Ad Agency Remodels Interior To Promote Retail Know-how Don’t be surprised if the receptionist at Mosaic, The Ad Shoppe doesn’t speak to you when you walk into the company’s Sherman Oaks office. She’s a fake. So is the woman in the “library” pretending to reach for the latest issue of StoreS magazine. But there is nothing fake about the motive behind the theatrics, including the recently installed mock escalator angling up from just beyond the main lobby to, well, nowhere. Or the flying seagulls and hanging beach motif you’ll spot above some of the office cubicles. Or the cash register, Mosaic mints and “Retailoholic” note pads on sale near the receptionist’s desk. If your mission is to devise a creative, effective advertising campaign that entices retail consumers to reach for their wallets, then you’ve got to eat, sleep, breath and think retail, says Mosaic’s President Robert Charney. Which explains why, with advertising spending swirling around in an economic slump of its very own, Mosaic recently invested close to $100,000 to give its office space that “shop ’till you drop” kind of feel. Mosaic’s mood-boosting campaign is intended to send a message to its customers that, while it’s important to keep a lid on expenditures, sticking with a strong and creative branding campaign will carry companies through any challenges in the market that may lie ahead. Just past the front entrance is the Mosaic book store, where visitors can browse (or buy) publications such as “Store Planning,” “Competing With Retail Giants” and “Confessions of a Window Dresser.” Strategically placed impulse items sporting the Mosaic logo coffee mugs, baseball caps and boxer shorts bearing barcodes are also on sale. So are Mosaic T-shirts, golf balls, pens, pencils and mini-book lights. “What we wanted to do is differentiate our firm from other ad agencies, that’s important,” said Charney. “But it’s also ironic that a lot of ad agencies do what they do for a living everyday, yet very few know how to brand an image for themselves. So we are trying to set a mood here that not only induces our employees to get retail in their blood, but show our clients that we understand their market.” It’s too soon to say how much new or repeat business the “turn the tables on ourselves” campaign has produced, said Charney, but he added that potential and established clients alike have been receptive, and get the “we get it” approach. “We have not had one client that’s come through the door and not been blown away by the idea behind all this,” said Charney. “We know that this is working and we’ve accomplished what it is we’ve set out to do.” Pete Silver, editor of The Marketing Communications Report, a monthly published in Miami, said Mosaic’s strategy for driving sales and boosting client relationships should be an effective one. In fact, he said, although no ad agency he’s heard of so far has gone as far as putting in mannequins or a bookshop, the notion of practicing what you preach is catching on. “I think this is a very effective way for an agency to draw attention to itself, because the biggest challenge for advertising agencies is to differentiate themselves,” said Silver. “Now, obviously they have done something that can’t be duplicated without it looking like a copy cat.” Silver said he’d worked with a Vermont-based real estate agency that primarily sells buildings for bed and breakfasts that actually went out and purchased a B & B; of its own to prove knowledge of the market it caters to. He also likened Mosaic’s strategy to the fast-food chicken restaurant that aims to call attention to itself by dressing up an employee in a chicken suit and putting him or her in front of the store. “Anytime this is done, the message to the client is that something isn’t just being done somewhere in a dark, back room somewhere,” said Silver. “It sends the message that the company is trying to transcend the idea that they know everything and instead say we want to help our clients.” Mosaic has a client list that includes Valley-based IHOP Corp., Silver Star Motorcar Co., Thousand Oaks Auto Mall and Encino State Bank. According to Charney, retailers boasting of fairly good sales figures for the end of the second quarter have yet to feel the impact of the economic slowdown. He said, despite some predictions of a relatively strong fall and holiday season, come January retailers will feel the pinch. “I don’t think the layoffs in the tech sector have actually trickled down to the retail industry yet,” said Charney. “I think there is going to be a real slump beginning the first quarter of next year. But the good news is, those companies that have been prudent with their ad planning will do OK. We don’t suggest they go crazy, but they should maintain a certain level of prominence in the marketplace.” Ken Greene, president of the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall Association, said Mosaic has managed the ad campaign for the auto mall and Silver Star Motorcar Co., of which he is also president and general manager, ever since the ad agency went into business in 1989. “I believe I was one of Mosaic’s first accounts,” said Greene. “I stick with them mainly because of the personalized service; they are attentive to my needs and my customers. Other agencies have kind of told me what to do and not listened to what it is we would like to accomplish.” So far, Greene says, he’s maintained his ad budget, which usually runs somewhere around $1 million annually.