Economic downturn or not, some of the nation’s largest companies are spending large sums of money on reaching their target audiences and using a Calabasas marketing company to do it in creative ways.

RPMC is one of the originators of “integrated marketing” meaning everything from sweepstakes to wild travel, sports and entertainment events that create buzz for clients.

Unlike other branding tactics, RPMC’s strategies seem to be taking hold for clients like AT & T; Corp., Levi Strauss & Co., News Corp., Coca Cola Co. and Hughes Electronics Corp.’s DirecTV.

“There is a widespread perception that traditional forms of advertising aren’t working well,” said Claire Murphy, executive editor of PR Week. “Much of that has to do with the jaded attitude of consumers, who see so much advertising everywhere that they’re switching it off.”

The notorious flop of Internet banner advertising proved that placing a message in front of tens of millions of eyeballs doesn’t necessarily equal exposure value.

“Advertisers are feeling that the one-to-one opportunity makes more sense,” said RPMC co-founder Robert Olshever. “It may not touch as many people as network TV, but you’re going one-on-one with the consumer, and they find that more effective than reach and frequency.”

Big promotions

Consider News Corp., one of RPMC’s biggest and oldest clients. Most recently, it called on the company to help cap off the “Simpsons Global Fanfest,” a year-long promotional event for the popular animated television show.

RPMC set up global sweepstakes promotions, which involved worldwide point-of-purchase displays. Some 2,000 winners were flown to Los Angeles for a massive “Simpsons” weekend, treated to concerts at the House of Blues (“Homerpalooza”), seats at a live reading of a “Simpsons” episode by cast members and tickets to an extreme sports event in Long Beach (“Bart’s Extreme Extravaganza”).

Celebrity skateboarders Tony Hawk and Bob Burnquist showed up for the Long Beach event and went head to head on a 50-foot ramp. RPMC coordinated everything from airline flights to getting the correct sizing for the Homer Simpson bedroom slippers that winners found by their hotel beds.

For another recent promotional event on behalf of Barq’s root beer and Tombstone Pizza, RPMC served up a giant pizza topped with $5,000 in small bills. Thirty sweepstakes winners were flown to New Orleans so they could roll in the dough and keep whatever cash stuck to their bodies.

Much of RPMC’s work takes place behind the scenes, when clients ask RPMC to pamper their clients or employees. The Discovery Network, for example, recently asked RPMC to take some of its top advertisers on a trip to Belize, where they checked out Mayan ruins, swam with sharks and manta rays and toured a natural habitat for panthers, jaguars, monkeys and tapirs.

Founded by friends

RPMC was founded by high school buddies Olshever and Murray Schwartz. Just out of high school and living in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, they started a music fanzine called Raw Power Magazine (RPM), which grew to a circulation of 20,000 in the Los Angeles area. The pair combined their love of music with travel in the early 1980s when they created and produced a promotional package for the rock band Journey. The vacation package, called “Journey with Journey,” was a success, and RPMC was born.

The two co-founders quickly inked deals with Anheuser-Busch, LA Gear and Gillette to launch a wide range of entertainment, travel and sports promotion programs.

The company had revenues of $25 million last year, up from $23 million in 1999 and $20 million in 1998. Due to the downturn in ad spending, Olshever said RPMC is on track to do $25 million this year.

RPMC’s approach has caught on industry-wide. Nike, widely thought of as a guru of branding, is hosting performance events all over L.A. based on its popular “freestyle” basketball television commercials.

“Consumers are more concerned with real-ness now than they were before,” said Dave Larson, Nike’s director of brand management. “The closer you come to dialoguing with them and touching them, the more real you are.”

Young consumers, he added, value the multi-pronged approach, “primarily because they grew up with the Internet. They are in control of their own destiny.”