Nashville ad giant Bohan has opened a Knoxville office, landing four new accounts in the process.

The eastern branch of the firm will handle accounts for Knoxville-based AAA of East Tennessee and Home Federal Bank, Pennsylvania-based SuperPetz and Brunswick Commercial and Government Products in Edgewater, Fla. It marks Bohan's first office outside of Nashville. 

The office will be headed by four former employees of Knoxville ad group Davis Newman Payne, which announced layoffs last week and is being sued for non-payment by two media companies.

"Our new employees are solid advertising and marketing professionals, and they have great relationships with our new clients. As a University of Tennessee alumnus, I can say wholeheartedly that it's great to be part of the Knoxville community," said chairman and CEO David Bohan.

Bohan's vice-president and director of communications Tom Adkinson said the circumstances will allow the firm to "hit the ground running" in East Tennessee.

"We were able to create an office for ourselves immediately. We were able to step in and be of service to those clients," he said. "The good business move was to create a Knoxville presence and the four new employees have working relationships with those clients."

Adkinson said Bohan is using the four existing accounts as a springboard to expand its presence in a new market.

He said Bohan has been able to weather The Great Recession and sees the move as the next step.

"We have been very fortunate over the last three years as the industry ... has had a difficult time. We have maintained almost all of our clients, so to a large extent, we've been an exception," he said.