agency news

NEW YORKThe Association of Na-tional Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies have released seven recommended "Rules of the Road" for agency-search consultants to follow when conducting agency reviews. Consultants who adopt the guidelines, which were endorsed by the boards of directors of each trade association, will be noted on any referral lists kept by the ANA or the 4A's. The two organizations also issued a list of best practices that all advertisers, agencies or consultants involved in an agency search are urged to follow. The full text of both the consultants' code of conduct and the suggested best practices are posted on the ANA Web site, www.ana.net, and the 4A's Web site, www.aaaa.org.Remedy, a New York-based creative-solutions studio, has produced and, in collaboration with PBS, conceptualized "Backstage," a 30-second commercial, which will also be used as a theatrical trailer, to promote Ken Burns' 10-episode documentary series Jazz. The commercial began airing last month, and the trailer is running in theaters nationwide through Jan. 11. Remedy also created a package of promotional elements for the series. Jazz will premiere on PBS stations today. The recently opened company provides live-action direction and production to advertising agencies and strategic conceptual thinking and design solutions to the broadcast and cable communities. Spontaneous Combustion, a digital studio that specializes in creating visual effects and design for the advertising, broadcast and film industries, has produced and composited for Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City Stores a photorealistic 3-D type treatment, built a type animation of the client's "Imagine that" tag and integrated it into a number of products. The studio also created an interface for a Palm Pilot for four 30-second spots for Circuit City and its agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York. The campaign began its national rollout in November. The studio also designed and produced a 10-second open and a package of graphic elements, Music With a Message: World AIDS Day 2000, to be used for bumpers, promos and a PSA for MTV and LIFEbeat, the music industry's nonprofit HIV/AIDS awareness organization. The youth-targeted campaign aired globally on MTV, coinciding with the thirteenth anniversary of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.Dorling Kindersley, working through Bozell Kamstra in New York, contracted with Sweet Logo, a New York-based media company specializing in public-venue advertising using complimentary ad-wrapped mints, to help promote its new line of books, K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Series). The books provide information on topics such as parenting, careers, travel, sex, wine and golf. The K.I.S.S. mints will be distributed in beauty salons and day spas in major markets nationwide, including New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Philadelphia. Sweet Logo will also display K.I.S.S. posters in more than 275 New York City salons and spas.Hawkeye Communications, a global marketing-services company in New York, has acquired DPS Creative, a Minneapolis-based firm that provides retailers with in-store promotional campaigns, and BDS Beechwood, a London-based integrated marketing-communications agency. Hawkeye's network now includes 10 marketing-communications companies. The company was formed in January 1999 by G. Steven Dapper, former chairman and CEO of Rapp Collins Worldwide, and Ronnie Cohen, former president of AyerDirect and GTCR Golder Rauner, a Chicago-based equity firm. Hill and Knowlton has formed Medical Knowledge Group, a full-service medical- education company that offers communi-cations planning and implementation to pharmaceutical and healthcare industry clients worldwide. Medical Knowledge Group will operate offices in London, New York and Toronto while maintaining affiliate relationships via the Hill and Knowlton global network. Services provided by the new entity include publication strategy and message development, prelaunch advocacy development, product prelaunch and launch programs for professional and patient audiences, sales force training, and managed care programs. Hill and Knowlton, based in New York, is an international public relations and public affairs firm.Centura Software has hired cross-disciplinary communications agency Frankfurt Balkind. The shop will create a global campaign to launch across six continents in the first half of this year. Estimated annual billings are about $25 million. Initially, Frankfurt Balkind will focus on rebuilding awareness and understanding of the Centura brand within the context of an emerging field that needs definition. The agency, which has an office in New York, among other cities, will begin by creating strategic repositioning, key messages and a new identity to clarify and support Centura's vision and initiatives. Frankfurt Balkind will then create an array of TV and radio advertising, and both print and Web marketing materials.Hauppauge advertising agency Friedman, Ellis, Nielsen & Rogan has won three new accounts. New on the shop's roster are Olde Brooklyn Beverage Co. of Brooklyn, N.Y., for all trade and consumer advertising and sales promotion for the national rollout of the company's Olde Brooklyn Soda brand; Gristina Winery/Galluccio Estate Vineyards in Cutchogue, N.Y., for branding and national consumer advertising; and Lemon Tree in Hicksville, N.Y., for all ad-vertising for its company-owned and franchised hair salons in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.Rabasca + Co. has launched its interactive Web site, www.rabasca.com. In addition to sections that allow viewers to see examples of the Melville agency's creative work, the site also offers biographies of the shop's employees paired with their childhood photos. The site gives potential clients the ability to contact the agency with questions or feedback. Separately, AM/PM Promotions of Babylon, N.Y., has merged with Rabasca + Co. AM/PM Promotions specializes in point-of-purchase graphics, direct mail and customized corporate sales-promotion programs. The merged companies will occupy Rabasca + Co.'s offices in Melville.Chisholm-Mingo Plus in New York was contracted by Target Stores to develop a public and community relations program in support of the exhibition "A Stronger Soul Within a Finer Frame: Portraying African Americans in the Harlem Renaissance," currently on view at the Apollo Theater in New York. The show, which will travel to Atlanta for Martin Luther King Day, focuses on the literary, dramatic and artistic creativity of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s.

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