• by September 16, 2004

A DERMA FRESH START - While ad agencies often make Fountain of Youth claims for their clients' products, AdSouth Partners has decided to go them one better, buying the fountain and marketing it on its own behalf.

Just the other day, the Boca Raton, Fl.-based direct marketing shop informed us that it had sought and received a line of credit to purchase the MicroDermAbrasion kit and Dermafresh line of "anti-aging" products. The company hopes to begin selling the Dermafresh product line to retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, Walgreen, Brooks, Duane Reed, QVC, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

"We've decided to combine selling products and selling advertising," an agency spokeswoman tells the Riff, adding, "But we're also an ad agency. It's not meant to seem like a gimmick. It's about selling. It's what we are."

AdSouth claims validation of its atypical structure by noting that product sales now represent about a third of the "agency's" revenues. Sales of the MicroDermAbrasion kit have exceeded $1 million, while ad revenue is approaching $2 million.

Given AdSouth's success, we wonder if other agencies might not soon follow suit. For example, we know Havas raised some investment capital during its ill-fated pursuit of Grey Global Group just last week. How about opening a chain of mid-priced French restaurants. After all, advertising is a fickle business, but who doesn't like French fries? Or depending on your market, Freedom Fries. Just a thought.

Actually students of ad agency diversification schemes may recall that some over the years, some mighty ad shops have actually owned decidedly non-advertising oriented businesses. For example, J. Walter Thompson, which itself has since been acquired by a company called Wire & Paper Products (that'd be WPP Group), once owned an egg carton manufacturing concern and a surfboard company. And that was before people even were surfing channels, much less the Web.