W.B. Doner & Co. in Newport Beach hired an executive to help go after more work.
The advertising shop said it brought on Mark Brown as senior vice president and media director. He’ll oversee the office’s media department and all clients, including Irvine-based Mazda North America Operations.
Doner also said Brown will “play a key role in new business development.”
He most recently was senior vice president and group communications planning director at MindShare, a media communications shop in Dearborn, Mich.
Brown has a lot of experience in traditional and digital media and will be part of a push to strengthen the shop’s expertise, said Alan Kalter, chief executive of Doner’s parent in Southfield, Mich.
Growth in interactive marketing already has helped spur work at the Newport Beach office.
In a recent interview, Tim Blett, who oversees the local shop, said he had a “positive” outlook for the rest of the year.
“We are very optimistic,” he said.
Doner’s Orange County office has yearly capitalized billings of about $350 million. It has about 120 workers.
Online Juice
There’s going to be a Web show covering entertainment news in Orange County.
Santa Ana-based Orange County Register Communications Inc., which publishes the Orange County Register and other titles and Web sites, said it’s launching “The Juice” on OCRegister.com and got a host for the show, Jennifer Galardi.
She was picked after a public competition held in February with 250 others.
Galardi got a $5,000 prize and a contracted position worth up to $50,000. She starts Monday at juice.ocregister .com.
The three-minute broadcast will include entertainment news and events in the county.
The show, which has daily segments, will be created from the KDOC-TV studio inside the Orange County Register.
Freedom Interactive, a division of Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc.,owner of the Orange County Register,will help produce it.
The move is part of the company’s bid to make more online plays.
J-U Growing
It was one year ago that Donna Carter bought Irvine-based advertising shop J-U.
“We accomplished a lot,” Carter said.
The agency launched a Web site and its first direct and online marketing program to promote itself.
“And guess what? Marketing works,” Carter said. “We’ve brought in some new clients.”
They include Black & Decker Corp.’s Price Pfister and Kwikset, El Torito Restaurants Inc. and Black Angus Steakhouse Restaurant.
The new business replaced the loss of homebuilder Taylor Woodrow after the company combined with Morrison Homes, Carter said. J-U competed in the review to keep the account, but didn’t win, she said.
J-U, which has 14 workers, counted $16 million in OC capitalized billings last year.
Carter said when she bought J-U she decided she “wasn’t going to count on referrals for our business and just grow organically.”
“If they come that’s terrific,” Carter said. “But it’s a slow and risky strategy.”
To get ahead in the advertising world today, “you have to seek your own opportunities on many, many levels,” she said.
“Building new business is a very long term prospect,” Carter said. “I see that big retainer clients are very rare and hard to come by.”
Instead, J-U typically works on a project basis, she said.
“We’re finding that our new clients just keep giving us projects with no commitment in the future,” Carter said. “That’s OK for us.”
The move has helped the shop build relationships and caused clients to “lean heavily on us for strategic creative,” Carter said.
This year, J-U is trying to diversify its mix, Carter said.
The shop is going after business in the retail and business-to-business sectors through direct marketing and problem solving for potential clients, she said.
J-U is also beefing up its bidding for government contracts and is getting certified as a woman-owned business, which “gives us opportunities with Fortune 500 companies that have diversity programs,” Carter said.
“All this is designed to make J-U more recession-proof,” she said. “I still see 2008 as a building year for us where we get all this in place and then are on a trajectory for solid, strategic growth from 2009 and beyond.”
Bits and Pieces:
San Clemente-based Pencilbox Studios, which handles design and marketing, was tapped by Camino Health Center in San Juan Capistrano for marketing work. The OC shop will help promote the center and its 25 years running as a not-for-profit agency Marketing shop IPW Experience in Costa Mesa helped Mozambique Steakhouse in Laguna Beach promote food specials by organizing a fashion show with Hobie Surf Shop, a DJ and action sports videos on plasma screens.
