EINSTEIN/wade/1stjc/mark2nd
Clifford J. Einstein
Chairman/Corporate Creative Director
Dailey & Associates Advertising
Age: 57
Cliff Einstein recently took a day off from his duties at Dailey & Associates, not for a round of golf with clients, but to play the role of a surgeon operating on the Nicholas Cage character in the upcoming film, “Face/Off.”
Landing such a role might be a great career mark for some, but for Einstein, who comes from a showbiz family (his brothers are Albert Brooks and Super Dave Osborne), it was more of a kick.
“I’ve acted over the years, and someone thought I would fit the part of the surgeon. They called me up and I said ‘Sure,'” said Einstein, chairman and corporate creative director of Dailey & Associates.
In fact, Einstein has appeared in most of Brooks’ movies, including “Defending Your Life.”
What really excites Einstein these days (at least as it involves his own shop) is Dailey’s recent acquiring of the Countrywide Credit Industries’ account. The new business comes on the heels of the company’s parting with Great Western Bank last fall after 22 years.
Great Western’s new management chose to conduct a competition for the account, and Dailey & Associates chose to bow out.
Dailey then contacted Countrywide. “We were able to graduate from a very good regional company to a very good national company, the largest in the field,” Einstein said.
Dailey is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the world’s largest holding companies of ad agencies. It reported $233 million in billings for 1996, up from about $150 million in 1992. Einstein co-founded the agency in 1968 after working in product development and agencies in New York and Los Angeles.
One other thing Einstein is excited about is the agency’s new change of address. In July, Dailey’s 220 employees will set up shop in the Pacific Design Center’s green building.
“It didn’t take much to convince the management to allow us in,” he said. “We asked them to reconsider the word ‘design’ in the name and proposed that it included conceptual design and creative design.”
Wade Daniels
