Bug caribbean cruise royal

Arnold Communications, Boston, is SHOOT 's pick for '99 Agency Of The Year.

For an agency that prides itself on a subtle, soft-sell approach, Arnold Communications hits hard, and hits consistently. The Boston-based agency is best known for its innovative and award-winning campaigns for Volkswagen, but that work alone didn't make it SHOOT's choice for agency of the year.

Arnold has also built diverse and effective campaigns for clients such as Converse, Foot-Joy, Titleist, Pinnacle and Toysmart.com. The agency hit the ground running in '99 with Volkswagen's "Synchronicity," directed by Gerard de Thame of bicoastal HSI Productions. The ad featured a couple in a Jetta who, while driving down a rainy New Orleans street, find that everything outside their car is moving in synch with the song playing on the car's CD player. The spot received quick acknowledgement from awards competitions--the Association of Independent Commercial Producers Show honored the ad in the original music category and it was nominated for the Emmy for best primetime commercial of the year. The rest of the '99 slate of VW ads has been met with acclaim as well, including spots such as "Mattress," directed by Jhoan Camitz of bicoastal/ international Satellite; "Brief Encounter," helmed by de Thame; "Great Escape," directed by frequent VW helmer Nick Lewin of bicoastal X-1 Films; and "Turbonium," also helmed by Lewin.

Arnold also got several additional nods on the awards circuit this year for other VW work. The agency picked up the GRANDY at this year's ANDY Awards. The $50,000 prize was awarded on the strength of a three-spot VW campaign for the redesigned Beetle-- "Dream," "Flower," and "UFO"-- all of which were directed by Lewin, who at the time was with bicoastal Manifesto.

The agency also had several new business wins in '99. In addition to new clients such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Toysmart.com, Arnold was recently named as the lead agency on the American Legacy Foundation's national anti-tobacco account, which is valued at $150 million to $250 million a year. The campaign, which is funded by a settlement between 46 state attorneys general and the tobacco industry, seems like a natural for Arnold, which is also responsible for a number of thought-provoking anti-smoking ads for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Tobacco Control Program.

Growth Factors

When agency chairman Ed Eskandarian bought Arnold & Co. in '92, it was billing $40 million a year. Though Arnold had a strong regional presence in New England, with clients such fleet Bank and Bell Atlantic, it was only the 134th largest in the country. By '98, Eskandarian, the agency's chairman/CEO, had sold the firm to Snyder Communications, a direct marketing firm.

Since then, Arnold has acquired European arms, including London-based Partners BDDH, and bought smaller U.S. agencies such as San Francisco's IngallsMoranville. Now billing over $1 billion a year, and ranked about 60th in the country, Arnold has also made forays into interactive media, with the purchase of companies such as Circle Interactive, an online advertising shop. Arnold now has the means to create client Web sites that complement and expand on TV and print campaigns. The agency currently has 1,120 employees working at four main offices (in Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and London) and 13 smaller regional offices in the U.S. and Canada.

According to its executives, Arnold's mission with all of the shop's clients is to build what it calls "brand essence"--giving consumers a sense of how a product is meaningful, useful and unique. To establish an emotional connection with consumers, the agency must find out what various products and brands mean to them, says Ron Lawner, Arnold's managing partner/chief creative officer.

"Everything we do is based on a strong strategic platform," Lawner says. "We're here to build brands, not to do one-off spots. To build equity, you can't be jumping all over the place. Some people would see that as a small box to work in, but I find it freeing. It has a lot do to with consumer insight."

The shop's attitude toward dot-com ads is a welcomed change from the current wave of outrageous-but-often-unmemorable dot-com advertising. Arnold's style is exemplified in "Anthem," directed by Marcus Nispel of bicoastal RSA USA, the first spot for the online educational toy store. While many toy ads, even those aimed at parents, focus on satisfying a child's immediate desire for a particular toy, "Anthem"--with its images of kids playing outdoors, challenging themselves to impossible feats--is more about how parents can give their children the tools to learn on their own.

Lawner says the agency gets "about a dozen calls a week" from new Internet-based companies. "They've got lots of money, and they're ready to try anything," he says. "But we're trying to be careful and pick the ones that are going to be around for a while. I love comedy spots, but I've had to watch some dot-com stuff six times before I figured out what it's for. I think there's a lot of restraint needed in that area to keep that stuff meaningful."

In an industry that's often marked by abrupt about-faces in strategy, Arnold has allowed its creative personnel to create variations on, or amplifications of, a powerful theme. For instance, after the aforementioned "Anthem" introduced Toysmart.com to viewers, the campaign moved on to three more spots--"Artist," "Clouds" and "Imaginary Friend"--also directed by Nispel, showing children talking with their parents about things they've created or observed. In "Clouds," a little boy explains the difference between cumulus clouds and those that look like "horsies." The tagline for the campaign is: "Click on your child's potential."

The line featured in "Artist"--"Toysmart has toys that awaken your child's natural talent. You know--good toys"--is written on a yellow Post-It note, stuck to the wall near the desk of group creative director Nick Kaldenbaugh, who with John Petruney, also a group creative director, oversaw the creative side of the Toysrnart.com spots. Visiting the set, Kaldenbaugh says, they were astonished by the improvisational skills of the child actors. "Just like the spots show, kids will surprise you."

Ready To Ride

What was behind Arnold's leap from being a regional agency to a high-profile, internationally known entity? The turning point came in '95, when Arnold won the $100 million Volkswagen of America account, which is currently headed by Lance Jensen, executive VP/group creative director, and Alan Pafenbach, executive VP/group creative director. Though the German automaker's sales were slowly declining, the company still had a reputation for building reliable cars. Indeed, "German engineering"--a phrase that appears again and again in Volkswagen's advertising--had become synonymous with good quality. However, the general image of VW cars (functional, unglamorous) didn't gel with the increasingly sleek, powerful models of the '80s and '90s.

To revive the automaker's overall image, according to the account's group creative directors, Arnold needed to reflect the "vibe" of Volkswagen ownership. After studying VW's data on its drivers, who were evenly divided between men and women in the 18-to-45 demographic, the "Drivers Wanted" campaign began in '95, with Lawner writing the tagline: "On the road of life, there are passengers and there are drivers. Drivers wanted."

The breakthrough ad in the campaign is regarded by many as being "Sunday Afternoon," directed by Baker Smith of Tate & Partners, Santa Monica. Set to Trio's "Da Da Da," the spot for the VW Golf featured two twenty-something guys driving around aimlessly in their Golf. When they happen upon a vintage armchair on a curb, they retrieve it, load it in the back of the car, then discard it when they notice that it is the source of an unpleasant odor. The final voiceover says of the Golf, "It fits your life--or your complete lack thereof."

Though Arnold's VW creative does not draw directly on the Doyle Dane Bembach, New York, campaigns of the '50s and '60s, the new ads share the same appeal. "There's really no comparison conceptually," says Lawner, "but those sixties ads have a refreshingly honest voice. We continue to have that sense of honesty, but we've evolved it into a contemporary style."