A small Tustin marketing firm is providing an outlet for Angels fans who want to vent about the team’s name change to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
David Skonezny, a director of Venture Marketing Solutions Ltd., said he started out with some 500 T-shirts and 2,000 stickers that read “We Are Not LA” with a broken “A” and a halo around it.
After a week, the shirts sold out.
“We’re trying to get the word out and create a buzz,” Skonezny said. “We have a group of people who think this is vital enough that they’re willing to speak their voice on their chests or cars.”
Skonezny and his brother,both longtime Angels fans and Orange County residents,launched their “Drop LA” Web site about two weeks ago.
They said they were outraged with the team’s recent name change and want owner Arte Moreno to reconsider the move away from Anaheim Angels.
The two and a group of friends put up $5,000 to start www.dropla.com and make $2 stickers and $10 T-shirts.
“We wanted to give people an opportunity to join us in opposition,” Skonezny said.
Venture Marketing got the word out with a few e-mails and by going to the Orange County Market Place in Costa Mesa. The brothers also handed out fliers and business cards in malls and other busy areas, Skonezny said.
At first, they wanted to “fly under the radar a little bit” because they were “concerned about the team’s reaction,” Skonezny said.
“It’s important to note that we’re still fans,” he said. “We’re still going to follow our team and go to the games. We’re also not in opposition of the ownership.”
But Skonezny said he is “in opposition to an ill-conceived marketing direction that they’ve taken.”
“For me, it is nails on a chalkboard,” Skonezny said of the name change.
The move devalues the progress OC has made from a marketing standpoint, according to Skonezny.
“Orange County has been viewed as a little stepbrother of Los Angeles for a long time,” he said. “We’ve shown we have a vibrant economy. We have a vibrant culture that’s decidedly different from Los Angeles. By lumping us in with Los Angeles County, they’re devaluing these efforts and the progress OC has made in becoming an entity of its own.”
So far, Skonezny said he hasn’t heard from Moreno or anyone else at the Angels.
He said he’s not surprised.
“I’m a marketing guy, and Arte Moreno is a marketing guy,” Skonezny said. “He probably realizes that there’s even value to this although we’re in opposition to him. If they’re talking about you, they’re talking about you.”
Still, Skonezny said he isn’t taking chances. He said he’s already talked to an attorney,just in case.
“If we do hear anything (from the Angels) I hope it’s not going to be from the standpoint of a cease and desist,” Skonezny said. “We wouldn’t be able to withstand if Arte Moreno wanted to blast us out of the water” with a lawsuit.
Going Solo
Lisa Zwick, former managing director of Irvine’s GolinHarris Orange County office, has stepped out on her own.
“I wanted more flexibility and more freedom to choose the project and clients I want to work with,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to do that when you’re on your own.”
Zwick launched Moxxi Communications in Lag-una Hills in January and is offering public relations services.
She recently landed two clients: Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. and VLSystems Inc. in Irvine.
Ria Carlson, Ingram Micro’s vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, said the company chose Moxxi because of Zwick’s “proven track record of delivering results.”
Zwick, currently a one-woman show, said she plans to take a “no-fluff approach.”
“Moxxi Communications was founded specifically for companies that demand the specialized thinking, connections and insight of a large agency without the cost, employee turnover or junior level staffing that comes with a large agency,” she said.
Zwick is working with VLsystems, which offers software and technology services, to boost its marketing efforts, said Lee Green, director of marketing and customer relations.
Charitable Power Play
The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, benched amid the National Hockey League lockout, can’t conduct on-ice fund-raisers for charities this year. So the team skated online.
The Ducks and McCormick Tribune Foundation recently started an online campaign to raise money for five OC nonprofits, including Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Orange County, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Seastar Brain Injury Foundation.
Donors can go to www.MightyDucks.com and choose to make a tax-deductible donation to one or more of the groups. The McCormick Tribune Foundation plans to make a 40% match of contributions. The campaign runs until April 30.
