Campbell Mithum Expands in Irvine, Boosts Roster
New Breakaway Ad Shop Launched; Del Taco Looking to Sports Marketing
Marketing & Media
by Jennifer Bellantonio
Two years after opening an office near John Wayne Airport, Minneapolis-based Campbell Mithum is relocating to bigger Orange County digs.
The marketing agency recently moved to a larger office in the Irvine Spectrum, a stone’s throw away from its largest local client, Verizon Wireless Inc.’s western region operation, which is based in the Spectrum.
“Our new space is more than double the size of our former location, which not only gives us more elbow room but allows for future growth,” said Julie Ward, senior vice president and general manager.
In the fourth quarter, the agency, part of New York-based Interpublic Group of Companies Inc., said it hired nine new workers, including in account management and creative.
The new space provides room for the growth and allows the agency to have quick “in-person” meetings with Verizon, Ward said.
New Firm Launched
Another Orange County ad exec has stepped out to start his own gig.
David Robertson, founder and former president of Irvine-based SCDRG Inc., a general market advertising firm, recently hooked up with a partner, Robert Schmidt, and launched a new ad shop called Robertson & Schmidt.
“We are a full service advertising and marketing company focused on the entertainment/technology, youth and Hispanic markets,” Robertson said.
Schmidt, founder of Little Red Studio, an ad shop focused on the youth market, will serve as vice president.
The company is based in Irvine and has six employees.
Robertson said he will look to grow the firm’s headcount in the next 12 to 24 months. Current clients include Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications Inc. and Adelphia Communications Corp.
Teaming Up
Long Beach-based QuickQue Media, a gay-owned online marketing agency that focuses on gay-owned and what it calls gay-friendly businesses, recently teamed up with Altadena-based Intrifuse Interactive, a digital design and development company with clients including the University of California, Los Angeles, and Apple Computer Inc.
“With both of us working together we are doing our part in building relationships between gay and non-gay businesses,” said Peter Jacobsen, vice president of marketing at QuickQue.
The combined company is called QMI Interactive and has about 14 employees.
J Marin Grabs Work
The Irvine office of J Marin & Associates was tapped to handle an advertising campaign targeting Hispanic teens for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties.
The contract, which includes print, radio and interior bus advertising, was awarded to the agency after it completed a three-month pilot program last fall.
Jamie Marin Jr., the Hispanic ad agency’s president, said the test program boosted Planned Parenthood services by 30% in targeted areas.
“Teens, ages 15 to 19, will make up the largest single segment in the Hispanic community by the year 2010,” said Kim Custer, vice president of communications for the local Planned Parenthood arm. “With one of highest teen pregnancy rates in the state, it is important that we continue to reach out to teens in Orange County with pregnancy prevention education and services.”
Getting in the Game
Laguna Hills-based Del Taco Inc. has upped its sports sponsorships program in a bid to better target young males.
“Sports are part of the young male demographic that we’re certainly after,” said Tim Hackbardt, the Mexican fast-food chain’s vice president of marketing, in an interview with trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News.
Del Taco has been a sponsor of Anaheim’s Mighty Ducks, but now the company is extending its partnerships to eight other teams in four states, including the Los Angeles Clippers, the Long Beach Ice Dogs hockey team, a farm team of the Seattle Mariners and basketball’s Utah Jazz.
Sports fans can expect to see Del Taco’s logos on cups as well as on stadium signage.
Bits and Pieces:
Mission Viejo-based Keena Communi-cations has kicked into gear promoting the Irvine Spectrum’s first department store, a Robinsons-May. The 140,000-square-foot store is being built by Day Construction Co. in an existing parking area just east of the center Cypress-based Creative Media Reporting provided audio production services for two new TV commercials for the Buena Park Visitors and Convention Bureau. The spots promote the city’s entertainment zone centered along Beach Boulevard Marshall Advertising & Design in Costa Mesa recently broke new spots for client Yamaha Motor Corp. in Cypress and its new line of snowmobiles.
