DGWB: Building Bonds with Bagged Salad

Orange County Business Journal, May 18-May 24, 2009 by Volpe, Michael

MEDIA & MARKETING

RiechesBaird Picks Up VP; Kia Does More Youth Marketing for Soul

Westlake Village-based Dole Food Co.'s Dole Fresh Vegetables unit has picked Santa Anabased DGWB Advertising & Communications to do TV, radio and Internet ads in the hopes of getting its prepackaged salads to stick with shoppers.

Prepackaged salad sales are "pretty much driven by price with not a lot of strong brand associations," said Mike Weisman, EKjWB president.

The challenge for DGWB will be to get shoppers to identify with Dole's bags of salads and seek them out each time they shop.

The ad agency is working on a Dole product launch due late in the third quarter or early in the fourth, Weisman said.

"We have some exciting news coming down the pipeline soon," he said.

The agency owes the recent account win to its work with the Irvine-based California Avocado Commission.

"It was the work we did for California Avocado that caught the attention of Dole," Weisman said. "So our hame went into a hat, competed against a number of agencies and came out victorious."

The campaign for California Avocado managed to create a personal connection among shoppers with California growers, who compete against Chilean and Mexican growers, as well as other rivals.

DGWB also recently started working with Sears Home Services, part of Illinois-based Sears Holdings Corp., on marketing for its Sears Home Energy Audit, a diagnostic test to assess a home's eneigy efficiency.

Sears recently selected Orange County as the official test market for the service.

DGWB found itself in the spotlight in the past few weeks when client KFC Corp., part of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum Brands Inc., got into an advertising scuffle with Costa Mesa-based El Pollo Loco Inc. over chicken meals.

RiechesBaird Adds Dula, Client

Irvine-based ad agency RiechesBaird has picked up the main guy from Dula Image Group, a former Tustin-based branding design firm.

Michael Dula, founding principal of Dula Image Group, has taken over the role of vice president of visual strategy at RiechesBaird.

"It was a major win for us to have Michael join," said Ryan Rieches, chief executive at RiechesBaird.

Dula's shop closed in December.

Dula now is in charge of working on several brand and corporate identity jobs for the agency's energy clients, which include Pittsburgh-based Equitable Resources Inc. and New Orleansbased Entergy Corp.

The shop also added Irvine-based Waterfield Enterprises, parent company of a family of financial service companies, as a client.

RiechesBaird will be handing brand strategy for Waterfield and the several mortgage and financial companies under its umbrella.

"We're looking to bring clarity to their entire portfolio of companies and brands," Rieches said.

Kia Goes After Youth

Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc. is working with Time Warner Inc.'s Cartoon Network and its Adult Swim late-night block of shows for grownups as a way to go after younger drivers interested in its Soul midsize sport utility vehicle.

The automaker and Cartoon Network are giving away a Soul painted by Atlanta graffiti artist Hense with characters from Adult Swim's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

Kia and the network have set up a Web site where people can enter to win the limitededition SUV through the end of June.

Promotions also are airing on Cartoon Network and through Kia's Web site.

Kia's been pushing the Soul in other ways.

Last month, it promoted the auto with Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Xbox Live as part of a video game marketing campaign.

This month, the automaker gave away a Soul as part of a promotion with Switzerland's Fédération Internationale de Football Association at the FIFA Interactive World Cup final - a video game competition - in Barcelona, Spain.

"Appealing to the youth market is important to Kia Motors and we feel that the perfect way to do that is through custom and visually appealing promotions," said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing at Kia.

Quad Work

Costa Mesa-based Marshall Advertising & Design has started an Internet marketing campaign for Cypress-based Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A., the U.S. arm of Japan's Yamaha Motor Co., featuring its new sport all-terrain vehicle, the YFZ450R. The campaign will feature almost 20 minutes of video footage for the quad as well as the 30-second TV spot. "Basically it's a micro-site built within an expandable ad," said Norm Tribe, associate creative director at Marshall.

Bits & Pieces:

Laguna Beach-based AdBoards Inc. has signed supermodel Janice Dickinson to help promote the launch of the shop's digital advertising service. The company is known for putting monitors in high traffic pedestrian spots such as restaurants, gyms and coffee houses in Orange County since 2007. Dickinson will be the spokeswoman for the project launching in Laguna Beach and targeting consumers and businesses ... Anaheim-based LiveWire MC2 LLC, a maker of energy supplements, has agreed to sponsor the U.S. Cup Mountain Bike Race Series as part of an effort to get more attention. The company will be giving away free energy chews as well as helping sponsor the top amateur and regional bike riders.