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Teen divisions: Two OC ad shops have them, others see no need



A Pair of OC Ad Shops Have Teen-

Marketing Divisions, but Others Are Skeptical

Thom McElroy sits with a few 20- to 30-somethings and raps about a business pitch.

The ad exec and his colleagues are minutes away from presenting to a prospective client in the extreme sports industry, and nothing is being left to chance.

A blond dude with spiked hair and an earring slouches in his chair in thought. Another guy with a crew cut and goatee tips his chair back and talks tactics with McElroy, who’s dressed to impress: a crisp shirt, hot-pink pants, and a fresh shave that left two strategically placed patches of hair on his chin.

McElroy is the chief creative officer of McElroy: FCB, a youth marketing agency he founded 12 years ago and later sold to FCB Southern California. He and his crew are an example of a new approach to teen marketing that has caught on in at least two local ad shops. FCB, with its acquisition of McElroy, and The T & O; Group, Irvine, have developed separate divisions for youth marketers, where piercings, tattoos and surfing at lunch is in,and so is the picture of a giant hot-pink pig above McElroy’s desk.

These marketers argue that their edgy look, hang-loose attitudes and beach lifestyles are among the things that give them an edge over competitors when it comes to tapping Generation Y,a fickle yet economically powerful group of 12- to 24-year-olds.

But not everyone sees at it that way. Of the top 11 ad shops in OC, FCB and T & O; are the only ones with separate teen marketing divisions.

“It’s not a matter of putting people out there with spiky hair,” said Billy Fried, senior vice president, group manager and director of new accounts at Doner, Newport Beach. “I think that’s superficial.”

Instead, Fried said, look doesn’t matter for clients who want marketers who can tap the emotions of any demographic by solid account planning and good creative work, which he says Doner has done for clients like Mazda,with no teen division.

“That really brands (an agency) as somebody that can do youth marketing,” Fried said.

Jon Gothold, partner and executive creative director at DGWB, Santa Ana, said the move to create teen departments is just another “branding tool” agencies use to lure business.

He said DGWB toyed with the idea once, but decided against it. The ad shop does work for longtime client surfwear maker Ocean Pacific, Irvine, held the account of Santa Fe Springs-based Vans Inc. five years in the early ’90s, and has done projects for Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.

“If you’re fortunate enough to have a teen brand that you’re kicking butt with, that speaks louder than having to form a division,” Gothold said. “We can just talk about our successes and that’s more powerful and more persuasive then starting something and giving it a funny name.”

But McElroy,which now holds the Vans account,and Mark McVicker, creative leader of 3-year-old Orange Zone, a youth division created by The T & O; Group, Irvine, argue their approach goes deeper.

Both employ “grassroots” research tactics that go beyond focus groups to hanging with “edge” kids on the mountains, at the beaches and in skate parks. And since teens are especially skeptical of guys in suits, McElroy said looking cool and fitting in gives him an edge.

“Where the kids hide and feel most comfortable, that’s kind of where we get in. But the only way we’re able to do that is if we fit in. It’s not like corporate America is coming in,” said McElroy. He added that the teen marketing divi print, packaging and a van used to market to kids at events, among other things.

Lucy Bridges, youth segment manager at Verizon Wireless, said that just as the company tapped a Hispanic shop to market to Hispanics, it felt it needed a separate teen marketing agency to get the right expertise to reach that demographic group.

“We are exercising a lot of caution. We want to be cool but we don’t want to try too hard and turn them off,” Bridges said. “The Orange Zone kind of knows that fine line that we need to walk.”

Verizon is using Southern California as a testing ground, and if the work proves successful here and in a couple of other markets, Bridges said, the campaign will roll out across the country.

Snow resort Mountain High is another business that steered away from a general market agency and went to a teen ad shop (McElroy, before it was purchased by FCB) when it planned to change its business strategy.

“We were looking for somebody that lived the lifestyle of our consumers,” said Brad Wilson, assistant general manager and director of marketing at Mountain High.

The resort traditionally focused on baby boomers, or 24- to 44-year-olds, through a general ad shop specializing in snow sports. But Wilson said Mountain High wanted to shift the focus to 12- to 24-year-olds (the majority on the mountain these days) to bring in more business.

“We’ve gone from a resort that was floundering with around 200,000 skier visits per season four years ago to a resort that just set a record in California with 577,000 skier visits,” Wilson said. “The results are what really speak for what McElroy and the group here has accomplished.”

But some ad execs argue that results don’t necessarily flow from an edgy look, attitude or separate teen division.

Mark Weinfeld, senior vice president for strategic planning at Bates USA West in Irvine, said that breaking out teen marketing is more of a “valuable sales tool” rather than “a real need.” The agency has used research tactics developed for longtime client Pacific Sunwear to help Bates USA clients, such as Wendy’s and Hyundai Motor America, according to Weinfeld.

“If your planning department applies the right tools you should be able to gain that insight” no matter what type of client you’re doing business with, Weinfeld said.

Despite the differences between the camps both sides agree on two things: Generation Y is too big to be ignored and clients dig funky new approaches.

“You’ve got to figure out how to speak to them because if you don’t you’re going to be losing out on this huge chunk of revenue,” said McVicker. “Clients are starting to understand that.” n

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