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PainePR Makes Cut in Procter & Gamble Slim Down



Hello. I’ll be your Media & Marketing guest columnist while Jennifer Bellantonio is on maternity leave. I’ve dealt with many of the companies mentioned in this column during my 10 years as a reporter and editor at the Orange County Register. I’m now working as a freelance writer to spend more time with my young son. Feel free to e-mail me media and marketing news to tiffany.montgomery@mac.com.

Irvine-based PainePR scored a coup with one of its biggest clients, Procter & Gamble Co.

The consumer products maker recently narrowed the number of public relations firms it uses from nine to five. PainePR made the cut.

Chief Executive David Paine said it’s too soon to say how Procter & Gamble’s move will impact his firm, which has 70 employees in four offices. But it has the potential to be “meaningful” for the business, he said.

“It’s a big deal, it really is,” Paine said.

Procter & Gamble accounts for about 25% of Paine’s annual revenue. PainePR, part of Quebec City-based Cossette Communication Group Inc., handles Procter & Gamble’s Duracell, Pampers, Ivory and Old Spice brands. Procter & Gamble has been a client of PainePR for eight years.


Adding Workers

Santa Ana-based advertising shop Brainsaw is on the hunt for workers after bringing in business.

Tim Fuhrman, chief strategy officer, said the shop is looking for copywriters and a production coordinator to help with Irvine-based Argent Mortgage Co.’s account, among others.

Brainsaw won branding, advertising and internal communications assignments from Argent at the end of last year in a multi-agency review, Fuhrman said.

Argent is a subprime mortgage lender that’s part of Orange-based ACC Capital Holdings Corp., parent of Ameriquest Mortgage Co.

Like other subprime lenders, Argent is in the grips of a dramatic industry downturn. ACC recently struck a financing deal with Citigroup Inc. that could lead to the sale of Argent.

The shop has “at least two other pieces of new business pending,” Fuhrman said.

Brainsaw continues to work on marketing for Lake Forest-based Del Taco Inc., which said recently that it was dropping its spokesman character, “Dan the Del Taco Product Guy,” from ads.

Future marketing is set to showcase the food, Fuhrman said.

“We have recently added some great resources for production that really upgrade the quality of film and the appearance and appetite appeal of Del Taco’s food,” he said.

Brainsaw hired an art director in the past year to help with Del Taco’s account, he said.

The shop also just broke print ads for Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.’s Cleveland Golf unit.


Hyundai Work Up for Grabs

Five or six “major” national advertising agencies are in the process of bidding for Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc.’s account.

The automaker placed its account in review. Former creative agency Richards Group in Dallas declined to participate, Hyundai spokesman Miles Johnson said.

The bidding agencies, which Johnson declined to name, have Hyundai’s business and brand overview and are expected to bring “fresh ideas and new energy to take our creative, marketing and advertising to a new level,” Johnson said.

He said he didn’t know how long the review will take.

Hyundai America spends about $600 million a year on advertising, Johnson said.

Last week came word that Hyundai is cutting ties to its Hispanic marketing agency, Omnicom Group Inc.’s Del Rivero Messianu DDB of Florida. Hyundai spent about $35 million on Hispanic advertising in 2006.


Thinkbig Shift

Thinkbig Media in Aliso Viejo specialized in technology marketing and public relations in the past.

But after recently broadening its scope and creating a “lifestyle” team, the firm has landed some accounts, including: Majestic Brands, an alcohol beverage company in San Francisco preparing to launch a new drink, California Cooler; Isabel Cruz, a cookbook author and restaurateur with five eateries in San Diego and Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles contemporary artist Marjorie Cagle; and Culinary Management Group, owner of Sutra Lounge in Costa Mesa and Kantina restaurant in Newport Beach.

The employees leading the lifestyle team are Carrie Altuvilla Gilmore, previously from Sony Corp.’s PlayStation and the San Francisco 49ers; and Sophia Paliov, who served as a senior account executive and publicist for several agencies in Los Angeles.


Hendrix Lives

Two Orange County companies have been hired to launch a line of energy drinks named after rock star Jimi Hendrix.

The Liquid Experience, created by Beverage Concepts LLC of Los Angeles, is set to feature Hendrix’s name and picture.

Aliso Viejo-based The Engine Room will help design the brand’s packaging, product naming, advertising and marketing materials. Ladera Ranch-based RMS Public Relations in January announced the line’s creation at the NAMM music trade show in Anaheim.

Liquid Experience drinks arrive in stores in April.

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