Encino Agency on Target With Specialized Retailers

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Hank Cohen loves numbers. Here’s one that has some special significance for him, though: $300 million. That’s how much new business his agency, KSL Media, has landed in the last 18 months.

KSL has developed a data-crunching system to help specialized retailers reach their best customers. The Encino company has recently added accounts with Guitar Center, Anna’s Linens, Mercury Insurance, Countrywide Bank and others.

The KSL system begins by analyzing all the data a company has in-house about its customers, from cash register receipts to e-mail databases. KSL’s proprietary software then boils the numbers down to psychographic profiles of typical customers.

The company then develops a media plan for each individual store. Cohen, KSL’s chief executive, said he can then tailor-mail ads specifically to ZIP codes, or even individual households.

“Next-door neighbors might get different ads based on their profiles,” Cohen explained. “This method leads to same-store sales increases of significant proportions.”

Cohen recommends Internet ads for hard-to-reach consumers, but KSL also buys direct mail, cable TV, out-of-home and radio.

What’s behind the boom?

“With this system and media tracking, you can finally say which half of your advertising works,” Cohen said.


Go Bruins

It’s rare for advertising to fuel banter on the sports talk-show circuit, but a UCLA ticket promotion has done the trick with a photo of Coach Rick Neuheisel and the headline: “The Football Monopoly in Los Angeles is Officially Over.”

The ad appeared in the Aug. 25 edition of the Los Angeles Times and immediately drew a response from pundits. Jim Rome and Dan Patrick both discussed it on their respective shows for ESPN Radio, and it inspired an extensive discussion on ESPN.com’s blogs and message boards. In print, the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Arizona Republic and Knoxville News Sentinel mulled the ad’s prophetic meaning.

Neuheisel did not say those words. The

ad was written by Bill Bayne, associate creative director at agency RPA Inc. in Santa Monica.

“The purpose of the ad was to get UCLA fans fired up for the season and to get college football fans around the country to think about the Bruins,” said Bayne. “The ad seems to be a source of pride for most UCLA fans their message boards have been lighting up over it.”

Most experts dismiss the ad’s claim.

The dominant USC football program can point to two national titles and six straight Pacific 10 conference championships. UCLA only has a few exciting results to its credit in that time period notably last week’s spectacular overtime triumph over the University of Tennessee.

With the buzz now in the air, Bayne seems content to let the season tell the rest of the story. RPA has no plans to run the ad again.


Interstitial TV

M3 Television, a video production company in Burbank, has launched a division to create interstitial programming.

“Interstitial” refers to segments between two and five minutes that fill left-over time in a programmer’s schedule. For example, the Disney Channel has no advertising, but since the typical half-hour show only lasts 22 minutes, the programmers have eight extra minutes. Disney uses the time to promote its own films, theme parks and DVDs. M3 has produced several series of interstitial programming for the channel.

PBS, cable networks and local TV stations likewise have spare moments that advertisers can fill, according to M3 President Andy Meyers.

Besides interstitials, M3 produces pilots, music videos, TV commercials, electronic press kits and movie trailers.


Agencies & Accounts

Brand Building Communications, the New York-based promotions agency that got Ray-Ban sunglasses in the “Men in Black” movies, has opened a West Coast office at 329 North Wetherly Drive in Beverly Hills. Vijay Lalwani will direct the L.A. operation. It Girl Public Relations in Venice has signed music artist and producer Colby O’Donis as a client. His first single was “What You Got,” and the first album will be “Colby O.” Interactive ad agency Sensis was named the fastest-growing Hispanic-owned company in California, according to Hispanic Business magazine. The L.A. firm also ranked 329 on the Inc. 500 list of the country’s fastest-growing companies.


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

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