After landing an account from Callaway Vineyard & Winery in February, OpenMinds, Laguna Beach, has picked up two more accounts for Allied Domecq brands, winning Napa’s William Hill Winery in June and Sonoma’s Clos Dubois Winery in September.
The two new accounts are estimated to be worth roughly $6.5 million to $9 million in annual billings, with roughly $6 million to $8 million coming from the Clos Dubois brand, whose products sell for $12 to $18.
The print campaign for William Hill, whose products sell for $30 to $90, has been running in the Wall Street Journal.
About a month ago, the agency also won a shootout for the $4 million advertising account of Pacific Capital Bancorp in Santa Barbara, besting Katsin/Loeb in San Francisco and Sagor Phior in Los Angeles to replace incumbent Evans Hardy and Young in California. The campaign is in development for launch in early 2001.
The Ponzi Group, Trabuco Canyon, co-pitched all the above accounts with OpenMinds and will handle the public relations assignments.
In its first campaign for Callaway, which broke Oct. 1, OpenMinds aims to put an end to the traditional snobbery associated with wine connoisseurs.
“Most people are intimidated by wine,” said Mark Choate, president of OpenMinds. “They don’t know if they are making the right choice for an occasion or with a meal. Wine has the reputation for being stuffy so we asked the question, ‘Why put it with a certain food?’ Instead, we are recommending drinking wine with a sunset, a bubble bath, a good movie or a book.”
The campaign also is repositioning the brand as Callaway Coastal and includes TV, radio and print.
The agency created two TV spots that will run during “A & E; Biography.” The spots feature coastal settings with waves crashing on the shore. One tagline says “We recommend a crisp chardonnay with tonight’s biography on A & E;,” Choate said. One of the print advertisements targeted to women shows a man’s and woman’s feet in a hammock and suggests a “crisp chardonnay with your stud muffin.”
Newspaper advertisements targeting women are placed on the crossword puzzle and horoscope pages and one offers wine tips for specific zodiac signs.
OpenMinds, which specializes in advertising for beverage companies, also is developing its first campaign for new $2 million to $3 million client Kirin Brewery of America LLC. The work is expected to break in early 2001.
Finally, OpenMinds, which created the original Budweiser frogs commercials for Anheuser Busch Inc., is one of four agencies preparing spots for next year’s Super Bowl.
Robinsons-May Offers Prizes
A model search by Seventeen magazine, opening night tickets to “Rent” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and a vacation to Puerto Vallarta are some of the $20,000 in prizes to be given away by Robinsons-May Nov. 17 through 19 as part of a grand re-opening celebration at its remodeled South Coast Plaza location.
The company has spent $90 million to remodel and add more than 300,000 square feet of retail space since 1997 to all OC stores, including the $20 million investment in and 48,600-square-foot expansion of its South Coast Plaza space. The other stores, which like South Coast Plaza rank in the company’s top third in terms of sales, are in Mission Viejo, Brea, Newport Beach and Westminster. The top three OC stores are South Coast Plaza, Brea and Westminster.
Brown Leaves CKE
After five years at Anaheim-based CKE Restaurants Inc., Suzi Brown, public relations director, has left to become director of communications and public information at the Anaheim City School District. The position is a new one for the district.
“The school district has a great story to tell and I’m going to be there to tell it,” said Brown, who describes the move as a lateral one. “I’m really excited about the opportunity there. It’s a great district and it will be a different set of challenges to what I’m doing now.”
Prior to working for CKE, Brown worked in public affairs for the city of Anaheim. CKE Restaurants, parent of the Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s and Taco Bueno restaurant chains, has not named a replacement.
Bits and Pieces:
Infomercial specialists Script to Screen, Santa Ana, recently completed an infomercial for the Indy Racing League to promote its Northern Light Series to be held Memorial Day weekend. The spot was filmed on location at several race tracks around the country, including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Over the past two weeks, Winchell’s Donut House, Santa Ana, has been tallying up its customers’ presidential votes by selling oversized doughnuts in the shape of stars for Republicans and bars for Democrats. The “Stars and Bars” promotion is featured at 118 stores and will end on Nov. 7 Newport Beach-based Morgan Marketing & Public Relations replaces Laer Pearce & Associates, Laguna Hills, as the PR firm handling the Orange County Chapter of the California Restaurant Association’s third annual Celebrity Chefs’ Classic 2000. The event, which will include a wine auction, will be held Nov. 9 at the Summit House Restaurant in Fullerton and feature top OC chefs Pascal Olhats, Brian Hirsty, Franco Barone, John McLaughlin, Tim Plumb and Alan Greeley. The chefs will prepare a special menu at $150 a pop Another Christmas, another nation’s tallest Christmas tree for Fashion Island. This year’s will be a 20,000-pound white fir from Mount Shasta that will be adorned with 17,000 white lights, bows and ornaments.
