After the dot-com bust, going after startup technology companies was low on the list for advertising shops.
Those days certainly are over.
San Juan Capistrano-based The Pow-ermark Group recently opened its doors and is targeting the technology crowd, particularly startup and more established software makers.
President Colleen Edwards said she isn’t worried about the risk.
“There is always some risk in working with startups, but we’ve calculated it,” Edwards said. “We’re balancing our running game (established tech companies) with our passing game (startups).”
Edwards said she’s been part of the Orange County marketing technology landscape for more than a decade, and has “seen first-hand the continuing demand for good, business-minded marketing expertise.”
“I knew we could build a profitable business pretty quickly by delivering well on that demand,” she said.
Edwards has worked for several local software makers.
She was vice president of marketing for Mission Viejo’s Foundstone and Newport Beach’s IPNet Solutions. Both eventually were bought: Santa Clara-based McAfee Inc. bought Foundstone and Alpharetta, Ga.-based Inovis Inc. bought IPNet.
Powermark started out with 10 workers and plans to grow.
“Early market reaction has been very favorable,everyone we’ve met with from large and small corporations to venture capitalists, has validated the need and our model,” Edwards said. “Young software companies, who often don’t have the budget to hire a marketing executive or team, can get off the ground more quickly.”
And she said that more established companies “are often resource constrained” and need “fresh ideas” with projects and services.
Powermark’s services include strategic planning, advertising, branding, tradeshow ev-ents and public and analyst relations.
It will maintain a low overhead to keep prices down, Edwards said.
The shop landed Costa Mesa-based FileNet Corp. in its first 60 days. It also has signed up TradePortal Securities Inc., a financial services company in Irvine, Edwards said.
Powermark has its hat in six other proposals and is awaiting word.
Surfwear City
Luggage and other accessories for girls continued to reign at the recent Action Sports Retailer fall back-to-school tradeshow.
We’re talking Hawaiian print luggage and carry cases from Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.’s Roxy and funky bags from O’Neill Clothing in Irvine.
Girls’ clothes and shoes have been driving gains at OC’s biggest surfwear makers, and a number of them were pushing their expanded collections at ASR, which was held recently for two days at the Huntington Beach Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort.
Irvine-based Billabong USA had a fashion runway for models who were donning its latest fashions. Others at the show include Irvine-based Lost Enterprises, Costa Mesa-based Paul Frank Industries and Hurley International, which is owned by Nike Inc. and also based in Costa Mesa.
The tradeshow, owned by Chantilly, Va.-based VNU Expositions Inc., was small compared to ASR’s spring and winter shows in San Diego.
They draw thousands and are all about big flashy booths with loud music and lots of giant photos and posters.
The Surf City show harkens back to the simpler days, with no-frill booths filled with clothing lines. It attracts mainly clothing reps and buyers.
But it’s important, said Michael Sharp, president of Lucy Love in Costa Mesa.
He said he met with his biggest retail account before noon on the first day of the show.
Other startup brands, such as San Clemente’s The Amerikan Project, used the show as a launch pad.
“This show gives emerging brands like ours a chance to play on the same field as the bigger brands,” said Gary Siskar, Amerikan’s vice president of sales and marketing, in a statement.
Taste the Fire
Irvine-based El Pollo Loco Inc. has launched two advertising campaigns.
One is aimed at a Hispanic audience and the other focuses on general marketing.
Cruz/kravetz:Ideas in Los Angeles created the Spanish-language spots, and hopes to strike a chord with Latinos by playing up its “pollo asado,” or chicken marinated and flame grilled, said Karen Eadon, El Pollo Loco’s chief marketing officer.
“Our creative approach with Spanish-speaking Hispanics taps into their passion for the citrus-marinated, flame-grilled taste of El Pollo Loco, which for many is reminiscent of food their families prepared as they were growing up,” Eadon said in a statement.
The 15- and 30-second spots are airing on West Coast Spanish stations, including ones in Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno and Las Vegas. So are general marketing commercials.
The Spanish-language campaign includes four different commercials. Each opens with one character relaying shocking news to another person, who is so preoccupied by the deliciousness of El Pollo Loco that he can only react with “Que rico pollo!” (“This chicken is so tasty!”)
Meanwhile, Krueger Communications in Los Angeles created and launched the general market commercials, which play up El Pollo Loco’s quality.
“We want consumers to know that they don’t have to settle for less,” said John Krueger, chief creative officer at Krueger Communications, in a statement.
The spots continue to use the tagline, “Taste the fire,” and highlight various promotions, such as the company’s new chicken verde quesadilla. El Pollo Loco also is using in-store signs and marketing materials to push the quesadilla.
