An old advertising pro decides it's time for retirement

Sun Sentinel - August, 2002

by Jeffery D. Zbar
Special to the Sun-Sentinel

Posted August 26 2002

After 30 years in the advertising industry, Phil Schwartz is pulling a disappearing act.

The industry veteran, who built three Miami ad shops, has announced his retirement from his current post as president of Turkel Schwartz & Partners, Coconut Grove. Schwartz, 55, said he plans to focus on family, real estate investments, poker and -- as an amateur magician -- his magic skills.

Schwartz will step down as president in the next several months. He said that over his career, "I've always had a goal to be happy and have fun. And that's the way we've operated the agency all this time."

Schwartz's departure comes seven years after he and partner Bruce Turkel merged their two $15 million advertising agencies to become one of the region's creative mid-sized chops. Today, Turkel Schwartz & Partners boasts $60 million in billings, with clients including the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Sony Latin America and The Peabody Hotel, Orlando.

Remaining partners are Executive Creative Director Turkel and Managing Director Roberto Schaps. The agency name will change by year's end. Executives currently are using their own client branding exercise to rename the agency, Turkel said.

After earning a master's in business administration from the University of Florida in 1972, Schwartz started his career in marketing in 1972 as a product manager with General Mills. He later worked with Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis. In 1979, he was named partner with Mike Sloan Advertising, where he oversaw the Eckerd Drug and Florida Tourism accounts. Schwartz launched his own agency in 1983, and in 1995, merged with Bruce Turkel to create Turkel Schwartz & Partners.

With strong billings, solid client relationships and the agency in the running for several large accounts (Including the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau), now was a good time for the agency to buy Schwartz out, Turkel said.

Turkel, 44, described himself as a creative type while "Phil was about the industry, he loves the business. What will change is there's not a suit at the helm."

In fact, that divergence of character -- Schwartz the buttoned-down business man and Turkel the loosely-attired creative -- made for a good chemistry between the two executives, said Barry Anderson, vice president of sales and marketing with the Peabody Hotel Group in Orlando. Schwartz's handling of the Peabody account goes back to 1989 when Schwartz & Kaplan, his former agency, first won the work. Since then, Schwartz closely managed the assignment, Anderson said.

"He baby-sat our account like it was his only account," he said.

Anderson admitted Schwartz's departure has given him some concerns, but said he's confident Turkel will handle the transition.

With 30 years in the industry, Schwartz admits he has worked with thoughtful and receptive clients, as well as those frustrating clients who didn't take his suggestions. Schwartz's departure leaves the Miami advertising arena without a statesman and insider who helped guide the local and regional industry.

He likely will continue consulting with marketers, as well as serving on the University of Florida Advertising Advisory Council. Schwartz also will finish his term as chairman of the Advertising and Marketing International Network, an association of worldwide advertising agencies to which Turkel Schwartz belongs.

As a twentysomething he decided advertising was going to be his career, said Schwartz. "Now that I'm a fiftysomething, it's time to make a new decision."

Jeffery D. Zbar is a freelance write. He can be reached at jeff@goinsoho.com

Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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