PLAYA—Playa Vista Launches Major Ad Campaign

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After years of environmental protests, financial squabbles and lost business, the folks at Playa Vista are looking to make over their image with a flashy advertising campaign.

The 1,087-acre development just east of Marina del Rey has begun advertising for its residential properties in various L.A. media outlets. Sixty-second radio spots and magazine and newspaper ads began appearing in mid-August while advertising on 21 billboards, predominantly on the Westside, are scheduled to start this week. The billboards will rotate 11 images over a 30-day period.

“There’s a very hip, advertised-out market in West L.A. that we need to appeal to,” said Ken Agid, vice president of marketing for Playa Vista. “People get bored easily in West Los Angeles.”

The campaign slogans are geared to highlight each of the development’s characteristics piece by piece: its bird-watching park (“Parks that sing.”), its lofts (“Homes with lofty ideas.”) and its roof decks (“Rooftop dens. One of our cooler ideas.”) will be revealed one image at a time.

Mel Newhoff, president and creative director of Westlake Village-based Strategic Marketing Partners, the firm handling the account, said the ramp-up of the ad campaign will coincide with the progress of the 1,800 units expected to come on line next spring.

Playa Vista will start a pre-leasing program in the fourth quarter, with sales commencing in the middle of next year. No presale program has been instituted, though according to Agid, there are about 14,000 names on Playa Vista’s “interest list.”

“At this point in time, there’s a higher interest in owner occupants,” said Agid, adding that potential renters make up about 30 percent of the list.

Newhoff emphasized that the ads are directed towards an upscale audience, noting that the non-traditional approach of revealing small pieces of the development over time fits what is billed as a non-traditional housing community. “You won’t see a map in the ads,” he said.

Playa Vista also plans to address the ecological issues that have been associated with the project since its inception, including efforts to restore a portion of the Ballona Wetlands.

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