Publisher Looks To Add Spark to Electronic Editions

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Advertisers in magazines such as Hot Rod, Stereophile and Surfer need help.

As the hobbyists that read these publications have switched from print to the Internet, iPads and other reading devices, the electronic editions have increasingly added videos, animations, sound and interactive games in addition to text and photos.

But many advertisers don’t have the expertise to create campaigns for this new medium. That motivated Source Interlink Media, the El Segundo-based publisher of those titles as well as other auto and sports publications, to buy digital ad agency Mind Over Eye in Santa Monica. The sale, terms of which were not disclosed, was announced last week.

“When our magazines are more interactive than the ads, it’s a disservice to advertisers,” said Brad Gerber, chief marketing officer at Source Interlink. “In order to fix that, we needed this expertise.”

Source Interlink is a subsidiary of Source Interlink Cos. in Bonita Springs, Fla. Mind Over Eye is a small digital agency that already works with several large clients that advertise in Source Interlink publications, including Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC, Samsung and Toshiba America Inc. After the acquisition, the advertising agency will be able to work with thousands of Source Interlink’s other advertisers, ranging from mom-and-pops up to midsize manufacturers, who need help creating interactive ads.

The agency’s 10 employees – including founders Bill Wadsworth, Andrew Dellenbach and Jack Wignot – will stay in their jobs; Gerber anticipates adding staff as more work comes to the shop as the result of the merger.

Dellenbach said Mind Over Eye will move to a facility inside the Source Interlink offices in El Segundo by the end of the year.

“We get to tap into their national sales force, and they get to tap into our capabilities,” Dellenbach said. “The idea is to grow the business quickly.”

Ming Chan, chief executive of digital agency 1st Movement in Pasadena, said he saw the merger as a logical combination, with Mind Over Eye as more of a production studio than a strategic ad agency.

“I would argue they didn’t buy an agency,” Chan said, “they bought a production shop.”

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