The trend of top executives defecting from large agencies to start their own shops is continuing in Orange County as three former bigwigs at FCB Southern California, Irvine, have started their own gig.
The firm, called Brainsaw, is headed by Tim Fuhrman, formerly vice president management supervisor at FCB, and Chris Brown and John Zegowitz, both former FCB group creative directors.
They have shunned titles and hung their shingle out in a renovated loft space in the Santora Arts Building in downtown Santa Ana,just around the corner from DGWB Advertising.
“We think it’s a great location to pitch business from all over Orange County, and parts of L.A. and San Diego,” said Fuhrman, who leads the new business.
The partners say the firm will offer clients a variety of services such as brand identification, culture development, planning, marketing and advertising across all media.
Though a slow economy has been rough on the advertising industry,aside from the recent terrorist attacks, which have left the ad community scrambling,Fuhrman said he and his partners feel strong about stepping out on their own.
“Within the advertising community you’re getting fewer and fewer large agencies,” he said. “We think there’s room again for the smaller to mid-size group to come in and provide the level of top-quality thinking and creative” normally found at large agencies.
But Brainsaw won’t have the overhead, fee structure and processes that tend to “bog things down” at bigger shops, Fuhrman added.
The new agency is taking resumes and seeking the industry’s best talent, Fuhrman said. How big Brainsaw gets depends on its ability to attract clients.
Brainsaw has done project work for Cox Communications Inc. and adidas-Salomon AG, and is working with a new television network in the Los Angeles area, according to Fuhrman.
The departure of the three from FCB, just a few months after one of the agency’s founding partners, Scott Montgomery, former executive vice president and executive creative director, hit the road to pursue relaxation, sparked some speculation.
But Fuhrman denied any connections.
He said the three had been thinking about launching their own gig about a year before Montgomery left.
“There wasn’t like some event where we just said, ‘Ah, we’re fed up,’ ” Fuhrman said. “There was a lot of thinking and planning.”
NeoBrands, Y & R; Team
Two Orange County ad shops teamed to try and keep a $25 million to $35 million chunk of business here. But an L.A. shop walked away with the win.
Irvine-based neoBrands went up against at least three other agencies in a final round of cuts to defend its J.D. Edwards & Co. advertising account,one of its biggest chunks of business.
The agency even partnered with Young & Rubicam Inc.’s Irvine office in the review for better leverage. J.D. Edwards wanted an agency with a global network,something that neoBrands lacked but Y & R;, with offices worldwide, could contribute, according to Rick Sharga, neoBrands’ executive vice president. He said Y & R; approached his agency.
Still, Deutsch in Marina del Rey snagged the win.
“We were grateful for their participation,” Sharga said of Y & R.; “We think they added a lot of value to the pitch.”
But there were a lot of things going on behind the scenes.
The news didn’t come as a shock to neoBrands, as one of J.D. Edwards’ principals had worked with Deutsch before, according to Sharga.
He said the technology company underwent three management shifts since neoBrands took on the account three years ago. At one point, Sharga said, the advertising and marketing group that hired neoBrands was let go,putting the agency in an “extraordinarily vulnerable position.”
Plus, he said, the incumbent usually goes into a review as a “huge underdog.”
“From everything we heard, we represented ourselves very well and they decided to go in a new direction,” Sharga said. “It was a very amicable parting and we wish them well.”
J.D. Edwards also was reviewing its event organizers and some of their other partners, Sharga added.
The loss is a big one for neoBrands.
“That was one of our biggest clients and it will hurt us, particularly in this economy,” Sharga said. “It’s likely we’re going to have to downsize somewhat because of it.”
The agency counts 25 employees and will go to about 20.
But there’s some light.
Sharga said the loss comes at a time when neoBrands has recently experienced an “up-tick in new business activity”,something it hasn’t seen “since the peak of the dot-com bubble.”
“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to offset a lot of the lost revenue,” Sharga said. “It won’t go away all at once, because we were on a contract with them that will run until the end of the year.”
NeoBrands isn’t alone in its fight to win and retain business. The advertising community in OC and nationwide is in a slump.
“This is the worst advertising (environment) I’ve seen, and I’ve been in the business for 20 years and through two recessions,” Sharga said. “If you get through this year, you’ll probably get through everything.”
