ADVERTISING: CHALLENGES FOR THE BIG THREE

With nearly 250 agencies grossing $40 million a year on billings (media sales) of at least $250 million, Dallas’ advertising industry is among the fastest growing in the nation. More than 2500 people in Dallas earn their livings in advertising, with thousands more performing such auxiliary services as graphic design, market research, and audio-visual production. Not everyone in Dallas takes advertising seriously: For Jack Hurst, president of Aero-Country Aviation, towing banners over Cowboy and Ranger games is “just an excuse to keep my Stearman biplane flying.” But for most, advertising is big business.

Over half the business belongs to three agencies: Glenn Bozell & Jacobs, Tracy-Locke, and Bloom Advertising. All three rank among the top 50 agencies in the U.S., a scale attained by no agency in Houston or Atlanta. These giants, multi-service organizations of equal capabilities, claim they co-exist with remarkable civility, in contrast to the cutthroat competition in other cities. Be that as it may, their aggressive efforts are expended on landing new accounts from other parts of the country and, increasingly, from other parts of the world.

Behind the Big Three are a handful of agencies billing more than a million dollars a year. Firms in this class, such as The Richards Group, Kerss Chapman Bua & Norsworthy, Crume & Associates, and Rominger, are generally stronger in some media than in others (such as print versus broadcast), but they have reached the critical mass required to win major accounts. “We’re just now getting to the point where we can seek a $2- or $3-million-a-year account,” says George Arnold, president of KCBN, which handles such clients as the Dallas News and Dallas Power & Light. “We’re not hell-bent on great size. Our interest is in first-line quality control.”

The remaining 95 percent of the ad community ranges from one-person “boutiques” to large house agencies such as the Stanford Agency, which handles only 7-Eleven stores. One of the least visible segments is the public relations specialist, such as Eddie Barker Associates, who may be called to consult on press relations, employee or stockholder relations – even on guest lists for clients’ receptions. Barker, a former Channel 4 news director, may also become involved in political campaigns, as he did when he assisted William Clements while the candidate’s staff was being assembled.

The proliferation of small ad shops is made possible not only by the availability of work, but by the diversity of skilled freelancers in town. Underlying Dallas’ vast production of persuasive marketing messages and molded images is a human talent pool that has earned nationwide respect. The vitality and expertise of local graphic artists, copywriters, film and video producers, photographers, musicians, and arrangers give the Dallas ad industry its competitive edge in both quality and cost. It has made Dallas’ old image as a frontier town nothing but, well, an ad-man’s gimmick, as customers from the media centers of New York and California come to Dallas to shoot spots and record jingles.

Some complaints have been voiced by members of the Dallas Producers Association, however, about a lingering tendency among the big Dallas agencies to take their film work to the east and west coasts. These independent producers resent being “tossed crumbs,” the low-budget, hurry-up projects; they contend that their work is equal to that of the coasts. “There’s less depth locally,” counters one ad exec. “And using coast people gives you an escape hatch. If the ad fails, at least you can say, ’We went to the best.’ Flying out to Hollywood is an ego trip, too. Undeniably.”

Rush Beesley, president of Sundance Productions, offers a balancing perspective. “Sure, taking a client out of town on an expense account is fun. But the people in L.A. and New York like to get out of town, too. They’ve heard that something hot’s happening down here, and they want to come see, drink beer out of longneck bottles and watch the Cowboys. So it works both ways.” Beesley reports that the majority of his jobs come from outside Dallas and adds, “In most cases, yes, Dallas people can do it as well for cheaper.”

Dallas’ longstanding claim to be the communications center of the Southwest is strengthened almost daily. Advertising Age has located its Southwest office here. Both Time and Newsweek have announced they are moving bureaus here soon. The outlook for advertising revenues is positive, as metropolitan Dallas /Fort Worth continues to lead Houston as headquarters for companies with a net worth of more than a million dollars.

It is somewhat paradoxical, therefore, that the huge national agencies like Batten Barton Durstine Osborn, which once had the Lone Star Gas account, have never succeeded with branch offices here. (All of Dallas’ Big Three are homegrown. Glenn Advertising, a 40-year-old Dallas agency, merged in 1974 with Bozell & Jacobs to form Glenn Bozell & Jacobs, which lists offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas.) One explanation may be that the less heavily industrial economy of Dallas offers fewer fat accounts needing national exposure, such as Houston’s oil companies or Detroit’s auto makers. Perhaps clients here have been unusually loyal to Dallas agencies, whom they perceive as being more sensitive to local ways of doing business. Or maybe the big nationals’ branches never devoted enough energy to public service in the community. Whatever the reason, national agencies (including BBDO, D’Arcy McManus & Masius, and Clinton E. Frank) who have bought out local agencies have always failed to pick up new business and eventually closed their offices.

The nationals are not likely to give up trying – not as long as Dallas’ economic prospects continue to shine. “There’s a lot of interest being shown in Dallas agencies,” declares KCBN’s Arnold. “We’ve been offered mergers and affiliations from large national firms at least a half dozen times, but we’ve resisted. I think you’re going to see a lot of small agencies absorbed.” The latest penetration effort is the merger of New York-based Wells Rich Greene and the Dallas office of Gordon & Shortt, which has handled only the Braniff account. (WRG Chairman Mary Wells is the wife of Braniff Chairman Harding Lawrence.) The combined agency, named Wells Rich Greene & Gordon, aims to add new accounts. If the corporate migration to Dallas continues, they may break the jinx this time.