Flashes 01.30.12 by Rick Griffin

jessicawertheim — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:43:50 +0000

KPBS has launched its sixth year of “One Book, One San Diego,” a reading program featuring specially selected books circulated at City of San Diego public libraries. The program also consists of author appearances, film screenings and book discussions from January through July. January’s book is “Sky of Red Poppies” about two schoolgirls coming of age in a politically divided 1960's Iran under rule of the Shah. Other books to be highlighted this year include “Moloka’i” about a teenager in Hawaii who gets leprosy, and “Into The Beautiful North” about a teenage girl from Mexico crossing the border into the United States. The program is underwritten by the Linden Root Dickinson Foundation, Lloyd Pest Control, the Samuel I. and John Henry Fox Foundation and Cubic Corp.

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The San Diego Better Business Bureau (BBB), in partnership with the San Diego Radio Broadcasters Association (SDRBA), has concluded the BBB’s annual “Famous Voices” radio advertising campaign which ran on 28 SDRBA-member stations, including 19 English-language and nine Spanish-language stations. This year’s “Famous Voices” campaign, the 13th annual, featured about 2,000 30-second spots that aired in January, reaching more than 1.5 million adults, age 18 and older, in San Diego County, according to Sharon Massey, SDRBA executive director. Participants in this year’s “Famous Voices” campaign included Larry Coval of Cox Business Services, Brad Belus of Cable Pipe and Leak Detection, Mark McDonald of La Mesa Carpet and Mike De Silva of Plumbing Plus. The spots touted the value of the BBB to their company and consumers in the community and encouraged other businesses to support the BBB and ethical business practices, according to Sheila Fox of Fox Marketing Network, the BBB’s advertising consultant. The takeaway message positioned BBB accredited businesses as San Diego's ethical businesses, Fox said. The SDRBA is a coalition of local radio stations that promotes the use of radio as a primary advertising medium and supports civic and charitable causes that benefit the San Diego community.

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Digital Operative recently demonstrated the success of its online contest platform called ContestCore by hosting a nationwide ugly sweater contest to search for the ugliest holiday sweater in America. The San Diego-based firm offered Visa gift cards to the top three vote-getters. Its slick promotional copy offered rewards for those people brave enough to endure the moans, groans and strange looks that comes with wearing an ugly Christmas sweater. “Get out to the local thrift store, rummage through grandpa’s closet or pull out Aunt Mae’s gift from last year,” it said. About 1,200 votes were cast, according to Adam Lundquist, director of digital marketing with Digital Operative, a boutique digital marketing agency that strives to create innovation, passion and relevance for its client partners through emerging digital platforms, including social, mobile and ecommerce. Eden Folwell of Studio City, Calif. won a $300 Visa gift card by garnering the most votes by getting out the word via Facebook.

Lundquist said that online contests are an effective way to promote businesses, events and websites because users generate the content, which is then spread virally and organically across the web. He said the ContestCore allows companies, brands, bloggers, elfs, non-profits, agencies, small businesses or anyone else to cut through the digital noise to make their presence felt for low investment with a high return. ContestCore has features that make the online contest platform stand out, Lundquist said, including high powered analytics, allowing tracking of metrics that will help with business decisions. ContestCore is fully customizable with corporate colors and corporate branding and hosts a variety of different online contests, ranging from photo to essay.

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Cook + Schmid, a full-service advertising and marketing firm, has been selected by the Unified Port of San Diego to develop and manage public and community relations services in support of the organization’s mission and goals. The agency said it will assist with strategic communications, including increasing the public’s awareness and understanding of the Port’s mission, as well as various current and upcoming real estate and development projects. As part of the Port’s community outreach efforts, Cook + Schmid also will help maximize transparency and public participation, provide support for public meetings and facilitate communication with elected officials and community groups.

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Greg Eichelberger, who began covering news in San Diego’s East County region in 1994, has returned as editor of the East County Californian, a position he held throughout 2004, and again for a year in 2007. He most recently spent the past year as a sportswriter at the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello, and, prior to that, another year at the Santa Clarita Daily Signal.

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Flashes 01.23.12 by Rick Griffin

jessicawertheim — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:49:36 +0000

Several news media outlets have run recent stories on U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester, chairman and publisher, and John Lynch, vice chairman and CEO. The Voice of San Diego’s headline was: “Doug Manchester: San Diego's Cheerleader in Chief.” San Diego Magazine’s headline was “He’s Got Spirit, How ‘Bout You?” The North County Times headline was: “New owners of San Diego Union-Tribune look to build media center.” News reports have said Manchester is interested in acquiring the North County Times, currently owned by Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, which is saddled with nearly $1 billion in debt. Here is a link to the North County Times story: http://www.nctimes.com/business/media-new-owners-of-san-diego-union-tribune-look-to/article_42938be3-2832-5382-8053-106ddce14ca7.html. Here is a link to Voice of San Diego’s story: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/environment/muck/article_171fddf0-4311-11e1-8874-0019bb2963f4.html. Here is a link to San Diego Magazine’s story: http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/media/San-Diego-Magazine/February-2012/Doug-Manchester-Hes-Got-Spirit-How-Bout-You/

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Platinum Equity, the Beverly Hills firm that recently sold The San Diego Union-Tribune, will fund a new digital media program at San Diego State University. A $300,000 grant from Platinum Equity will help create the Platinum Project in Digital News Literacy, run by the School of Journalism & Media Studies, announced Diane Borden, the school’s director. "Digital media literacy is essential for college students -- and audiences in general -- to become intelligent consumers of online information, and, ultimately, informed citizens," said Borden. "This generous gift from Platinum Equity will allow the School of Journalism & Media Studies to develop a curriculum that will help students think critically about the digital information they consume, as well as how to gauge the credibility of that information." The money will pay for graduate fellowships and fund an expansion of SDSU's Digital Media Certificate Program.

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If you’ve been taking a lot of names off of your media lists over the past year, there’s a good reason for that. More than 3,775 newspaper jobs were cut in 2011 according to Paper Cut blog (www.newspaperlayoffs.com), a figure that’s 30 percent higher than 2010. About 40,000 newspaper jobs have been lost since the blog started keeping tabs in 2007. As a result, fewer news stories are covered thoroughly and there’s greater reliance on publicists to provide newsworthy content, even as PR continues its role in content creation and social media/community management role and in going directly to the consumer.

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San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU), San Diego’s largest locally-owned financial institution, has named Nathan Schmidt as executive vice president of marketing. He was previously VP of marketing and eServices for Schools Financial Credit Union of Sacramento, Calif. With 15 years of financial services management experience, Schmidt will be responsible for strategic planning, marketing, product development, business development, community and media relations at SDCCU.

Schmidt has been active as a board member and past president of the California Credit Union League, Sacramento Valley Chapter, and member of the Service Delivery Advisory Group for PSCU Financial Services, the nation’s largest credit union services organization, based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He also has served on the Education Resource Board for California State University, Sacramento, and the Advisory Counsel for the Sacramento City College School of Business.

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OBIT: Jeanne Vanderburg, a co-founder of Franklin & Associates, passed away on Jan. 12. She was 91. Jeanne and her brother Phil Franklin built an impressive ad agency in San Diego in the 1970s and 1980s. Jeanne taught many people about advertising and production, according to Mary Sullivan with ad agency Greenhaus. “She was a stellar mentor and will be greatly missed by so many,” said Sullivan. Franklin & Associates was founded in 1974 in a little yellow house on 4th Avenue. It became the in-house agency for San Diego Federal/Great American Federal until it was purchased by a group including Bob Cerasoli. It merged with ADC Stoorza to become Franklin Stoorza. Donations in Jeanne’s name can be made to SAFE (the San Diego Advertising Fund for Emergencies), c/o the San Diego Ad Club, 3579 Fifth Avenue, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92103.

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Interactive Day San Diego Speakers

jessicawertheim — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:55:58 +0000

We are looking for speakers for Interactive Day San Diego on June 7th, 2012.

Interested? Fill out the speaker application and return it cindy@sandiegoadclub.com by February 24th, 2012.
For questions or assistance, please call (619) 255-2281.

Sheila Fox Scholarship Application

jessicawertheim — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:41:31 +0000

The San Diego Ad Club will award the San Diego Ad Club Sheila Fox Scholarship to an outstanding advertising student pursuing a career in the field. One $5000 scholarship will be awarded for the 2012/2013 academic year.

Download the application here.

All applications must be received by February 15th, 2012.
Notifications will be made by February 23rd, 2012.

Presentation of the scholarship will be on Friday, March 2, 2012 at the San Diego Ad Club’s Annual ADDYs Creative Show Gala.

Questions? Email scholarship@sandiegoadclub.com or call (619) 255-2281.

Flashes 01.17.12 by Rick Griffin

jessicawertheim — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:43:06 +0000

San Diego-based Digitaria, a JWT company, was quoted in a recent Wall Street Journal article predicting ad trends for 2012. The story lede was “Thanks to technology, what's old is new again. At least that's what advertising executives predict for 2012.” Here is a link to the article: https://my.jwt.com/public/jwt_net.nsf/documents/9EC2377E7C81C5858525797B004DE546?OpenDocument

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The North County Times was recognized at the recent San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl college football game for its “Newspapers in Education” program. The newspaper is the title sponsor of the bowl game’s family four-pack admission ticket package, where $4 from each family four-pack supports the NC Times’ program that provides newspapers to local schools for students and teachers. In 2011, nearly 1 million newspapers were delivered in schools in the North County and Southwest Riverside County, according to Jeff Sirota, North County Times single copy sales manager.

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The San Diego Community News Network (SDCNN), publisher of San Diego Uptown News and Gay San Diego, has announced it has purchased San Diego Downtown News from the San Diego Community Newspaper Group (SDCNG). SDCNN publisher David Mannis operated at one time SDCNG, which will continue to publish The Peninsula Beacon, Beach & Bay Press and La Jolla Village News. San Diego Downtown News is currently published monthly, but Mannis said he anticipates increasing the frequency to biweekly in the near future, the same frequency as his San Diego Uptown News and Gay San Diego publications.

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Former Fox 5 San Diego reporter Brian Flores has joined marketing agency Southwest Strategies as a senior account executive. He was a general assignment reporter at Fox 5, but his work also was seen nationwide on CNN, Fox News and several other television stations throughout the country. At Southwest, he will work with such clients as SANDAG, Caltrans, SDG&E and General Dynamics NASSCO. A native of San Diego, Flores grew up in Mira Mesa and is a graduate of Mira Mesa High School. His journalism and public relations roots run three generations. Flores' grandfather was a journalist in the Philippines for several years. Flores' father, Ernie Flores, Jr. was the first Filipino-American journalist to write for The San Diego Union, and later became press secretary for former Congressman Jim Bates, working in media relations for the former United States International University (USIU). In 1986, Ernie Flores started The Filipino Press newspaper, based in National City.

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Sponsorship Opportunity for ADDYs Creative Show

jessicawertheim — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:29:32 +0000

Support our local Super ADDY Heroes: Maximum Exposure Sponsorship Packet

Find your way…to the Raid! 6 Tickets-Vote for People’s Choice
Win the day! 4 ADDY Gala Tickets VIP Seating
Grab the spotlight-Opportunity to present an ADDY award at the Gala
Celebrate! Stay and play at the ADDY After Party (6 tickets)
Maximum Exposure: Included on all ADDY promotional materials, including invitations, call for entries, email blasts, Ad Club website, facebook, twitter, events, and anywhere else we promote the ADDYs! (printed materials are time sensitive-sign-up today!)
Opportunity to provide promotional materials to attendees at Raid/Gala/After Party (subject to Ad Club approval)