Ad agency Greenstone/Fontana to run the $9M launch of LiDestri

Long Island Business News, Oct 28, 2005 by Claude Solnik

Advertising agency Greenstone/Fontana has been hired to run the $9 million national launch of LiDestri Foods' line of salsa products.

Greenstone/Fontana kicked off the campaign earlier this month with national TV ads and coupons in Sunday newspapers for products under the Santa Fe Packing Co. brand.

The account is a milestone for Greenstone/Fontana, a company officially launched last month. The agency combined Ronkonkoma- based Topline Advertising, led by Jeanne Fontana, with the industry clout of former Greenstone Roberts chief Ron Greenstone. Greenstone went into semi-retirement after the company was acquired in 2000. He consulted for Topline before the new company was established.

It's our first national account of any significance, said Fontana, president of Greenstone/Fontana. We dabbled in the past, but the disciplines weren't in place.

Greenstone said the agency benefited from Topline's experience in media buying.

He said he led firms that managed large accounts, but hadn't obtained one this size at the start.

We never got a $9 million account, he said. We developed larger accounts. But I got it when it was $4 million or $5 million.

LiDestri, best known for the Francesco Rinaldi brand of pasta sauce, debuted the line of salsa products in the Northeast in February. It's now available in all 48 contiguous states.

National spots, placed through a media buy by Greenstone/ Fontana, were developed and produced by ADM Productions.

Greenstone/Fontana is preparing additional advertisements in the campaign expected to span TV, print and radio, and point-of-sale materials. Michael Crossan, an executive vice president at Greenstone/ Fontana, is in charge of the account.

They wanted a national media buy and they came to Greenstone/ Fontana, said Ron Greenstone, CEO of the agency. We now have the whole [Santa Fe Packing Co. Salsa] account.

Edward P. Salzano, chief operating officer at LiDestri, described the push with the ad agency as a major marketing effort targeting the entire U.S. market. Ads already are running on shows ranging from Oprah to reruns of Sex and the City.

LiDestri, a private firm, reported $240 million in fiscal 2005 sales, up from about $206 million in 2004 on the strength of demand for its Francesco Rinaldi pasta sauce.

The new product launch with Sante Fe certainly helped, said Salzano. And the Francesco Rinaldi brand is doing very well.

LiDestri, which turned Francesco Rinaldi into a household name, hopes to repeat its success in the Tex-Mex market with salsa.

The salsa market has been growing, up 4.4 percent to $697.8 million for the 52 weeks ending May 15, 2005, according to Information Resources Inc. Spaghetti/Italian sauce sales hit $1.34 billion, up 0.9 percent.

We are probably one of the best companies in the country in producing tomato-based products, Salzano said.