Firm Looks to Pull Off Triple Play Across Platforms

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Digital media company PK4 Media in El Segundo this week will launch a system to help advertising agencies and brands buy display and video ads for online, mobile and tablet platforms in a single purchase.

The cross-platform service, XPS, is meant to streamline the display and video ad buying process and keep clients from separating their digital ad budgets, said Tom Alexander, who founded the company in 2009.

“A lot of times clients say, ‘Here is our video budget just for online and a video budget just for mobile and you have to keep those two things separate,’” Alexander said.

For example, an ad agency might have a budget of $100,000 for mobile ads and buy them through a company that specializes in only those ads. It might have another $100,000 for display ads and purchase those through a second company. The idea behind XPS is that an ad agency can use one budget of $200,000 and PK4 will run campaigns across mobile, online and tablet. It will then analyze which platform is most effective and reallocate the budget toward the best-performing one.

Alexander declined to specify the cost of the system. Prices for the service are based on a client’s campaign budget and target audience.

It took two years to develop XPS and clients such as Procter & Gamble Co. and Ford Motor Co. have been testing it, he said.

Adam Graves, executive vice president of client services at Culver City ad agency Threshold Interactive, which specializes in digital campaigns, said the real benefit is data it can provide to help determine the most effective platform. He wasn’t familiar with PK4 and he doesn’t know of other media firms that offered that type of service.

“The buying of the media isn’t that difficult,” Graves said. “What is hard and what they seem to be promising is to look at the performance and be able to optimize.”

Sitrick Move

Sitrick and Co. has found a new home in Brentwood after years in Century City, a move that will help the crisis PR firm provide media services for its clients.

While the 18,500-square-foot space is about the same size as the old office, Chairman Michael Sitrick said the firm has

been able to customize the new office to fit

its needs.

“We were in that space for 12 to 15 years, but the needs and the way you do business changes,” he said. “In the last one, we did minor modifications, but this (new office) we built to our own specifications.”

The new office features a room to provide broadcast and print media training or preparation for clients as well as additional conference rooms, Sitrick said.

He added that the new headquarters will also have a ministudio space with a satellite uplink for clients such as Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of BlackBerry Ltd., to be in the office should they be featured on networks such as CNBC, Fox Business or Bloomberg TV.

Sitrick said that the firm will also be expanding its practice in the coming weeks and adding up to seven account executives.

The company was founded in 1989 and has a staff of 50.


Agencies & Accounts

NuContext Creative, an entertainment marketing and advertising firm in Hollywood, has named Laura Feldman director of creative services. Feldman was previously a producer at DDB Worldwide in New York. … Ad agency Kastner & Partners in Santa Monica will be moving to a 15,000-square-foot space in Playa Vista in 2014. … Hawthorne Direct, an advertising agency in downtown Los Angeles, has named George Paysinger media strategist and analyst. Paysinger was previously a business analyst at KSL Media in Encino. … Public relations firm Hill & Knowlton Strategies in New York has named Monica Bouldin general manager of its L.A.-Irvine office. Bouldin was previously executive vice president of multicultural marketing at Edelman’s L.A. office. … Ad agency Huge LA in the Mid-Wilshire area has named Catherine Heath head of strategy. Heath was previously executive strategy director at ad agency M&C Saatchi’s office in Sydney. … Illume Public Relations in Beverly Hills, specializing in tech and media clients, has opened a New York office. Co-founder Aurli Bokovza will run the New York office and Debra Benson, another co-founder, will oversee the Los Angeles office.

Staff reporter Subrina Hudson can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-522, ext. 251.

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