Trone is claiming victories on two fronts.
Last week Trone's Atlanta unit, headed by president Jackson Houck, defeated crosstown rivals WestWayne and Huey/Paprocki in a review to win the account of Children's HealthCare of Atlanta.
The agency's Greensboro, N.C., headquarters captured the marketing account of Tanger Outlets, a national shopping mall chain.
The two accounts total some$15 million in billings, bringing this year's new business wins under president Natalie Perkins to approximately $35-40 million.
Perkins, a 13-year Trone veteran, assumed day-to-day operational command of the agency last year when chairman Lee Trone stepped down to pursue other ventures.
"Lee is man with many other business ventures outside advertising," said an agency source. "He's busy pursuing them."
The challenge presented by the $5 million Children's HealthCare account is to brand a pediatric care center—the na-tion's largest in terms of "staffed beds"—formed by the 1998 merger of two well-known Atlanta facilities: Scottish Rite Children's Medical Center and Eggleston Children's Health Care Systems.
The account had been serviced by Ogilvy & Mather in Atlanta, then briefly by J.Walter Thompson here.
According to Anne West, client marketing vice president, target audiences—parents, corporate and private donors, volunteers—were slow to understand and accept the new entity: "Trone must come up with out-of-the-box thinking to break through the clutter to explain who we are and what services we provide."
The healthcare organization re-ceived $22 million in grants and donations last year, but provided $55 million in charitable treatment.
Trone's $10 million Tanger win came in a review against undisclosed shops. The team pitching the local account included Perkins, director of account management Mike Fox, creative director Steve Dunkley and media director Ira Bass.