PGI Putting OC Units Under One Roof; Buckley Goes Virtual
76 Lubricants, the Costa Mesa-based division of Tosco Corp., recently awarded Bulldog Drummond in San Diego its $3 million advertising account. The ad shop, which competed with eight other national and regional agencies, including four OC contenders, replaces incumbent Daily & Associates in West Hollywood, which had held the account for two years and did not compete for the new account.
The assignment includes branding, print advertising and collateral materials. 76 Lubricants advertises in automobile trade publications such as Hot Rod and Motor Trend. Agencies competing in the final shootout were Lawrence Mayo & Ponder, Newport Beach; The T & O; Group, Irvine; Lenac, Warford, Stone Inc., Newport Beach; and Parker Stephens, Costa Mesa.
To announce the agency’s win, the lubricants company a hired a huge truck draped with a 76 banner and sent it to Bulldog Drummond’s office. Next, a trail of 76 antennae balls led agency staff members to an awaiting limousine that swooshed them away to a local Irish pub where 76 Lubricants had organized a welcome party.
“We got creative because they are so creative,” said Jody Schneider, senior account supervisor of 76 Lubricants.
PGI Consolidates in OC
Arlington, Va.-based PGI Inc. is in the midst of consolidating its OC offices.
Two months ago, the event and meetings management company opened a three-person office, PGI Orange County, in Laguna Beach. In June, the company purchased Homerhumes Creative, a 3-year-old production house in Costa Mesa, for an undisclosed sum. The two offices will merge with no layoffs to create a staff of nine employees, including former Homerhumes president Paul Wigboldy, who becomes PGI’s West Coast director of production.
PGI, which was founded in 1990, employs more than 500 company-wide and contracts with another 2,600 for various events in 28 cities worldwide with yearly sales of $160 million.
Lapping It Up
Buckley/Friedman Marketing Communications, Costa Mesa, is breaking down the barriers of a traditional office environment and setting its employees free to work at home or anywhere they can plug in a laptop computer. The agency, which bills about $9 million annually, has 13 employees, including six advertising professionals.
“Our clients see no drawbacks to our new virtual setup,” said Shawn Buckley, founder and president of the 11-year-old agency. “We were doing most of our business by phone, fax and e-mail already and we continue to conduct face-to-face meetings as usual.”
McElroy Debuts Vans Campaign
McElroy: FCB, Newport Beach, is launching a new $7.5 million campaign for Vans Inc. that features three TV spots filmed on black-and-white, 16 mm film. The campaign includes national print advertising in industry trade publications as well as in Spin, Rolling Stone, Stuff and Maxim magazines.
Also, the agency recently received a citation of excellence at the American Advertising Awards in Las Vegas for a retail brochure it created for Volcom in Costa Mesa. The youth-oriented ad shop, working with Volcom’s in-house art director, Ethan Anderson, put together a sales brochure for retailers full of youth-empowering messages such as “Control Hatred” and “Youth Against Violence.” Volcom, which manufactures surf and skate inspired sportswear, hired the ad shop about a year ago to head up its advertising efforts.
New York’s Getting the Pictures
The work of several local photographers is being showcased in a new traveling exhibit called The World Is Round 2000, which is headed for Photo Expo East in New York
The exhibit, which consists of 64 photographs chosen from 800 entries, was recently shown at the Los Angeles Convention Center and The Perfect Exposure Gallery in Los Angeles. Future showings in Southern California are to be announced.
Orange County Register photographers Daniel A. Anderson, Chris Carlson, Bruce Strong, Kelly A. Swift, Paul Rodriguez, Nadia Borowski Scott, Cindy Yamanaka and Dave Yoder as well as Times Orange County shooters Rick Loomis, Allen Schaben (disclosure: he’s my husband), Francine Orr, Geraldine Wilkins and former Times staffer Kari Rene Hall were among the exhibitors from OC.
Bits and Pieces:
Marci Dodson, former assistant city editor and healthcare reporter for the Times Orange County, recently became managing editor of Medical Industry Today in Santa Ana. Dodson, who spent 21 years with the Times, left two years ago to spend more time with her family Pittman & Associates, the PR arm of Lawrence, Mayo & Ponder in Newport Beach, has picked up a new account with Huntington Beach-based HighMark. The PR firm, which was awarded the account without a review, will handle media relations and trade show support for the 7-year-old furniture manufacturer.
