Ad agency of record?

April 5, 2006 11:20 AM

Is there are a free way to find the ad or PR agency of record for companies? Something like the Red Books, but, you know, free?
posted by ChasFile to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

A single company commonly has several different ad agencies for different specialties (e.g. TV, radio, print, specific target markets, PR, etc.). If nowhere else, payments to these agencies should appear in public tax filings.
posted by scottreynen at 11:50 AM on April 5, 2006

Try adforum.com. The free/preview search function will give you a list of agencies associated with a brand. If an agency is the AOR, you can be sure there's an archived press release on their website.
posted by sardonista at 12:07 PM on April 5, 2006

For the PR folks, you can just look at recent press releases the company has issued, either on their newswire of choice (PR Newswire, BusinessWire, etc.), or in their website's press room. At the bottom of a release, it will have media contacts, including their PR account manager if they use an outside firm.
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:38 PM on April 5, 2006

If it's a big company, you could hit the library and search through the Advertising Age archives. Hopefully said library has access to an electronic repository; having to search manually through their print copies would suck.
posted by chrominance at 3:57 PM on April 5, 2006

Ring them up and ask them if all the approaches above fail? It's hardly top-secret information.

Otherwise, some trade publications carry news of account wins. You could search their archives if you have access to Lexis Nexis or something like that.
posted by bifter at 3:46 AM on April 6, 2006

How did I miss the reply above mine? Dunno. Anyway, PR Week or the trade publications relevant to the company's industry sector (eg Pharmaceutical Marketing) would be a better bet than Advertising Age.
posted by bifter at 3:57 AM on April 6, 2006