What’s your outlook on billings growth for the year?
DAN NANCE
Chief Executive
Casanova Pendrill Inc.
Costa Mesa
We experienced over 30% growth in billings during 2006 due to organic growth and new business wins. While this level of new business success is never guaranteed, we anticipate double-digit billings growth during 2007.
RAY BAIRD
Principal
RiechesBaird Inc.
Irvine
This year should mirror the last several years in terms of billings and growth. Although we believe the economy will slow down slightly, the addition of our business strategy offering and our reputation for brand development are already offsetting the decline in execution that most advertising agencies are experiencing.
EDUARDO BOTTGER
President, Chief Executive,
Creative Director
Al Punto Advertising Inc.
Tustin
TONY STANOL
Chief Business Strategist
Al Punto
You will think I’m out of my mind if I told you the explosive growth we project over the next two years. However, we base our projections on the restructuring that began last year and continues into this year. We are looking at growth opportunities with virtually each one of our clients and fielding new business requests left and right. We’re in the enviable position to actually be selective in which reviews we will participate and have turned down some recently. Needless to say we expect to be up significantly in billings in 2007.
JILL GWALTNEY
Chief Executive
Rauxa Direct
Costa Mesa
We continue to see businesses recognize the power of our segment, direct response marketing. Direct marketing has a measurable return on investment. Over the past five years we’ve had consistent 30% growth each year. This year we’ve set lofty goals to continue that.
HAL BRICE
Chief Executive
HeilBrice Inc.
Newport Beach
2007 is shaping up to be a great year. Clients are getting more comfortable with the new realities of media and the opportunities to build close, personal relationships with customers. Technology that seemed scary 24 months ago now seems obvious and simple to them. For our company, that is translating into more opportunities and projects.
What’s the most creative or innovative advertising ad campaign you’ve seen recently?
Nance of Casanova Pendrill
The Target work continues to impress me as fresh, visually intriguing and building a great brand with consumers of a wide demographic.
Baird of RiechesBaird
The Mini Cooper work gets a lot of accolades in the U.S., but I really like the campaign done for the UK. Also, Leo Burnett has totally refreshed its image with its site, www.leoburnett.com. Other favorites are Droga5’s tap-water project for UNICEF and the Adidas posters for the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, printed using the blood of the players. You can watch how they were made on YouTube.
Bottger and Stanol of al Punto
The Mac Guy vs. PC campaign is a great personification of those two brands in which Mac absolutely repositions PCs in the process. Locally, Carl’s Jr. does a great job staying on top of hungry young guy’s minds with surprising and funny work. GE’s Green campaign is a beautiful corporate statement.
Gwaltney of Rauxa Direct
The campaign that stands out to me is the Mac TV ads. It’s creative, fun and memorable because these spokesmen represent the computers themselves. Even when I’m watching a recorded show on my TiVo, I’ll stop and watch it. With some creative commercials the actual message or product isn’t retained, but with the Mac ads I remember the product and the benefits.
Brice of HeilBrice
As someone who has owned at least one of virtually every Mac ever made (remember the Cube?) I think the new Apple work is fabulous. Is it just me or does the PC character look just like Bill Gates? The campaign lives nicely online as well.
What are the biggest challenges you expect to face this year?
Nance of Casanova Pendrill
One of our biggest challenges is recruiting experienced, bilingual talent (particularly in the creative and account planning/strategic planning areas). Increasingly, the cost of living in Orange County is a barrier for out-of-state candidates.
Baird of RiechesBaird
Educating potential clients that there is a better way for creating successful strategies that produce results. Typical advertising agencies have been reduced to execution vendors. They are not invited to the boardroom. However, in many cases, advertising agencies are held accountable for the marketing results. No wonder the typical agency/client relationship is less than 24 months.
Bottger and Stanol of al Punto
We have traditionally had difficulty finding good people, and we’re in the cycle of upgrading across the board. The home run is when you find bicultural and bilingual individuals who have experience working with Fortune 500 advertisers. We’re looking for highly productive people who get it.
Gwaltney of Rauxa Direct
Our key challenge is how to best represent ourselves through the traditional request for proposal process. It’s a vital process where companies choose between vendors. But would you pick a spouse based on a survey and a presentation? Since we offer powerful and measurable services, we’re trying to find the best way to represent who we are and why we are the best at what we do.
Brice of HeilBrice
We’re moving away from commission-based compensation to a myriad of other varieties of ways of getting paid, including having “skin in the game” with clients when appropriate. It isn’t as much a challenge as an awesome opportunity and the way we’ve always wanted to work.
