LOS ANGELES—Rogers & Associates, a leader in social marketing in California, has beaten out Porter Novelli to become the lead PR agency for the California Children & Families Commission, which uses tobacco settlement money to help families prepare young children for school. The contract is worth about $4 million a year in PR fees.

The campaign has the goal “of educating all Californians who interact with young children about the various influences affecting the healthy and nurturing development of children under five years of age.”

Rogers & Associates was first assigned the CCFC account in October 1999, after a non-competitive bid because the state did not have the money to administer an RFP. Rogers has earned $4.6 million on the contract since then, although some of that money goes to subcontractors targeting minority populations.
The Rogers team will be led by president Lynne Doll and will handle general market and Hispanic PR. The Asian-American aspect of the program will be handled by Imada-Wong Communications and Bauman Curry will run the African-American program.