As it gears up for a March 17 launch, FineLiving has selected Crispin Porter + Bogusky here for a publicity campaign.
The cable TV network is the first account for the Miami agency’s satellite office, which opened Sept. 10.
The business, with a budget of less than $1 million, was awarded after a review that included Creative Domain in Los Angeles, Rubin Postaer and Associates in Santa Monica, Calif., and Brainsaw in Santa Ana, Calif., sources said.
Sally Hogshead, agency creative director and managing director, acknowledged that the budget is modest, but said the win demonstrates the office’s ability to land business in a review against other West Coast shops. She also said the track record of FineLiving’s owner, Scripps Networks, suggests strong growth potential for the account.
“We won our first pitch out of the gate,” said Hogshead, who left Robaire and Hogs head to establish CP+B’s L.A. office. “Now we have the opportunity to launch a cable network from the ground floor. That’s very exciting for us.”
The network will debut on Time Warner cable systems, giving it a potential reach of less than 5 million homes. But it joins two well-established nets run by Scripps—the Food Network and HGTV, both of which reach more than 70 million homes.
FineLiving senior vice president of marketing Robyn Miller said she was “blown away” by CP+B’s spec work in the review. She said it captured the network’s credo, “Live like you mean it.”
“They have a passion for what they do,” she said. “We need something cutting edge that creates a buzz about the network.”
Miller said the network is the centerpiece of a rollout that includes a Web site and a monthly magazine that will be included in 70 newspapers.
CP+B chairman Chuck Porter noted that the shop launched the Golf Network in 1993, and that this account is a natural.
“We know how to do nontraditional advertising,” he said. “We don’t use the term guerrilla marketing, because we think of all of our marketing that way.”
CP+B Wins First on West Coast
