When he was working long hours as a junior investment banker in New York after college, Roman Tsunder would take refuge at his gym to watch TV. In those days, all he could think about was how great it would be to work at MTV. “Then,” the 31-year-old Tsunder said, “I realized I’d have to take a really big salary cut.”
His ambitions evolved. He wanted to start his own MTV-like company that focused on young people captivated by television, whether at the mall, in their favorite store or at the gym.
With about $50,000 and several years of investment banking under his belt, he founded Access Retail Entertainment, which uses in-store television networks to target 12- to 24-year-old shoppers. With advertisers that include Cingular Wireless, Samsung Electronics, Sony Pictures and Juicy Fruit, the two-year-old L.A. company brought in $1.2 million in revenues in 2004 and is on track to top the $4 million mark in 2005.
Tsunder’s staff of nine produces two-to-three hour programs that are shown on hundreds of television sets in a few teen-oriented retailers, among them Journeys, a Genesco Inc. shoe store chain with 670 stores nationwide; Underground Station, another youth-oriented clothing store with 500 locations; and Vanity Shops of Grand Forks Inc., a 140-store chain aimed at teen girls. “The stores that were building out their in-store television the fastest were the youth stores,” Tsunder said.
Those customers are also the most multimedia savvy, a group that always has a cell phone in their pockets. Last summer, shoppers inside Journeys stores were prompted to send a text message from their cell phones to compete for a private screening of the film “Into the Blue,” starring Jessica Alba.
Actually, this side of the business could have the most potential, since more than 60 percent of text messages are sent by consumers under the age of 24. “I’m a realist, not a sci-fi nut,” Tsunder insisted. “I just want to know what the trends will be in five years.”
Among the programs offered are music videos and interviews with pop stars who talk about clothes, style and what they think is cool. Often the shows are tied to the store where the video is being shown. Hip hop star Fabolous, punk bands Fallout Boy and All American Rejects and pop band No Doubt have all recorded promos for the show.
“Record companies know they need to feature their album in a shoe store or a clothing store that might be right next door to the Sam Goody in the mall,” Tsunder said.
Elusive teens
Originally from Odessa, Ukraine, Tsunder moved to Southern California when he was 6. He attended the University of California at Los Angeles and after a few years in New York, he moved back to California and into venture capital.
He joined e/TV Networks in 2002, a fledgling in-store television network his venture capital firm had invested in. While at e/TV, Tsunder worked with teen retailer Wet Seal Inc. to launch its in-store network, “Seal TV.” When he started his own company, Wet Seal became his first client, although Tsunder was still working out of a spare bedroom in his condo during his first six months in business.
His mother was an interior designer, so he grew up around fashion, design and shopping. “I always noticed when I entered a store, whenever you have movement on the wall, in the displays, whatever it creates energy, and that makes people want to stay,” he said.
A tireless promoter, Tsunder once rented 12-inch plasma screen TVs and ordered custom T-shirts with Velcro harnesses underneath. He and an employee wore the TVs to an industry trade show to promote Access programming only to be kicked out when their video-shirts attracted too much attention. “We’ll do guerilla marketing if we have to,” he said.
Tsunder likes focusing on the teen-age market that traditional media and advertising often find elusive perhaps, he reasoned, because executives don’t live at the mall the way kids do.
“The teen market may be elusive, but they represent 25 percent of all mall shoppers,” said Alan Rambam, senior vice president for youth marketing at Fleishman-Hillard Inc., which handles the Cingular Wireless account. “That’s their community center.”
Rambam, who has run three promotions with Access over the past year and a half, said Tsunder understands what gets a teen-ager’s attention, noting that “putting an ad on TV is not enough.” Access Retail, he said, “puts the experience throughout the store: you have promos on the countertop, employees wearing lanyards that promote the client, signs, offers that’s what makes it effective.”
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Access Retail Entertainment
Year Founded:
2003
Core Business:
In-store marketing entertainment
Revenue in 2004:
$1.2 million
Revenue in 2005:
$4.2 million
Employees in 2004:
5
Employees in 2005:
9
Goal:
To change the way people experience entertainment
Driving Force:
‘Capturing youth, because the one thing we all have in common is being young the best part of all of us.’
