Bringing Some Big-City Ad Pizazz to Montauk - June 5, 2004
By Warren Strugatch
BLUMENFELD & FLEMING, a two-woman advertising agency in Montauk, shook up the local
advertising industry last month by landing 14 Best of Long Island awards from the Long Island Advertising Club,
including two first-place statuettes.
The agency, whose principals are Manhattan transplants, has its roots in a chance meeting on an East End
beach two years ago. Lynn Blumenfeld, a Madison Avenue refugee and freelance copywriter who planned to move to
East Hampton, was eating fruit from a bag with a Schmidt's logo when George Bowden, the owner of Schmidt's, an
East Hampton grocery store now known as the Hampton Marketplace, padded by in person.
''Hey, I sold you those apricots,'' Mr. Bowden said by way of introduction. Before he had moved on down
the beach, Ms. Blumenfeld had wangled a promise from Mr. Bowden to consider letting her handle his advertising.
Her timing was fortuitous. Citarella, the prominent Manhattan specialty-food emporium, had just opened a
branch in East Hampton, and Mr. Bowden decided it was time to beef up his advertising. He asked Ms. Blumenfeld
to create a few ads for him and run them in several local newspapers. The budget: $20,000, tops.
Ms. Blumenfeld, who had cut her teeth at Manhattan agencies like Grey Worldwide, Rich & Greene and
Young & Rubicam, would have never worked on an account as small as Schmidt's. But now that she was living
out the dream of many Manhattan professionals -- moving to the Hamptons and working there, too -- Mr. Bowden's
business loomed large.
About the time she met Mr. Bowden, a former colleague from Manhattan suggested that she bolster her chances
by working with a graphic artist and recommended Jill Fleming, who had worked for Ogilvy Worldwide in Manhattan.
Ms. Fleming had moved to Montauk in 1998 to open her own studio.
There were no promises on any side, but obviously a strong showing would be very beneficial for everyone.
''You do a clever ad here, and people notice,'' said Steve Haweeli, the owner of WordHampton, a public
relations agency in East Hampton, who sometimes refers clients to Blumenfeld & Fleming. ''There are plenty o
f Manhattan advertising execs who summer here, and media people in general. A good ad jumps out at them.''
With the Schmidt's account, the two women set out to do something different. ''Most ads for food stores
mphasize products and prices,'' Ms. Blumenfeld said in the agency's office attached to Ms. Fleming's house.
''We tried to do something that hopefully would be witty. Happily, the client let us.''
''Good advertising,'' Ms. Fleming interjected, ''requires good clients'' as well as creative talent. ''The
client has to let you do it,'' she said.
The first Schmidt's ad, in what became a series of four, was, the women agreed, the most effective.
Beneath an illustration of a delectable tomato, the copy offered a tongue-in-cheek apology.
''There may be a little dirt on our tomatoes,'' the ad read. ''That's because they're brought in fresh
from the fields all day. But once you've tasted their heavenly flavor, you'll forgive us a little dirt.''
The three subsequent ads played similarly on the contrast between fresh produce offered without affectation
and the Hamptons' reputation for conspicuous consumption and merchants with attitude.
''Those ads worked,'' Mr. Haweeli said. ''They got noticed.''
Ms. Fleming said that other local merchants saw the Schmidt's ad, which brought in other retailers looking
for creativity on a small budget. And the new business, the two women said, was steady enough to encourage them
to form a partnership, last July.
Among the prospects who came to their door was Kathi Cogen, who was opening a shabby-chic home furnishings
shop in Montauk called Haven.
Ms. Cogen said the partners had impressed her by developing ads that emphasized her store's identity as
a supplier of casual beach-house furnishings, rather than touting specific merchandise or playing up prices.
''They weren't selling the items as much as the store's image,'' she said. ''That's what I wanted.''
The newspaper ads accomplished this, she said, by dropping in a dozen or so small illustrations of merchandise
in a homespun, offbeat design. Ms. Cogen also agreed to a radio version of the ad , and to save her money, Ms.
Blumenfeld did the voice-over herself.
''In a small agency, you have to do whatever needs to be done,'' she said. ''There is no staff to do it
for you.''
Ms. Fleming, who once controlled six-figure custom photography budgets, seconded that notion.
''I have become an expert in using stock photos,'' she said.
The Haven ad, which used photos Ms. Cogen took herself, won first place for color newspaper ads at
the Best of Long Island gala on May 11. The agency won a second first-place award for a black-and-white ad
it produced for Gosman's, the venerable Montauk dockside retail complex.
In the Gosman's ad, a strapping young man wearing fisherman's coveralls and a winning smile proclaims,
''Hi, I'm Charlie, and I'll be catching your dinner tonight.''
Charlie is a real local fisherman named Charlie Weimar, Ms. Fleming said, and there was an added
advantage: ''Charlie's cute.''
In years past, the businesses in the Gosman's complex, which includes a seafood restaurant, a cafe
and several small shops, all advertised independently, said Roberta Gosman, who runs the restaurant
and manages the complex. Ms. Fleming suggested that they pool their budgets and advertise collectively.
Striking a chord reminiscent of their work for Schmidt's, the partners riffed on a theme of popular
disenchantment with high Hamptons prices. One ad in the Gosman's campaign featured a small dog and in a
bow to ''The Wizard of Oz,'' a headline that read, ''Toto, I don't think we're in the Hamptons anymore.''
The ad sought to convey to parents that their client was a family-friendly destination in a humorous
way, Ms. Fleming said. ''People are coming out for a day or for the weekend, and bringing kids,'' she said,
and the ad positioned Gosman's to attract young families.
Ms. Gosman said she was pleased with the ads and with the two partners. ''I think they've very good,''
she said. ''They're sophisticated, they're creative, and they're hard-working.''
The partners won another 12 awards for campaigns that finished second or third in the Best of Long
Island voting. For a two-person agency in business for only a year, Blumenfeld & Fleming made a very
strong showing, said T. Walker Lloyd, the Long Island Advertising Club's administrator since 1996.
''You look at their stuff -- they know how to put things together,'' Mr. Lloyd said. ''They come
up with a concept, a look and copy that all work together. They've really hit the ground running.
I was very impressed.''
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