Tech Exec Shuts Off Lamp, Returns to Ad World

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Joseph Poulose spent a decade as a tech manager at international agency Carat USA. But he spent the past year as an applications architect at Lamps Plus in Chatsworth.

Now, Inter/Media Group of Cos. in Encino has hired him to run its new InfoTech subsidiary, which will customize software packages for the agency’s clients.

“I missed the exciting pace of an advertising agency,” Poulose said to explain his move from lamps back to ads.

His new job focuses on modernizing Accutrak, a software program owned by Inter/Media that tracks the efficiency of media expenditures by measuring not only the size of the audience but actual sales generated from every ad.

Inter/Media spends $400 million per year on media, mostly TV time for direct-response advertisers. According to President Robert Yallen, the company wants to measure every dollar spent.

“This is the first program that takes into account more than just media statistics,” said Inter/Media President Robert Yallen. “When we optimize a media plan, we’re not interested in ratings but in results.”

The new tech division customizes Accutrak for particular clients.

“Our job is to maximize automation and create new one-touch methods that give the account managers and clients less time on assembling and analyzing information and more time on revenue-generating strategy,” said Poulose.




Bilingual Channel M

Channel M, the producer of in-store television networks, has delivered its first series of bilingual programs for client PLS Check Cashers.

The PLS chain installed TVs that show Channel M in 50 stores across the country. The Channel M programs are in both English and Spanish, in keeping with customer demographics. To reach the mostly male Latino audience, the programming consists of brief sports and humor video clips mixed with ads, mostly for PLS’ own products, such as debit cards and money orders.

L.A.-based Channel M produces in-store networks for 27 retailers, including Macy’s and Blockbuster.


People Meters Proliferate

Abritron Inc. has announced that the Portable People Meter is now the standard method for radio audience measurement in Los Angeles. The New York-based company made similar announcements for seven other U.S. markets, including Chicago, New York and Riverside-San Bernardino.

“PPM radio audience estimates for these markets should be used as the basis for transactions of radio commercial time among subscribing stations, agencies and advertisers,” the announcement stated. The new technology arrives in time for advertising agencies to plan their 2009 budgets with accurate audience numbers, the company added.

With PPM, survey participants carry a small communication device that tracks their radio listening. Each radio station broadcasts a non-audible code as part of its signal, and the device detects this code. The method replaces Arbitron’s diary method, where people wrote down their listening habits each night.


Agencies & Accounts

El Segundo-based ad shop Ignited has opened a New York office and hired Bryan Duffy to run it. Duffy, a specialist in event marketing, previously worked as global brand director for basketball at Converse. In El Segundo, Ignited director Brynn Harris will head the agency’s West Coast experiential division and work with Duffy on projects New York-based marketing strategy firm Siegel & Gale has named Matthias Mencke as creative director for the L.A. office. As a freelance designer, Mencke has completed graphic re-designs for eBay Marketplace, British Telecom and Deloitte Consulting. He will work for S & G; clients Microsoft and Sony PR firm Casey & Sayre has moved from its perch in Santa Monica. The new address is 11835 Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles. Deutsch LA has produced a new Happy Cows campaign for the California Milk Advisory Board that features “auditions” of new bovine characters. The 10 spots show cows from other parts of the world and viewers vote online for their favorite. The winning cow will appear in a campaign slated for October 2009. Fraser Communications has won three new accounts: Whole Foods Market southwest region, Southern California Metropolitan Water District and Nevada State Bank. Together, they bring $10 million in billings to the L.A.-based ad agency. Hispanic interactive agency Sensis won awards from the Web Marketing Association for the design of three health-related sites: L.A. Care Health Plan, United Healthcare Latino and United Behavioral Health.


Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.

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