Sightseeing Business to Offer Rolling Digital Ads

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It’s easy to spot the double-decker buses, often filled with tourists, driving down Rodeo Drive or Hollywood Boulevard. And soon it’ll be even easier to spot one of them, thanks to a mobile digital billboard.

Hollywood sightseeing company Starline Tours is expanding its partnership with outdoor advertising company Vector Media of New York to put a digital billboard on the side of one of Starline’s buses.

You’ll see it on local roadways starting next month.

Gary Greenstein, director of national sales at Vector, said the display will be on one side of the bus with the other side made available for additional branding opportunities.

He said Starline is the only established double-decker tour company in Los Angeles and Vector has been its exclusive media partner since 2012.

Starline already has 36 buses wrapped in advertisements through Vector. Just one, a 37th, will have the new digital screen for ads.

“We’ve been wrapping static advertisements on double-decker vehicles around the country for nearly 10 years now,” Greenstein said. “Digital was the next logical step.”

The bus-bound billboard will allow brands to display videos that will roll through the city.

Greenstein said responses from advertisers have been positive and it expects to build at least one additional vehicle to fill current demand.

The advent of a roving digital billboard comes a little more than a year after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered fixed digital billboards operated by Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor to go dark. The ruling, based on permitting issues, was hailed by anti-billboard activists, who said the digital signs were a blight and distraction.

It was not clear whether the mobile digital billboards would be subject to any regulatory review.

Sunny in New York

72andSunny in Playa Vista is now bicoastal.

The ad agency known for its work with clients such as Samsung, Target and Google opened up its first New York office this month.

Matt Jarvis, chief strategy officer for 72andSunny, said the agency had been mulling over the decision for about a year.

“New York City is one of those places where lots of different industries intersect,” Jarvis said. “And it made sense for us to participate in that intersection.”

The firm’s 13,000-square-foot space is housed in a 10-story building in Manhattan’s East Village. Jarvis said the office and its 40 employees will initially focus on clients Samsung and Smirnoff.

The agency hired Guillermo Vega to head the New York office as its executive creative director and James Townsend, managing director, will relocate to New York from the Playa Vista office. Vega was formerly an executive creative director at ad agency Wieden+ Kennedy’s office in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Jarvis said it’s an exciting move for the company, which also has an office in Amsterdam. He hopes it will help the firm attract more talent and give current employees more opportunities for growth.

“There’s an incredible depth and breadth of talent in the New York market that we’re keen to work with and excited to do things with,” he said. “And then, New York itself is a real inspiration. It’s one of the cultural centers.”

Agencies & Accounts

Advertising agency Hawthorne Direct in downtown Los Angeles has promoted John Pucci to chief marketing and creative officer, and has named Kurt Werderman media strategist and analyst. Pucci previously served as chief creative officer. Werderman previously served as strategic planner at ad agency Havas Edge in Hollywood. … Nancy J. Friedman Public Relations in New York opened an office in Santa Monica last week. Account director Lisa Goldstein will relocate to lead the West Coast outpost. … Native advertising company Revenue.com of Santa Monica has named Geoffrey DeStefano president. DeStefano was previously president of digital entertainment company Dumbdumb in West Hollywood. … SET, an experiential creative agency in Portland, Ore., has opened an office in Long Beach. Israel Kandarian has been named creative director at the new outpost. … Ad agency RPA of Santa Monica has named Jason Tarantino as vice president and strategic planning director. Tarantino previously served as group planning director at ad agency Media Arts Lab in Playa Vista. The agency also landed the Los Angeles Clippers and Arco as clients last month. … Digital marketing agency Threshold Interactive of Culver City has named Julie Gordon creative director. Gordon previously served as creative director at ad agency Pitch in Culver City. … Public relations firm Golin of Chicago has named Deanne Yamamoto managing director of its downtown L.A. office. Yamamoto had been a partner and West Coast brand practice manager at public relations agency Ketchum in Playa Vista. … Ad agency Echo Factory moved its headquarters last month from Rancho Cucamonga to Pasadena. … The Playa Vista office of TBWAChiatDay has been named the first global ad agency for San Francisco’s Airbnb.

Staff reporter Subrina Hudson can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 251.

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