Rick Eiserman takes the helm at a critical time for Orange County’s biggest advertising shop, Young & Rubicam Brands in Irvine.
The pressure is on to bring in more business and dazzle current clients as Y & R; mounts a companywide comeback.
Y & R;, part of Britain’s WPP Group PLC, has struggled in the past few years with management churn and account losses.
The Irvine office has seen its share of both.
Last year, Sony Electronics Inc. and Ford Motor Co.’s Jaguar Cars took their advertising business elsewhere. The Irvine office lost $200 million in combined yearly billings with the departures.
Wunderman, a Y & R; division, still handles Jaguar marketing.
The shop’s biggest win of late is Beverly Hills-based Hilton Hotels Corp. The work has helped but didn’t offset the recent losses.
The Hilton account is worth an estimated $40 million to $50 million.
The challenge for Eiserman: building momentum.
He replaced David Murphy, who resigned from Y & R; in November to take a job as president of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Inc.’s Torrance office.
Eiserman, who has worked with Y & R; and its subsidiaries for 11 years, relocated from the East Coast. He’s temporarily in Newport Beach and looking for a permanent home.
Eiserman was chief executive at BrandBuzz, a marketing arm of Y & R; in New York with an estimated $150 million in annual billings.
He helped start BrandBuzz in 1999 and was general manager before being named chief executive in 2004.
“I have worked in various roles the last 11 years but always came back to new business,” Eiserman said. “The pace and pressure is the greatest high. If you don’t thirst for that, you’re in the wrong business.”
BrandBuzz, part of Y & R;’s New York headquarters, ran on its own and acted fast like a smaller shop, Eiserman said.
“This is the same opportunity we have with Young & Rubicam Brands in Irvine,” he said.
Y & R; has several units, including Y & R; Advertising, Wunderman digital and event marketing and Landor, which works with companies to build their brands.
The Irvine office is a “hidden jewel” within Y & R;, Eiserman said, with “some great work, great talent and a great model but lots of unrealized potential.”
His initial focus: satisfy current clients.
They include El Segundo-based Mattel Inc., Carlsbad-based Callaway Golf Co. and Ford Motor Co.’s Land Rover North America in Irvine.
The loss of any client brings pressure to “keep the clients you have” happy, Eiserman said.
The Irvine shop is “now leaner, faster and filled with people who are truly dedicated to the success of the agency and its clients,” he said.
Y & R; has estimated yearly billings of $315 million to $325 million. That’s down from about $475 million before the loss of Sony and Jaguar.
The agency declined to comment on billings.
Eiserman is part of sweeping management changes rippling throughout Y & R.;
The New York office most recently got a new executive creative di-rector. Last year, it brought in a new North American chief executive, Gord McLean, who has helped spearhead changes.
Eiserman reports to McLean.
The Irvine office has seen its own shuffles.
The shop most recently promoted Dan Olson, Wunderman’s managing director, to chief operating officer, overseeing Y & R; and Wunderman. Last year, the shop got a new creative director.
Eiserman said he did research for two weeks prior to taking the top spot at Y & R; in Irvine. He only had been to Irvine once, but is no stranger to OC.
He started his advertising career at The Moore Group in Santa Ana after studying art and design at the California Design Institute.
Eiserman, who has a wife and a son, said OC is full of potential.
“Our research shows there is extensive opportunity and need in Orange County alone to provide us with substantial growth,” Eiserman said.
There’s more than $1 billion in potential billings from advertisers in the county, he said.
Still, the local market has been tricky.
Foote, Cone & Belding Inc., OC’s second biggest ad shop, slashed its Irvine offices last year after its $230 million Taco Bell Corp. account shifted to FCB Chicago. The local operation now reports to its San Francisco office. It also lost the Hilton account to Y & R.;
Irvine-based Bates USA West closed its doors in 2002 after losing major client Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc.
A big reason why local offices of major agencies fail is “the fact they spent too much energy chasing Los Angeles or New York, versus embracing the local community and building an offering to meet its needs,” Eiserman said.
“Orange County’s reputation should not live or die by the number of major (agencies) that decide to put a local office here,” Eiserman said. “It should live or die by the creativity and innovation that we are delivering for clients day in and day out.
“I don’t know what market Orange County should wish to become, but Los Angeles shouldn’t be at the top of the list,” he said.
Y & R; is working on launching a division that works with smaller clients on a project basis, Eiserman said.
Of course, Eiserman is scouting for new business.
He said the shop just completed an “extensive analysis of the Orange County marketplace” and made an “initial target list.”
