Irvine-based RiechesBaird has added to its management team.
The advertising shop and business consultant hired Alan Brew, a former managing director at Siegel & Gate in Los Angeles, as senior vice president.
Brew is set to help RiechesBaird strengthen ties to clients and bring in business, Chief Executive Ryan Rieches said.
A 20-year veteran, Brew’s career stops include working at brand consultant Landor Associates in London and WPP Group PLC’s Enterprise IG, a brand consultant in New York.
The move comes on the heels of wins for RiechesBaird. Last fall, the shop brought in two accounts, Optivus Technology Inc. in Loma Linda and Atlanta-based law firm Fisher & Philips LLP.
Ray Baird, agency principal, said the shop used existing staff to handle the added work and has a “very strong” outlook for 2007.
“We have seen a significant increase in budgets created in the 2006 planning calendar,” Baird said.
There’s also a shift in attitudes, he said. Clients are more “receptive to investing in market analysis, research, strategic planning and branding,” Baird said.
“Most clients have went through cost reductions in previous years and are now looking to expand market share,” he said.
Virgin In-Flight
Wunderman, the interactive arm of Young & Rubicam Brands Inc. in Irvine, spent the past year working on an in-flight entertainment system for Virgin America Inc., the fledgling airline partially owned by Britain’s Virgin Group Ltd.
The division worked with Connecticut’s CoKinetic Systems Corp., Anaheim’s Innovative Media Solutions and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.’s Panasonic Avionics Corp., which has operations in Lake Forest, to create the system called Red.
Virgin is promoting Red at www.LetVAFly.com, a sort of campaign site for the airline.
The airline is fighting to start domestic flights after a December federal application rejection based on foreign ownership questions.
The account is one of several that Wunderman brought in for Young & Rubicam this past year.
Ducks TV
“The Element,” a hockey show produced by Honda Center in Anaheim, is expected to reach more fans this month.
The arena, home to the Anaheim Ducks, said KDOC-TV in Irvine plans to air the 30-minute show, along with some Cox Communications Inc. cable stations and the city of Anaheim’s ACTV3.
“The Element” gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at the Ducks and Honda Center events.
It started in 2005, going out to about 2 million viewers. Now it’s expected to go out to about 6 million in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Still Skeptical
Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. is helping Wall Street breathe a bit easier about its 2005 buy of France’s Skis Rossignol.
I recently wrote about changes Quiksilver made at the ski maker, including consolidating factories, opening new headquarters, tweaking marketing and designs and launching Rossignol clothes this year.
The company had a solid quarter ended Oct. 28, in which Rossignol helped drive sales and profit growth.
Not everyone is satisfied.
Jeff Mintz, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, recently downgraded Quiksilver’s stock from “buy” to “hold” for several reasons, including a projected slowing in revenue growth this year and 2008 at Quiksilver’s “established brands.”
Roxy for girls and Quiksilver clothes continue to sell “strong,” Mintz said. But he said he expects business to slow as the brands gain more exposure in Europe.
“We do not expect larger, well-distributed brands such as Quiksilver and Roxy to be able to maintain growth rates above mid- to high-single digits,” he said.
Quiksilver’s smaller Vista-based DC Shoes has room to grow but faces a “lower ceiling” than “either the Quiksilver or Roxy brand,” Mintz said.
Skis and snowboards, Rossignol’s mainstay, could continue to hold back profits since they aren’t as lucrative as clothes and skiing isn’t a “fast-growing sport,” Mintz said.
There’s been anticipation about Quiksilver’s debut this month of Rossignol sportswear, which many analysts see as a way for the company to drive sales.
Last week, Quiksilver named former Columbia Sportswear Co. merchandise manager Jose M. Garcia as the new head of Rossignol Americas’ apparel business.
Quiksilver already has started promoting the line, which hits this fall.
But the Rossignol clothes are “unlikely to have a significant impact” on Quiksilver until 2009, Mintz said.
