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Thought Bubble’s Lawson and Stiefel at their Pasadena office.

It’s not unusual for a celebrity such as Fabio Viviani, star of the TV show “Top Chef” and owner of two L.A. Angeles eateries, to get a gig as an official spokesman.

Indeed, he got just such a role as pitchman for Bialetti Italian cookware. In fact, Viviani attended a home show last week in Chicago to demonstrate the cookware.

But what is unusual is the company behind his gig. It was arranged by Thought Bubble, an advertising agency in Pasadena that’s an “agency” in name only.

Like a growing number of advertising agencies for midsize companies in Los Angeles, Thought Bubble is a so-called virtual agency. These organizations are mostly online networks of freelancers who provide marketing services – often for half the price mainstream shops charge.

Virtual ad agencies have existed since the birth of the Internet, but they’ve grown tremendously in Los Angeles recently as the recession has eased. That’s because midsize companies suddenly need to advertise, but they want it to be inexpensive. At the same time, a host of laid-off ad professionals can produce work on a per-project basis.

Virtual agencies can be staffed by one or a few employees who draw from a large pool of freelancers to create ads and provide other services.

Viviani isn’t the only big name to go with one of these small companies. Advertisers as large as Hostess, Turtle Wax and Twentieth Century Fox Film have all hired local virtual shops recently.

Laura Siderman is the owner – and only full-timer – at Gypsywing Media, which she runs from her West L.A. office. She contracts with a stable of 20 freelancers who write, design and place print and online advertising. Siderman figures that she can deliver a campaign for about half what a traditional agency would charge.

Recently, a company came to her wanting a new website. She said the client had received quotes from $3,000 to $5,000 for the project from mainstream agencies. Siderman delivered it for $1,800.

“There are a lot of overhead costs associated with brick-and-mortar agencies and they have to sell clients extra services to cover those costs,” Siderman said.

The basic function of a virtual agency, she said, is to connect freelancers with business owners who need advertising. The one or two principals in the agency vet freelancers to make sure they can do the work. On the other end, the virtual agency maintains contact with the business owners and makes sure the project is completed to their satisfaction.

Quick turnaround

Thought Bubble is relatively big. It has four employees: partners Julie Lawson and Peter Stiefel, plus a strategic consultant and a creative director. The agency contracts with about 30 freelancers.

Lawson charges the same per hour as large agencies, but her freelancers can finish projects in about one-third the time, with an equivalent dollar savings, she said. The virtual structure streamlines decision-making and imposes the discipline of a strict accounting of billable hours.

When Mrs. Cubbison, a brand of croutons owned by Hostess, was gearing up for a product relaunch, it tapped Thought Bubble for consumer research, package design and an advertising campaign with the tagline “No More Naked Salads.” Since the campaign launched in September, Mrs. Cubbison sales have increased 20 percent, Lawson said.

In addition to Hostess and Bialetti, the agency has worked for Turtle Wax, Twentieth Century Fox Film and RSI Professional Cabinet Solutions.

“Fortune 100 corporations will always need a big international agency,” Lawson acknowledged. “But there are lots of smaller businesses that deserve the same attention. We are ideal for businesses that want to grow but don’t have a large budget.”

Alan Brew, principal at Irvine marketing consultancy RiechesBaird, said the virtual agency trend is evident in Los Angeles and other cities where traditional large agencies are shrinking in response to cuts in ad budgets by auto, finance and luxury brands. As professionals leave the big agencies, they become the entrepreneurs at the virtual agencies and the freelancers who contract with them.

For advertisers thinking of hiring a virtual agency, the big question mark is the reliability of an ever-changing cast of freelancers, Brew said. After all, a regular ad agency has a staff of creative people whose work is identifiable and maybe even predictable, but maybe not so much with a virtual agency.

“The question businesses have to ask is: Who actually does the work?” Brew said. “Business owners may suffer severe angst about whether these companies can deliver.”

Brew added that virtual agencies face tremendous risks because in the ebb and flow of project work. Many don’t survive.

One high-profile failure was Spot Runner, an L.A. company that launched in 2004. The company called itself a virtual ad agency and tried to automate the creation, buying and distribution of TV ads. Advertisers dealt with Spot Runner through its website or via telephone. Last month, Spot Runner sold its main asset, the technology behind its ad system. Spot Runner did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this article.

Even though it was called a virtual agency, Spot Runner had up to 500 employees and too much overhead.

“Once you get to a certain size, you have to keep growing to feed all those people,” Brew said. “The ideal model now is a tight team of senior people and a raft of freelancers.”

Low profile

Thought Bubble was founded in 2005. The company survived the early years with project work from movie studios and small advertisers until business started picking up when the recession began easing last year.

Lawson said her goal is to grow the company by moving away from the pay-per-project model and instead charge monthly retainer fees like a traditional ad agency.

Siderman also started Gypsywing Media in 2005. It was a one-woman graphic design studio until last year, when she turned it into a full-service virtual agency in response to demand from local companies. Clients include DCF Ventures LLC, an L.A.-based venture capital firm, and the law firm L.A. Bankruptcy Associates.

Even though Gypsywing is a virtual shop, Siderman makes sure to meet everyone she works with at least once. Although that limits her to only working with L.A.-based advertisers and subcontractors, she said it’s what has made her successful.

“We’re a virtual ad agency but I still want to meet everyone in person,” she said. “There’s something lost when you don’t meet people face to face.”

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