Register, Ducks, Pond Tie Promo Knot; Swell.com Raids Local Mags
Doner, Newport Beach, is defending an account with Longs Drug Stores, Walnut Creek, that has been handled the past seven years by the shop’s parent in Southfield, Mich. The drugstore chain wanted to work with a West Coast agency, so Doner moved the pitch to OC. Other agencies pitching the account include Grey Advertising, Los Angeles, and San Francisco-based BBDO and Hoffman/Lewis.
Although Longs’ advertising billings are estimated at $18 million annually, “the vast majority of the advertising is done in-house,” said David Kiley, Doner’s senior vice president of marketing communications in Michigan. Doner handles the TV portion of the account.
***
Mighty Ducks season-ticket holders automatically will become subscribers to The Orange County Register under the paper’s new partnership with the team and Arrowhead Pond. Although the deal would allow the newspaper to target new customers to grow its circulation, the new subscribers are not counted as paid circulation under the rules of the industry-standard Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Register’s Doug Hanes, senior vice president of sales and marketing, describes the ABC rules as archaic.
“We are committed to advertisers and shareholders to increase our market share and are moving forward with this program despite ABC’s non-allowance,” he said, adding that the new subscribers will be counted under bundled circulation in its independent audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Los Angeles Times and La Opinion also began reporting circulation to the accounting firm last year, and it delivers quarterly circulation reports.
DGWB Advertising in Irvine recently launched a new campaign for its client Wienerschnitzel, promoting the hot-dog chain’s third annual Wiener Nationals Dachshund dog races at Los Alamitos Race Track June 12.
The agency, which has won awards for past race campaigns, created a series of six print ads featuring a serious looking Dachshund in a racing jacket with the Wienerschnitzel name and the number four printed on it. One version reads: “No agents, sneaker deals, or six-figure contracts. It’s everything that’s right with sports today.” Another plays off the infamous Tyson-Holyfield fight: “Still the only sport where ear-biting is fair play.”
Jon Gothold and Jeff Payne were creative directors on the campaign, with Dave Swartz as ACD/copywriter, Elliott Allen as copywriter, Steve Ricker as art director and Kevin Reimers handling the photography.
The 302-unit Wienerschnitzel chain, which opened 12 stores last year, is in the midst of changing its colors. The company recently began testing a new bright red and yellow store in Irvine and West Covina.
“It really pops and says there’s something new at Wienerschnitzel,” said Tom Amberger, Wienerschnitzel’s director of marketing. “We are going to test it in those stores over the next few months.”
***
Meanwhile, DGWB is also competing for the estimated $8 million to $10 million account of Creditcards.com in Los Angeles. Other shops competing are Asher & Partners, Los Angeles; Dana Foran, San Francisco and Robert Chandler & Partners, Beverly Hills.
Swell.com, San Clemente, recently recruited staff from the ranks of EMAP Petersen’s San Clemente-based Action Sports Group, whose publications include Surfer, Skateboarder, Snowboarder, Bike and Powder magazines. Swell.com’s new COO is Doug Palladini, former executive group publisher; Steve Hawk, former editor of Surfer magazine, is chief editor and executive vice president; Evan Slater, who also left Surfer where he was recently named editor, is Swell.com’s surf managing editor; Rob Campbell, former editor of Snowboarder magazine, is now snow managing editor for Swell.com; and Sean Mortimer is Swell.com’s skate managing editor, having left Skateboarder magazine, where he was editor.
***
Bits and pieces:
Open Minds, Laguna Beach, is in a shootout with three other ad shops for the estimated $5 million to $6 million account of Calloway Wines, Healdsburg. The Ponzi Group is pitching for the PR account Tustin-based The Rankin Group has picked up a PR contract with Pulse in San Diego, a publicly held worldwide supplier of magnetic components Santa Ana-based Script-to-Screen recently completed a third infomercial for General Motors. The spot features the new Pontiac 2000 Sunfire.
