Finish Line Crosses Over to OC With Costa Mesa Office
Marketing & Media
by Jennifer Bellantonio
Another L.A. player wants some Orange County action.
Santa Monica-based Finish Line Ltd., a post-production company that provides visual effects, motion graph design, compositing and finishing, has opened a 1,500-square-foot satellite office in Costa Mesa.
“We’re starting out modestly because we wanted to come in reasonably quickly,” President Jack Schaeffer said. “We have a client base down there and we want to introduce them to us and see how it grows.”
Finish Line already does work for some OC ad offices, such as those of Young & Rubicam Inc. and FCB Southern California, both of Irvine, and Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising.
The new Finish Line office is staffed by about five people. Schaeffer said he expects to grow that number as business ramps up.
The OC location is set to provide TV post-production services for broadcast commercials and corporate work. Schaeffer said OC clients also can tap Finish Line’s Santa Monica office, which is linked to OC via a broadband connection.
Schaeffer said Finish Line picked OC because of a migration of work to the area, driven mainly by large automotive accounts such as the Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln Mercury and Jaguar brands. Plus, he said OC offers a diverse business community.
“We have to go where the work is,” he said.
Overall, Schaeffer said the ad industry has seen a difficult year, with agencies’ clients canceling campaigns and cutting marketing.
“All that feeds down and there’s a lot of pressure (from clients) to get a lot more for less money,” he said. “We were already feeling that prior to Sept. 11.”
Still, Schaeffer said he is “optimistic” about the move to OC. The ad community here seems to be less “volatile” than other parts of the U.S., such as San Francisco, which suffered heavily from the dot-com meltdown, he said.
First Time Caller
Need to vent your workplace woes?
A new radio show launched on KRLA 870 AM Newstalk gives you that opportunity. Called “The Work Doctor,” the show features Dr. Maryam Malek, adjunct professor at the University of California, Irvine, and Chapman University’s Organizational Leadership Masters Program. She’s also an industrial and organizational psychologist.
“The Work Doctor” airs 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday and gives listeners a forum where they can call in and ask questions about work-related issues, such as peer conflicts, stress, salary negotiations and leadership.
“It’s kind of like a Dr. Laura show but for the work place, which wasn’t available before,” spokeswoman Claudia Thair said.
Malek, founder of Corporate Development Consulting in Laguna Hills, said she has more than 20 years of experience in management, sales and marketing with IBM Corp. and Xerox Corp. Her co-host is Mary Sue Allen, director of human resources in Southern California for United Parcel Service Inc.
Calls to the show are anonymous, and callers are asked not to mention names of coworkers or their companies.
Malek said she chose to develop the talk show to give people a place to get free coaching and professional advice without “the threat of retribution from their workplace.”
Getting Their Mojo On
Big Imagination Group was tapped to handle the $2 million franchisee-funded creative and media account for Garden Grove-based Shakey’s Pizza. The Culver City-based shop beat out several others in a review including Mosaic Advertising in Sherman Oaks and Kalis & Savage Pacific Palisades. Incumbent Los Angeles-based G/F/D/M did not defend the account. The first campaign, involving English and Spanish radio ads and possibly some TV, likely will be unveiled in the first quarter.
Big Imagination takes the reins as Shakey’s is working hard to reinvigorate its brand.
Bits and pieces:
Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising and Newport Beach-based Q & A; Marketing teamed up to do a print and TV campaign promoting the Newport Beach Film Festival Irvine-based El Pollo Loco recently launched new in-store merchandising advertising to promote its special holiday offerings: chicken tamales and fiesta platters HWB Inc. Promotional Marketing, Irvine, is doing free work for the next two years for Pretend City, an interactive children’s museum planned for the Irvine Spectrum center. The building is scheduled to break ground in the latter next year and open in 2003 The Orange County Performing Arts Center held a reception to celebrate its new Web site, www.ocpac.org, which was funded with a $100,000 grant from American Express Co. and created by Costa Mesa-based bigdevelopment, a Web design and marketing firm.
