New Ad Agency Comes Out of Gate With Major Account.

Greg Hill and Steve Levit swear they haven't opened just another advertising shop in Los Angeles.

Along with partner Alexander Ouvaroff, the two veterans of the local advertising industry have started Lunch in temporary Santa Monica digs with a philosophy they call "avid humanism" and a $55 million account to peddle the Austrian energy drink Red Bull.

In the weeks ahead, the aggressive agency intends to open satellite offices in Chicago, New York and Miami while eyeing future expansion in Frankfurt, London, Milan and Brazil.

So what is avid humanism? Here's how the mission statement tells it: "To build great brands within the marketplace, you shouldn't give people a reason to use you. You must give people a reason to like you."

Added Hill: "The same way you describe a relationship with a person is the same way you should relate to a brand."

That philosophy, which Levit and Hill say they started developing independent of each other, is what ultimately brought them together. That and Red Bull's $55 million account.

Hill was the first one to make the jump when Red Bull's German advertising team Kastner & Partners went looking for an American team to promote the buzz beverage in the United States. Hill was then managing director at the M1 agency, where he had directed the consumer launch of Oakley sunglasses and worked with other clients as varied as Speedo, BreathAssure and Excite@home.

Johannes Kastner, a co-founder of the German agency, found Hill and talked him into leaving M1 for the new venture.

"I got a call from a friend of mine one day and he said, 'This German guy's going to call you today. Go talk to him,"' Hill said.

At the time, Levit was considering leaving Team One Advertising and was discussing possibilities with a headhunter. He got a similar phone call from Kastner and embraced the opportunity to change gears. Ouvaroff was working on a Coca-Cola campaign for McCann-Erickson in Austria when the Red Bull deal came along.

All three saw it as a chance to take a new approach to advertising. "I really wanted to see if it was possible to be as trusting and as empowering as I thought (advertising) could be," Levit said, explaining that his attitude about advertising to that point had been, "Let's cram it down their throats and we'll win awards.".

Hill and Levit knew each other only casually from the L.A. advertising scene until the Red Bull deal brought them together.

Markus Pichler, executive vice president for marketing with Red Bull North America, said big advertising agencies often leave clients at the mercy of turnover, with campaigns losing momentum when a new account manager takes over. For that reason, Red Bull decided not to re-up with its San Diego advertising company.

After long discussions with the three men who would become Lunch, Pichler said, there was a definite meeting of the minds. "When building a brand, we agreed on the importance of emotion," he said.

Hill and Levit said Lunch came together in a "melting pot" reflecting the varied backgrounds of its three founders -- Ouvaroff's international experience, Levit's creative successes, and Hill's focus on growing an agency.

"We sit and articulate every day, 'What do we want this agency to be?"' Levit said. "The clients are experts in their businesses. We're experts in marketing. Together we can create something successful. For us not to respect the client, we're missing a huge piece of the puzzle."

Leonard Pearlstein, former CEO of Team One who is now doing business as The Pearlstein Group, said the Lunch story is unusual.

"It doesn't happen commonly," Pearlstein said. "(Red Bull) is probably an enlightened client."

It can afford to be; Red Bull controls 80 percent of the worldwide energy drink market. And because the client already has what many consider to be a successful advertising campaign, Lunch doesn't plan to monkey around with it. Instead, for the time being, Lunch creatives will write new copy for regional markets to work with the existing German-created animation campaign. They also will be working on event sponsorships and other promotional opportunities, including printed brochures.

Levit said the name Lunch was selected because it works on a couple of levels. They almost called it Zucky's, after the Santa Monica diner they are fixing up for a headquarters. But they chose Lunch instead -- keeping the diner theme -- to connote a welcoming atmosphere.

"Everyone likes lunch; it's open," Levit said. "It's inviting. Lunch is a place to be invited to."

Levit said the L.A. region's large advertising agencies are either remaking themselves or cutting personnel, which provides a small advertising shop with a single $55 million account under its belt a good chance of landing additional accounts.

While each of Lunch's planned shops in the United States and abroad will share the Lunch name, they will be autonomous agencies and operate according to the Hill/Levit/Ouvaroff philosophy. The international branches and American offices will share creative services and each of the offices will be staffed with local people who know the market to which they are catering.

Finding people in each market has been easy thus far, Hill said, attributing that success to hitting an industry nerve with the "avid humanism" manifesto.

"Really good people are drawn to that message," Hill said. "People want to believe that advertising can do good work and respect everyone involved."