It takes skill to come up with an advertising campaign for a male enhancement pill.

That’s what Inter/media Advertising found itself having to do after years of just buying television time and ad space for ExtenZe, a supplement whose maker boasts of having sold one billion pills.

Now the Encino-based firm makes the commercials and signed on Super Bowl winning coach and Fox Sports broadcaster Jimmy Johnson as the product’s spokesman.

Shying away from making any concrete claims, the campaign falls back on the repeated message of maximizing what the user already has and going from good to great.

That doesn’t mean clever double entendres aren’t used in the commercial’s scripts, as Johnson advises the viewer to use ExtenZe and “go long” before tossing a football.

The Inter/media campaign has taken ExtenZe out of the shadows, so to speak, and into the aisles of national retailers, including Wal-Mart, the world’s largest. The short-form (two minutes or less) commercial ranked number one in 2009, according to Infomercial Monitoring Service Inc.

“The product moves,” Inter/Media CEO Robert Yallen said. “It says people are buying the product and the product works for them.”

Still, there are outlets not so open to taking the commercials for a product purported to assist in better performance in the bedroom. In late February, Yallen traveled to New York City to talk with some stations there about airing the ExtenZe campaign.

There is a marked difference between the product’s original commercials and those made by Inter/Media. The first versions were more specific about results and the infomercial featured adult performer Ron Jeremy and a studio audience.

Legal challenges to the product say not much has changed.

Last summer, an Encino law firm filed a class action lawsuit against manufacturer Biotab Nutraceuticals alleging false claims. In 2006, when known under a different name, the pill’s maker paid a $300,000 penalty in Orange County and agreed to pull back from certain claims of improved sexual performance and change its formula to reduce the amount of lead.

Yallen declined to comment on the pending lawsuit but in an email said that the more successful a company becomes the more likely there are lawsuits. The image and brand of ExtenZe remains in good order and the focus of the advertising is to build on the successful image, he added.

That image landed in mainstream America as the product became displayed on retail shelves at Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreen’s and other national chains.

As a product transitions from direct sales – calling an 800 number or ordering online – to retail what typically happens is that as retail sales grow, direct sales decline. But not so with ExtenZe, which continues to have strong following from online and phone orders.

“There are still guys who don’t want to walk into Wal-Mart and buy a male enhancement product,” said Kevin Szymanski, vice president of client services at Inter/Media.

“They like the anonymity aspect,” Yallen added

The final piece in the mainstreaming of a male enhancement pill was adding Johnson as the spokesman.

Inter/Media had wanted for years to get a single person to plug the pill and had a candidate in mind but a deal fell through.

Johnson met the criteria the agency was looking for: someone who was trusted and credible; was well known; and worked well with both younger and older demographics.

Johnson was a guest crew chief for the ExtenZe-sponsored car at this year’s Daytona 500, and takes part in promotions to meet with users of the pill.

“I don’t know who else is out there that would be better than Jimmy Johnson,” Szymanski said.

Joining Network

Scott Public Relations has joined PR Boutiques International in a move that provides more resources for clients entering foreign markets.

In an age of a new economy, new structures are needed even in marketing and public relations and joining an organization that brings together senior level professionals is one of those, said Joy Scott, the Canoga Park firm’s president and CEO.

“Being part of a network we can offer a number of benefits that previously clients thought they would need a larger firm to get,” Scott said.

The agency specializes in the health care, insurance and technology industries and is one of nearly 30 members of PR Boutiques International.

With clients across the U.S., joining the global organization expands their reach into Europe, Asia and Latin Ameica.

If a client wanted to launch overseas, Boutiques International members would help in bringing that about, Scott said.

“This increases the value proposition to the companies we work with,” Scott said.

Brandon Hance, CEO of Van Nuys-based Audiolife, is out to revolutionize the way musicians sell merchandise. Gone are the days when independent artists have to front the cash to buy inventories of CDs, T-shirts and other items that may or may not sell.

“Our (free) web-based platform gives artists a portable store, an e-commerce infrastructure to directly monetize their fans,” said Hance. “It allows them to publish items without ever manufacturing them.” Merchandise is produced on-demand.

Artists can download, personalize and post the e-commerce store on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Each order, even for one item, is sent to vendors who manufacture the product and send it directly to fans.

Audiolife only makes money when items sell. And to date it has powered close to 50,000 storefronts worldwide, including ones for artists such as Will.i.am, Pussycat Dolls and George Benson. From 300-500 new online stores are publishing daily, said Hance.

Direct to fans

“It’s a direct-to-fan e-commerce platform, and we provide users all of the data about who’s purchasing the merchandise,” he said. “It’s all about empowerment.”

Hance, 27, launched Audiolife in June 2005. The original plan was to create a destination social commerce web site where independent artists could sell merchandise. He and other founders planned on manufacturing CDs and other merchandise in-house.

Audiolife secured close to $4 million from Tech Coast Angels and the Coachella Valley Angel Network. The company quickly grew to 50 employees and had music industry veterans on board such as the former CEO of Tower Records.

But the company was not able to get over a number of technological hurdles and bring the concept to market.

“We were a month away from launching for a year and a half,” said Hance, who used to play quarterback for USC. “At the end of 2008, we moved away from creating a social commerce network, lost a lot of our team and the number of employees dropped to six.”

business model change

Audiolife changed its business model and technology to create transportable storefronts versus a destination site. The company contracted with outside vendors/manufacturers nationwide to produce on-demand merchandise.

It designed all of its own publishing tools that allow artists to upload or create images that are placed on merchandise. And the company created algorithms that send orders to the vendors who can produce items as fast and inexpensively as possible.

Audiolife launched in beta capacity in Feb. 2009. Shortly thereafter, the company teamed with ReverbNation.com, an online music marketing platform used by artists, managers, record labels, and venues. It publicly launched on ReverbNation in March 2010.

“Any artist can connect with fans to sell music and products in less than two minutes using the Reverb Store,” said Michael Doernberg, CEO of ReverbNation, in a press release.

Artists in control

Artists set the final price above the cost and keep 100 percent of the profits from every sale, he added. They can also use the Reverb Store to order larger quantities of CDs and merchandise at discounted wholesale prices.

“Brandon is creating a way to support the middle class in the music business,” said Steven Pfrenzinger, member of Tech Coast Angels and lead investor in Audiolife. “There are so many artists who come up to us and think it’s not real.”

The first business model stalling turned out to be a good thing, he added, because the popularity and functionality of social networks have increased. And musicians are relying more heavily on selling merchandise to compensate for lower album sales.

The music industry is trying to figure out the best way to use the Internet and social networks to sell merchandise. But many are afraid to touch the product manufacturing side. That’s how Audiolife differentiates itself, he said.

Audiolife’s revenues and new opportunities are increasing substantially, he added. It recently secured an additional $1 million in bridge financing from angel investors. And the company is exploring opportunities with high-end musicians and how the platform can be used for non-profits and a variety of other businesses.

“Music is almost turning into a loss leader to create a following,” said Pfrenzinger.

When the Method Fest Film Festival begins tonight (March 25) the event finds itself in the second step of its evolution to become what its organizers hope will one day be a national festival.

The poor economy, of course, has not been a help in making that transition.
Budget constraints have resulted in the cancellation of other festivals and Method Fest has struggled for a second year in the sponsorship department.

Still, festival Executive Director Don Franken keeps focused on the future and doing what is necessary to make Method Fest a national destination festival akin to Sundance in Park City, Utah and Tribeca in New York City that attracts national and even international coverage that filmmakers and sponsors can benefit from.

“There are things in the works,” Franken said.

After having been a local festival first in Burbank and then Calabasas, Method Fest is now a regional festival with screenings taking place at both the Calabasas Civic Center and the Regency Agoura Hills 8 Theatre.
Throughout that evolution the festival has never veered from its mission to showcase films with great acting.

Entries this year include performances by Anthony Hopkins, Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfus, and Bruce Dern, the recipient of the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hiring an additional programmer resulted in Method Fest getting a few films that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. As in past year, a number of U.S. and world premieres will take place at Method Fest.

“We worked harder and we ended up with more films to choose from,” Franken said.

The 7-day festival wouldn’t be possible without corporate sponsorship and like last year getting those has been a struggle. There is no airline sponsor for a second year in a row and no car dealerships took part as well.

One new sponsor is the Good Nite Inn in Calabasas, the host hotel.
The hotel is ideally located between the two screening locations in Calabasas and Agoura Hills, said General Manager Randall Boyd.

Whether it is the film festival, or any day-long event in the Valley area or into Malibu, guests want an inexpensive, clean place to stay, Boyd said.

“They just need a place to crash so it works out well for us,” Boyd added.
Post-screening parties take place from Woodland Hills to Agoura Hills, another example of the regional focus.

The festival will screen films in two theaters at the Regency as compared to the one from last year. There have also been more musical acts added for the parties, including some whose work is used in festival films.

It doesn’t happen often, but on rare occasions, a Kaleidoscope diatribe is worth revisiting.

There have been so many reactions (believe it or not, all positive) to our last column on Our Valley’s (and our world’s) misuse of punctuation, misspelled words, ungrammatical verbiage, and generally sloppy use of our language, that a reprise is in order.

Not that everyone pays attention.

For example, the last column took Chablis restaurant in Tarzana to task for not using prix fixe correctly. In an ad in the March 6 issue of the Los Angeles Times, one of our favorite eateries, Café Bizou, is trumpeting its “Three Course Prix Fixed Menu.” I wouldn’t even think of telling them that “Three Course” is a compound adjective…let alone dealing again with the prix fixe issue.

While pictorial representations rarely accompany this back-of-the-book column, the photograph below says it all. O.A.S. Construction, the contractor working on this Encino house (and let’s hope he’s better at building than at spelling) provides “costume” houses, rather than “custom” houses.

And Councilman Dennis Zine, who keeps an eagle eye on the entire Valley, not just his West Valley District, recently spied a sign on an apartment for rent on Victory Blvd. near Coldwater Canyon Ave. The sign reads: 1 BADROOM FOR RENT.”

The Councilman wonders if there are bad people in the building or, on the other hand, if it’s a bad room. If that’s the case, perhaps we should call in O.A.S. Construction.

But don’t feel that those of us living and laboring North of Mulholland have a monopoly on our ability to massacre the métier of our language.

The March 2, 2010, issue of Daily Variety had a major feature on the premiere of the new Alice in Wonderland film. Writer Helen Jackson (and her apparently missing-in-action editor) thrilled readers with her reportage of the London premiere of Tim Burton’s newest effort by informing us of the stars who:

“…treaded the crochet lawn up to Leicester Square’s Odeon…”

I doubt that the lawn was crocheted; perhaps she meant “croquet,” as in the croquet lawn that the Queen of Hearts played on in the book…and the film.

When I’m king (fat chance!) two words will be stricken from the English language:

“Awesome” – as in everything is overwhelmingly amazing. When I ordered my egg white frittata at Marmalade last week, my server (we don’t have waiters or waitresses any more) was quick to inform me that my choice of breakfast fare was “Awesome!” Nothing is ordinary or acceptable; everything is “Awesome.”

“Like” – How do we convince everyone under 25 that there is no rule in English grammar that forces one to use the word “like” every fourth word?

But perhaps we should not be so hard on those who struggle with our language. That great English writer, Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell, obviously took pity on those challenged by English:

“To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.”

Right on, George, but none of that is an excuse for linguistic laziness.

[The English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.

While other retail chains such as Mervyns and Linens & Things went out of business, discount housewares store Anna’s Linens was busy opening a store at The Plant in Van Nuys as part of major expansion plans for the chain.

Anna’s CEO Alan Goldstone said that Van Nuys is an ideal location because of its demographics. Gladstone said that before they put in their Van Nuys location Anna’s had done extensive market research on the area. They found that there were about 150,000 people with median income of between $40,000 and $70,000.

“Our customers understand value. Why go to a department store when they can get it here for the same price,” Gladstone said.

According to retail analyst Jim Dion, president of Dionco in Chicago, in the hardlines or home goods sector, it’s been a tough few years.

“It’s no surprise because home rates are the lowest they’ve been in 25 years,” Dion said.

However, Dion said “customers are starting to purchase” items for their homes once again.

Anna’s Linens, based in Costa Mesa, has been opening several California based stores. It has three other Valley locations in addition to The Plant. Gladstone said that no matter the income level everybody needs great quality linens.

“We sell steak cheap not cheap steak,” Gladstone touts as the store’s motto. According to Gladstone, they sell 400 thread count sheets for $29.99.

“Anna’s growth has to do with the fact that there’s lots of good (commercial) real estate out there so smart companies are snapping up some of that real estate,” George Whalin, a retail consultant, speaker and author based out of San Diego, said. “For a long time in Southern California, good retail real estate was hard to come by. With Linens & Things and similar stores closing we’re seeing space that we hadn’t seen for a long time.”

At its grand opening, the Van Nuys location saw over 350 customers waiting to get in, according to Gladstone. The store gets about 3,000 shoppers weekly. Anna’s 11,000-square-foot new location at The Plant has a layout that includes six display beds decorated with beds-in-a-bag and lots of aisle space so that shoppers can easily fit their shopping carts down the aisles.

Tony Sow, the 20-year-old manager of Yama Café in the same plaza said at the grand opening they were selling sheets and pillow cases for a dollar and he didn’t even try because it was so crowded the line stretched down the block.

Another reason for Anna’s success with the younger generation could lie in their marketing campaign.

“I noticed a spike in business when we started to go on television,” Gladstone said.

In his ad Gladstone emphasized that shoppers don’t have to wait for a coupon to shop at Anna’s.

The company uses social media such as Facebook, Twitter and a Web site to drive sales. For instance on the Twitter feed is a picture of the grand opening for the Van Nuys location.

In addition associates have been hired from within the community surrounding the store.

“Our associates are our best customers,” Gladstone said. “Our first desire is to provide jobs for the local community.”

Gladstone says he plans on 20 percent growth in 2010 over 2009. The store gets in two to three new shipments a week and Gladstone said they turn over their inventory in 90 days.

In addition to traditional linens Anna’s also sells items sold through television traditionally at volume prices and passes the savings along to the customer. For example, he said Anna’s stores sold 200,000 Snuggies on the day after Thanksgiving at their stores and they were sold out in a day.

Gladstone is optimistic about Anna’s future growth, projecting that his franchise is on its way to 1,000 stores.

Every human resources professional has stories to tell about the challenges of hiring in California. And a few stumbling blocks remain constant: the high cost of doing business in California; labor pool difficulties; and as of late, the slow economy.

Rolfe Jones, director of human resources for Pacoima-based Arc Machines, Inc. (AMI) said, in general, he doesn’t struggle with hiring in California. Any time he advertises a job opening he receives stacks of resumes. AMI currently employs 200.

But in the down economy, the problem is that the overall quality of applicants is less than years past. “Many companies are trying to hold on to quality employees as long as possible,” said Jones.

The advantage of the down economy for employers, however, is that prospective employees are often willing to accept lower salaries. Jones said current salaries are a little more realistic than some of the over-inflated salaries of the past.

California is a very pro employee state, he added, which can be a disincentive for doing business in the state. Employers big and small pay massive overhead for workers compensation, insurance, Social Security and other taxes.

“If you take on one extra person, your costs go up so much,” said Jones, adding the state needs to do more to increase the amount of incentives it offers to encourage certain industries to stay in California.

Allan Fisher, executive recruiter for Premier Financial Search, agrees with Jones that California and Los Angeles is not very employer friendly. “And I don’t see that changing any time soon,” said Fisher.

Some of the challenges he faces include the high wages in Los Angeles, prospective employee’s expectation of extensive benefits packages, and the cost to businesses to hire somebody new. Premier specializes in placing accounting and finance professionals.

Another challenge is that many job seekers in California and Los Angeles are from other countries and do not speak English very well. They have stellar technical skills but are lacking communication skills, said Fisher, who has placed people from 30 or more different countries.

And in the current economy, many people being laid off lack in the communication department.

More selective

“We’re starting to see some light in terms of hiring,” he said. “But companies that are hiring are a lot more selective. They want what they want: superior technical skills and superior communication skills.

At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, Fisher said some native Californians have a different work ethic than people from other parts of the country. They expect to work a minimum, and quality of life is everything to them. A number of employers actually prefer hiring people from elsewhere, because they have a better work ethic, he said.

Bill McLeod, director of human resources for the City of Palmdale, said cities face some of the same challenges, but some unique ones too.

He’s running into a scarcity of qualified candidates for certain high-level city jobs. For example, the city is currently looking for a director of libraries and director of planning, both of which offer salaries well in excess of $100,000 per year.

“The challenge we face is that if we find a good applicant, say from the Midwest or Southern U.S., as soon as they start seeing housing prices in the area they say ‘No,’” said McLeod. “It’s kind of an irony in the down economy.”

Another hurdle cities and counties face in hiring, especially in this economy, is they’re heavily dependent on property and sales taxes. In fact the City of Palmdale has gone through a 30 percent reduction in workforce.

Public employers are also known for having high benefit loads, said McLeod, which is an issue that has to be re-examined in order to further cut costs.

“In the public sector, there’s almost going to have to be a structural change in benefit levels,” he said, adding the thing that’s frustrating for cities is that the State of California has not made equivalent cuts in jobs and elsewhere.

California’s cost of living is by and large the biggest hurdle when hiring a new employee, said Kent Haney, director of human resources for The Master’s College. Even though home prices have decreased, they’re still higher than many states. And rental rates can be shocking to prospective employees.

Being a non-profit organization also makes it hard to hire doctorate level faculty, he said, because the school’s salaries are typically less than those offered by state and private organizations. Hiring administration workers is a lot easier.

On the legal side, Haney said it’s tough to navigate California’s wage and hour, workers compensation, sexual harassment and other laws. “They keep hitting you with regulation, after regulation, after regulation,” he said. Some of those laws are necessary, he added. “But to be in human resources anymore, you practically need a legal degree.”

The problems faced by Toyota may be just what U.S. car companies need to boost sales and snare market share away from a competitor.

Toyota, the top selling vehicle manufacturer in the world, has been knocked to the mat over faulty brakes and sticky accelerators that resulted in a recall on some of its most popular brands of cars, crossovers and trucks, including the Prius hybrid and the luxury Lexus HS 250h.

In response, first General Motors Corp. later followed by the Ford Motor Co. began offering $1,000 incentives for buyers who come in with a Toyota trade in.

The safety problems has generated a fear among car owners so much so that even a Lexus owner came in recently to Galpin Ford in North Hills to trade in their 2010 vehicle for a Ford.

The dealership is stocking up on new models in anticipation of higher sales, said General Manager Terry Miller.

In addition to the $1,000 trade in, there are select customers who will be offered an additional $500 for buying a Ford.

“We have been contacting those customers and we have had a lot of calls from Toyota owners,” Miller said. “We’ve made a number of deals.”

Following a year in which the bottom fell out of vehicle sales and two of the Big Three filed for bankruptcy, the last thing the auto industry needed was more woes. This time though it was a foreign car company’s turn and one with a prized reputation of quality and forward thinking and the highest brand loyalty at that.

While GM and Ford are offering the trade-in incentives the competition will likely not take it much further than that and take a more aggressive stance.

After all, last year when GM and Chrysler were taking federal bailout funds and decreased production, Toyota wasn’t publicly jumping with joy.

“They want to increase market share but they want to do it with good competitive products and not by denigrating anyone,” said Mark Rikess, of The Rikess Group, a Los Angeles-based consultancy for the auto industry.

Even Mark Reuss, president of GM’s North American division, acknowledged to reporters at the Chicago Auto Show that there will be opportunity for GM to get new customers but preferred winning on an even playing field.

Miller, of course, is betting on Ford to bring in the Toyota loyalists.

Students in a Texas school district will receive iPod Touch devices with parental controls supplied by Thousand Oaks firm Mobicip.

Terms of the deal between Mobicip and the Jim Ned Consolidated Independent School District in Tuscola, Texas were not disclosed.

Adoption of Mobicip’s parental controls by a school district is a testament to its capabilities, said founder and CEO Suren Ramasubbu.

“Personalized learning and mobility fundamentally transform how children learn and we are proud to play a significant role in the process,” Ramasubbu said.

The program allows the students to use the iPod Touch in school and at home. Facilitated by Milicip’s control services, the school district allows students to explore and experience the Internet, App Store, music, videos and podcasts, with safe school-generated and approved content.

The school board and administration selected Mobicip’s Safe Browser app and web-based monitoring service after reviewing multiple services.

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office has filed a lawsuit challenging the installation of so-called “supergraphic” and other types of signage throughout the city, including a handful in the Valley.

Many of the signs identified in the suit cover windows and obstruct ventilation, posing serious safety hazards for building occupants. Designed to be viewed primarily by motorists, the suit claims the signs create hazardous distractions for drivers.

In 2009, the City of Los Angeles adopted a permanent ban on supergraphics and some other types of signs.

The lawsuit alleges that 10 defendants, both companies and individuals, erected the supergraphic signs in violation of that ban, as well as California’s Outdoor Advertising Act, Unfair Competition law and public nuisance laws, in addition to numerous other state laws and local ordinances.

The city attorney’s office seeks an injunction to stop the sign companies from putting up any more of the supergraphics, penalties for each day the signs remain up, and surrender of revenues made from the signs.

ReachLocal Inc., a Woodland Hills-based online marketing company, acquired SMB:LIVE, developer of digital presence and reputation management solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Acquisition of the company’s technology will help ReachLocal develop a solution that enables small- and medium-sized businesses to publish multimedia content from a single interface to a business profile page hosted by ReachLocal, as well as to local directory sites, search engines and social media sites.

The company will also provide automated monitoring of local review sites, social media sites and local blogs. Automated monitoring tracks the number of times these sites refer to or comment about the small- to medium-sized business. This provides companies with feedback, alerts and analytics that can assist the business in managing its online reputation.

Alex Hawkinson, SMB:LIVE’s former chairman and CEO, is now ReachLocal’s general manager of digital presence. ReachLocal has offices in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom. The company is currently registered with the Securities Exchange Commission to do an initial public offering. The IPO date and has not yet been announced.

Owner and operator of Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel Crown media Holdings, Inc. announced that the Company has approved and executed definitive agreements relating to a recapitalization of the company.

A special board committee came up with terms which the company entered into its parent corporation, Hallmark Cards, H C Crown Corp. , a process that quietly unfolded throughout the month of February. The process was finalized on the last business day of the month.

Crown media’s “Master Recapitalization Agreement” with HCC and related entities provides for a big recapitalization of the company. Among other provisions, a $315 million principal amount of HCC debt is being restructured into new debt instruments, with $185 million principal amount of HCC debt being converted into convertible preferred stock, and class “B” common stock being converted into Class “A” common stock. Class “A” stock is now the only authorized and outstanding common stock of the company.

The balance of HCC debt, which was approximately $600 million as of December 31, 2009, is also being converted into shares of Class “A” common stock.

“We believe the consummation of the recapitalization will be a very positive development for the company and with the significant reduction in our outstanding debt, will help us maintain the operating health of our company,” said Bill Abbott, president and CEO of Crown media.

Radio Station KCSN-FM (88.5), based at Cal. State, Northridge, announced it will become the only non-commercial radio station in Los Angeles to broadcast an Adult Album Alternative format 24 hours a day beginning immediately.

Located on the university’s campus in the San Fernando Valley, KCSN’s signal covers most of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys and a portion of Los Angeles’ west side, for a total potential audience of more than three million listeners.