The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a $98 million plan to turn the former High Desert Hospital in Lancaster into a new medical center. The design and construction proposal calls for a 124,000-square-foot complex at Avenue I and 3rd Street East that would include a new surgery center, clinic building, administration and support facility and center plant. The board voted to ink a $1.2 million contract with Los Angeles architect CannonDesign to create designs and a master plan for the 15-acre site. Once a contractor is signed, construction could start as soon as May 2008 and finish by 2010. The county is working with the city to acquire the site. The existing complex dates to the 1950s and includes a 93,200-square-foot central building and a series of smaller buildings that housed High Desert Hospital. The hospital has been operating as an outpatient center since the board of supervisors, citing a widening budget gap, voted to eliminate its inpatient services in 2002. The county eventually spent $472,000 converting the facility for outpatient services. It opened in 2004. Less than two years later, however, the county found problems with the site operations. According to a county report, the “existing hospital cannot efficiently accommodate the functions of a (care center) due to its deteriorating condition and inappropriate building configuration, which does not lend the building to function as an outpatient facility.” The new project will reconfigure the site and help reduce overcrowding at other healthcare facilities in the Antelope Valley, said Supervisor Mike Antonovich. “This project has been a priority since the closing of High Desert Hospital three years ago,” he said. “The new health center will be designed and constructed with the needs of the community as the primary focus.” Facility badly needed The hospital arrives as Lancaster and Antelope Valley grapples with a population boon that has made the area the fastest growing in Los Angeles County. The Antelope Valley is expected to grow from its current population of 344,212 to 445,367 in 2010, according to the Southern California Association of Governments. The swift growth has outstripped the capacities of the region’s two acute care facilities the 117-bed Lancaster Community Hospital and 379-bed Antelope Valley Hospital. The occupancy rate in 2005 at Lancaster Community was 79.4 percent, among the highest in Los Angeles County. Antelope Valley Hospital is also struggling the keep up: in 2004-2005, its emergency room had 98,000 visits, the second highest number in the county. Even as an outpatient facility, High Desert facility was expected to handle 154,400 patients in 2010, up from an estimated 113,028 in 2006, according to the county. To address the demand, officials at both hospitals have planned expansions. A Women and Infants Pavilion recently opened at Antelope Valley and plans are in the works to expand the ER. Also in Palmdale, Universal Health Services, which owns Lancaster Community, is building the $170 million Palmdale Regional Medical Center slated open next year. Lancaster Community Hospital CEO Robert Trautman said the new county facility is badly needed and will likely reduce the overcrowding at other hospitals in the Antelope Valley. “It’s going to take a lot of the burden off the locals ERs,” he said. “It’s going to be a win-win for everybody.”

The City of Burbank recently celebrated the entry of Yahoo! Search Marketing into its corporate community with a party. It was also a celebration of sorts for one of the biggest local successes in recent years by a city in wooing a company, one that in part other cities could learn from. To get Yahoo!, Burbank relied partly on old fashioned small town charm, partly on location and partly on financial considerations. The sincere effort made by the city won over the decision makers at Yahoo! Search Marketing, “We told them we’re Burbank’s greatest cheerleaders and we think once you get over here you’re going to feel the same way as we do about the city,” said City Manager Mary Alvord said. “And it seemed to work.” A staff of 1,200-plus makes Yahoo! Search Marketing the largest employer at the 19-acre Media Studios North office park on Empire Avenue. Developer M. David Paul & Associates is also the firm behind the Pinnacle Building in the Burbank media district. When the division’s 900-plus employees outgrew its space in two office buildings in Pasadena’s Old Towne neighborhood, Burbank was one of three finalist cities on the relocation list. Burbank is different in its approach to attracting new business. In that city, officials can give a personal touch to companies looking to relocate within its borders, said City Councilwoman Marsha Ramos, who was mayor in late 2004 when the move to Burbank was announced. She wrote letters, made phone calls and extended an invitation to meet with Yahoo! officials, Ramos said. “If we want an asset to the community we do every bit of outreach to make it happen,” Ramos said. With the search division growing in employees, staying in Pasadena was not an option as the city could not offer the large area the company needed, said Chris Williams, vice president of human resources. So it came down to Burbank, downtown Los Angeles and Monrovia. Burbank was chosen because it was the best match for the company’s brand, the necessary space requirements and financial considerations. It also provided the opportunity to create an environment similar to that found in the company headquarters in upstate Sunnyvale. The baseline cost per-square-foot for the buildings at 3333 and 3355 Empire Avenue and the city’s tax structure was pleasing to the company, Williams said. “Downtown L.A. has a tax on revenue that Burbank does not,” Williams said. Alvord credits developer M. David Paul for its role in the Yahoo! relocation in that it builds state-of-the-art buildings with first-class amenities. The Yahoo! buildings include two cafeterias and a gym and the courtyard area provides outdoor seating, landscaped pathways and life-size chess board. But one of the biggest amenities available to Yahoo! employees lies across Hollywood Way. “It didn’t hurt having an airport across the street,” Alvord said. Flights arriving from or departing to San Jose from Bob Hope Airport, especially those in the morning or late afternoon hours are filled with Yahoo! employees. Williams, a Burbank resident, is one of those employees commuting by plane to Sunnyvale. For those employees with commutes not involving an airplane, Burbank made it more convenient to use public transportation to the campus by expanding its bus system with routes to and from the Media Studios North area from the downtown Metrolink station and the MTA’s North Hollywood Red Line station. Ridership numbers on the Metrolink route saw an increase from 4,600 in October 2005 to 5,200 in October of this year. For the Red Line route launched in November 2005, its first full month pulled in 1,500 riders. In October of this year, the route had 5,696 riders. Yahoo! promotes a rideshare program and invited city staff to pass out literature about the bus routes. The company voluntarily became an associate member of the Burbank Transportation Organization, a semi-public body that addresses transportation needs in the city, said Burbank Transportation Services Manager Andrew Carrasco. Yahoo! Search Marketing began in Pasadena as a start-up called GoTo.com and later changed its name to Overture Services. Yahoo! acquired the company in 2003 and gave it the new moniker of Yahoo! Search Marketing. Salespeople, marketers, and engineers work together to sell search advertising listings to businesses of all sizes and provide the technology to get the listings on the Internet. Using an auction model, businesses bid for prime space in search results to get their name and product before the public. The business only pays a fee when a customer clicks on their listing, said Gaude Lydia Paez, a spokeswoman for Yahoo! Search Marketing. “That was a model GoTo.com pioneered back in 1998,” Paez said. Located on the second floor of one of the buildings is the division’s search operations center, sort of the equivalent of mission control at a NASA facility. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week employees keep close tabs on the numbers and graphs appearing on eight wall-mounted screens and nine computer monitors inside the glass-enclosed room. Search advertising provides such a huge chunk of revenue stream for the company that if the system goes down and is unavailable for one minute, two minutes users are driven away to other search engines. So, if there is a problem in the Yahoo! network the staff in the search operation center is the first to know about it. “We’re very end-user friendly so a large part of what we do here is monitor response times,” said Greg Sly, the director of the center. “So if you’re searching for, say, DVDs, we monitor how fast we can get the results back up.” The move from Pasadena, however, did mean trading the close proximity to the eateries, shopping and night life of Old Towne for activities prohibited there because of space constraints. The search marketing staff can now meet in larger numbers, replacing teleconferences and small meetings. The adjacent Hilton hotel has become a popular meeting space, especially for executives flying in from Sunnyvale to give presentations. Dining out and shopping remains a short drive or bus ride away from the campus. Restaurants and retailers drummed up additional business with discounts exclusively for Yahoo! employees. Shopping styles shifted from high-end Colorado Boulevard to the Target and Best Buy at the Empire Center and the adjacent Costco. When promoting Burbank as the ideal site for Yahoo!, Alvord said she did worry the city could not offer a replication of Old Towne but that it could compete better than Los Angeles.

Mall Developer Files Chap. 11 PacSun LLC, the master developer of a delayed Santa Clarita shopping mall, has filed for Chap. 11 bankruptcy protection. The firm was formed by two companies to develop the Plaza of Golden Valley Ranch and a planned community just east of the Antelope Valley Freeway. The 51-acre project, which also includes 500 homes to be constructed by Pardee Homes, broke ground in December 2004 and was originally slated to open this fall, but has been delayed. The two sides have been locked in a legal battle over the site of the residential development, according to published reports. In a statement, PacSun said it filed for bankruptcy protection to speed up the project by voiding a legal document Pardee filed for a portion of the property. The project is set to include a Kohl’s, Lowe’s and Target and would be the first large-scale retail complex on the eastern edge of Santa Clarita. The parcel was annexed to Santa Clarita in 2002 for the project. Alcatel Draws Contract The communications company Alcatel has signed a $300 million deal to provide an integrated phone system for more than 400 medical facilities in Pennsylvania. The technology will create a single voice, data and video network to link 19 hospitals and 400 outpatient clinics associated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Alcatel will provide IP routing equipment, optical transport technology and contact center solutions. The company and hospital have also agreed to develop advanced communications technologies and applications focused on the health care industry. “Alcatel’s innovative products will allow for seamless communication by integrating voice and data networks,” said University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Chief Information Officer Dan Drawbaugh, in a statement. “The mission of (the medical center) is to provide outstanding patient care and to shape tomorrow’s health system through clinical innovation and research. This dictates a state-of-the-art, reliable, scalable communications system.” Sports Network’s First Quarter Vision Sports Entertainment Network has completed its first quarter as a developing television network. VSEN, based in Burbank, broadcasts extreme and outdoor sports programs to 24 affiliate stations in mid-size markets reaching nearly 14.3 million homes. The network overcame technical setbacks that allow it to move forward in growth, said President and Chief Executive Officer Rod Myers. “Overall I would consider the launch of VSEN-TV a tremendous success,” Myers said. “We were able to acquire and partner with quality programming that really brought VSEN-TV to the forefront rapidly.” Early successes for the fledgling network include Arena2 Football League, the World Dirt Racing League, IBL Basketball, and Freestyle Fighting. Future plans for the network include working with cable and satellite operators in major markets such as Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Miami to get VSEN programming to those cities. VSEN-TV expects to have signed over 60 stations reaching 23 million homes by year’s end. Themed Entertainment Award Bob Rogers, founder and chief executive officer of BRC Imagination Arts, has been selected as this year’s THEA Lifetime Achievement Award. The award honors achievement, talent and personal excellence within the themed entertainment and experience design industry and is presented by TEA, a Burbank-based not for profit association representing the themed entertainment industry. Rogers has spent nearly 40 years in the industry and has led projects at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, The Walt Disney Co., General Motors, NASA, the Texas State History Museum and the U.S. Pavilion at the 2005 World’s Fair in Japan. Rogers has a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative and insightful creators of educational visitor experiences. The THEA Lifetime Achievement Award is the latest among the more than 250 international awards garnered by Burbank-based BRC over 25 years, with eleven previous THEA Awards for Outstanding Achievement. Past THEA Lifetime Achievement recipients have been Harrison “Buzz” Price, the economic feasibility science inventor of the themed entertainment industry; Marty Sklar, of Walt Disney Imagineering; John Hench, a Walt Disney Imagineer and master art director for 65 years; and Yves Pepin, creator of world expositions, special events and international event spectaculars including the Millennium firework celebration at the Eiffel Tower. The award will be presented during the THEA Awards gala March 3, 2007 in Anaheim. Ad Time Firm Expands Bid4Spots.com will expand early next year its unique reverse auction method of selling unused radio ad time to independent online radio. With that strategy, Encino-based Bid4Spots.com aims to harness what so far has been considered the fragmented independent online-only radio market. The first auction takes place Jan. 16, 2007. Selling advertising time on online radio is the perfect complement to the company’s terrestrial radio auction, said Bid4Spots Chief Executive Officer Dave Newmark. “We’re creating an entirely new marketplace for a huge group of broadcasters and advertisers who want an easy and profitable way to do business with each other,” Newmark said. “We’re opening up the opportunities in a big way for all involved and in the process expanding our own business into one of the most exciting new advertising channels today.” According to an Arbitron/Edison Media Research study, 52 million Americans listened to Internet radio over a one-month period in 2006. Bid4Spots launched in early 2005 and has a patent pending for its reverse auction method. The reverse auction concept hinges on radio stations making bids on what the advertisers are willing to pay to run their spots. The auctions take place online during a four-hour window every Thursday for ads that will run the following week. To bring that method to online advertising, Bid4Spots partnered with Spacial Audio Solutions, the largest supplier of Internet radio software and service to independent broadcasters, and is using the company’s StreamAdz as it central platform to schedule, track, and manage the advertising. The company hired Rockie Thomas as its business development manager to oversee the Internet Radio Division. Since its founding, Bid4Spots is used by 2,300 radio stations nationwide, 900 advertisers and more than 180 advertising agencies. Living Word Acquires Building The Living Word has acquired an industrial building in North Hollywood. The Living Word, the publishing arm for Grace Chapel, a Southern California ministry founded by John Robert Stevens in the mid-1960s, will occupy a portion of the building. A tenant currently leasing space in the property will stay on until the expiration of the lease. The property, located at 7325 Atoll Ave., was purchased for $1.65 million. It is a 10,604-square foot building with office space. The Living Word also owns an adjacent property. Steve Scott, a broker with Lee & Associates, represented the seller, a private owner. The Living Word was represented by Mary Ann Hostetter of Pinnacle Estate Properties.

Stomp that butt out, Hollywood. That’s the message Philip Morris USA is sending to the entertainment industry in ads taken out by the tobacco company encouraging the elimination of smoking scenes in movies. The ads appeared in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter in November and are scheduled to run through March. The ads were the result of a series of meetings between Philip Morris the nation’s largest cigarette maker and entertainment trade organizations, health advocacy organizations, and the guilds representing entertainment workers, said David Sutton, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA. “We are appealing to and encouraging the entertainment industry to eliminate depiction of our brands in their work,” Sutton said. Philip Morris makes Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Merit, Parliament, and Benson & Hedges brand cigarettes. One ad shows a film crew at work beneath which is written “Please don’t give our cigarette brands a part in any movie.” The copy also references three studies linking smoking in movies and an increased risk of youth starting to smoke. The second ad shows a group of boys in a movie theater with copy stating “Movies should inspire kids to be heroes. Not smokers.” The copy tells filmmakers they have the power to prevent youth smoking by “losing one little prop” and again cites the youth smoking studies. Philip Morris USA has refused product placement of its brands in movies since 1990. The company began its Youth Smoking Prevention program in 1998. Philip Morris USA believes running ads in trade publications to be the most effective way to get its message across and at the same time gear them toward decision makers in the entertainment industry, Sutton said. With no mixed message in the copy of the ad featuring the boys in the movie theater, Philip Morris deserves some credit for taking a stand on eliminating smoking in movies, said Larry Deutchman, executive vice president of marketing and industry relations in the Burbank office of the Entertainment Industries Council, Inc. What remains unclear is the company’s primary motive although he suspects self-protection may be part of it, Deutchman said. “Regardless of that motive the approach they’ve taken in that ad clearly is directed at a goal I think anybody in the smoking prevention and health communities would like to see,” Deutchman said. The not for profit EIC works with the entertainment industry to promote accurate depictions of health and social issues in films, television shows, music videos and comic books. The council wants the entertainment industry to think through the creative process and consider alternative props or methods as replacements for unhealthy smoking material. “To me there are a lot more creative options to convey the same kind of information about a character by doing other things that are unique and less overdone,” Deutchman said. While Deutchman points out the clear message of eliminating all smoking in movies from the one ad, the other ad picturing the film crew at work seems more geared on reducing Philip Morris brand exposure in films. But elimination of brand exposure is a goal the council supports because that is what gets people to start smoking in the first place, Deutchman said. “Maybe with less brand exposure they won’t be thinking about the overall product either,” Deutchman said. From Philip Morris USA’s perspective the ads make good business sense as reminders of the company’s policy prohibiting product placement in movie and its belief children should not smoke. “If there is a significant body of research data that says there is a relationship between the appearance in entertainment (and youth smoking)] we would ask the industry to work with us to reduce that or eliminate that, specifically about our brands but also smoking scenes in general directed at youth,” Sutton said. National Realty Site San Fernando Valley real estate broker Daniel Nussbaum launched in November a new website TheUSARealty.com, a national network of independent brokers. The Calabasas-based site currently has real estate brokers from 22 states offering their services. “I wanted to fly under the radar and build up the network and then announce it,” said Nussbaum, a retired dentist and the company’s chief executive officer. TheUSARealty.com site differs from other real estate websites, such as Realtor.com, operated by Westlake Village-based Move, Inc., in that it represents the buyer and not the seller. A pre-screened professional can be contacted through the site that in turn sets up appointments to see homes, negotiates a deal and handles the closing, Nussbaum said. A broker or agent pays no fee to be part of the website’s network but they are asked to pay a referral fee after a sale closes, Nussbaum said. The site also generates revenues through advertising and from a partnership with a Beverly Hills-based mortgage lender, Nussbaum said. Tech industry veteran James Spence was brought on as chief operating officer. Spence served as president of W3PR, an Internet consulting company and as vice president of NetCount/Price Waterhouse, a company that developed software to track and report Internet advertising activity. It was important to have someone involved with TheUSARealty.com site with tech experience, Nussbaum said. “He has the ability to take my ideas and turn them into reality,” Nussbaum said. The Internet has changed how people buy or sell real estate in that it helps educate the consumer, streamlines the process and makes communications better and faster. The Web also provides immediate information on available property, Nussbaum said. “In the old days nobody got to see what was for sale until you went to a real estate broker’s office,” Nussbaum said. Staff Reporter Mark R. Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or at [email protected] .

Singer Lewak Greenbaum & Goldstein LLP is set to open a Warner Center office in hopes of capturing a larger slice of the growing financial services market and to help keep workers in what has become a fiercely competitive employment market. The office, the first in the San Fernando Valley for the West L.A.-based CPA firm, will significantly shorten the commute many of its workers have had to endure, a promising retention tool in today’s financial services market where headhunters have pulled out all the stops to meet a relentless demand for staffers. The office, which officially opens on Dec. 7, will house 15 employees, mostly CPAs, and two partners. SLGG expects that number to grow to 25 in short order. “The office was initially set up to retain employees and attract new ones,” said Sally J. Aubury, an SLGG partner who is heading up the new office. “And the second reason is we do have an existing client base in the Valley, and it’s beginning to travel up into Ventura County, so the timing was ideal to grow our client base here.” Aubury, who was recruited from the U.K. where she had been in private practice for about 10 years, joined the firm in 2000. She was named a partner in 2005. The other partner stationed at the new Warner Center office is Andrew L. Gantman, who works in the firm’s tax services area. The firm set its sights exclusively on the Warner Center area because of its central location and proximity to the growing market in the Conejo Valley. “With the businesses springing up along the 101 Corridor it made sense to have an office stationed here to have more of a presence in the community,” said Aubury. The 47-year-old firm, which includes SEC, enterprise risk management, forensic accounting and IT practices, has been opening new locations as business clusters have sprung up in outlying areas of L.A. Beginning with the addition of an Orange County office about 30 years ago, SLGG added an Inland Empire location about four years ago and expects to open in San Diego by mid-2007. To combat the growing traffic problems, the firm several years ago opened a facility in Monterey Park that allows employees who live in the San Gabriel Valley to drop in for the day or a morning as they wait for traffic to die down or to negotiate personal time for such things as doctor’s appointments or a child’s soccer game. Employees are not permanently attached to the office, but while there, they have the use of conference rooms, faxes, copiers, computers and other office support. That move won SLGG a practice innovation award from “Practical Accountant” magazine this year. “In this profession, competition for employees has been fierce for a few years,” said Aubury. “So yes, it was one of the driving forces. We pride ourselves on looking after employees and if we make their job easier by reducing their commute, we want to do it.” The passage of Sarbanes-Oxley has so increased the workload for accounting firms with public company practices, that the effects have spilled over to the rest of the industry, creating labor shortages and resulting in heightened recruitment efforts and increased salaries at nearly all firms. Earlier this year, a survey of about 1,000 hiring managers at accounting firms nationwide, 55 percent said finding qualified applicants was “difficult” or “very difficult” and another 34 percent said the task had become more difficult compared to a year ago. While salaries have been rising steadily, particularly for the jobs in most demand, the shortage of qualified applicants has turned attention to retention. “There is strong demand by employers for highly skilled employees to fill staff level positions,” said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International, a staffing and consulting firm specializing in the financial services industry. “The need has been especially pronounced in accounting and finance where corporate governance mandates have resulted in the creation of accounting jobs that did not exist five years ago.” SLGG has been growing at a rapid pace and currently employs about 218 workers including 28 partners. But as the firm moves into the Valley market, it is likely to face a different set of dynamics. Like SLGG, many of the larger firms in the Valley are privately held. Like SLGG they are large enough to offer a wide range of support services and yet small enough to allow clients direct access to partners, something that has long been a selling point for these firms as they compete against the Big 4. Aubury said she is confident the firm can carve a niche in the Valley. “I think there’s enough work out there for all of us,” she said. “We can service some of the firms the Big 4 can’t service. “We’re large enough to have all the technical services, but at the same time, we’re small enough to be personal.”

The union that threatened to strike at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in an intense labor dispute this fall could be expanding its ranks. Representatives from SEIU United Healthcare Workers West are holding meetings at the Thousand Oaks facility with non-management staff including social workers, dieticians, clinical lab scientists, pharmacists and occupational, speech and physical therapists. The expansion, if approved this spring, could add about 120 workers to the union. SEIU United Healthcare Workers West already represents 500 vocational nurses, nursing assistants and therapists at the 265-bed facility. An affiliated union, SEIU 121 RN, represents about 500 nurses. The unionizing efforts comes two months after the union and Tennessee-based Healthcare Corporation of America, which owns Los Robles, West Hills Hospital and Medical Center and a facility in Riverside, resolved a dispute over the conditions of a contract that expired June 30. That issue was worked out after the threat of a one-day strike, but negotiations between the two sides raised questions about what workers were eligible to join the union under the terms of the “other professionals” category of the National Labor Relations Board. When hospital workers initially organized about four years ago, there was not enough interest by that group, said Los Robles CEO Jim Sherman. It was unclear whether some professions such as dieticians were eligible to join. As a result, hospital administrators agreed that the question should be put to the employees, Sherman said. He said the friendly arrangement made sense in light of the amicable negotiations. “It just seemed easier. We have a framework developed,” he said. “If the employees have an interest in doing it, we give them the opportunity.” Sherman said informal meetings have been held throughout the fall. Employees will eventually vote through a secret ballot election this spring. If the majority is in favor of union representation, the hospital will negotiate a contract, Sherman said. If the employees do not vote in favor, the union has agreed not to hold another organizing campaign until March 2010. SEIU spokeswoman Thea Lavin said the union could not discuss the ongoing negotiations or unionizing efforts. But if passed, the additional union members would increase SEIU’s toehold on the Los Angeles labor scene. The union already represents 3,000 hospital employees and 6,000 security guards in Southern California. Last month, the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Los Angeles agreed to allow moves by private security to unionize, clearing the way for as many as 5,000 guards to join the SEIU.

Countrywide Financial Corp. on Monday launched its auto insurance product in Ohio. The move follows by days the company’s entry into four other states and marks the sixth state it has entered since launching the auto insurance product in late September. Countrywide anticipates selling auto insurance in 25 states by the end of 2007.

Picture a funnel. This is how Jason Carignan and his marketing and design team at Tonic Brand Communications see the sales process of big-time companies providing complex, and at times frustrating, services. At the top of the funnel enter all the potential customers but exiting the bottom is a much smaller number of actual sales. Meanwhile, customers spill over the side frustrated over unreturned phone calls, a lack of follow up, or that the whole process just takes too long. That’s where Tonic steps in. The Westlake Village firm simplifies what Carignan calls the journey a customer takes when buying a service from, say, a large bank or insurance company. “If you can make it easier for consumers to do business with you, you’ll not only get more consumers through that sales process but you will keep them longer,” Carignan said. Carignan and his employees moved into their current offices earlier in the year. Since then, five additional employees came on board bringing the total to 13. Carignan, a Thousand Oaks native who founded Tonic in 2003, predicts the firm will need additional space next year. There are also plans to open a satellite office in Boston to capture a demand on the East Coast for the design and marketing services Tonic provides as large companies shift their focus from serving other companies and instead adopt a business model of serving customers directly. Carignan calls it “an awakening.” For instance, in Boston, Tonic has a client in a major financial institution that Carignan could not reveal. This institution didn’t have a marketing department up until about a year ago because it sold its services through other large banks. Realizing it could sell directly to consumers, the unidentified financial institution hired Tonic to develop an end- to- end consumer experience. “They had been serving other companies clients, now they want to serve their own customers,” Carignan said. In the San Fernando Valley area, Tonic’s clients include WellPoint Inc., Dole Foods, and Cal National Bank. John Allebrand got to know Carignan when they both worked at a Glendale bank that was later absorbed into Cal National. At that bank, the pair cut their teeth on interesting advertising and communications programs, Allebrand said. After Carignan struck out on his own and started his agency, Allebrand, then the marketing directing for Cal National, had an efficient place to go to that could give a quick response. “The challenge we were presented with was what do you do with a bank that was cobbled together and how do you build presence, relevance to the market and get yourself in front of people to bring in consumers and small business,” Allebrand said. Devising a plan The Tonic crew became an extension of Cal National’s marketing team as it designed a marketing and branding plan for the regional bank branching out into consumer services and small business banking. The first campaign Carignan and Allebrand devised was placing tip jars at teller stations where customers could leave suggestions on how banking could be done better. Tonic also created outdoor advertising and radio spots based on the same theme of Cal National taking “tips” from its customers. “It was a very comprehensive communication plan that hung on an interesting and relevant idea,” said Allebrand, who left Cal National at the end of 2005. From day one of founding Tonic, Carignan wanted to have big ideas and creative breakthroughs that the agency could then their help clients implement. Key to the implementation is creating awareness for the client of what it is like to be one of their customers through research techniques, mystery shoppers, and onsite project managers, strategists and consultants. The services provided by Tonic’s clients tend to involve the consumer in a fairly lengthy process such as an application to open an account, or to get a mortgage or health insurance. “Most consumers have no clue,” Carignan said. “Most of the client employees have no clue about what their process is like. Which is why it’s often messed up.” Simplifying the complex processes is just half of what Tonic does. Delivering on promises The other half involves delivering on the brand promise of its clients. For health insurance provider WellPoint, the brand promise is that of improving the lives of the people it serves and the health of the community in general. Where Tonic excels is bringing brand promise to life in the eyes of the customer, said Mike Anzenberger, vice president of direct marketing at WellPoint’s Thousand Oaks offices. For WellPoint, Tonic created the internal communication materials, direct mailers, membership cards, website, Power Point presentations, and human resources training kits for a corporate wellness program promoting healthier living that leads ultimately to lower insurance costs. Tonic’s starting point was to understand what it would be like for employees to sign up for the program, what kind of communications they would receive and the interactive relationship being built. Carignan describes the wellness program brand as “engaging and warm’ and compares it to a friendly angel helping people lead healthier lives. Tonic was “a real partner” in designing the campaign, Anzenberger said. “What Jason and Tonic helped us step away from is the more clinical things that a health insurance company looks at and to focus on the more benefit-oriented things that consumers get interested in that ultimately lead to healthier lifestyles,” Anzenberger said. Tonic Brand Communications Year Founded: 2003 Employees in 2004: 6 Employees in 2006: 13 Revenues in 2004: $1.3 million Revenues in 2006: $2.3 million (projected) Driving Force: To simplify complicated sales processes of its clients and delivering on their brand promise.

At 5 in the morning on Black Friday, about 50 or 60 people were lined up at the Apple store in the Glendale Galleria, rising at the crack of dawn to get a special edition iPod Nano Red when the store opened at 6. The impromptu gathering may well have been a signpost for the 2006 holiday selling season. Although several categories of merchandise are expected to be important this year, technology is likely to be a prime sales driver for the season. “We feel consumer electronics is going to be the hottest category this holiday season,” said Mike Gottlieb, a partner in Ernst & Young’s retail services group. “Last year electronics were also a very hot ticket, but the types continue to change. Last year it was DVDs and digital cameras, where this year we’re looking at iPods and all the various accessories, mobile phones and all the varieties and functions they provide, high definition and flat screen TVs and photo printers.” Advancements in technology have long driven consumer demand for these products, but this year it seems new gizmos such as printers for digital photos along with lower prices on flat screen and high definition televisions are combining to persuade customers to loosen their pocketbooks as never before. Beginning with the Sony PSP 3 introduced in November, this season Microsoft and Nintendo have both introduced new video game players. There are phones and personal digital assistants with Bluetooth and other capabilities and features, GPS devices and new MP3 player models, along with Apple’s limited edition iPod Nano Red, where a portion of sales will be donated to the Global Fund to help fight HIV and AIDS in Africa. Prices on digital cameras and televisions have all come down to open the market for those products further still. “These items were discounted throughout the big box stores,” said Gottlieb. “Sales of these are increasing as a proportion of holiday sales, so that is contributing to the overall increases.” Even toys have taken on a new technological twist. Child’s play, which once mimicked grown-ups with toy baking ovens and doctor’s gear, has adapted technology to reflect the things that adults use day-to-day. Consider The Kid-Tough Digital Camera from Fisher-Price, which is sized for tikes and engineered for a child’s rough handling, or the VTech Nitro Notebook, a learning game that looks and operates just like a grown-up computer. “What’s happening this year is they’re taking all the technology available to parents and upgrading the toys,” said Kelly Cullen, a spokeswoman for Toys “R” Us, which is carrying the cameras and computer this year. “Kids want to play in a way that emulates mom and dad.” Although high-tech toys have not taken over the category, they are contributing to what most say will be a very prosperous season for retailers. Ernst is projecting a 6.5 percent sales increase for the November to December season, falling somewhere in the middle of projections that range from 3 percent for same-store sales nationwide from the International Council for Shopping Centers and an overall 8.5 percent increase proffered by Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Chief Economist Jack Kyser. Whatever the final results, sales increases will fall short of those that stores rang up during the 2005 season, due in part to energy prices which have had a lingering effect on low- to mid-income consumers. But prognosticators agree that a healthy economy, strong stock market performance, low unemployment and a generally sanguine consumer outlook are all expected to bolster holiday sales this year. “The national confidence surveys are influenced by the Midwest and Southeast, which are impacted by the auto industry,” said Kyser at LAEDC. “L.A. County has been doing surprisingly well sales-wise.” With the exception of Wal-Mart, which had a disappointing season opener this year, the traditional start to the season, the day after Thanksgiving, brought cheer to many different retailers in the local area. At The Oaks in Thousand Oaks, Macy’s and JCPenney both reported sales exceeded estimates. Limited Too! rang in triple digit increases and The Disney Store nearly doubled its business versus last year, said Nicole Schmitt, senior marketing manager. The crowds were also out in force at Disney’s Glendale Galleria store. “Disney opened at 2 a.m. for their friends and family event,” said Janet LaFevre, senior director of marketing for the Galleria. “By the time they opened to the general public at 4 a.m. they easily had well over 250 people. The scene was much the same, if a bit later, at the Galleria’s Penney and Mervyn’s units. “We had about 450 people outside in line for Mervyn’s and another 500 waiting for JCPenney to open,” LaFevre said. Most of the stores that drew the largest crowds were offering deep discounts on Black Friday, so named because it is the day that retailers traditionally ring up enough sales to put them in the black. And retailers and mall operators reported that traffic tapered off considerably as the day and the weekend wore on. But there are also expected to be pockets of strength at full price, including diamond accessories and watches for women. And retailers have kept inventories in tow, all suggesting that the sales this year will not come at the expense of profits. there’s less propensity to deep discount and an expectation that margins will be better. But it’s too early to tell. If the volume of people isn’t there, you’re still going to have to discount to move the inventory.”

A new Metro Rapid Bus line in the San Fernando Valley is among the service improvements announced Monday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that will take affect next month. The Metro Rapid Line 741 begins operation on Reseda Boulevard between Northridge and Tarzana on Dec. 18. The bus runs Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. with service running every 10 minutes in the morning and afternoon peak periods and every 20 minutes in non-peak periods. Another addition to the Valley is Metro Bus Line 364 with limited stops along Nordhoff and Osborne Streets between Chatsworth and Sun Valley. New bus line 224 will replace two other lines serving the Universal City, San Fernando Road and Sun Valley area. New local bus line 155 will serve as a shuttle between the Universal City Metro Red Line station and the Burbank Metrolink station. The new service begins Dec. 17. On line 233 serving Van Nuys Boulevard, the MTA will begin using 60-foot articulated buses to replace standard length 40-foot buses.