Despite a sluggish economy, Rhode Island’s advertising and public relations agencies appear to be enjoying a boom in business.
RDW Group recently acquired an account reportedly worth more than $1 million, as has Trion Communications, which has also acquired nine clients this year. Trainor Communications, Gregory/Cooney/Belt and Duffy & Shanley are all changing the faces of their operations, and other firms across the state have new clients.
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RDW Group recently won a Fallon Community Health Plan account, which will be doing advertising in all mediums, said Mike Doyle, RDW president.
“This is a significant win for us,” he said. “It’s somewhere between $1 million and $3 million.”
“It’s really our first significant win of the year,” he said. “It’s been a difficult year for the advertising industry and the Fallon win was a real shot in the arm for us.”
Providence’s Trion Communications won its first national account recently with Annie’s Homegrown, which makes Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese, second in macaroni and cheese sales only to Kraft.
Trion principal Josh Fenton is excited about the account because of the organic qualities of the product.
“Our goal will be to broaden the awareness of the Annie’s brand to those parents who live in the world of Kraft, but may want a natural food option for their family,” he said.
Fenton said the economy has been kind to Trion, citing the nine new clients his firm garnered this year.
“I think we’re very well-built for how the economy is right now,” he said. “We’re smaller, but experienced. There’s no overhead of a big agency, but there are the same strategic levels. New business has not been a problem, but it’s a little daunting because the number of accounts all at once.”
Jim Cooney, president of Warwick-based PriMedia said the industry is finally stabilizing.
“We don’t generally discuss any of our clients,” he said, “but over the last several months we have had two or three new acquisitions and increased business from existing clients. So things are looking pretty good despite the overall economic downturn.”
Alec Beckett, creative partner at Providence-based Nail, said his company has been enjoying similar success.
“It looked like it was going to slow down like it usually does in the summer, but it hasn’t,” he said.
Beckett has a theory about the success of one of the company’s newer clients, Sublime, which makes alcohol-based citrus drinks.
“Maybe alcohol is a recession-proof business,” he joked. “The worse things get, the more alcohol you sell.”
Chaffee & Partners, of Providence, has signed several new clients, including upscale retirement community Laurel Mead, energy management company Noresco, Warren-based Swimex Aquatic Therapy Systems, and Novare’ Engineers.
Jen Toone, vice president of Chaffee, said the firm will be making more announcements soon.
“We’ve got some irons in the fire for some hot new prospects,” she said.
Advertising Ventures President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Rosa said he has noticed a shift in the way people are employing his agency.
“A slowing economy is not necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “Things were moving way too fast for most companies during the boom and they were reactive, not proactive. We’re pleased to see companies taking the time to plan again.”
He said Advertising Ventures’ existing clients are investing more in strategic services.
“The summer is the perfect time for companies to catch their breath after riding a roller coaster economy and plan for long term, sustained growth,” he said
Rosa said the firm’s new clients, Cityside Skatepark and Dunkin’ Donuts purchasing naming rights to the Providence Civic Center, are signs of an improving economy.
“We’re pretty encouraged,” he said. “The Dunkin’ Donuts thing made us feel good about what’s happening locally.”
Sandra Cooney, president of Gregory/Cooney/Belt said a lot of changes have occurred within her firm, but none of them have much to do with the economy.
“We keep reading about the economy and wondering,” she said, “but so far it has not affected us.”
Cooney’s firm named Jacob Belt partner earlier this year, hired new creative director Pablo Rodriguez Masjon, and moved from One Allens Ave. to 365 Eddy St. in Providence. She said her clients are consistent though.
“One of the nice things about our agency is that most of our clients have been with us a long time,” she said. “It’s not that we don’t like new business, it’s that we don’t have to get new business to replace old business.”Other firms to experience changes are Trainor Communications, which changed its marketing approach and name (from Trainor Advertising) earlier this year, and Duffy & Shanley, which seems poised to launch some agency innovations.
Logging onto duffyshanley.com, it is apparent that something is a-brewing. Gone is the Mass-Exodus tech-exclusivity, and in its place is a logo that looks somewhat like a family crest, with a lion dividing the words “Duffy” and “United.”
Although sources at the agency could not be reached, the text on the site invokes anticipation.
