Over the next two decades they grew the company into a major advertising house that was billing $250 million per year and had 300 employees and offices in both New York and Los Angeles.
In 1970, they won their first major account, for Blue Nun Wine, and came up with a campaign that used the talents of comics Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
Their most famous campaign was the Meow Mix Theme,[12] conceived by Ron Travisano and composed by David Lucas of Lucas/McFaul, which featured an apparent singing cat.
In 1981, they won the account for the New York Mets, marking the first time a Major League Baseball team had hired an ad agency.
[7] By 1985, when Travisano sold his shares and left the agency, they had around 300 employees in New York and Los Angeles[5] were still privately held and were billing approximately $250 million annually.
[13] Della Femina sold the agency in 1986 to a British group, WCRS, for a reported $30 million USD, though he continued working at the company.
Della Femina was not happy with the loss of control, left in June 1992, and started a new agency, Jerry, Inc., in December of that year.
[6] He ran a restaurant, Della Femina, in East Hampton, and NYC (53rd Park & Lex) until he sold it in early 2011, because, "I’m just not ready to have my wealth redistributed.