The Coastal Group Inc., a New York advertising agency specializing in catalog services, will go beyond its business-to-business marketing services with the creation of a business-to-consumer division.
Vince Perrella will head Coastal's new direct-to-consumer business as vice president and creative director of direct marketing. The agency hired him from Hershey Communications Inc., New York, where he was vice president and creative director.
Charter clients for the division include Lanac, a Brooklyn, NY, bridal registry, and Grafton Village Cheese Co., Grafton, VT.
Coastal, a 10-year-old agency, said it has more than 1,000 clients in industries such as manufacturing, wholesale, distribution, retail, service and importing and exporting.
The privately held agency creates catalogs for brands such as Fitz & Floyd and Two's Company in giftware, toy maker Gund, handbag maker Perlina and Scott Kay in jewelry.
It offers interactive marketing and Web site development services through its Redscope LLC arm. Cigar maker Nat Sherman and silk and satin sheet manufacturer Scent-Sation are clients of this division.
David Weiss, president/CEO of Coastal, said the foray into business-to-consumer was natural for the agency because it already had an entire operation in place — photo studio, account coordinators, copywriters and merchandise executives.
“I think that if you take a look at a lot of the direct-to-consumer agencies out there, they've all gotten complacent,” Weiss said. “You've got a couple of vendors who are pretty big in the industry, and we're trying to put a new spin on it.”
