We have good news and bad news: The bad: on 12/31/09 we lost the Directv online account --about 20% of our revenue. After 5 years with us they said they wanted an agency in New York -- they're in Rockefeller Center. We learned a ton about search and analytics because of them and are looking for a way to put that experience to work.
The good: On 1/4/10 we acquired two small agencies (15-20 people in total). Anita Santiago Advertising is an Hispanic focused agency. Copia Creative focuses on upstream projects like positioning, corporate identity and packaging. The two agencies are increasing our headcount by about 25% and the same for our revenue. Plus, with Latinos being the largest minority in the U.S. and reaching about 45% in SoCal, it's time we brought on that expertise. Like these type of acquisitions we've made in the past, as the agencies shrunk due to the loss of a major account, they let their weaker players go, and we end up with the strong players.
More good: We won the Panera Bread PR account for our region. And it's down to two of us for the largest LA-based bank.
In general, life is good. Hope yours is, too!
