Two Major Seattle Ad Agencies To Merge

Two major Seattle advertising agencies announced today they will merge Feb. 1 in a move that pairs one of the city's most creative talents with an old-line, conservative firm that has been in Seattle nearly a century.

Evans/Kraft Inc. and Mogelgaard & Associates said today they will merge, and the new agency will be named Evans/Kraft, already the city's second-largest ad agency, with 1989 billings of $50 million.

Evans/Kraft traces its local roots back to 1897. (Cole & Weber, with billings of $93 million, is the city's largest agency.)

Mogelgaard, headed by Mike Mogelgaard, is the city's 13th-largest agency with estimated billings of $11.5 million.

Don Kraft, chairman and chief executive of Evans/Kraft, said the merger ``fits our goals for the '90s beautifully. We are strong strategically and have the full range of communications services clients need today. Adding Mogelgaard's dynamic team to ours allows us to challenge anyone for creative leadership in the Northwest.''

Mogelgaard will become co-chairman and creative director of Evans/Kraft.

Kraft said Mogelgaard has resigned its largest account, that of Seafirst Bank to resolve a potential conflict of interest. One of Evans/Kraft's largest clients is Washington Mutual Savings Bank.

In the past year, Mogelgaard

has lost several major accounts, including Cellular One and Pay `N Pak. Evans/Kraft, which has satellite offices in Portland and

Anchorage, lost a major client, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

But the loss of business may not have much to do with the merger.

``This is the normal ebb and flow of the advertising business, so I would be a little surprised if that is what is pushing'' the merger talks, said Larry Asher, creative director of Borders Perrin & Norrander, a company roughly the size of Mogelgaard.

``This is just speculation, but from Evans/Kraft's point of view, they would see (acquiring Mogelgaard) as a way to enhance their creative product,'' Asher said. Mogelgaard is regarded as unconventional but one of the city's top creative talents.

From Mogelgaard's point of view, the merger ``would provide a broader range of services, particularly for Seafirst, which is his major client,'' Asher said.

A brief item in Adweek magazine this week mentioned the Evans/Kraft-Mogelgaard talks and said Mogelgaard had also discussed a possible merger with Elgin Syferd.

Corporate mergers are nothing new to Evans/Kraft, which assumed its present form in 1984 when Kraft's agency became part of Evans Communications Inc. in Salt Lake City, which added the Seattle operation to six other regional ad agencies.

Evans/Kraft merged with a public-relations firm in 1986 and acquired a graphic-design firm in 1988.

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MOGELGAARD;

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Here are some major clients.;

-- Seafirst ;

-- Group Health Coop. ;

-- Seattle Times ;

-- Longacres ;

-- Eddie Bauer ;

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EVANS-KRAFT;

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Here are some major clients.;

-- Wash. Natural Gas ;

-- Alpac ;

-- Wash. Mutual Svgs. Bank ;

-- Goodwill Games ;

-- Puyallup Fair