul Taaffe.

Boonshaft is based out of Hill & Knowlton’s L.A. office overseeing Irvine.

She most recently was at the Los Angeles Opera, where she oversaw marketing, public relations and community outreach.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-