Laguna Beach-based Young Company recently picked up three accounts.
The shop was tapped by Costa Mesa-based Commerce Energy Group Inc. as its marketing agency of record.
Young said it plans to launch an aggressive advertising and Internet marketing campaign for Commerce Energy, an electricity retailer that has offices in Houston, Detroit and Boston.
The first campaign will include radio advertising targeting Texas and Maryland,two key markets for the company, Young said.
Young also landed work from Irvine-based Compak Asset Management, which offers wealth management and financial planning services.
The shop is set to handle public relations, Internet marketing, advertising and direct response campaigns for Compak.
The first campaign will include a public relations campaign aimed at West Coast markets from San Diego to Seattle. The work will target regional and national media, Young said.
“We are also planning a campaign locally targeting affluent women in Coast Magazine,” said Shannon Karageorge, a public relations associate at Young.
Thirdly, Young is putting together advertising, public relations, Internet and trade show marketing campaigns for Lake Forest-based Accurate Background Inc., which offers background screening services.
Clean Beaches
Top surf industry executives decked out in Hawaiian duds recently headed to the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa for the annual Waterman’s Weekend fund-raiser.
The two-day event included a golf tournament, and a silent and live auction.
There also was an awards ceremony dinner. Bob McKnight, chief executive of Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc., was awarded the Waterman of the Year award.
Musician Jack Johnson and his wife, Kim, were named Environmentalists of the Year and Waikiki Beach Boy Rabbit Kekai received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The fund-raiser benefits San Clemente-based Surf Industry Manufacturers Association’s environmental fund, a foundation that awards grants to groups that preserve and protect oceans and beaches.
The 13 beneficiaries this year included Surfrider Foundation, Surfing Education Association, Wildcoast, Ocean Institute and Orange County CoastKeeper.
Paul Naude, chairman of the association’s environmental fund board of directors,and chief executive of Irvine-based Billabong USA,said the event was expected to raise a record $450,000.
“This record will demonstrate the continued support the entire surf industry gives to ocean environmental causes,” Naude said in a statement.
For the auction portion, people bid on more than 250 items, including collector surfboards, such as one hand-painted by artist Pete Tillack for pro Kelly Slater, surf artwork, surf travel packages to Sumba Island in southeast Indonesia and Fiji’s Tavarua Island, and a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited.
The surf association’s fund has raised more than $3 million for environmental groups during the past 16 years.
Duck Walk
The Anaheim Ducks just struck a deal with 50,000-watt AM 830 to broadcast all of the club’s games this season.
The deal covers the team’s entire preseason, regular and post-season games. All will be broadcast live,a first for the Ducks, the team said.
The move pairs two relatively new OC sports owners: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim owner Arte Moreno, who is part of a group that owns the radio station, and the Ducks’ owners, Henry and Susan Samueli, who bought the team last year.
The station has one of the nation’s largest signals on AM or FM radio.
It’s the fourth-largest signal in California, the Ducks said.
The deal allows Anaheim Arena Management, which operates Arrowhead Pond where the Ducks play, to expand its coverage of events.
“We now have the ability to expand not only our game coverage, but all event programming with several ancillary shows and other promotional opportunities,” said Bob Wagner, senior vice president of the Ducks and Anaheim Arena Management.
Steve Carroll will be the team’s play-by-play voice for an eighth season. Brent Severyn will start his second season as color analyst.
The Ducks’ television schedule is being finalized and will be released later.
A Barn and a Horse
J.F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center in San Juan Capistrano hired White Barn Group for branding and other marketing work.
The San Marcos-based marketing shop, run by Tim Hackbardt, a former Lake Forest-based Del Taco Inc. marketing executive, will help the center promote renovations to its equestrian facilities.
The riding center has a new all-weather covered arena, and a program and education building. The first phase is expected to be complete in early 2007.
Hackbardt works with Joe Senger, another former marketing executive with Del Taco.
Bits and pieces:
Tustin-based Hilary Kaye & Associates made two hires. Darek Connole was named public relations specialist and Christina Shemo was tapped as account coordinator. She’ll oversee the shop’s public relations specialists and their writing, media management and special projects Expect Scottsdale-based Peter Piper Pizza restaurant chain to push its name hard in OC, where it’s ramping up. Peter Piper plans to open nine new restaurants here over the next few years. The move will create 450 new jobs, said the company, which has 135 restaurants.
