About Young Company – Creative Marketing Communications

Young Company is one of Southern California's most established marketing communications agencies, with roots dating back to 1949, when Doug Young founded Taggart & Young Advertising agency in Los Angeles. For more than six decades, the firm has been dedicated to helping regional, national and international companies build their brands and grow their businesses.


As a strategic branding consultancy, Young Company provides the disciplined process, research tools and creative services required to articulate a comprehensive brand architecture and message strategy for our clients. As a creative integrated marketing communications agency, we combine strategically sound marketing planning with brilliantly executed advertising, public relations and Internet marketing programs to help our clients achieve their objectives.

Young Company has successfully launched and managed integrated marketing campaigns for some of America's most prestigious companies, including ARAMARK, Ameritec, Arrow Electronics, Avery International, Avnet, Candle Corporation, , Cisco Systems, Dassault Systemes, Fluor Corporation, Hitachi, Hughes, IBM (5 divisions), Mitsubishi, Northrop Grumman, Samsung Electronics, TDK Semiconductors, Texas Instruments and TRW.

Early Company History

The agency of Taggart & Young was founded in 1949 by Douglas R. Young, western regional manager of Beaumont & Holman, and Earl Taggart, western regional manager for McGraw-Hill publications. Primarily serving the needs of industrial companies, the Los Angeles-based advertising agency played an important role in cultivating the economic landscape in Southern California and is considered the region's oldest independent agency.

During its formative years, Taggart & Young handled a variety of clients including Pontiac and Cadillac dealers of Southern California. In 1963, a merger with Harvard grad Alvin Hollander expanded the agency into the world of financial marketing. As Young & Hollander, the agency attained recognition on creative campaigns for Santa Monica Federal Savings, Century Federal Savings, Pasadena Federal Savings, and Sutro & Company.


A successful merger with Speer and Mays, in 1967, brought increased emphasis on industrial accounts and produced the winning team of Speer, Young & Hollander, Inc., an agency primed to grow into the booming Southern California landscape. Speer, Young & Hollander's client roster was bolstered by companies such as Borg Warner's Byron Jackson Pump Division, Delta Trucking Lines, FMC Sweepers, Hoffman Meat Packing, Houston Film Processors, Fruehauf Trailers, Maxon Industries, and O'Connor Engineering.


At Speer, Young & Hollander, there was no shortage of creative talent on board. SYH's creative director Steve Hayden, who was well-versed in technology marketing, generated many outstanding campaigns for the agency. Steve later earned even greater recognition at Chiat/Day Advertising where he wrote the super bowl TV commercial "1984" for the Apple Macintosh which is arguably the most famous and critically acclaimed TV commercial of all time.

The Next Generation

In 1976, Bart Young joined the agency after receiving his MBA from UC Berkeley. Charged with attracting a new generation of clients, Bart began winning and managing his own accounts from the very beginning. Inspired by the brilliant creative work of Hayden and others, Bart focused on producing cutting-edge, high-impact creative for a mix of B2B technology and some consumer clients.

In 1983, Bart Young purchased Speer, Young & Hollander from Doug Young with the desire to provide clients with integrated marketing services that included advertising, market research and public relations. Over the next ten years the agency added over ten Fortune 500 clients to its roster and was recognized nationally on scores of occasions for its exciting creative advertising campaigns.


In 1994, Bart and his team shortened the name to Young Company, and dedicated themselves to becoming the leading business marketing and technology specialist in Southern California. With several senior level executives with deep technical and B2B marketing backgrounds Young Company's client list soon included Southern California's "Who's Who" in the fields of software, semiconductors, and telecommunications and dot.com business models. In addition to its long standing Fortune 500 clients, the agency built relationships with venture capitalists Rustic Canyon Group, Montgomery & Co., Palomar and Smart Technology Ventures. Helping to launch new start-ups enabled Young Company to create brands from scratch including name development, visual identity and strategic positioning.


In 2000 the agency, which was currently located at 100 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, opened an Orange County office in Laguna Beach. At about the same time it was invited to become the Western U.S. Partner Agency for BBN (Business Branding Network) a global strategic brand-consulting network comprised of the top business-to-business agencies in 25 countries. The tech crash of 2001 had devastating impact on B2B marketing budgets which required Young Company to downsize rapidly and transform itself from being advertising to public relations centric.

In October of 2003, Young Company merged its Santa Monica and Laguna-based offices with The Phelps Group. Owned and operated by entrepreneur extraordinaire Joe Phelps, The Phelps Group is a highly creative Santa Monica based agency that has been nationally recognized as one of the top integrated marketing communications firms in the country. Bart served as Executive Vice President for the agency for two and a half years, until an opportunity to work again under his own standard presented itself.

Young Company Today

In January 2006 Bart Young re-launched Young Company as a creative marketing communications agency in the Orange County office located in Laguna Beach, that had once been Young Company's branch office. Bart's decision to go solo again was based on a desire to more intently serve a select group of clients with a level involvement that takes full advantage of his experience and hands-on style. With this in mind, he carefully picked a dedicated team of professionals to help him pursue this vision. The new Young Company combines years of business-to-business marketing experience with significant branding skills and Internet marketing expertise to benefit companies located in Los Angeles and Orange County.

Website marketing is at the heart of most client campaigns with heavy doses of online marketing, including push email marketing and website design that put SEO (search engine optimization) at the top of our design priorities. Young Company agency has been ranked as the fastest growing agency in Orange County.

Of course, we still love to produce creative advertising in all media, including print advertising, TV commercials and radio commercials, when our client's audience calls for these choices. Our media planning, buying and management skills are superb. For our B2B clients and consumer marketing categories, we excel at target account programs where custom databases are compiled and penetrated with compelling messages delivered in a creative package.


In summary, Young Company provides a comprehensive set of advertising, marketing and public relations services for clients that span a wide range of markets. Creative brand building and sharp marketing based upon research and intuition remain hallmarks of the agency. A strong background in web-based advertising has combined with these elements to provide the cutting edge, innovative marketing solutions that have marked the past and prefigure the future. Young Company is once again applying its creative experience, marketing skills and media techniques to what it does best for its clients --- Building Brands and Growing Companies.