DGWB Lures Surfer Publisher to Head Youth Division
KCBS Offers Deals for OC Advertisers; Buy.com Debuts Magalog, or Is It Catazine?
Marketing & Media
by Jennifer Bellantonio
Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising has launched a youth marketing division dubbed Cynic and hired Surfer magazine publisher Doug Palladini to run it.
DGWB partner Mike Weisman recruited Palladini, who’s also past executive vice president at surfing portal operator Swell Inc., which, like Surfer, is based in San Juan Capistrano.
The youth division launches with Irvine-based Ocean Pacific Apparel Corp., which has used DGWB for its advertising, and Pasadena-based Avery Dennison Corp.’s compact disc labeling unit as clients.
“It became obvious to us in working with companies like Op that we needed to broaden our service offerings beyond the traditional media-based brand approach,” Weisman said.
Palladini, whose two-year contract with Swell recently ended, runs Cynic from DGWB’s office in Santa Ana with an assistant.
Cynic doesn’t focus on print ads, media buying and planning,that’s DGWB’s job, Palladini said. Instead, he said, Cynic is “promotional driven” and helps companies stage marketing programs, from concerts to point-of-sale campaigns.
Cynic is what comes after “your advertising is produced,” Palladini said.
DGWB joins two other Orange County ad shops with youth marketing arms: FCB Southern California and T & O; Group, both in Irvine.
Skeptics call youth divisions little more than window dressing, while others say they are no different than having an Hispanic arm.
So what does Cynic do? It’s helping Op develop a pay-per-view event, for one. It also hooked up Avery Dennison with a disc jockey street team, which is set to tour and promote the company’s product along the way.
Cynic doesn’t plan to pit itself against the other youth advertising agencies in town, according to Palladini.
Instead, he said he sees other agencies as possible clients that may turn to him if they need assistance “extending marketing messages” or organizing marketing events.
TV at Print Prices
Paula Singleton, owner of Sunrise Travel in Mission Viejo, sounds like she just won the lottery.
“I’m very excited,” Singleton said. “I never thought an independent agent like me could afford to be on TV.”
Singleton is taking Los Angeles CBS affiliate KCBS up on an offer aimed at OC businesses: $1,592 for seven 15-second spots produced by the station.
“The price is so much cheaper than if you advertise in the paper,” she said. “I’m hoping I’ll hit a whole new market.”
Baltimore-based production company City Television helped KCBS organize and launch a new campaign called “Orange County at Its Best,” according to Christine Rose, City Television’s sales manager.
The campaign, which runs from March 4 through Dec. 23, is designed to attract visitors, shoppers, new residents and new business to OC, she said.
The spots run during early news shows, weekdays, weekends and late nights.
“We’ve gotten a good response so far, knock on wood,” Rose said. “It’s cheaper then what a lot of people can run an ad for in the paper.”
The campaign is being offered to businesses in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Rose said City Television helps CBS, part of Viacom Inc., organize similar promotions across the country.
“We do them in different cities throughout the year and it’s geared toward each city or county we’re dealing with,” she said.
Some people use the spots for recruitment or to thank employees. Singleton, who will share the cost with Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, wants to get her name out there and recover business lost after Sept. 11.
“I cannot just sit here,” she said. “We hear every day about another travel agency closing their doors.”
From the Pages of Buy.com
Aliso Viejo-based buy.com Inc. hopes its new magazine will boost sales and raise its profile.
The quasi-catalog appears quarterly. It features special prices and shopping options at the bottom of pages as well as product reviews. The magazine starts out with a circulation of 5 million existing and new customers. The company declined to disclose what it’s spending on the publication.
“The magazine was a strategic decision to provide existing and prospective customers with another way to shop with buy.com,” said Stewart Duncan, managing director of the Thinkbig Marketing Group in Aliso Viejo, which represents buy.com. “The magazine is also intended to drive new traffic to the site.”
Buy.com founder Scott Blum, who bought back the struggling company in November and took it private, is featured in the magazine. In a column, Blum said the “new magazine is more than great deals.”
It offers articles “designed to make sense of today’s technology” and give readers the “know-how to purchase the right product for your needs,” he said.
Bits and Pieces:
Santa Ana-based Cibola Systems, an audiovisual company, recently tapped Playa del Rey-based Macy + Associates for public relations and graphic design work Fullerton-based Lofaro Sports Management, which represents professional athletes, has added two pro golfers to its roster: Buy.com tour player Chad Wright and Michael Walton.
