By Fred Cisterna

In this week’s special report, SHOOT looks at four agencies outside of the New York-Chicago-Los Angeles-San Francisco loop that are turning out highly creative, consistently good work. Boone/Oakley, Charlotte, N.C., created buzz and controversy with an award winning PSA for the Charlotte Humane Society, while Makos Advertising. Austin, Texas, unearthed a fast-food conspiracy. McClain Finlon, Denver, took Oxiclean from late night infomercial to :30 fame. And PUSH, Orlando, Fla., pushes creative boundaries for a variety of clients. Below is a look inside these top regional ad shops.

Boone/Oakley

Local Humane Society PSAs don’t typically stir up nationwide controversy. But then again, Boone/Oakley, the agency behind "Puppy Love," is not a typical ad shop. "We’re all about creating a buzz," says John Boone, who co-founded the Charlotte, N.C., firm with David Oakley in the fall of 2000. "That’s what we tout as our strength: getting our clients noticed and talked about."

Newspaper writers, ad industry pundits and a wide range of viewers were talking about the Charlotte chapter of the Humane Society after "Puppy Love" made its debut earlier this year. Directed by Peter Darley Miller of Stiefel+Company, Santa Monica, the Boone/Oakley-created public service announcement depicts two dogs in bed together. When the male pooch gets amorous, his partner points to a condom on the bedside table. He reaches for the condom and assumes the position. But, as the camera pulls back, we see that he’s wearing the prophylactic on his tail. The tag appears: "Dogs don’t understand birth control. Have your pet spayed or neutered."

When the client first approached the agency, "They said, ‘Do whatever you think might get people talking about spaying their pets,’ " Oakley recalls. "So we started batting around ideas. We realized people wouldn’t have to bother with spaying or neutering if dogs used birth control, and we came up with this whole ad. We were wondering if the Humane Society would think it was too over the top. But they loved it."

Not everyone shared the client’s enthusiasm. "After the commercial was finished, we took it to the CBS affiliate here in Charlotte," relates Oakley. "I went in with the executive director of the Humane Society. We watched it, and basically CBS said, ‘There is no way we’re putting this on our station. People will be offended by it.’ "

The next day, Oakley and the client tried their luck at the local FOX affiliate. "When we were waiting in the lobby, the Jerry Springer Show was on, and the topic was transvestites with fetishes. I said, ‘Okay. I think they’re going to be more amenable here.’ "

His instincts proved correct. "The program director practically fell out of his chair laughing," shares Oakley. "He called me later that afternoon and said, ‘Not only do we want to run this, but I think it’s a news story.’ "

The CBS affiliate’s refusal to air "Puppy Love" was reported on other TV stations, as well as in The Charlotte Observer and several advertising trades. "It became a little media storm," Oakley recounts. "The Humane Society was flooded with calls. It was great for those guys."

It hasn’t been bad for Boone/Oakley, either. "Other Humane Societies across the country have started picking it up," says Boone of the spot, which is currently running in Philadelphia, West Palm Beach, and Phoenix—not to mention nationally on the Animal Planet network. "Puppy Love," which garnered recognition in SHOOT’s The Best Work You Many Never See gallery (3/1, p. 11), also took honors in the public service announcement category at this year’s Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, and has attracted another potential clients. "FOX has approached us about doing some work for them," reports Oakley.

Though Boone and Oakley both grew up near Raleigh, N. C., went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the same time and, as Boone points out, "attended the same Kiss concert in Raleigh in 1978," they didn’t meet for years. Boone, an art director, had worked for agencies in Atlanta and Los Angeles, including TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif., and J. Walter Thompson, Atlanta. While Oakley, a copywriter, had made New York City his base, working at ad shops such as Young & Rubicam, New York, and TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York.

Both eventually returned home. Boone became creative director at Price/McNabb, Charlotte, and, in ’93, "I ended up hiring David to work with me there. That was the first time we got together."

Though Boone left Price/McNabb to freelance, it wasn’t long before his path once again crossed with Oakley’s. "I did some freelance for The Martin Agency [Richmond, Va.]," Boone recalls. "They were trying to recruit me to come up there, and I found out they were trying to recruit David, as well. Neither one of us wanted to move from Charlotte, so I said, ‘What would you guys think about setting up a satellite office here and having David and me run it?’ I didn’t think they would actually go for it, but they said, ‘OK.’ "

Boone and Oakley launched The Martin Agency’s Charlotte office in ’97. Three years later, they decided to strike out on their own. Go for it they did. During their first weekend in business, Boone and Oakley garnered national press for a new client: job placement service 123Hire. "It was about two weeks before the presidential election," says Oakley. "We ran a billboard for 123Hire. On it was a picture of George Bush, and the caption said, ‘Gore 2000.’ Within an hour of it’s going up—NBC, ABC, CNN—everyone was calling us because they wondered how an agency could make such a classic screw-up. We played dumb the whole weekend, saying we didn’t know how it could have happened and apologizing for the mistake. It was kind of fun. Everyone on the local talk shows was saying, ‘Those idiots over at Boone/Oakley. They’re going to be out of business before they’ve started.’ "

By the time the weekend was through, the billboard had landed on the front page of the Atlanta Constitution, in USA Today, and was shown live on CNN and ABC’s Good Morning America. "At noon on Monday, we had the outdoor company put a banner across the board that said, ‘Today’s job opening: Proofreader. 123Hire,’ " Oakley laughs. "When the banner was going up, there was an NBC news helicopter, filming the whole thing."

Hits on 123Hire’s Web site "increased tenfold," according to Boone, and the company was off to a flying start. In addition to having 123Hire and the Charlotte Hornets basketball team (a client of The Martin Agency that had moved over to Boone/Oakley), the agency won another account, Continental Tires, as a result of the billboard media frenzy. And, as an added bonus, "We got fifty-four resumes from proofreaders," Oakley laughs.

"We have three things that we try to accomplish every time we do any piece of advertising," Boone states. "We want our work to be relevant, likeable and unexpected."

They also want to keep growing. "We’re getting ready to move into a new space that’s three times the size of the one we’re in now," says Boone. "Honestly, we have no idea where this thing is going to take us. But we want to be an agency that’s known for doing great work. We don’t want to be just a creative boutique."

—Alison Sloane Gaylin

Makos Advertising

In considering what to name his Austin, Texas, advertising agency, Makos Advertising president/CEO Mark Turner found inspiration in Makos sharks, considered the fastest swimmers in the sea, as well as highly prized game fish. These attributes seemed to sum up his goals for the shop, which he founded in 1995.

Today, Makos has several clients on its roster, including Texadelphia, an Austin-based fast-food chain specializing in Philadelphia cheese steaks. Texadelphia’s TV commercials—based on the theory that there is a conspiracy afoot to get people to flock to the restaurants—are garnering positive notice. Other Makos’ clients include local upscale men’s wear store Capra & Cavelli; Seiko Instruments; Wilshire Homes; Jordan Valley Semiconductor; Cornerstone Home & Hardware; Obra Homes;, and several accounts awarded by the Texas Dept. of Human Services, such as Lone Star Card and Summer Food Service Program.

"The thought was that Austin was a very small [advertising] market," recalls Turner, whose previous experience includes five years as account supervisor/director at The Richards Group, Dallas, where he handled the Whataburger and Wyndham Hotel & Resorts accounts. "GSD&M was here, and it was considered the eight-hundred pound gorilla. There were other small agencies here, but there wasn’t a lot of focus on turning out great creative. And there were a number of new companies springing up that needed creative and marketing strategy, but couldn’t afford to go to a big agency."

Turner opened Makos and hired staffers who shared his vision of a small creative boutique. Among his current employees are creative director/copywriter Todd Alley; account director Sandy Hancock, whose experience includes four years at GSD&M handling the Wal-Mart business; and account planner Reg Herde, who previously worked for five years at Dell in product management and, before that, had a stint on the agency side at DDB Chicago.

"From a competitive standpoint," says Turner, "there were not a lot of small agencies in Austin that had the regional, national and international experience that we had. When we founded the agency seven years ago, it was at about that time that Austin really started to get going. We were a bit ahead of the curve; it was definitely the right place-right time."

Thus far, some of Makos’ most well-known broadcast work is for Texadelphia: namely, an irreverent seven-spot campaign directed by Andrew Christou of bicoastal Moxie Pictures. The dialogue-driven ads—three of which have broken—feature two slacker-type buddies, one of whom claims that Texadelphia is propagating subliminal messages throughout Texas to make people crave its sandwiches. In "Greasy Knoll"—which garnered recognition in SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (5/31, p. 11)—makes reference to the grassy knoll that figures prominently in theories about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the spot, Stu and Jake walk along a riverbank, preoccupied with cheese steaks. Stu spies a man off in the distance, sitting atop a grassy knoll; instantly Jake is overcome with hunger.

Makos looked nationwide for directors to helm the Texadelphia campaign, and found Christou and Moxie to be great contributors to the production. "Moxie was very accommodating," Turner says. "They knew we had a very tight budget, but they recognized it was great creative. Since the spots live and die on the performances of the talent, we needed a director who could work with humor and performance. We were very happy with Andrew."

Ultimately, Turner says, Makos is poised for growth—within reason. "We intentionally grew conservatively," he states, "so we could like the work that we do. I don’t ever want us to be huge. I feel that size is the antithesis to creativity. My goal is that we be well known enough so that people seek us out for the creative we can offer."

—Kathy DeSalvo

McClain Finlon

If there is one thing that sets McClain Finlon Advertising, Denver, apart, it may well be its collections of photography, designer chairs and whimsical icons of kitsch. Agency chairman/CEO/principal owner Cathey McClain Finlon, a board member of the Denver Art Museum, has put together collections at the agency that are widely recognized as museum quality.

"We try to surround ourselves with inspiration for our work," states Tom Leydon, executive VP/chief creative officer at the shop. "We believe the wellspring of every great agency is its capacity to generate ideas that move people to hope, dream and buy. So we rely on the power of art to inspire us."

McClain Finlon Advertising has had aspirations of playing in the big leagues since the mid-1990s. Founded in nearby Boulder, Colo., in ’82, as Kuper Advertising, and purchased by Finlon in ’88, the agency has its roots in serving the high-tech industry that flourished in and around Boulder at the time. When Leydon joined up in ’95, he had previously worked at two Denver shops—Barnhart Advertising and Think Communications—and prior to that had been with Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis. When Leydon started at McClain Finlon, the agency had a staff of 21 and annual billings of about $16 million. Most of its work was still technology related, and it did virtually no television advertising.

"One of the things we did when I came was set a vision for ourselves to be recognized as one of the top five independent agencies in the country," relates Leydon. "We all gulped and some of our competitors laughed at us, but it helped put a point on the horizon for us, and it made Cathey, Stephanie Moffett-Pence—the president—and myself always ask ourselves, ‘Is this what we’ll be doing when we are a major national agency?’ Every time we did a commercial, we tried to ask ourselves, ‘How could we do something that is going to help us compete when we do get on a national ad?’ "

At the midpoint of ’02, McClain Finlon’s client list consists mostly of companies doing national or broad regional advertising, including Orange Glo International, makers of OxiClean; Johns Manville, a building supply company; Einstein Brothers Bagels; three parts of the Qwest telecommunications business; Red Robin Gourmet Burgers; Sun Microsystems; and Xcel Energy, a natural gas and electricity supplier. Billings last year were $98.9 million, up sharply from $62.5 million in ’00.

Only about 20 percent of the agency’s business is high-tech these days, and it produces about 20 TV spots a year. The creative department has grown to a staff of 19 and the agency has an in-house broadcast producer in Julie Bopp. "Julie is our producer, and we have two other people who are former producers on staff," Leydon notes. "We also use an L.A.-based producer, Kathryn Colbert. She continues to challenge us to broaden our knowledge and connections with emerging directors."

Creative director/copywriter Gregg Bergan recently joined the agency from Team One Advertising of El Segundo, Calif., and he brought with him an appreciation he gained there of the Southern California talent pool. "In the last spots we worked on here, we used all the same people I used in L.A.," he says, referring to "Football" and "Catcher" for Orange Glo’s OxiClean stain removal product. "Jonathan Elias [of bicoastal Elias Arts] did the music, pand Peter Darley Miller of Stiefel+ Company [Santa Monica] shot it for us. We transferred at Company 3 [Santa Monica] and we cut it at Mad River Post [Santa Monica]. They’re the same people I’ve worked with the last ten years."

The recent OxiClean work, which is airing on national cable and broadcast networks, is an example of that approach. The spots, helmed by Miller, retain a feel for the hard-sell demonstration approach of the infomercials OxiClean started out with, but mix in humorous overtones. In "Football," a team decked out in prom dresses does its calisthenics on a field strewn with cherry pies, followed by OxiClean tidying up the formal wear.

The spots fit into an agency philosophy that Leydon says dates back to Finlon’s purchase of the company. "From the very beginning," he recounts, "Cathey loved the excitement of working with innovators, and we defined a little niche for ourselves that we wanted to work with innovative companies that demanded innovation in their communications."

—Bill Dunlap

PUSH

It’s a truism that strong concepts are key to successful advertising campaigns. "It’s all about the idea," could be the ad industry’s unofficial slogan. It could also be the slogan for PUSH, an Orlando, Fla., ad shop that’s creating a buzz.

PUSH has won local Best of Show ADDYs three out of the last five years for its print and spot work. Talking with agency partners Julio Lima and John Ludwig, it’s clear how important ideas are at PUSH. "I’ve been the only writer for the last six years, but we consider everybody here a writer," says Ludwig. He adds that the shop recently hired copywriter Gordon Weller, formerly with the in-house ad department at Publix Supermarkets, and before that at Fahlgren Benito, Tampa, Fla. "The big thing is hiring conceptual people. Even though they might have the title ‘art director’ or ‘writer,’ it’s more about the concept. An art director can write lines and come up with ideas for TV spots, and I can come up with visuals."

Middleton Pest Control’s "Switch," directed by Mark Foster, through bicoastal/international hungry man, is a perfect example of how PUSH gets a lot for a little. (Foster is now with eo productions, New York.) The :15 packs quite a punch in its single shot. The humorous ad opens with a woman answering the door of her suburban house. From her POV—we never see the woman—an exterminator clutching a container of bug spray in his right hand appears. He seems a bit hapless as he announces, "Hi, I’m here to spray for your roaches." Obviously annoyed, the woman replies, "I called about ants." At a loss, the guy tries a different approach: He simply passes the bug sprayer over to his left hand, and says, "I’m here to spray for your ants." A nervous expression registers on his face; the woman lets out a frustrated growl and slams the door. The spot’s voiceover tag: "Time to call Middleton."

How does PUSH attract strong talent? Lima notes that if a board has a strong creative concept, but a low budget, directors will be likely to take a project on.

Ludwig continues, "We want to find people who are hungry for the idea. If you have someone who is hungry for the idea, you know they’re passionate about making that idea work."

Ludwig gives another example of how ideas attract talent when he sings the praises of DP Anghel Decca, who has lensed two Cable & Wireless campaigns that PUSH created for the Caribbean market. Lou LaMonte of Nolan/LaMonte Films, Santa Monica, directed the 2001 campaign, titled "Answer the Call." The ’02 effort, called "Connecting with Our Fans, Every Way We Can," was directed by freelance helmer Thomas Richter via Nolan/LaMonte.

"Anghel is busy all the time, explains Ludwig, "but we have a relationship with him where he really believes in the work we do. Jokingly, we asked him, ‘How many 16mm shoots a year do you do?’ He said, ‘One.’ We know we’re the only ones. It may not be the medium he wants to work in, but he believes in the idea."

When asked how he would describe his shop’s creative style, Lima responds, "We try really hard not to give ourselves a style. Every client has their own voice and their own look. If you look at our work, it doesn’t look like the same agency did all of it," he continues. "There are a lot of agencies that have a formula, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid."

The PUSH story begins back in 1995, when Ludwig and Lima were working as freelance creatives in the Orlando area. They admired each other’s abilities and started to collaborate, as freelancers, on a number of accounts. Prior to teaming up, they had known of each other because both had worked at the Orlando office of Robinson, Yesawich & Pepperdine (now Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown), but at different times. Ludwig’s other former roosts are Carmichael Lynch in Orlando, and Thompson & Company, Memphis. Prior to working as a freelancer, Lima was with the Orlando office of Greenstone-Roberts, New York.

"We thought it would be great if we could start doing more work, but we felt we needed a business mind," says Ludwig. It was at that point that the pair hooked up with fellow PUSH founder Richard Wahl, who at the time headed his own Orlando agency, Wahl and Co.

The trio decided to work together as a consortium for a year to see how things worked out. At one point, they picked up a Disney Recruitment account for Walt Disney World Resort, which hires 30,000 to 40,000 people a year. "That [job] really brought us together," relates Ludwig. "We realized we couldn’t be these three different agencies. That [job] was the catalyst that formed PUSH."

PUSH officially opened shop in ’96 with five people on board. Currently, the company has billings of $18 million and a staff of around 30. In ’00, the firm took up residence in a new building designed by Orlando-based architectural firm The Evans Group. The dazzling edifice has a stainless steel exterior, and the colorful interior features open spaces that encourage collaboration.

Would PUSH like to do more national work? "I think that’s the goal for any agency," states Ludwig. "We don’t want to be an Orlando agency. We’d much rather be an agency that just happens to be located in Orlando. I think if you look at our reel, it’s a pleasant surprise to see a reel like that coming from a smaller agency in a smaller market, that’s only six years old. I think that work can travel."

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