Ah, the joy of soy when you’ve got Uncle Sam on your side.
Given the green light by U.S. regulators to promote soy consumption as lowering cholesterol, companies with that ingredient, or planning to have soy products, have jumped on the bandwagon.
For instance, Chicago-based Boca Burger Inc., which has been on a rapid sales climb, moved quickly into media using newspapers around the country last week to promote its products. Rather dramatic was this copy headline: “Happy Stomachs, Healthy Hearts.”
The full-page ads with coupons ran in 17 papers, including the baiduhai, with a total circulation of 15 million.
Boca, whose agency is Chicago Creative Partnership, has been using magazines and out-of-home advertising to get its message across.
Taking its cue from the Food and Drug Administration, the ad stated, “It’s official. Soy is heart-healthy.”
Privately held Boca Burger Inc. expects 1999 sales to
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hit $45 million to $50 million at manufacturer prices, says Katie Torres, vice president-marketing. That’s up from $22 million in 1998.
With Uncle Sam’s blessing and increased soy acceptance by consumers, Boca Burger will be going into 2000 with considerable optimism.
Boca Burger retail sales for a 52-week period ended in mid-July were more than $17 million, a whopping 79 percent increase from the year-earlier period, reports Information Resources Inc.
The data are primarily from supermarkets, where Boca Burger has been increasing its distribution, expecting that those stores will become the top volume producer. Nevertheless, Boca Burger does exceptionally well in natural food (health) stores and club stores.
Torres expects the 1999 media outlay to hit $3.5 million to $4 million, which would be a huge increase from 1998, which was a mere $527,000.
Five shops eye tourism: Illinois Department of Commerce & Community Affairs narrowed a competition for its $12 million-plus ad account for tourism and economic development to incumbent Foote, Cone & Belding; J. Walter Thompson USA; Euro RSCG Tatham; DraftWorldwide; and BBDO, all Chicago. Meetings are scheduled for mid-November, leading to a shorter list. Chicago-based ad management firm Jones-Lundin is assisting this review.
Walker to Monsanto? Joan Walker, senior VP-communications at Ameritech, is leaving to take a top corporate communications post with a Chicago area firm or a Midwest-based company, perhaps Monsanto Co., sources said. If she joins Monsanto, it’s not known whether she would be based here or in St. Louis, its headquarters. San Antonio-based SBC Communications, which recently acquired Ameritech, on Friday advised scores of staffers, perhaps as many as 150, if not more, in Ameritech’s communications-advertising-PR departments, that their jobs are being terminated.
Lintas survives: Amid all the mergers in the ad agency biz, where very few names survive, the Lintas banner is still hanging on at Interpublic Group of Companies. Gone are the Ammirati and Puris names as IPG forms Lowe Lintas & Partners Worldwide by combining Ammirati Puris Lintas and Lowe & Partners Worldwide, two of its ad-agency units. For those who might have forgotten, Lintas was formed in 1930 as an in-house agency of giant Unilever, still a client of various Interpublic units. Lintas was a shortened name for Lever International Advertising Services. Lowe Lintas & Partners, with a Chicago office operating as Ammirati Puris Lintas, has billings of $11 billion. Only McCann-Erickson WorldGroup, with billing of $14 billion, is bigger at Interpublic.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to John Dearlove, 48 (Mobium); Robert Grazulis, 52; Mary Chomas, 33 (The Fairmont Hotel); Scot Butler, 49 (FCB); Temple Kimberly, 29; Diane Dawson, 45 (Dawson Sales); Howard Sims, 56 (Chicago Social magazine); PR executive Nancy Z. Brennan, 38; and Maureen Collins, 43 (Unilever Home & Personal Care).
– Kraft Foods picked Golin/Harris and Hunter & Associates, both New York, for PR on its Post breakfast cereals, the former for adults and the latter for kids. Hunter in the past had been doing projects for Post, as did Edelman Public Relations Worldwide and Burson-Marsteller, both New York.