Elizabeth Segerstrom, co-managing partner at Costa Mesa-based C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, invited about 50 of her closest media contacts and friends on a two-hour sail Halloween night on Foggy, a boat designed by famed architect Frank Gehry.
The occasion? An exclusive preview of upcoming coffee table book “South Coast Plaza” published by Assouline in the mall’s 50th anniversary year.
Segerstrom held court on the deck, where guests sipped beer, champagne and rosé as the late-afternoon sun shone warmly over the trip across Newport Harbor.
“I think 50 is a major milestone,” said Debra Gunn Downing, executive director of marketing at South Coast Plaza. “Many shopping centers are not surviving today.”
The 160-page book, which chronicles the evolution of the mall, begins with the Segerstrom family’s immigration from Sweden to the U.S. in 1882. “Do you know they started as sharecroppers?” said Gunn Downing, who called the book a celebration of an American family’s success.
The family still owns the mall, whose taxable sales totaled $1.73 billion in the 12 months ended June 30, making it the top-grossing shopping center in Orange County.
Incidentally, Gehry, as a young architect at Gruen Associates, designed South Coast Plaza’s Joseph Magnin store in the shopping center’s early days.
Upping Data Game
J.D. Power and Associates in Costa Mesa is working with Neustar Inc. to offer advertisers “best-in-class actionable audiences for targeting across offline and online channels, including mobile, OTT and addressable TV.”
J.D. Power collects “same-day automotive sales data from more than 14,000 dealerships, receives over 1 billion purchase data points including information on incentive buyers, finance method, decision makers and leasing terms,” according to the company. It will feed its shopper data to Neustar’s AdAdvisor, a tool that groups consumer data into some “20,000 audiences” based on ZIP code, age and gender, brand preferences, product affinities and psychographic variables. Sterling, Va.-based Neustar also runs the OneID system, which collects shopper information from offline data sources and combines them with their online behavior to “create a comprehensive view of the customer.”
J.D. Power Chief Digital Officer Bernardo Rodriguez said in a statement, “Our industry has long needed an automotive audience standard that is founded on rich, real-time, constantly updated and quality assured data. Combining Neustar’s trusted identity with audience seeds from our robust Power Information Network gives advertisers a dependable way to build audience segments without any data gaps and extra cost.”
Foreclosed in Ohio
Auction.com, an Irvine-based real estate transaction marketplace, launched an online platform for the sale of foreclosed properties in Ohio—courtesy of a new state law.
Sellers’ assets will “gain greater visibility through Auction.com’s massive marketplace, use of a digital advertising network, search engine marketing, geographic marketing and other industry-leading marketing technologies, according to the company, while buyers will be able to see property photos, HomeDisclosure.com reports and tax lien information.
“House Bill 390 enables buyers to view asset information from their own computer or mobile phone, enabling them to bid on assets completely online from the comfort of their homes or businesses,” Executive Vice President of Operations Javid Jaberi said in a statement. “These resources enable faster transaction timelines, lower holding costs and increased numbers of potential bidders, better ensuring that assets are sold at market price.”
Auction.com’s parent company, Ten-X, was recently acquired by Thomas H. Lee Partners LLP for about $1 billion.
Bits & Pieces
Powerhouse Communications in Santa Ana took home the Best in Show award at this year’s PROTOS Awards Gala, hosted by the Public Relations Society of America’s Orange County chapter. The awards recognize the region’s top PR agencies and professionals for outstanding communications campaigns, as well as individual components contributing to the success of an overall program. Powerhouse was recognized for last year’s launch of The Del Taco, a marketing campaign for Lake Forest-based Del Taco Restaurants Inc. The fast-food chain now works with Canvas Blue in Los Angeles.
Business Journal reporter Sherry Hsieh contributed to the column.Â
