Creative, Schmeative. Impact Rules!

That may seem an odd sentiment for a creative agency. Especially since there is nothing we enjoy more than taking words and pictures and bringing them to life in new and exciting ways. But we do expect our creations to turn people’s heads. And we love it when what we created sticks with our audience, and changes they way they think.

We just found out that this year we turned more heads than even anyone had anticipated for The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). They asked us to use Rideshare Week to kick off a first-ever, year-long, cohesive, sustainable alternative transportation message that would excite commuters about using OCTA’S alternative transportation initiatives. We made it our goal to get solo commuters out of their cars and into busses, trains, vanpools, carpools, biking walking. Specifically OCTA asked us to increase participation in their annual Rideshare Week program by 15% – a 5% increase over their previous year’s increase of 10%.
 “No problem,” we lied, and we immediately set out to solve the problem. We scoured OCTA’s Awareness and Attitudes Studies, boarding reports, ridership trends, boardings, StationLink routes, and National Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) studies. Bit by bit we laid the foundation for the core message that would unite all the promotions, marketing events, materials and interactive resources for this year-long campaign. Taking our cue from TCRP studies, we designed this campaign to appeal to commuters directly, (rather than corporate transportation coordinators) for maximum impact.
To attract commuters from all walks of life, we created a heroic silhouette that was ageless and raceless: an illustrated everyman who set the style and branding image for all the promotions to come for the rest of the year. All the graphic elements promoting the Rideshare program were designed to be visually stimulating, compelling and memorable. Simple yet elegant icons of transportation gave equal weight to all the alternative transportation options.
OCTA named the hero image the “Ridesharer.” This campaign image appeared in all media, in print, on busses, on workplace posters, postcards and handouts, as well as on the web, on Powerpoint presentations and in email blasts, to reinforce the central message of empowerment no matter where the audience was or where they were looking.
Additionally, in accordance with the TCRP findings, OCTA’s VanPool effort was made easier for commuters with our interactive Seatfinder application which made joining existing vanpools and establishing new VanPools vastly easier.
When all of the figures were compiled and analyzed, the overall effectiveness of the 2011 Rideshare Promotion Campaign was remarkable. There was a 134% increase in pledges over the previous year, and it turned out to be the most effective Rideshare promotion ever. As an added bonus, vanpool participation nearly doubled even before the beginning of the vanpool week promotion.
Speaking from a “creative” point of view, impact is what it's all about.

One and a Half Months in 4 Minutes and 27 Seconds

Every move is fraught with delays. Trucks are late. Things get broken, lost, misplaced or (the politically correct word for:) stolen. Everyone expects this. Everyone deals with it. You just double the estimated amount of time predicted and learn to live with it.  It takes a lot to make a move truly "memorable."
Welcome to a memorable move. Between rebuilding two offices, resetting a contractor's broken finger and two broken toes, a bout with the flu for most of the crew, plus old plumbing, ducting, electrical and a monster ethernet network nightmare, our move of just under 7 blocks took almost exactly 2 1/2 months to complete. You have to laugh. 

Moving out of The Palace Livery and into the Original Chamber Building leaves us Unstabled.

Our new home, the original Chamber of Commerce Building is in one of the most beautiful buildings in the City. Constructed in 1906, it is a prime example of Beaux Arts architecture and the first "modern" steel frame building in all of Pasadena, and one of the first west of the Mississippi. It was also revolutionary in its design. The office towers were designed to maximize the effect of natural breezes for cooling. The U-shaped design surrounded a central atrium that assured there was always a shaded section at all times of the day. The central atrium was used mainly for deliveries, but was also a light and airy place to relax during hot and hectic days. The flow-through design utilized windows on the outside with transoms over the internal doors to make the most of the slightest breeze.

In 1988 this building was the first home to Pasadena Advertising (then The Pasadena Agency), We were one of the first tenants of the Chamber Building after a complete restoration by our good friends Gene and Marilyn Buchannan, and it marked the beginning of a long association with hundreds of other visionaries and developers dedicated to the restoration of Old Pasadena. A success story we are immensely proud to have been a part of.

As for the move itself, it was exciting, frustrating, educational, occasionally painful (and, of course, smokey), and ultimately extremely rewarding.  Or, in short.

We've decided never to move again. =)

Our New Old Home Sweet Home

We’ve moved. We went through miles of tape and enough boxes to build a cardboard super highway to the moon. After 17 years – even in a renovated livery stable – it's amazing what you can amass.
Now from our humble stable, we’ve moved into one of the grander examples of Beaux Arts architecture in Southern California. Our new offices, at 117 E. Colorado Boulevard in the heart of Old Pasadena, are a part of history. In 1906, ironically the year of the great San Francisco earthquake, this was was the first steel framed building in Pasadena, and one of the first west of the Mississippi.

The original Chamber of Commerce Building in the early 1900's with the Red Cars on Colorado Blvd.

This innovative building fell into disrepair along with all of what is now Old Pasadena in the 60's and 70's. For decades, the only traffic on Colorado Boulevard was drug traffic. However, in 1986, Gene and Marylyn Buchanan completely renovated the building, enclosing the central atrium, making the most of the building’s natural “green” cooling structures with the addition of air conditioning and thermal venting. It was an auspicious beginning to what is today Old Pasadena. It was a part of an effort embraced by hundreds of concerned citizens who joined together to rehabilitate the old downtown to it’s former glory.

The Chamber of Commerce Building Today with the same charm, but with a helipad on the roof.

It was also a new beginning for Pasadena Advertising (then The Pasadena Agency), as it was our first professional building after we moved out of the office over our garage. We were one of the first tenants of the old Chamber of Commerce Building, and it marked the beginning of a long association with the rebuilding and maintenance of Old Pasadena.

Suite 165, the (almost) finished lobby of Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design

You can read the whole story on our website, Where we Work page. Of course you are welcome to visit at any time. Just give us a call at 626-584-0011, and we will take you on a tour.

Bike-To-Work Week, er, Month, um, Year

The Orange County Transportation Authority Bike to Work promotion officially starts Sunday, April 29, 2012 with a bike festival in Huntington Beach. However, National  Bike Month has to wait its turn for another 2 days, because it, officially, only happens in the month of May. 

Our National Bike Month Poster for OCTA

For years, this celebration was widely known as Bike To Work Week (which is still going on). This month, Bike To Work Week is May 14 - 18. However this is the year that OCTA asked us to use the month of May to kick off a year-long effort to get people out of their cars and onto their bikes to go to work, to shop, to school and to play. And while I'm sure a substantial number of you reading this are shaking your heads saying, "No that's impossible," I have to remind you that I have been doing it for over 17 years. And I know that some of you must be thinking, "Well, that all well and good for you young folks, but I'm too old for that." Fine. Then, using my age as a guideline, if you're over 67, you can use that excuse… at least for another year.

Everyone at Pasadena Advertising is proud that we were chosen to be a part of this effort, and OCTA is doing their best to make this year's program truly excel. Their theme this year is "anyone can bike" (as I believe I have proven myself). And among the benefits they are pointing out, the cost savings alone should provide more than a little motivation. The savings amount to thousands of dollars a year. In this economy, that is huge. But another benefit of course is health. For those of us who work so hard we can't find time to get to the gym, how about getting in a one-hour workout in 20 minutes?

My 6-mile round trip to the office by car is about 40 minutes. The round trip by bike, is around an hour. So in just an extra 20 minutes a day, I get in a full hour's workout. And I don't stand in line. And I don't have to put up with people using my soap, shampoo, towel, and whatever else they accidentally get their hands on. And did I mention that I can vary my route and enjoy a different ride every day? And that it's free?

So dust off your bike, and give your car a rest. Have fun.  Get healthy.  Click here for more information about OCTA's National Bike Month celebration. 

Why I bike

Pasadena Advertising is currently designing the "Bike to Work" promotion for Orange County Transit Authority, and it is not only an exciting project, it inspired me to explain what over a decade of biking to work and beyond has meant to me:

Why I bike

I bike to work

to shop
to play
to get away.
to get from here to there,
to feel the road
the rush of air
racing through my helmet
whistling in my ears.

I bike to hear the music

of the pavements
parks and river paths
back roads and byways
unique to every landscape
on my way.

I bike for all the sights to see

on quiet morning city streets
and barely used back roads.
I nod to runners, walkers
dogs and fellow bikers.
as I lean into headwinds
and focus on the safest path
down a long and winding stretch.

On weekends I ride far and wide

to feel my body bend
and muscles strain
to overcome the uphill climbs
to push myself through flats and turns,
and kaleidoscopes of neighborhoods

as landscapes pass me by.
From sun-swept early morning glories
through the white washed blues of afternoons.
into reddened evening orange hues
in a fading dance of shade and shadow.

And almost every weekday,

I bike to work
for fun
for health
for that natural burst of energy
that helps me through the day
from my arrival at my desk
until the sun's departure.
Then on my uphill homeward ride
with every pump and push and pant,
the cares of office
work and worries melt away.

The icing on the cake is when I bike,

         I clean the air
         and clear the streets,
         free up spots in parking lots
         have a laugh at the price of gas
         tone my heart and legs and lungs
         And in some small way
         share my choice of health with
         everyone who breathes.

Pasadena On The Brink

Chris Leinberger addresses Pasadena stakeholders about General Plan slow growth dangers.

The City of Pasadena is at a tipping point. On one hand, it has the potential to set a standard for urban excellence for the nation as it did during the rehabilitation of Old Pasadena in the 70’s and 80’s. We worked together to turn a slum into one of the premiere destinations in Southern California. On the other, if we allow Pasadena to be smothered under any of the ill-thought out, growth-stifling General Plans being proposed, Pasadena could suffer a strangling stagnation for the next 20 years.

On the upside, our potential to excel is stunning. According to Christopher Leinberger, a Brookings Institute fellow, recognized as one of the top urban thinkers of all time, we can reverse the last decade of decline and decay in our City, if we just take the necessary steps to extend the walkable urban community of Old Pasadena throughout our central district. If we chose to move in that direction, we can reduce traffic, reduce pollution, increase revenues for our schools and city services, and accelerate our recovery from the recession.
What’s more, he adds, Pasadena has already done the hard part. A thriving walking urban community already exists. We can see the success of Transit oriented development centered around the Del Mar and Memorial Park stations.  These developments are already reducing pollution and green house gasses by 50 to 80 % compared to the Drivable Suburban Communities that surround the city. And if we only continue this kind of development, we will achieve additional benefits: increased revenues to support our schools and city services and the creation of thousands of jobs.
This "teaser" video is based on a 1 hour and 45 minute video of Chris Leiberger's seminar to residents and business people of Pasadena. This edit was created by Michael Marks, a film student studying urban design at Cal State Monterey Bay, at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design. Special thanks to Robert Montano for archival footage of Old Pasadena and Steve Mulheim for additional graphics and maps of Pasadena's Gold Line transit oriented development.

The San Gabriel Valley Sees the Future is On Track

Lookie, lookie. Our interactive maps for the Foothill Extension Authority just went live.

The Azusa interactive map highlights Gold Line station locations and designs, connecting bus routes, bike routes and the walking radius from each station.

On November 29, the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority posted six new interactive maps we created here at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design. They all show how easy it is to use bus routes that serve local neighborhoods to connect to the Gold Line, and also display bike routes, local landmarks and attractions, and walking distances from each station.
Now residents of the next five cities on the Gold Line route can get a preview of the full potential that the Foothill Extension can have on their lives. They can visualize how they get to and from Gold Line stations or to their final destination, and how much more productive they can be using light rail over riding solo in their cars.
With a click or rollover, each city’s residents can see not only how the Gold Line connects to their neighborhood bus routes, but also how it connects their neighborhoods to the rest of the San Gabriel Valley – all the way to downtown Los Angeles.
The interactive maps that the Foothill Extension Construction Authority released today cover all six stations in the five corridor cities along the Foothill Extension from Arcadia to Azusa. The maps – located on the city pages of the Authority's website - highlight many of the important points of interest along the 11.5-mile segment currently under construction.
 “The excitement in the Foothill Cities is growing, and we wanted to create maps that graphically displayed the promise of what is to come,” explains PAMD owner and President Suzanne Marks.
The maps are easily accessible by clicking on the interactive map links on the city pages of Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale, and Azusa stations, at the foothillextension.org site.
Construction has already begun, and now the future is in sight.
A little background information:
PASADENA Advertising, Marketing & Design is an award-winning, woman-owned, creative advertising agency located at 51 W. Dayton St. in Old Pasadena.  Owners Suzanne Marks (member WBE) and Tony Nino have a long history of public service including support of Public Education and the American Cancer Society. Tony currently serves on the Old Pasadena Management District board and Suzanne is the marketing chair of the Boy Scouts of LA board.

Scouting Got Game – and We Helped

When you invite the commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, to be the main speaker at your fundraiser, you’ve got to kick things up a notch or two. We helped the Boy Scouts Los Angeles Area Council create a compelling campaign to fill the seats and an inspirational environment to capture the imaginations, and open the wallets, of 270 invited donors. Pasadena Advertising created all the graphic support from invitations and fund raising collateral, to table talkers and a set design made up entirely of banners.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig speaks against a backdrop of iconic Boy Scout Banners.

The banners for the set, designed by Pasadena’s David Ensz, an Eagle Scout himself, avoided the overly used red, white and blue for colors exclusively associated with Scouting. “Olive, khaki and crimson are the colors I remember most from Scout uniforms and badges,” explained David, “They are an intrinsic part of the memories Scouts hold onto from their meetings, scout camps and Jamborees.”

All our materials used the same color palette and vocabulary.

The graphic style was reinforced in all the support materials, from the Eagle "hero graphic" to the program, pamphlets and response cards. The Character Counts event was primarily a fundraiser to support Scouting and the youth of our community, but it was also an opportunity to raise awareness for Scouting, and recognize the support of deserving volunteers and benefactors. Honorees included Los Angeles Area Council Board members Don Crocker, Rita Illig Liebelt, Dave Meshulam and Robb Scoular.  Charles E. Blake, Sr., the Presiding Bishop of The Church of God and Christ, was presented with the The Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Award

The Scouting program focuses on leadership, character, development, and important life skills. This event makes it possible for the "Friends of Scouting" campaign to fund programs that make it possible for youth living in poverty to gain the skills and citizenship they need to become assets to society.

We are proud to be a part of it.

Falling For Scouting

Involvement or commitment? The difference is easy to see. Consider scrambled eggs and ham. The chicken was involved, the pig was committed. Here at Pasadena, our relationship to the Boy Scouts is a whole lot closer to commitment, but without the carving, curing and pan frying. One prime example of this is how we dealt with the Boy Scouts Los Angeles Area Council's "Over the Edge" fund raising event. We promoted the excitement and thrill of dropping 27 stories over the side of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, but we took the extra step – literally.

Pasadena Advertising Creative Director and Eagle Scout David Ensz strapped on the full-body industrial harness and rappelling gear for the 250 foot drop... then took the big step. He had his very own cheering section down below near the pool deck a safe distance away from the landing zone, shouting encouragement and taking pictures. Thanks to the The Los Angeles Fire, and Building and Safety Departments, every precaution was taken to preserve life and limb. And in the end, the Los Angeles Area Council of the Boy Scouts raised over $135,000 to support inner city youth through Scouting.

Celebrating, Old Pasadena

Speaking as a totally unbiased Marketing Director at Old Pasadena Management District (OPMD), I have to say… Old Pas knows how to have a good time.

This month alone we’ve got the ongoing “Locals Only” Thursday specials with great savings throughout Old Pasadena for anyone who lives or works anywhere in Pasadena. And on Sunday the 16,th we are holding our annual Cultural Dance Festival from 1:00-6:00 p.m… Which oh by the way, is FREE… and everyone’s invited. And of course this is the first week of “DineLA,” and six of our restaurants are participating: La Grande Orange Café, POP Champagne & Dessert Bar, Quadrupel Brasserie, Sushi Roku – Pasadena, The Melting Pot on Colorado, Vertical Wine Bistro, Villa SORRISO and Yujean Kang's Gourmet Chinese Cuisine.

That not enough to celebrate? Let’s talk Halloween. From Saturday, October 22 through Monday, October 31, there are stunningly Spooktacular activities going on throughout the district: kids pumpkin decorating, store-to-store trick-or-treating, costumed characters “meet and greet,” and free outdoor screenings of Monsters Inc. and Corpse Bride. Still not satisfied? How about free haunted photos, a kid-friendly haunted house tour, and more!  

There's a lot happening all over town, starting at One Colorado.

Halloween eve, Monday the 31st, features free store-to-store trick-or-treating at over 75 stores and restaurants in Old Pasadena starting at 4pm. There’ll be a variety of festive candy and confections for all the little ones.  Free caramel apples will be given out on Colorado Blvd and at One Colorado Courtyard kids can get free haunted professional photos against a festive background among hundreds of pumpkins.  One Colorado is also the site of free outdoor screenings of “Monsters Inc.” at 6pm and Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride” at 8pm. And for a little variety, you can meet and greet various popular Halloween costumed characters who will be roaming Old Pasadena on Halloween evening. 

And for those who love a little Halloween Horror, up-close-and-personal, the Old Town Haunt, Pasadena’s award-winning scary haunted house is back, dwelling in the basement of the historical Union Savings Bank Building where rumor has it, mysterious occurrences have taken place in the buildings’ deadly 109 year history Now the building is open to the public for chilling tours into the catacombs where ghosts and goblins meet from 7 pm-12 am. A lights-on, child friendly tour and walk-thru is also available from 12pm-4pm on Sunday, October 30. 

So, celebrate the SPIRITS of the season with us in Old Pasadena. You’ll have a frightfully good time.

All Kirk Sellman wanted was to play with his 3-year old again

For over a decade, Kirk had put up with numbness, first in his feet, then his legs and finally all of his lower organs. But for over a year, things were going south rapidly. He fell often and fell hard. He frightened his 3-year old, and was in fear for his life. When the neurologists and neurosurgeons at USC examined his CAT scan, they found a tumor that had compressed his spinal cord to the thickness of a ribbon.

Kirk relates this experience of facing the consequences of a thoracic vertebra 7 level schwannoma, and his treatment, a gross total resection of the tumor by neurosurgeon, Patrick Hsieh, M.D. Graphic scans show the extent of the damage done by the tumor and the relief that Doctor Hsieh and his team were able give Kirk. More than just the ability to stand, and walk and regain control of his body. He was able to rebuild his life and rejoin his family.

This is just one of thirteen videos that Pasadena Advertising Marketing and Design produced for the USC Keck School Of Medicine: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.

These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design.
The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.

Annie Nelson - Her World Changed in a Breath

Annie remembers the day a blinding headache, vomiting and loss of balance sent her to the emergency room and began a day of terrifying revelations. Her doctors could not control her symptoms, and couldn't find a cause until CT scan revealed a massive acoustic neuroma, eighth cranial nerve brain tumor that was literally crushing her cerebellum. The doctors immediately scheduled surgery, and advised her to get prepped immediately. She said no.

Annie is a fighter, an activist and the founder of the American Soldiers Network dedicated to raising awareness for the needs of our veterans, our injured soldiers, their families and the challenges they all face during the reintegration process when they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. She takes nothing for granted. She tells how she immediately called on friends and colleagues and found one of the premiere neurosurgeons in the country, Steven Giannotta, M.D. at USC, and convinced him to see her right away.
Dr. Gianotta explains how her tumor, while benign, had grown so large, and was impinging on so many vital nerves and tissues, that only a surgical solution, a retrosigmoid craniotomy, was viable. His task at this point was not merely to save her life but spare her facial nerves
This is just one of thirteen videos that Pasadena Advertising Marketing and Design produced for the USC Keck School Of Medicine: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.

These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design.
The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.

Doing businesses good

Over ten thousand visitors gathered for the wildly popular “Make Music Pasadena.”

On Wednesday August 17, at our OPMD first Marketing Committee meeting after measuring the success of “Make Music Pasadena,” we held an informal roundtable on the most effective ways to attract and retain customers. As the head of Marketing, I was specifically interested in how OPMD’s efforts were making the merchant's efforts easier. But we didn’t exactly ask that question. Thank goodness.

We asked, “What has worked best to attract and retain customers for your business?” The overwhelming answer was “Customer Service.” All the merchants around the table agreed. Everyone was eager to share what had worked, and, even more emphatically, what had not worked for them in their own businesses. This promised to be much more interesting that what we had originally intended, so we listened and learned.

“Paying attention to the little things,” was a common theme shared by business owners and managers from the diverse group at the table from The Melting Pot restaurant, Lula Mae boutique gift shop, Vertical Wine Bistro, Le Grand Orange Café and the One Colorado development. Another common theme was rewarding locals, residents and employees alike who spend time in Old Pasadena. The more personal the approach, the better.

On the other hand, impersonal discount aggregators such as Groupon were roundly dismissed. Customers who came in to use their Groupon discounts were almost never seen again. To make matters worse, the merchants only received 25% of the value of the service or merchandise and the 8 ½ x 11 computer print-out coupons were perceived as tacky and awkward to use. According to Online Media Daily, we weren’t the only people to notice.

Personal coupons, and targeted neighborhood discounts such as Lula Mae’s “Lula Bucks,” Le Grand Orange’s Monday and Tuesday Neighborhood Nights, Vertical Wine Bistro’s Burger Night Thursday and Melting Pot’s Rewards Program paid off consistently with a wealth of return customers. And unlike Groupon customers, local customers taking part in local restaurants' promotions tipped their waiters.

When we finally asked our merchants if the OPMD events helped them, they were effusive with their praise. “Make Music Pasadena,” “Pasadena Restaurant Week,” “Summer Film Festival” “Happy Hour Week” and our “Art Night” entertainment had all positively affected business. Everyone was excited about the “Locals Only Thursday” promotion running in September and October. In fact over 50 Old Pasadena businesses have signed on to be a part of it.

Personal touch. Customer Service. Catering to friends and neighbors. As much as we at OPMD would like to believe that we are the driving force in Old Pasadena business, apparently doing good business is still what does businesses the most good.

Here Comes The Neighborhood!

Open the doors and seize the day. That’s what they’re doing in Old Pasadena every Thursday for the months of September and October. Over 50 Old Pas merchants will offer special discounts and promotions to Pasadena residents as well as those who work in Pasadena during Old Pasadena’s Locals Only Thursdays.

From the home page of the website to signs throughout the district, locals are directed to savings

Due to the success of last year’s event, Locals Only Thursdays is being extended to two months this year beginning September 1.  We fully expect to draw thousands of Pasadena residents, business people and employees to Old Pasadena to enjoy a wide range of in-store giveaways and promotions.

Restaurants; stores; coffee, tea and dessert shops; spas and beauty salons throughout Old Pasadena are offering special giveaways and exclusive savings including Banana Republic, Forever 21, The Body Shop, Verizon Wireless, Eileen Fisher, The Sofa Company, The Luggage Room Pizzeria, Stats Floral Display, Vertical Wine Bistro, Lula Mae, Distant Lands and Sushi Roku, among others. They are offering thousands of dollars in savings and many are offering free gifts to customers.

As head of the Old Pasadena Management District Marketing Committee, I get to congratulate Kershona Mayo for her excellent work in organizing this event, and Janet Swartz for her online marketing. I love how good they make me look. Wow times 2. But in truth, we really do have a lot of great stuff to work with.

Old Pasadena has always been a great place to live, work and shop, and now, it’s even better.   For more information including a download of all the exclusive special offers, giveaways and promotions please visit www.oldpasadena.org/localsonly.

Pasadena Heritage Honors Us

Tony Nino, Rhea Roberts, Steve Mulheim, Hanna Wood, Suzanne Marks, Marilyn Buchannan

After 40 years of friendly enmity, the Pasadena Heritage Society held a gala evening at the Green Hotel in Pasadena to honor the hundreds of builders, architects, developers, civic organizations, city leaders and volunteers who stood in the way of the wrecking ball, and saved Old Pasadena. They called us The Guardians of Old Pasadena, the people who managed to turn a desolate slum into one of the most popular downtown areas in Southern California in less than thirty years. As past chairs of the Old Pasadena Management District, Suzanne and I were proud to be a part of it.
Rebuilding was not an easy task, and things often got testy. In fact, all of us being honored had often disagreed with Pasadena Heritage, sometimes strenuously, over how much development was too much, and how much control property owners had over their properties. However, as one of the honorees, my friend and mentor, Jim Plotkin pointed out, “We never fought each other. No matter how much we might have disagreed, we always fought on the same side for the same vision: a vital, restored, reinvigorated Old Pasadena.”
It was a fight we nearly lost even before we ever began. As Donald Shoup and Douglas Kolozsvari wrote in “The High Cost of Free Parking,” Old Pasadena had turned into a classic skid row, “known mainly for its pawn shops, porn theaters, and tattoo parlors.”

From online archives of Old Pasadena

The City’s solution was draconian, tear it down and start anew… according to 1970’s standards.

From “The High Cost of Free Parking,” Donald Shoup and Douglas Kolozsvari

The Arroyo Group and some helpful friends at the City Council joined Pasadena Heritage to fight long and hard to bring that destructive effort to a stop, and they succeeded. But even after they’d won, and wrecking balls were safely stowed away, someone had to step up and physically build the vision they’d had. That’s when the property and building owners, developers and builders stepped up to restore the crumbling facades that had fallen into such sad disrepair. Their contribution was represented by Jim Plotkin, but also included Gene and Marilyn Buchanan, Francine Tolkin, John Wilson, Danny Mellinkoff and many others. Once the restoration of the faded architecture began to return to it’s former glory, there came the daunting task to make Old Pasadena profitable again.
A number of Old Pasadena business development organizations were formed to coordinate this Herculean effort, including today’s Old Pasadena Management District (OPMD). At first we met in the refurbished Chamber of Commerce building at Arroyo and Colorado, because there was no place for Old Pasadena advocates to meet.  Of course, at the time, there wasn't really an Old Pasadena. But there was Bruce Ackerman, President of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. He not only let us meet there, he acted as referee when this contentious band he had invited in every month would ... disagree. Heatedly. Repeatedly. Somehow, he took our passion and turned it into action.
Within ten years, reconstruction was accompanied by revitalization. Events were organized to introduce new visitors to this brand new Old Pasadena. A movie theater was built to reinvigorate nightlife. A slumlord got kicked out of his building, and the last island of decay within our 22 blocks, was rebuilt. And in an epiphany of counter intuition, a parking plan was devised to bring more customers into the district, raise money for the district and encourage employees to park off of the main business streets to make room for shoppers. The secret? Parking meters. In combination with 90-minute free parking in parking structures, more visitors stopped, shopped, ate and played than ever before. The solution was so successful, it fills the pages of “The High Cost of Free Parking,” by Donald Shoup and Douglas Kolozsvari.
Five years ago, OPMD took over management of the parking structures from the City. We cleaned them up, made them safer, kept the prices low and offered 90-minutes free parking. In our first full year, we took the annual earnings from $5000 a year to $500,000 – yes, 100 times better. Last year, at the height of the worst recession in 60 years, we made $1.7 million. Our lots were so successful, some in the City tried to take them back. Instead, we are slated to take over two more structures. In Steve Mulheim's two minutes at the dinner, he didn't have time to mention that.
Today, as the economy rocks and reels, the same Old Pasadena that was born in adversity, continues to thrive. But now, OPMD can support our developers, building owners, merchants, and restaurants with a level of marketing that vastly exceeds our miniscule budget. Our events have grown so popular that sponsors stand in line to support them. Our web site gives all of our stakeholders their own unique page or provides links to their own sites. Our social media programs have proven so popular that now even referral sites like Yelp have joined our pool of sponsors whenever we hold an event.

OPMD Website supports our merchants and directs our visitors.

We thank Pasadena Heritage Society Executive Director Sue Mossman for a very special evening. And in turn, we thank them, and each and every one of our predecessors for helping to take these 22 blocks from the brink of obliteration to where it is today. Thank you for honoring us. Thank you for being a part of us. We look forward to working together for our future.

Sade Acosta, A Death Defied, Twice

Sade was only 19-years old and pursuing her dream of being a singer, when she fell to the ground after a party and was unable to talk or even recognize her brothers and sisters. This was not due to any intoxicants, but rather an explosion of blood from a tiny arterial/venal malformation that threatened to destroy her brain. She tells the story of how she survived the two cerebral hemorrhages that almost ended her career, and her life, before she reached 20.




Her neurosurgeon, Charles Liu, M.D., explains how he removed the clot and saved her life. After her brain anatomy, which had been distorted by the hemorrhage, returned to normal, he then proceeded to monitor her progress with MRIs every two months to isolate the cause and prevent a recurrence. After her second hemorrhage, Dr. Liu found a minute AVM (arterio-venous malformation) and with the help of neuronavigation imaging, tracked it down and eliminated it.
This is just one of thirteen videos that Pasadena Advertising Marketing and Design produced for the USC Keck School Of Medicine: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.

These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design.
The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.

Mobile Commerce: HUGE or tiny. Yes!

Two MediaPost articles caught my eye this morning. One on M-Commerce derided the minuscule $6 billion in sales that retailers can expect this year from mobile sales, and projected a paltry $31 billion by 2016. The other on SmartPhone data use, trumpeted that smartphones had almost doubled their data access over the last 12 months from 230 MB to 435 MB - and that's not counting tablets and e-readers.

On the face of it, those numbers don't seem to add up. While data use rises exponentially, mobile sales creep up arithmetically. You have to wonder if those two writers even speak to each other… until you notice that they are one in the same, Mark Walsh.

However, when you read further down in Mark's M-Commerce story, two paragraphs jump out at you:

Despite rising smartphone adoption and the burst to roll out new mobile payments, mobile "shopping" often isn't about buying. When consumers use their phones, it's usually to get product information or compare prices -- rather than actually completing a transaction. Shopping never ranks high on any list of Web activities.
Furthermore, retailers are not spending much to optimize their sites for mobile. They are also confused about the best way to approach the medium -- the mobile Web versus apps conundrum. While most retailers have not pursued apps, the potential for location-based services and other tools enabled by more sophisticated devices cannot be ignored.

So, it's not the technology or the adoption rate that is curtailing mobile commerce, but rather Retailers' inability to keep up with the technology. In fact, Marks writes, the "innovation is likely to drive paralysis" as retailers struggle to find vendors and partners who understand this rapidly changing landscape.

Part of the conundrum is that mobile commerce isn't as much about electronic purchasing as it is about in-store shopping. In lieu of those bygone days of knowledgeable human assistance, people use their phones to compare products and prices. Most retailers are singularly unprepared for the convergence of e-commerce and in-store interaction. And many consider their in-store and e-commerce (mainly web) departments as competition.

Ironically, in this economy, when retailers have the least time and money to spend straightening that out, those who spend the most, most wisely, will spring ahead of the others.

IMHO
Tony Nino
Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design

WINNNINGGGGG!

No, really. We won!

Pasadena Advertising Marketing and Design, working with Green Street Ads, has won a yearlong contract with the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) to get people to give up riding alone in their cars. Our silent partner is of course the oil companies whose 4-bucks-plus for a gallon of gas is an excellent motivator to get solo drivers to strongly consider alternatives.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I admit I’ve been into alternative transportation for well over a decade. It all started off with riding my bike to work one day every week, then two days, then three, four and finally five. Now I get in between 60 and 100 miles every workweek depending on the weather and whether or not I have time to take a loop around the Rose Bowl. In addition to staying in shape and looking smashing in Spandex (as long as you keep your eyes closed). And I figure I’ve saved between $2,500 and $3,000 a year in gas. Those alone are not bad motivators.

For this contract, we are working together with fellow biker and long-time cigar buddy John Espinoza and his crew at Green Street Ads. We’ve worked together before on projects for Old Pasadena Management District and the Pasadena Department of Transportation. OCTA promises to be even more interesting. They have a great story – beginning with a wealth of alternatives to driving solo: Standard bus and rail services, a robust “Share the Ride” ridesharing database, a vanpool program, very efficient carpool matching services, employer transportation plans, and an extensive network of bike paths, lanes and routes. And they’re open to having fun.

Fun is good. Fun is a key ingredient to success in many media, but social media most of all.  With Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, blogs, and YouTube, the more fun, the more powerful the impact. If we make real fun an integral part of our events and promotions, that can play out in other media as well, and OCTA has set its sights on a broad media mix. We’ll be in traditional and electronic media ranging from print and broadcast to billboards and bus shelters, as well as in some pretty unconventional places. Drivers in Orange County are going to find our message in front of their eyes no matter who or where they are.

Our first meeting is July 1st.  Can’t wait.

Phil Sands – Yo! You wanna go diggin' in MY brain?

To call Phil Sands a character would elevate the definition of that word to dizzying heights. He's a force of nature. But when he was hit with an excruciating and debilitating headache, he bowed to his wife's wishes and got some serious imaging studies done, a CT scan, MRI and finally an angiogram. The doctors discovered an eight mm basilar tip aneurysm that not only caused his headache, but was in imminent danger of a crippling or deadly rupture. Suddenly, the worst headache of his life was the least of his problems.



But Phil was Brooklyn born and bred, and too hard headed to take anything or anyone at face value. He did his homework, and searched all over his adopted home town of Los Angeles to find the right place and the right people to make this problem go away for good. He checked out numerous hospitals. He grilled the doctors. He grilled the neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, and their staffs. Only after he was completely satisfied that he had found the right place, did he decide to proceed.
Arun P. Amar M.D., from the USC Keck School of Medicine, explains how he and his Neurosurgical/neuroradiological team - Arun Amar, M.D., William Mack, M.D., and Medical Director, Donald Larsen, M.D., treated him using stenting and coil embolization. For all his bravado, Phil recognizes how close he was to disaster, and how much he owes to his wife, his family and friends and the doctor's and staff who became some of his biggest fans.
This is just one of thirteen videos: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC. 
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.


These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design.
The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.

Stella Kuymjian, A Stolen Life, Restored

Stella Kuyumjian was a teenager when her brain short circuited sending her into waves of debilitating, paralyzing seizures. They call it "status epilepticus," a state of persistant seizure that can last up to an hour. It is always life threatening, but for Stella, it was the only life she knew for eleven years.



After 11 years of massive seizures, and countless rounds of frustrating, failed treatments, Stella was finally taken to USC Keck School of Medicine's Neurosurgical Unit. At USC, she was diagnosed by neurologist Christianne Heck, M.D., and her team of epileptologists as a candidate for surgical solution, a temporal lobectomy to correct her intractable grand mal seizures.
However her particular form of epilepsy would not yield easily. Her neurosurgeon, Charles Liu, M.D., was unable to pinpoint the site of the temporal scarring. In fact the epidermal electrodes were unable to even identify which side of the brain was causing the seizures. Before Dr. Liu could proceed, he first had to pin point the location using cranial sub dural electrodes, placed on the surface of the brain itself and construct a composite neuro navigation map of her temporal lobe.
Now after 11 years of persistent, life threatening grand mal seizures, Stella is seizure free. Finally she can begin to tell her story of this living nightmare. Doctors Keck and Liu, USC Keck School of Medicine, explain the dizzying array of complications surrounding her condition and the exacting procedures necessary to find her cure.
This is just one of thirteen videos: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.

These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design.
The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.