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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE LOS ANGELES ADVERTISING AGENCIES ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES FIRST ENTREPRENEUR LEADER OF THE YEAR AWARD
The award will be presented during the association’s annual awards dinner, February 24 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. That same evening, the organization will also recognize David A. Park, president/CEO, DDB Group Los Angeles as Leader of the Year and Dick Sittig of Santa Monica-based Kowloon Wholesale Seafood Company as Creative Leader of the Year. As the first recipient ever to be named Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year, Phelps heads an integrated marketing communications agency based in Santa Monica which delivers award-winning advertising, direct, promotions, PR, and interactive solutions. He was featured in a cover story in Inc. magazine in the past which reported on small business strategies for "getting the most out of every managerial minute." Creative work place innovations and processes have earned Phelps recognition as a pioneer and champion of organizations where self-managed, client-based teams have supplanted, pyramid-type structures which he believes inhibit creativity and productivity. Prior to working with Grey Advertising and N.W. Ayer in the late 1970s, Phelps owned and operated various businesses in the music industry including a recording studio and management firm. In 1981, he returned to his entrepreneurial roots opening a one-person agency with one client -- Fender guitars. In 1987 Phelps made what he calls the single most important decision in the agency’s history -- deciding to obtain expertise in other marketing communications disciplines and integrating them to build its clients’ brands and increase their sales. The Phelps Group operates in a full-feedback environment which includes inventions such as the "The Wall" and "The BrainBangers Ball." Since 1987, The Phelps Group has averaged a 25 percent annual growth rate serving clients like PETCO, Countrywide, Panasonic, Imperial Bank, Bushnell, Roland, and Tahiti Tourism. Sittig, to be honored as Creative Leader of the Year, has created innumerable well-known campaigns including the Energizer Bunny, Jack in the Box, and Nissan’s Road to Rio. He is the only person to win Ad Age magazine’s Campaign of the Year Award, three years in a row for three different clients. His work as a writer has garnered him top industry awards. As a commercial director, he has directed spots for Miller Lite, Nike, Lee Jeans and a bunch of others. In 1998 Sittig won the prestigious AICP award for Best Direction-Humor, Best Direction-Dialogue and Best Copywriting. Park, LAAA’s 1999 Leader of the Year, began his career in 1966 in Honolulu with McCann Erickson. Three years later he co-founded Mayfield, Smith, Park Advertising with Wayne Mayfield and Henry Smith. During its 16 year history, MSP became Hawaii’s third largest agency. In 1985, the company was acquired by Doyle Dane Bernbach and merged with DDB-owned Milici Valenti Advertising becoming Milici Valenti Smith Park -- Hawaii’s number one agency with Park serving as chairman and CEO. He was named president of DDB Needham Los Angeles in February 1988, diversifying the agency by adding DDB Entertainment and initiatives in direct marketing and sales promotion. A portion of the proceeds from the black-tie affair will be donated to the Advertising Industry Emergency Fund and the Minority Advertising Training Program. # # #
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Los
Angeles, Ca., January 12, 2000 -- The Los Angeles Advertising Agencies
Association (formerly Western States Advertising Agencies Association
of America) has selected Joe Phelps of Pacific Palisades, California,
as the organization’s Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year. LAAAA
is among the nation’s leading trade associations within the
advertising and marketing communications industry.