In 1951, a small advertisement ran in the Collier County News (now the Naples Daily News) offering cigars for the gents, flowers for the ladies, balloons for the kids and free orange juice all day every day. The ad was a friendly enticement to anyone who might want to stop by and see Naples Park lots priced at $149 and up, with a payment plan of $10 down and $10 a month.

More than 50 years later, the biggest game in town is still real estate and development, but the stakes are higher and it takes more than orange juice to grab buyers' attention. Today's slick and costly ad campaigns pull out the stops to vie for sophisticated customers shopping the housing, retail, service and other markets-all of which bolster the local advertising industry.

Excelling in this competitive world often boils down to product branding. "Whatever information you put out there needs to have a tag line and be synonymous with your company," says Joan Crompton, president of Crompton Creative Advertising in Fort Myers. "The message, even down to the mannerisms of the people answering the phone, needs to be cohesive."

Crompton says her full-service agency aims to deliver ROI, which in advertising parlance equates to relevance, originality and impact. She's assembled a creative team that includes Bob Krawczyk, an art director with 30 years of Disney experience.

A focused advertising strategy is essential to growing a business, declares Crompton. "Thirty-thousand dollars for an ad campaign would include the cost of creating three strong ads, not placement in various publications," she says. "You are talking easily $150,000 for annual placement in publications."

The cost of a branded ad series is daunting to some, she says. "You give a proposal to a client who has only spent $500 on an ad previously, and that person cannot comprehend what goes into it," she says. "Instead of creative branding, many are of the mindset that they can come up with one ad and run it and run it until it burns itself out. Creativity has a price, and I do not always see an appreciation for it in this market."

Chris Spiro, CEO and creative director of Spiro & Associates in Cape Coral, says more clients have learned to appreciate what modern advertising entails during his 12 years on the local scene. "When we first opened, a major part of what we did was educate marketing directors on the value an advertising agency can bring to the party," he says.

Spiro works with clients to deliver name-brand recognition. "Any good business always needs to have a base branding budget," he says. "We're not just about advertising, marketing and public relations; we're more about strategic planning. Every aspect of a client's business has a marketing implication, and we work with them on a daily basis toward that end."

Many of his clients have listened and learned to focus more on their message. "What we are seeing in the overall builder-developer arena is that developers are controlling more of the external communications for the individual builders," he says.

The development of any campaign is a custom-tailored process. "Some businesses decide to get their message out there over a 24-month period using a shotgun effect, waking the general public with a barrage of ads, television and print," he explains. "Then they'll tailor it back with rifle shots, with direct marketing and direct mailing or using boutique publications geared toward select audiences."

Naples and Collier County are primarily print markets, with many different publications to choose from. "You do need a good media mix," Spiro says. "Without an agency to help sort through all of the publications, media venues and mountains of data out there, it can be difficult for anyone to determine what is right for their particular business."

While television reaches the largest audience, the cost of advertising on television is prohibitive for many, according to Tom Chapman, president of National Media Services in Fort Myers. National Media Services is a production company that does electronic media planning and placement for several local car dealers and customers like Culligan Bottled Water and Rolsafe.

The cost of electronic media has grown with the population. Chapman, who started his career buying media for Pepsi in Arkansas and the Midwest and then for Coca-Cola here, has been working this market for 17 years. "In 1986 this was the 103rd television market in the country," says Chapman. "Today we're ranked in the 70s."

Chapman follows statistics and trends for customers who rely on him to find the best times to air their products. "They are becoming more aware of the amount of money that it costs to advertise their product," he says. "Broadcast television is getting more expensive, so you're seeing fewer local advertisers. The local advertisers are going to cable advertising because they cannot afford broadcast."

While real estate and furniture advertising are strong components of the mix, car dealers make up the largest purchasers of electronic media. "Forty cents out of every dollar in this market, broadcast and cable, is spent by an automotive concern," Chapman says. "In 1995 the automotive category was about $11 million a year in this marketplace and last year it was just over $28 million."

The most significant industry change that Chapman has seen is that big advertisers such as Domino's Pizza, Subway, Sam Galloway Ford, Scanlon Auto Group and large real estate developers are moving out of the market, usually to agencies in larger media centers such as Miami, Tampa or Atlanta.

"Often it's because their corporate headquarters are somewhere else or because they do not perceive the talent we have here," he says. "The car dealers that are taking advertising dollars out of the local market are hoping that someone from another market will have a different perspective and know something that we don't know."

But Chapman doubts that businesses find greater value outside the area. "I've worked all over the country," he says. "Some of the sharpest people I've ever seen in advertising are right here."

Robyn Bonaquist, co-owner of B2 Advertising in Naples, says her agency is doing well considering that it opened after 9/11 during one of the most severe economic downturns in decades. "There was a ripple effect that we felt in Southwest Florida," she says. "That said, however, we've just continued to grow, had a great first and second year, and see things only getting better."

One component of the agency's strong start was an award-winning ad campaign, designed by Bonaquist's business partner and creative director, Burl Seslar, for Naples Lumber & Supply Company. In the ad, a model is clothed and accessorized with nuts and bolts and surrounded by tools of the trade. The ad received considerable media attention.

"We are full service and our awards run the gamut from collateral materials [brochures] to print advertising and radio and television, but I have to tell you that we've gotten a tremendous amount of notoriety from the Naples Lumber work," Bonaquist says. "Nine out of 10 times when we are pitching a new account or when someone comes to us, they've seen that campaign."

Bonaquist says advertising agencies will grow with the local economy. "Like so many of the agencies around town, most of our business comes from real estate and development," she explains. "That's what we have here, and so we look at the industry trends in that area. Housing starts are up, people are buying and selling homes, and developers are buying land; it's all very positive as far as we can see."

Sometimes an agency's philosophy can be summed up in two words. When William Lees, president of Wise & Time Advertising in Bonita Springs, was looking for a name for his agency, he listened to the advice of an advertising guru who said that if he could name his own firm all over again he'd use two short words that sum up the importance of advertising and separate them with a graphic symbol

"We're so much about getting a message out there," Lees says. "There's a logic to making wise decisions and picking the right time."

Over the past 14 years, Lees has seen lots of change. Many mom-and-pop marketing companies have closed, and survivors are not just creative but focused. Some employ in-house staff to handle the bulk of the work; others subcontract television production, graphics and writing. While Wise & Time's client base is primarily real estate from Naples to Sanibel, the firm does business-to-business work with wholesalers, such as Kennedy White Window Fashions, a shutter manufacturer.

Internet Marketing Logic, a Wise & Time division dedicated to interactive Web site design, opened last year. "One of our clients came to us with the request for Internet marketing," he says. "Because of them, we're now one of only a handful of advertising agencies in the area that are capable of not just full-service advertising but Internet marketing as well. We know how to optimize sites so that our customers get the top rankings."

The consensus is that the Internet is the most obvious frontier for advertising opportunity. "It's a demand that has to be sold, but we have the research," Lees says. "People find the Internet to be very nonthreatening, and we know they'll research a home purchase online for up to 12 hours. This will enable us to reach new markets."