 
|
|||||||||||||
              
|
The e-world invades the advertising industry
Sunday, April 09, 2000 By Joyce Gannon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
For 90 minutes on a Friday night in March, the stage of the elegant Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, normally home to classical opera, ballet and theater, became one giant computer screen saver.
The "show" this particular evening was a tightly produced video compilation of what some judges deemed the best advertising work done in Pittsburgh last year. Against a background of technically charged music, snippets of print, broadcast and Internet ad campaigns jumped rapidly across the screen as the Pittsburgh Advertising Club handed out the 1999-2000 Addy Awards.
It was an evening dominated by cutting-edge images and awards such as "Best World Wide Web/On-line Advertising" and "Disk-Based Sales Package."
Only three years ago, those interactive media categories didn't exist at the Pittsburgh Addy Awards.
"A couple of years ago, we had some interactive work we wanted to submit and there wasn't a category to put it in," quipped Michael Brunner, president of Blattner Brunner Inc., a Downtown agency that won an Addy for the disk-based sales package it created for retailer American Eagle Outfitters.
The boom in e-commerce and Internet business has left Blattner Brunner and other agencies scrambling to find the technically savvy talent and other resources they need to keep up with the interactive demand.
Blattner Brunner last month launched a referral program that pays $1,000 to any of its current 80-plus employees who recommend a job candidate who is eventually hired. The agency also retained a full-time recruiter to help find designers and developers to fill open positions, mainly in e-commerce.
Planning ad and marketing campaigns for the Internet "is now just a given," said Michele Fabrizi, chief executive officer of Marc Advertising, the city's largest advertising shop with clients that include True Value Hardware, Eat'n Park Restaurants and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
"In the past, you would automatically look at how you'd work with newspapers and broadcast media. And now there's another medium. ... It's just part of the conversation," she said.
Fabrizi and Marc Chairman Tony Bucci consider the Internet and e-business to be among the forces that are requiring their agency and others in Pittsburgh to think globally.
The surge in businesses and consumers who now use the Internet means, Bucci said, "We're marketing to the whole world."
Marc's Station Square-based staff totals about 200, including employees who work for its corporate parent, Marc USA. The holding company last year continued a major acquisition spree that included buying three out-of-town agencies in an effort to establish a Marc presence coast-to-coast.
Marc's 1999 purchases were agencies in Dallas, New York City and Indianapolis. Deals are pending to buy agencies in Seattle and Boston, Fabrizi said.
While Marc was spreading its brand across the United States last year, Ketchum Advertising, a Pittsburgh institution for decades, was sold in August to New York-based Earle Palmer Brown Cos. and renamed Egan/St. James to reflect ownership stakes of its local executives, Dave Egan and Lee St. James.
The sale of the agency came on the heels of Ketchum losing a list of prominent ad accounts, including PNC Financial Services Group. Then in January, it was dealt another blow when Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield pulled its account and awarded it to Strip District agency Bozell Kamstra.
Despite the shock waves its business experienced over the last year, Egan/St. James emerged as the top creative center in town at the recent Addy Awards. It scooped up 17 Addys and the Best of Show Awards in both print and television categories for campaigns developed for Zippo lighters and Lifestyle Evolutions' Banabar nutritional snack.
"Creativity is the best weapon we can bring to a [client]," Egan said.
His agency wasn't the only one shuffling accounts last year.
As part of its agreement to take on Highmark, Bozell Kamstra gave up the account of rival UPMC Health System, for which it created the high-profile "Choose a hospital as if your life depended on it."
Bozell also lost another big account last year, Mellon Financial Corp., which jumped to Marc. The Mellon account is estimated to be worth $12 million.
With a limited number of large accounts available for bid in Pittsburgh, expect more local agencies to go after work in other markets, said Cheri Gmiter, senior vice president of Hallmark Tassone Marketing Communications and president of the Pittsburgh Ad Club.
"We're vying for a small amount of work in Pittsburgh," Gmiter said. "So more agencies are going after Buffalo, Virginia, West Virginia or wherever to get the business."
Gmiter also sees a significant place in the market for tiny boutique firms that may appeal to some businesses that want specialized, one-on-one assistance to get their advertising message out.
She pointed to Labwerks International, a Web design firm that picked up an Addy in the interactive media category and whose clients include Bruegger's Bagels Pittsburgh, and The Idea Mill, a small agency that took home the Best of Show Addy for 1998.
"Dot.com has really taken over everywhere," said Ann McFadden, the retired creative director of Blattner Brunner who has traveled nationwide to judge advertising competitions.
In some ad campaigns, McFadden has noticed that advanced technology has made the graphics and art so powerful that the "words" used to help convey the message have taken a back seat.
"I find that a bit of a disappointment," McFadden said. "But I know it's technologically driven."
|
||||||||||||
