Montgomery Returns to Agency World With T & O; Group
Winchell’s Caps Makeover With $1M Campaign; Wahine Magazine Calls It Quits
Marketing & Media
by Jennifer Bellantonio
Scott Montgomery,a former creative bigwig at the Irvine office of Foote, Cone & Belding who said he was giving up agency life last year to freelance,has done another about-face.
Montgomery has become executive creative director and executive vice president at Irvine-based T & O; Group, which holds accounts such as In-N-Out Burger, Sempra Energy and Fantastic Sams.
“You can’t just turn it off after 20 years,” Montgomery said of doing creative work. “They made me a great offer.”
Montgomery left FCB last year to work on his own and hit golf balls from here to Ireland, he said at the time. T & O; started wooing him as soon as agency officials heard he was free, according to Montgomery. He helped T & O; pitch the In-N-Out account, Montgomery said.
Montgomery, who loves to don shorts and T-shirts for work, said T & O; Group has the same intimate feel as Salvati Montgomery Sakoda, an agency he co-founded in 1981. That shop was later sold to Bozell Worldwide and then merged into FCB in 1999.
Instead of being “three layers away” from doing creative work, Montgomery said he’s now more hands on,even if it means kitchen duty.
That approach has helped T & O; draw talent from big name agencies in the past year, according Monte Zator, the agency’s executive vice president and director of client services, who served time at TBWA Chiat Day and Saatchi & Saatchi. Zator joined T & O; last year.
The agency, founded in 1983 by Steve O’Leary, formerly of Wells Rich Greene & Marschalk, also has lured veterans from other notable agencies in the past few years, including Dave Robinson, executive vice president and director of media services, who joined in 1999 from W.B. Doner & Co., and Jennifer McLean, vice president of public relations, who joined T & O; last year from Stanton Crenshaw Public Relations.
“With Scott and the others on board we think we can be a little bit more selective” about what accounts we go after, Zator said. “It’s a targeted careful growth. We’re trying to get the right kind of clients.”
The agency, which posted 2000 OC capitalized billings of $65 million, now has its eyes on the sporting goods, automotive and hospitality and travel industries.
But executives are tight-lipped about pitches they’re currently involved in.
“I’d say July, August and September really were quiet. You couldn’t shake a meeting down if you knew the person or they were your brother,” Zator said. “Now we’re seeing more opportunities come up in the past month.”
Winchell’s Spending Some Dough
Santa Ana-based Winchell’s Donut House is bent on rejuvenating its image with remodels and new stores. Now it hopes to lure more customers with its new $1 million ad campaign, which launches Jan. 17.
Created by Wasserman & Partners Advertising and Vancouver, British Columbia-based Detroit Creative Group Inc., the work features three 10-second TV commercials in English and Spanish. They’ll air in the Southland on KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV, among other stations, during Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim games.
Travel Show Set for March
San Juan Capistrano-based On Travel Productions wants to take out some of the worry from people’s travel plans with a new 30-minute weekly show called “UnravelTRAVEL,” which debuts in March.
The show, which is set to air weekends in Southern California and San Francisco, will cover everything from the best places to stay to the best fares.
“UnravelTRAVEL will provide viewers with timely information they need to travel smartly and safely,” said Michael Leone, chief executive of On Travel Productions.
Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman, who have been travel journalists for the past decade, will host the show.
Hit the Rocks
Long Beach-based Wahine, a quarterly magazine targeting women surfers, has wiped out.
Faced with a steep drop in ads and fierce competition from rival San Clemente-based Surfing Girl magazine, the publication said it has stopping publishing.
Wahine, which claimed to have been the first magazine devoted to women’s surfing, was used as an advertising outlet by many of Orange County’s large surfwear companies, including Billabong USA, Quiksilver Inc.’s Roxy brand and O’Neill.
Wahine continues to run its Web site.
Web Surfing
Web developer Juxt Interactive has been doing work for some of the biggest players in Orange County’s surfwear industry.
The Newport Beach-based agency has been tapped to help Billabong USA, Irvine, chronicle its latest surf quest: the search for a 100-foot wave, which highlights tow-in surfing. Big wave riders are set to travel the globe on two adventures a year, and Juxt and Billabong will follow the journey online.
The agency also redesigned the Web site for Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., which will launch in two to three months.
A Pac Sun executive said the new site will be easier to navigate and have an updated look. The retailer also invested in new technology that powers the site, which will make it faster and more functional.
Bits and pieces:
Madeline Zuckerman Public Relations & Marketing Inc., Newport Beach, now is handling public relations and special events for the Irvine office of home furnishings retailer Cantoni Inc.
