To demonstrate the speed of Intel Corp.’s new processing chip, interactive ad agency Razorfish has created a Web site showing graphic designers who race to put together images without having their computer bog down.

DigitalDragRace.com features videos of live events where crowds cheer for two professional graphic artists. Each contestant gets a video clip, an image and a sound track, and then has 70 minutes to create a 17-second animation.

Both racers have identical computers outfitted with Intel’s new Core i7 processor. Giant screens show both the work in progress as well as a CPU meter so viewers can see how the processor handles the workload.

“A computer can struggle to keep up with the act of creation,” said Christopher Follett, executive creative director in Razorfish’s L.A. office, who supervised the project.

The campaign targets a tiny audience of professional multimedia developers who need enormous memory capacity.

Visitors to DigitalDragRace stay an average of nine minutes, a good indication that the idea connects with serious computer types. But Razorfish has reached a wider audience by distributing the videos on YouTube and through blogs.

“This was part of a much larger strategy,” Follett said. “Our next steps are leveraging this into video editors, sound editors and the audiences beyond the creative function who need lots of memory.”

Razorfish is a Seattle-based subsidiary of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.

Money Talks

The bank has money. And it will lend it to businesses.

During normal times that wouldn’t be much of a message, but these aren’t normal times. So California Bank & Trust has launched a campaign to attract attention.

The campaign, which appears on radio and in newspapers, indicates that it’s suited to small companies. The ads end with the tagline: “You have a business to run, we have money to lend.”

“All the news people hear is about the capital crunch and the stimulus package,” said Steven Borg, corporate marketing director at the bank. “We’re playing off that. One way to stimulate the economy is to lend, and we have a great degree of liquidity so we can lend to legitimately qualified businesses.”

California Bank & Trust is a division of Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorp.

Sample Financing

United Sample, a company that distributes samples for online market research projects, has closed a $3 million deal in venture capital funding. The money comes from Greycroft Partners in Santa Monica and DFJ Frontier in Sacramento.

The new funds will be used to grow sales, increase marketing efforts and develop technology.

In the past six months, L.A.-based United Sample’s Web site has received more than 3 million visitors, who are each paid a token amount for their participation in surveys.

“In this challenging economic climate, only the most promising startups are receiving new funding,” said Dana Settle, a Greycroft partner.

Agencies & Accounts

Huyett Turner Communications in Pasadena will handle PR for a year-long lecture series produced by Friends of the Gamble House, a USC-affiliated non-profit. The agency will promote lectures on Tiffany lamps, prefab housing and other subjects Independent L.A. agency David & Goliath has appointed Rick Schmitz as digital group director. He will work on campaigns for Universal Studios Hollywood, Monte Carlo Hotel & Casino and Kia Motors America Inc. Schmitz replaces Tesa Aragones, who left to take a job at Nike. It Girl Public Relations in Hollywood will now represent actor Jamal Woolard, who plays the lead role in “Notorious,” the film biography of rapper Notorious B.I.G. Fox Searchlight released the film Jan.16. On Jan. 22, Aflac played its new TV ad at the Dorris Place Elementary School in Elysian Valley. The school appears in the ad for Aflac’s supplementary insurance products. Aflac presented a $25,000 check to the school to build a new playground. Inter/Media Advertising in Encino has captured three 2008 MarCom Awards, which are given by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The direct-marketing shop won for spots on behalf of the Marinello Schools of Beauty, the Skinfinity Lotion Applicator and StrikeTrainer portable workout gear.

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