Young & Rubicam Brands in Irvine has reason to celebrate.
Rick Eiserman, who heads the office, said in the past year the shop brought in 47 new people and added $150 million in billings. The shop had an estimated $320 million in OC billings in 2006.
“What next? We’re taking the entire agency to the Palms in Las Vegas,” Eiserman said. “It’s time to celebrate.”
Y & R; spent the bulk of 2007 going after new business.
Early in the year, Eiserman sat the staff down and reviewed his goals.
“We talked about growing our digital offering, adding new talent/skill sets and aggressively pursuing new business,” Eiserman said. “Our goal was to be best in the West.”
The shop is “on our way,” he added.
Most recently, Y & R; landed Carlsbad-based Jenny Craig Inc.’s $60 million advertising account.
Other new business included Accenture Interactive’s $30 million account, Toshiba Computers MP3 work, which is worth about $20 million, and work from Irvine-based Autobytel Inc., worth about $10 million.
Eiserman said the key has been his company’s people.
“You take people who are willing to work hard, passionate about what they do and share a common goal,” Eiserman said. “It’s amazing what you can do.”
In the past year, Y & R; also made several big hires, including adding Miles Turpin as group creative director for Irvine-based Land Rover North America’s account.
More Business
Madison Alexander PR of Irvine just brought in some new accounts.
Dan Chmielewski, agency principal, said the shop landed two accounts. One is Owlink Technology Inc. in Irvine, and the other is Tellus Construction Inc., a Santa Ana-based construction company that focuses on green building projects.
Chmielewski said he hired three contractors to help with the new business.
He said he’s also waiting to see if he won four other pieces of business, two of which are local.
Chmielewski said he’s optimistic about 2008.
In the past year, his shop brought in several accounts and he expects to continue that.
Moving Again?
Last week, I wrote about Newport Beach-based XPR LLC and its move to bigger offices.
Since, I’ve gotten some more news about the public relations shop.
XPR is already outgrowing its new offices and expects to move again next year, said agency partner Bob Ochsner.
XPR was started two years ago by Ochsner and his partner Sung Choi, who mainly works from home.
The shop has one full-time worker and two freelancers who work on a regular basis, Ochsner said.
“We prefer a freelance model which enables us to be more flexible and move quicker to meet client needs,” Ochsner said.
XPR picked up several clients in the past few months, including Candelis Inc., an Irvine-based medical company, Irvine’s Netropa Corp., Huntington Beach-based EarthFriendly Moving and Irvine-based Mariners Church.
The shop plans to hire at least one public relations account executive next year, Ochsner said.
XPR is expecting to see more work from current clients and new ones.
But the shop wants to stay lean and use freelancers for other “overflow work,” Ochsner said.
“OC and national companies seem to be in the market for a PR and marketing communications agency with big-agency experience but without the big-agency fees,” Ochsner said.
XPR recently expanded products and services it offers on a per-project basis, including a media and spokesperson training program, a quick-time product launch program and a corporate branding program.
The move is part of a “larger strategy” of expanding XPR’s focus from a public relations shop to a marketing communications agency, according to Ochsner.
“While the bulk of our work is still traditional PR, we’re doing an increasing amount of marketing communications and branding work,” he said. “We see this as the future.”
XPR has an optimistic outlook for the New Year.
Ochsner said some existing technology clients may not grow their budgets “as quickly in 2008” but this is “being offset by a growth in new business inquiries.”
“We’re continuing to get a lot of referrals,” Ochsner said.
The bulk is coming from PainePR in Irvine, where Ochsner and Choi used to work, and from word of mouth.
Challenging Market
L & A; Marketing and Advertising in Irvine stepped up to help its clients in the homebuilding industry this year.
Elliot Light, L & A;’s president, said the shop’s team “really pulled together” to create marketing campaigns that would stand out for homebuilders facing a “challenging market slowdown.”
Take the work L & A; did for client Shea Homes, based in Walnut.
Light said L & A; recently got some recognition for a brochure it designed for Shea’s housing development called Tetherwind at The Preserve at Chino.
The work included a new logo, which showed a child flying a kite on a windy day that was inspired by Van Gogh’s starry night painting.
In other news, L & A; promoted Michelle Burchfiel to junior account executive.
The shop also offers Web and Hispanic marketing work.
