53.2 F
Laguna Hills
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

CashCall’s Marketing Plans Unaltered by Settlement

Anaheim-based CashCall Inc. has no plans to change its marketing after settling deceptive advertising claims and other complaints brought by the state attorney general’s office.

“There is no plan to change any of our television advertising because of the settlement,” said Daniel Baren, the company’s general counsel.

CashCall didn’t admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement, which focused on what the attorney general’s office said were deceptive ads from 2007.

The company, a short-term lender, offered a special interest rate online but

didn’t adequately specify it was for military members and their families, according to the state’s lawsuit.

CashCall’s other marketing wasn’t called into question, according to Baren.

“They never had any issue with any of the print, radio or television ads, which in fact never mention a rate other than the highest rate possible,” Baren said.

The company also was accused of making abusive phone calls at all hours of the day to customers who were not paying back their loans.

CashCall makes loans that aren’t secured by a home, vehicle or anything else.

Loans go as high as $20,000. Rates can be pricey. For loans in California, the annual percentage rate can run from 24% for a $20,000 loan to a 139% for a $2,600 loan.

John Paul Reddam, who in the 1990s created and sold Costa Mesa-based Ditech.com to what’s now GMac Inc., started and heads the company.

CashCall is best known for ads a few years ago featuring child star Gary Coleman talking about his financial problems. There are no plans for Coleman to return as a spokesman, according to Baren.

About 95% of the company’s marketing is focused on TV ads during daytime TV.

The company’s newest ads should start running sometime in September, Baren said.

The downturn has had an impact on CashCall. This year, the company is funding about $1 million in loans each month, according to Baren.

“Two years ago the company was funding about $20 million a month in loans,” he said.

CashCall’s marketing budget reflects the times.

“We’re certainly not advertising at the level that we did in 2006 and 2007,” Baren said.

He declined to say what CashCall spends on marketing.


Normal vs. Boring

The Irvine office of New York-based Young & Rubicam Brands Inc. and Irvine-based Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.’s laptop division have pitted two average sounding towns against each other in a friendly game to see which is more interesting.

Y & R; picked six residents of Boring, Ore.,population 12,851,and five residents of Normal, Ill.,population 45,386,to compete online with videos and blogs from their Toshiba laptops to show how interesting their towns are.

“We wanted to show how real people use their computers and decided to have a little fun with it,” said Anthony DiBiase, executive creative director at Y & R.;

Y & R;, part of Britain’s WPP PLC, set up a Web site where viewers can watch content from the residents who include firefighters, a certified ghost investigator and a punk rocker. People can vote to see which town is more interesting based on the videos updated each Monday.

The contest ends next week with the winning town taking home $15,000 in technology upgrades for their local schools.

As of last week, Normal was in the lead with 52% of the votes.


Gas Pump Video

Irvine-based AdtekMedia Inc.’s PumpTop TV has signed up media companies to provide video for its network of display screens at gas stations.

New York-based CBS Corp., its CNet technology Web site and Cincinnati-based Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.’s Home & Garden TV are PumpTop’s recruits.

In a venture with Santa Monica-based Outcast, formerly Los Angeles-based Fuelcast Media Network Inc., PumpTop runs screens on 12,600 gas pumps in Southern California, Chicago and Dallas where advertisers buy time similar to how they would with TV.

The latest deals for video are designed to offer entertainment for viewers in between ads.


Bits and Pieces

Lake Forest-based Del Taco LLC, part of Nashville-based Sagittarius Brands Inc., has extended its promotions with the Arizona Cardinals football team for a second year. The Mexican fast food chain will have ads inside University of Phoenix Stadium, where the Cardinals play, and take part in promotions including a fan of the week contest. The chain signed with the Cardinal’s last year just before the team went to the Super Bowl Laguna Beach-based Way-pharm USA LLC, a drug and specialized food manufacturing company, has hired Tustin-based public relations firm Echo Media Group to handle its public relations. Waypharm’s first consumer product, a wellness beverage, is expected to be in grocery stores later this year Irvine-based Madison Alexander PR Inc. has added two new clients. The firm is agency of record for San Ramon-based DeviceLock, a data security company, and it also partnered with Los Angeles-based Bohle Co. to work with ActivIdentity Corp., a security company based in Fremont.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-