Agency News

NEW YORKThe East Coast Energy Council, an association of oil-heat distributors, tapped MARC USA/New York for an estimated $10 million, multiyear national campaign to raise awareness of heating oil to homeowners across the U.S. The appointment of the shop came after a four-month review in which the New Jersey-based association also heard presentations from finalists Wolf Group and Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, both New York. ECEC's previous agency was Warwick Baker O'Neill. MARC USA is currently working on a consumer campaign that will debut during the second quarter of this year and focus specifically on the tristate area. The campaign is scheduled to go national in 2002.The Coastal Group launched its international division in Hong Kong. Joey Li, director of marketing, Asia, will serve as the liaison between the new division and The Coastal Group's headquarters in New York.Online advertising-services and technology provider Interadnet tapped Renegade Marketing Group in New York to be its advertising agency. Renegade, a Dentsu USA affiliate, will focus on brand-building strategies for the client, starting with the launch of a new print campaign scheduled for this month and targeted at leading industry media outlets. Interadnet's campaign will also extend into a fully integrated marketing program incorporating direct mail, guerrilla marketing and interactive services to establish leadership among competitors DoubleClick, 24/7 Media and Mediaplex.Panoramic Communications, which owns Earle Palmer Brown, acquired Odyssey, a Manayunk, Pa.-based interactive company. EPBi, EPB's interactive division, will merge with Odyssey. The new company will retain the Odyssey name and remain in Manayunk. David Haan, EPBi president, will head the newly merged organizations as president. New York-based Panoramic Communications was recently formed by a merger between The Destination Group and epb.communications, a network of 16 independently operating offline, online and below-the-line companies.Cognitive Arts Corp. and Columbia University launched Columbia Interactive Arts & Sciences (www.as.columbia.edu), which was designed by R/GA. The site is home to the first of a series of online courses to be offered by Columbia University. R/GA created the site's visual design, user interface and architecture. The software powering the site was created by Cognitive Arts, and Columbia University's School of Arts and Sciences provided the course content. Part of True North Communications, R/GA is an interactive agency that is based in New York.Eric Mower and Associates was tapped by the New York Archives to conduct an overhaul of the client's existing Web site. EMA will partner with the Archives to reor ganize its 700-plus-page site, make it more interactive, provide areas for document-copying requests and searches, and add a new e-commerce section for business transactions with the media, historians, researchers, teachers and the general public.Spoofing contemporary and vintage TV and dance shows, JSM musically illustrated the new campaign for Diet Dr Pepper that was created by Young & Rubicam in New York. New York-based JSM created original compositions for the pool of 30- and 15-second spots, "Green Bay Watch," "Hudson Riverdance" and "Crime Family Feud." The commercials rolled out in January. The JSM team was headed by president/executive producer Joel Simon and included composers Jay Lifton ("Crime Family Feud"), Doug Katsaros ("Hudson Riverdance") and Morgan Visconti ("Green Bay Watch"), lyricist Jamie Babbit ("Green Bay Watch") and producer Cynthia Stahl.Spontaneous Combustion, a digital studio that specializes in design, visual effects and animation for the advertising, broadcast and film industries, created and integrated computer-generated fish into live-action footage, and completed the online for the new Pepperidge Farms Goldfish campaign created by Young & Rubicam in New York. Filmed by Chelsea Pictures in New York, "Jingle" rolled out nationally on Jan. 15. New York-based Spontaneous Combustion was represented by executive director/creative director Tony Robins, visual effects supervisor/compositor David Elkins, creative director/head of cg animation and After Effects artist Sam DeWitt, 3-D animators Brian Austin, Boris Ustaev, Alex Smith and Diana Diriwaechter, and producer Trevor King.Cristina Merrill and Matt Hingley formed TR6 Group, a communications agency specializing in public relations, advertising and brand consulting. Merrill and Hingley will serve as principals of the Brooklyn-based company, whose clients include Ducati Motorcycles, British Airways, NYUonline, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Learjet. Merrill was most recently a partner at Toolbox, overseeing strategic communications for the ad agency. Hingley was senior art director at Toolbox.Carat North America CEO David Verklin received the 2001 Robert H. Alter Award at the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's 19th annual Cable Advertising Conference, held in New York in early February. Whitney Goit III, A&E Network vice president of marketing and advertising sales, received the CAB President's Award. Verklin was honored for his innovation in bringing new methods of media evaluation and selection to the planning and buying process. Goit was recognized for his leadership of several CAB committees, as well as his role at A&E Network.Heitner Weiss, an advertising agency in New York, launched a U.S. print media campaign last month for Links of London through an alliance with Warren Design in Britain. The ads are appearing in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York, Gotham and W. The client, a retailer of sterling silver and 18-carat gold jewelry, gifts and accessories, recently opened its first store in the U.S. on Madison Avenue in New York.Business-communications and events company Morris & Partners, based in New York and Princeton, N.J., received the award for the top woman-owned business enterprise for 2000 at Amtrak's Annual Supplier Diversity Awards ceremony held in Washington on Feb. 5. The agency, which produces special events for corporations nationwide, conceived and produced last year's launch of Acela Express, Amtrak's new high-speed rail line.New York-based Connors Communications renewed its agreement with the National Geographic Society to provide off line and online public relations services for nationalgeographic.com. The agency has represented the site since its launch in 1996. Connors was also hired by Schema, a provider of Telecom Resource Management software solutions and services for wireless networks. Connors, a consumer and emerging-technology public relations and marketing agency, also has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London.KCSA Public Relations Worldwide in New York added seven new clients. KCSA will handle public relations for the following companies: on board info, an e-calendaring software company in Westport, Conn.; SGI Global, a designer and builder of energy, urban and industrial projects worldwide; Speedwise, a U.S. subsidiary of Israeli company Speedwise Technologies, which provides software platforms that accelerate Internet browsing and value-added IP services over wireless and landline networks; and Websplit.com, which offers Internet users a split-screen home page displaying favor ite Web sites. KCSA's new investor relations clients are Bio-Reference Laboratories, a regional clinical laboratory, Eltek, a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, and Learn2.com, which creates and distributes e-learning solutions for corpo rate, government, educational and individual clients.The Technology Division of the Stevens Style Group, a marketing-communications agency based in New York, was retained by WOWnetwork.com, a soon-to-be launched online human-capital-management system. The agency was chosen to create and implement a broad-based, multitiered public relations campaign for the Indianapolis-based client's launch and continued growth. The Stevens Style Group specializes in high-tech/dot-com companies and services, as well as family-entertainment products and personalities. NEW JERSEYLiberty Science Center hired Princeton Partners, an integrated brand-marketing agency in Princeton, to create a new advertising and promotional campaign scheduled to break in the second half of 2001. The $1 million effort will include print, outdoor and radio regional advertising. Liberty Science Center is located in Jersey City.Ricci Associates added Scott Adams Foods in Newton to its client roster. The agency, which has offices in Marlton and New York, will handle national public relations for the Dilberito and Protein Chef lines. Scott Adams, client president, is the creator of the comic-strip character Dilbert. Ricci also added Apettito Provisions Co. in Union, Green Lundgren & Ryan, a law firm in Cherry Hill and the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service in Haworth.Beenz.com, creator of beenz online currency, hired East Rutherford-based The MWW Group to develop and implement the company's strategic communications and public relations program in the U.S. MWW's charge is to help launch beenz.com's marquis rewardzCodes product, a technology that provides business with consumer information and market research. The alphanumeric codes are found on the insides of product packaging, on receipts or at point of sale. The consumer gets the code, goes to a Web site, inputs the code and earns points toward products and/or merchandise.Integrated Communications Corp. was tapped by Mavena AG for the global launch of its international network of specialty dermatology clinics. A subsidiary of Asklia AG, based in Belp, Switzerland, Mavena will open an inter national network of dermatology clinics that will offer a holistic approach to pro viders and patients. Healthcare-advertising shop Integrated Communications Corp. is part of the Lowe Healthcare network and the Interpublic Group of Cos.; the agency has offices in Parsip pany and Law renceville, as well as in London and other locations worldwide. PENNSYLVANIASusquehanna Communications, a York-based cable provider, hired Barry Group, also in York, to create a series of TV spots about two of its consumer products. The new spots will feature digital-cable service and cable-modem service, which offers high-speed Internet access. The com mercials will air in SusCom markets in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Maine and Mississippi.

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