Santa Monica-Based Firm Beefs Up Trophy Case

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Santa Monica-based Secret Weapon Marketing was among the top winners at the Effie Awards Gala in New York. The agency won a Gold Effie in the Fast Food/Casual Dining/Restaurants category for the “Sirloin vs. Angus” TV campaign on behalf of Jack-in-the-Box.

The same campaign figured among the five top-scoring finalists for the Grand Effie. However, Leo Burnett in Chicago won the highest award for its “Wii Would Like to Play” campaign.

Secret Weapon Marketing also won a Silver Effie for the Southern California Honda Dealers Association “Helpful” Campaign.

Other L.A. agencies to take home trophies include: Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWAChiatDay, True Agency, Ogilvy & Mather, HeilBrice Marketing Communications and Conill Advertising.

Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles won a Gold Effie for the Toyota Motor Sales “Tundra Launch” campaign. TBWAChiatDay also won a gold for its long-running “Energizer Bunny” work. True took home an Effie for Nissan North America’s “Altima Keys” campaign.

Ogilvy & Mather lifted a Silver Effie for the Cisco Systems “Welcome to the Human Network” campaign. In the Hispanic category, Conill Advertising won a silver for the Toyota Motor Sales “Tundrazo” campaign, while HeilBrice earned a silver for the “Hispanic Beef Retail Toolkit.”

The Effies are awarded by the New York American Marketing Association.


Back to the Roots

PainePR has won an account that takes people back a ways. The agency now will handle all public relations work for Ancestry.com, a popular site for genealogy and family history.

Paine plans to target baby boomers and expand Ancestry’s audience into the Gen X female demographic, according to Cynthia Rude, managing partner of the L.A.-based agency, who’s handling the account from the company’s Irvine office.

The PR blitzes will depend heavily on additions to the site’s growing list of databases. For example, last month, Paine helped Ancestry announce a new deal with the National Archives. Under the arrangement, Ancestry will staff archives offices with technicians to digitize records. The deal also includes new collections of military records; that will lead the PR shop to target veterans and military historians.

Rude expects to use media relations, events sponsorships and social network campaigns to get the word out.

Paine will handle the campaign from its offices in L.A., Irvine and New York.


Patently Clever

Can an advertisement get intellectual property protection with a U.S. patent? Yes, according to Ultramercial LLC in Palos Verdes Estates.

The company recently received a patent for its “Attention-for-Access Internet advertising model.” The application was filed eight years ago. Ultramercial’s software allows Internet viewers access to premium content, such as special reports or video news, in exchange for watching a video ad. The advertising method gained wide attention when first used by Salon.com.

“The viewer’s attention acts as ‘payment’ in a value exchange that gives the viewer incentive to complete the ad and repositions the advertiser as the provider, rather than the interrupter,” the company stated.

Ultramercial had used its technology for specific marketing projects, such as Virgin Mobile’s “Sugar Mama” campaign, which gave viewers phone minutes in exchange for watching ads.

The patent will allow the company to license its technology to mainstream media companies for use with their advertisers.


Misspoken messages

L.A.-based Garage Public Relations has a tongue-twisting challenge with its new client, Jam Donaldson. The creator of a BET series, “We Got to Do Better,” has launched a line of T-shirts as more than a fashion statement.

The shirts feature printed messages that poke fun at commonly misused phrases. Slogans like “It Isn’t Ironical” and “I, Myself Isn’t Necessary” promote better grammar, Donaldson said.

“My clothes make a statement literally and figuratively, translating the message of ‘We Got to Do Better’ in a creative way,” she said, referring to the title of her TV show.

Garage will promote the T-shirts online, at fashion events and trade shows.


News & Notes

James Christensen has been promoted to group account director for educational clients at direct-response shop Inter/Media Advertising in Encino. Before joining Inter/Media in 2007, he worked at Carat USA on campaigns for Mercedes-Benz, Village Inn Restaurants and Bakers Square. Blaine Group in Beverly Hills has won the PR account to launch social networking site www.TheClic.com. The Clic, which stands for College Life Is Cool, focuses on the school application process, bringing together students, universities, counselors and financial aid programmers. Online marketing firm ExactTarget is hosting a seminar on “The New eMarketing Essentials” on June 17 at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine. Scheduled speakers include marketers from Cold Stone Creamery and Rhythm

Interactive. Street Dogs Event Marketing in Monrovia took second place at the annual AdPack Tissue Tactics Contest. The competition judges innovative ways to use tissues for promotional

purposes. Street Dogs created a tissue pack for the Soldiers’ Angels Museum, a traveling display of memorabilia from U.S. military personnel.


Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.

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