Just a few months into the job, Christopher Gialanella, the new publisher of Costa Mesa-based Riviera Magazine, has identified his main weapons in surviving the media downturn,a beefed-up sales department and an online edition.
Gialanella said he hired a sales person and promoted the marketing director to associate publisher to “handle the growing number of national and regional advertisers.”
Riviera has launched a California network buy, where companies can advertise across the Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco editions, he said.
“This gives marketers in OC the ability to market their brand” to the “drive and fly markets in California,” he said.
“They do get a discount for running in all four markets,” Gialanella said. “Most of the driving markets, such as Vegas, have taken advantage of our California network buy.”
Riviera, which targets the wealthy, also has launched a digital edition of the magazine May 1.
An online edition of Riviera Interiors, which focuses on swanky homes in OC, is coming next.
Gialanella said Riviera’s focus on the wealthy has helped in this tough economy. The upper-end real estate market, which is a smaller percentage, tends to fair better.
Still, Riviera is not immune.
The magazine has seen “a shift” with smaller mom-and-pop businesses, he said.
“Smaller, single-owned businesses (are) being cautious and putting their advertising on hold due to the economy,” Gialanella said. “Most industries related to homes cut back, as the mortgage crisis did not allow any of their clients or potential clients to utilize their services.”
Riviera continues to look at ways to attract more advertisers, Gialanella said.
“We are launching our Riviera cocktail tour this summer, which was a concept developed by the marketing team,” he said. “This will allow for restaurant business that Riviera has not carried in the past.”
Gialanella started in February, after the former publisher Jolie Adams resigned to start a marketing events firm.
Gialanella knows the ropes. He was previously the publisher of Front Desk visitor magazine in Los Angeles, a sister publication of Riviera, which is part of Modern Luxury Media Inc.
Modern Luxury runs several other regional luxury magazines, including Angeleno in Los Angeles and others in San Francisco, San Diego, New York and Houston.
Spotlight on Beam
Tustin-based Hispanic advertising shop alPunto Advertising is getting ready to launch a marketing push for client Deerfield, Ill.-based Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc.
The ad shop, which won the work in 2007, spent the past year developing promotional plans to introduce the client’s Jim Beam bourbon to Hispanics in the U.S.
Earlier this month, alPunto recorded radio spots and went to Chile to finish printing and other advertising tools for the campaign.
The push will also include events at bars in California and Texas.
The marketing campaign will run through the rest of the year.
Beam is part of Fortune Brands Inc.
Johnson Gray Nabs Director
Newport Beach-based Johnson Gray Advertising Inc. recently lured a worker from Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising & Communications.
Johnson Gray said it hired Lisa A. Ganz as director of account services.
Ganz most recently was group account director for DGWB, where she worked for the past eight years overseeing KFC’s advertising account.
New VP
San Juan Capistrano-based White Barn Group advertising shop made a hire.
White Barn brought in Christy Geiling as vice president of client services. Previously, Geiling was director of marketing at Rubio’s Restaurants Inc. in San Diego County.
Tim Hackbardt, White Barn principal, said Geiling’s experience managing multiunit retail chains will help with clients, including Glendale-based DineEquity Inc.’s Ihop and Huntington Beach-based BJ’s Restaurants Inc.
The hire comes on the heels of a recent win.
The shop brought in work from Yoshinoya America Inc., the U.S. division of the Japanese restaurant chain.
Bits and Pieces:
Costa Mesa-based El Pollo Loco Inc. is promoting its chicken sandwich with a television spot. The Mexican restaurant chain said is started airing the commercial last week on the West Coast. Other marketing includes banners, window clings and other promotional materials at its some 400 restaurants The Orange County chapter of the Public Relations Society of America recently held an award ceremony to honor shops for their work. There were more than 125 people at the event.