Another Text-Only Ad Hits TV; New Homebuyers’ Mag Planned
The Newport Beach offices of Southfield, Mich.,-based Doner have landed a new account with San Diego-based RealAge.com estimated to reach $20 million in ad spending this year.
Doner competed with an undisclosed number of agencies for the account.
A few days earlier, Doner was chosen to handle the estimated $30 million account of PiNGPoNG.com, a Fountain Valley Internet start-up that had creative differences with its original pick, FCB Worldwide.
The two accounts bring Doner’s OC office billings to an estimated $325 million annually.
RealAge.com is a leading provider of personal health assessments over the Internet. The site was developed by company co-founder Dr. Michael Roizen, professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Academic teaching hospitals, medical schools and some large corporations are using RealAge with their health and wellness programs. RealAge is a system that allows people to measure the relative value of health choices. The company’s web site has more than 2 million members.
“This is an important year for RealAge.com in terms of expanding our membership,” said RealAge.com chief executive officer Charlie Silver. “We have selected Doner because they showed a keen understanding of how to build the RealAge brand both online and offline, and they are interested in being real partners with the company.”
The RealAge.com assignment is further evidence that Doner isn’t just competitive in the West, but can thrive in categories beyond automotive, said Doner chairman and chief executive officer Alan Kalter.
“This is a special company with a great product,” he said. “In fact, RealAge transcends being just product or a service because of the extraordinary resource it provides to people who work hard at their health and want a long life.”
The first advertising campaign developed by Doner and RealAge will break in the spring.
This is the third dot-com client for Doner’s Newport Beach offices. The agency landed IntelliFutures.com in Aliso Viejo in October and PiNGPoNG.com in February.
Also, the local offices are competing with at least three other agencies for an $18 million account with Walnut Creek-based Longs Drug Stores.
Doner moved to California nearly two years ago to join its No. 1 client, Mazda North American Operations, bringing a second account here with Arby’s California regional franchisees.
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Simplicity is catching on. Huntington Beach-based What A Lot A Pizza, a seven-unit family owned operation that makes one-size 14-inch pizzas for $4.95 ($7.95 for the works), launched its largest-ever cable TV campaign last week. The new 30-second TV spot entitled “Nirvana” features a text-only message in white lettering on a black screen.
Sure, the $100,000 campaign is a crumb compared to campaigns by Pizza Hut and Papa Johns, but President Wayne LaVigne, who created the spot, is confident about the new approach.
“There’s simply too much noise cluttering the consumer’s attention and we wish to be as simplistic as possible,” said LaVigne, who founded the company seven years ago.
The commercial was produced in-house by Huntington Beach-based MarketWorks and will air on the Time Warner, Adelphi and Comcast cable systems.
Peninsula Publishing Inc., which publishes Builder and Developer magazine in Newport Beach, plans to launch a magazine targeting the homebuyer and featuring articles on upgrades and builder options. Options, whose estimated circulation will be 20,000 copies, will also be published in Newport Beach.
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Bits and pieces:
Brand marketeers Frankel in Irvine have picked up a piece of Fleetwood Enterprises Inc.’s national $4 million advertising campaign to promote its “anniversary home,” the Business Press of the Inland Empire reported. The agency is one of several shops working on the business, including the lead agency, Los Angeles-based McCann-Erickson The Media Alliance of Orange County, a private and public coalition formed in July 1999 to promote media and film projects in Orange County, has added four new members to its board of directors: Bill Ennis of Media Magic; Richard Jansen of Jansen & Associates; Andy Kinnion of I.A.T.S.E. local 504 and Art Royce of Coast Media Teleproductions. Meanwhile, Andrew Fransen of Waterland Productions has resigned from the board due to his work schedule Hilary Kaye Associates Inc., Tustin, has added two new clients to its roster: Photon Dynamics Inc. and Voice Access Technologies Inc., both based in San Jose.
