Ad Pros Create Alliance for Networking, Education

A new group is forming to bring together marketing, advertising and public relations professionals in the Valley region. The Alliance of Marketing Professionals won’t be just a networking group; they’ll also have educational events to keep up with trends and best practices in those industries. The alliance was the idea of Neil Adelman, CEO and advertising director of Statement magazine in Calabasas. Adelman is a member of ThinkLA, a collaborative of advertising and marketing professionals, but found it difficult to attend the group’s events on the other side of the hills. So Adelman figured to start a similar group for the Valley and sent out letters to other professionals to see who was interested in getting it off the ground. Among those responding was Danielle Lehman and together with Adelman the pair forms the core around which they have drawn about 40 other marketing and ad professionals for organizational meetings. “There are a lot of people looking to connect in these industries, so it is really exciting,” said Lehman, the operations manager for Tonic Brand Communications in Westlake Village. Adelman expects the first public event to bring in general members to take place in November. The organizational meetings are knocking out such mundane issues as membership dues and the specific types of programs and events the alliance wants to host. The time is right to bring together ad, marketing and public relations folks because the Valley is an emerging market for those industries, Adelman said. While larger advertising and marketing firms congregate downtown or in Century City or Westwood, the Valley is a loose coalition of smaller boutique agencies. Many in the industries recognize the Valley as a separate community and want to promote it as a separate advertising source, Adelman said. Those interested in joining AMP can contact Adelman at [email protected] . New Division The Inter/Media Group added a new division to develop software to maximize advertising strategies and media buying for its clients. The company went that route because use of technology has become an element separating one agency from another, said its president, Bob Yallen. Software already created and used by Inter/Media will be consolidated into the new division called InfoTech Development. Inter/Media will have its in-house programmers develop more software products. One example of what the firm offers is IQPlus, a retail observation program. The software will use retail distribution points where a client’s products are sold and factor in competitors and where they sell their products to come up with a media plan. “In other words, we are able to come up with the optimal spending levels,” Yallen said. Starting this new business division is a big endeavor, Yallen said, and one not done by many agencies because of the cost involved. Yallen wouldn’t say how much Inter/Media spent, only that it was substantial. “Whatever we are investing in it, the returns are not going to be as concrete as if you create a business unit that is for-profit,” Yallen said. “This is to service our clients.” In the Mix Marketing and media planning firm Ionic Media in Encino also embraces technology to assist its clients. A recent revision of its corporate website better explains the approach taken in determining how to best mix different mediums for advertising purposes. A key feature in the redesign was the addition of case studies, giving visitors to the site an idea of what Ionic has done for its clients, said Mark Evans, a managing director of the firm. The redesign follows two done to the website last year. The advantage to frequent changes in Ionic’s online presence is improving the message seen by potential clients. “This is a market with many players, so trying to hone in on a precise message is hard to do,” Evans said. “We need to continue revising what it is we say about ourselves so people know we are relevant to helping them out.” In July, Ionic introduced two new services the Valence software package and MediaFusion. The Valence software program was developed internally at the company and gives support to its employees through applications that focuses advertising dollars on tactics that work. The use of technology in support of people skills has always been important to the success of Ionic, Evans said. MediaFusion is a planning process with four steps: identifying customers; determining the channels to get to those customers; identifying specific media publishers for the ads; and optimizing the results. MediaFusion makes formal what was done informally and hits all the best practices, Evans said. “It is like ‘ready aim, fire,'” Evans said. When we fire we don’t want to waste money by not planning it well.” A benefit to creating the planning process is that every step the firm can take to serve the client can be added. Palmdale Consolidation The City of Palmdale has combined its thrice-yearly parks and recreation activity guide with the quarterly Palmdale News for a new publication to be mailed to every household. The move was done as a cost savings measure that city officials expect will have a wider reach. The parks and recreation guide had previously been available as an insert in the Antelope Valley Press, at City Hall and on the city’s website, said John Mlynar, a spokesman for the city. The Palmdale News reports on city government; activities by Partners for a Better Palmdale; and economic development. In the sluggish economy, the city is re-examining how it can better provide services to the residents and combining the two publications was part of that, Mlynar said. Aviation Video The Long Range Institute in Sherman Oaks was chosen by the East Kern Airport District to make a new marketing video for the Mojave Air and Space Port. The video was last updated in 2004 and needed another revision to reflect a change in businesses at the space port and the rollout of the WhiteKnightTwo, the aircraft that will launch Virgin Galactic’s commercial space vehicle. WhiteKnightTwo is being developed at Scaled Composites located at the space port. Attempts to reach a representative of Long Range were not successful. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected] .