FCB Nabs German Account; Wahoo’s Featured in Merrill Lynch Ads
Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.’s Computer Systems Group in Irvine launched a $60 million branding campaign last week with the first ads created by its new ad shop, DGWB Advertising in Irvine.
The “Choose Freedom” campaign, scheduled to run throughout 2000 and beyond, will include television, online and print advertising. A full-page color ad appearing Jan. 24 in the Wall Street Journal kicked off the campaign and will be followed by a 30-second national TV spot on cable stations such as CNN, Discovery Channel and ESPN beginning this week. By March, the Toshiba ads will be hitting the networks. They are the first TV spots created for the company in three years, said spokeswoman Marie Meoli.
DGWB Advertising took over the Toshiba account from Bozell last year.
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FCB Worldwide Southern California, Costa Mesa, has won a global advertising account with Internet 2000, a German company with offices in Laguna Hills.
The account has an estimated value of $12 million to $15 million.
The OC ad shop, which won the account in a shootout with three other Southern California agencies, becomes the company’s first advertising agency and will handle its public relations, advertising, interactive and media buying. The campaign will likely include TV spots in Germany and print and interactive work in the United States.
“We were very happy with the presentation they gave and confident they will do a good job branding the company on a worldwide basis,” said Steve Cart, Internet 2000’s vice president of marketing.
Privately held Internet 2000 is a four-year-old company that facilitates business-to-business e-commerce. It has 80 employees worldwide, including offices in Munich, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. It was seeking an agency with worldwide capabilities and Internet savvy, Cart said.
“One of the things (FCB) has that we didn’t see with the other agencies was a strong digital team with a strong understanding of the Internet and Internet marketing,” Cart said. “Also, (FCB) knows the reality of Internet time versus traditional media and marketing time. We signed them up in the morning and were going over strategies that afternoon. Another agency said they could launch in six to eight weeks.”
FCB said it will launch March 1.
Meanwhile, the former Bozell Worldwide put up its new FCB Worldwide signage last week.
Santa Ana-based Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, a 12-unit Mexican fast-food chain, is featured in a flashy TV commercial created for Merrill Lynch by its ad shop, J. Walter Thompson in New York.
The 30-second and 60-second TV spots, which began Jan. 5 on CNBC for a 13-week run, have been airing during the football playoffs and several network news and prime-time shows.
The restaurant chain was invited by Dominic Alvarez, a broker for the Newport Beach offices of Merrill Lynch, to compete against more than 400 other Merrill Lynch small-business clients to be featured in one of six spots.
The chain was founded by brothers Wing Lam, Ed Lee and Mingo Lee, Brazilian immigrants of Chinese descent who began with a loyal following of surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders. The three are joined by their parents, Cheong Lee and So-Ching Lee who gave their sons the first $60,000 loan in 1988. Merrill Lynch has loaned the brothers $2.3 million over the past two years for expansion.
The commercial’s theme is “Only in America,” but the Wahoo’s founders helped win themselves the spot with their own version: “Only in America can a Chinese guy sell Mexican food.” The two-day shoot took place in the company’s Santa Ana warehouse, its Bristol Street restaurant in Costa Mesa and one of their homes.
Merrill Lynch was smitten with the line because they want to convince potential customers that they are not so stuffy, they are willing to take a risk and they want to be on the cutting edge, said Wing Lam, who believes the financial firm has spent approximately $20 million to shoot and air the commercials.
The brothers have permission to run the spots locally and plan to re-launch the spot here in conjunction with the opening of their Torrance restaurant in March or April.
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How many golf publications does Orange County need?
Los Angeles Lifestyle & Golf is duking it out with its neighbor Orange County Golf. Both publishers are in Santa Ana, on the same street.
Gary M. Dagampat, president and CEO of Fairway Media Group Inc., began publishing his Los Angeles Lifestyle & Golf this year. OC Golf launched five years ago.
And it doesn’t stop there. Golfers who play Southern California have even more options, Golf Southern California in San Diego, Golf News in Palm Springs and Avid Golf.
Now if only you could get a tee time.
Bits and pieces:
Prandium Inc., Irvine, and C-TRIBE.com, San Francisco, have partnered to offer gift certificates online for Prandium’s El Torito and Koo Koo Roo restaurants Diedrich Coffee Inc., Irvine, opened a new Costa Mesa store and said it plans stores in Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach and the South Coast Metro area this year.
