This January, Los Angeles commercial audio house B5 Atomic opened shop in London. On June 3rd they opened B5 New York. During a time that is widely agreed to be less than ideal for the ad industry, how are they doing it?

"We decided that even though the economy didn't look super-bright, we had an opportunity," explains creative director Anthony Vanger, who has been straddling New York and Los Angeles operations for the past six months. "It just seems a really smart move for us to expand in a moment when everyone else is retreating."

Englishman Vanger and co-founder Hein Hoven have been averaging $28,000 per spot budgets from top agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden + Kennedy and DDB, a level that is comfortably high end. Both partners have ties to London (Hoven started his career as a record producer there) and the pair easily made the scene. Within five months, the shop has managed to break even, having scored for high profile clients including Gordon's Dry Gin and BMW.

Vanger also has ties to New York - he studied at Columbia University - but doesn't think the move will be simple. "We delayed New York because it's really the toughest city to break into," he says.

But the shop already has an excellent track record for breaking new ground. B5 is one of the few audio houses that managed to break into the video game world. They scored Electronic Arts' best selling "Triple Play" and "World Cup Soccer," and recently worked with Macy Gray, Billy Zane and David Arquette on the award-winning PlayStation2 snowboard game "SSX."

When asked to explain the shop's success, Vanger stresses his commitment to composers with long musical histories. "We've really built a niche for ourselves with melody and emotion. The music we do tends to be much more musical than, say, a Tomandandy or Face the Music," he says. Vanger himself recently produced the second installment on his Operatic series, an electronic/opera project that hit number five on the Billboard charts for classical music.

"We're a musical shop. We're not just a couple of geeks sitting around a machine."

Webfiles:
B5 Atomic> http://www.b5atomic.com