The hallways at W.B. Doner & Co. in Newport Beach are filled with brochures, catalogs and other marketing materials the ad shop has done recently for clients.
“We do a ton of collateral,” President Tim Blett said. “It’s all about the packaging.”
Clients include Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations, the U.S.-based arm of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp., and La-Z-Boy Inc. of Michigan.
Clients may spend a lot on TV ads, but collateral helps bring the message home, Blett said.
Mazda runs TV and print ads, sponsors events and parties, uses signs and videos in its dealerships and has Web sites.
The “Zoom Zoom Zoom” tagline that Doner created five years ago for Mazda still is threaded throughout the work, Blett said.
“It’s one of the key things that stuck,” he said. “It’s all complete integration. Not leaving any stone untouched to deliver the message.”
That’s meant taking Mazda’s competitor General Motors Corp.’s Pontiac head on in search engine marketing.
Last year, Mazda bought links to search terms “Pontiac” and “Pontiac Solstice” for the launch of the redesigned Mazda MX-5 two-seater sports car, according to a recent USA Today article.
At the time, someone looking for Pontiac on an Internet search would get ads comparing Mazda’s MX-5, also known as the Miata.
Mazda made a similar move last year after Pontiac appeared on “The Apprentice” and asked people to look them up online. Following the episode, Mazda bought links to keywords in that search.
In other business, Doner continues to help Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. lure teens to its chains, PacSun, which sells surfwear, and d.e.m.o., an urban-style clothing retailer.
In new work for PacSun, Doner created print ads that have photos of teens and a list of brands that the stores carry, such as Costa Mesa-based Volcom Inc. and Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.
PacSun needs to stand out, with competition from Ambercrombie & Fitch Co.’s Hollister Co. surfwear chain, Blett said.
Local surf and skate brands are “the one thing that separates (PacSun) from anyone else,” Blett said. “That’s something that Hollister can’t touch.”
Maricich Moves, Hires
Maricich Advertising + Communications is growing after moving to bigger offices last year.
The shop left its Seal Beach digs to double its size in a 4,400-square-foot office in Irvine, Principal Mark Maricich said.
The move let Maricich Advertising hire people and take on new work, including for Golden State Water Co., the city of Santa Ana and Pacific Coast Imaging.
The shop shares the space with Royce Multimedia, which “has allowed us to offer new onsite capabilities, including a complete video editing and production suite,” Maricich said.
Maricich now has 10 workers, up from eight. Capitalized billings grew 55% last year to $8.7 million.
“Although still a small agency, we are making the initial steps toward becoming a midsize firm,” Maricich said. “With more new clients and more new employees in 2005, we were able to reap some of these benefits in our billing.”
Maricich said he expects the momentum to continue in 2006. The shop is projecting a 10% jump to $10 million in OC capitalized billings.
“We anticipate this increase due to the steady growth of the health sector, which is one of our agency’s areas of expertise,” he said.
Being in Irvine helps, according to Maricich.
The area has a “huge concentration of prospective clients in a small amount of space,” he said.
“With all of this business at hand, probably the biggest challenge for OC agencies is not taking on more than they can chew,” Maricich said.
The shop tries to maintain “steady growth” and only works with clients that it can dedicate its “full forces” to, Maricich said.
That’s helped the shop retain accounts for an average of five years, he said.
“We don’t believe in dishing off the smaller clients to our B-team,” Maricich said.
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Marshall ad: shop has $52 million in yearly billings |
Marshall Lands Star
Costa Mesa-based Marshall Advertising & Design Inc. recently launched new work for Star Motorcycles, a division of Yamaha Motor Corp. in Buena Park.
The OC shop created a multimillion-dollar campaign for its largest client that included TV spots, radio, print, outdoor and Web work.
The shop had a strong 2005, according to agency president Diana Marshall.
Marshall Advertising added about $10 million to its billings last year from new and existing clients, she said.
The shop now has yearly billings of about $52 million. To help serve clients better, the shop recently upgraded its servers and brought in new computers and software, Marshall said.
In other news, Marshall Advertising created two new TV spots for client Transportation Corridor Agencies.
