L.A. Marathon Becomes a Front-Runner in Attracting Major Sponsors

When most people hear the name Guess, one thing comes to mind: expensive jeans. Now, the company’s new president says she may soon want the Guess name to also stand for something else--jogging shorts and T-shirts.

This move by Guess, however, will require more than guesswork.

Before spending millions of dollars on a new line of athletic wear, Guess is testing the waters. And it is doing so without making much clothing. Instead, it is spending $175,000 to be a sponsor of the coming Los Angeles Marathon--and an additional $25,000 or so to make tank-top T-shirts for the 15,000 runners.

The idea is to get people to see not only the Guess label but to see it on athletic wear.

“The event is televised,” said Gloria Teague, president and chief executive of Los Angeles-based Guess, “and runners will be running throughout Los Angeles with Guess on their bodies.”

Guess will have plenty of company at the starting line. From a marketing perspective, the Los Angeles Marathon--which hit stride last year--seems to be pulling ahead from much of the marathon pack in just its third year. When the starter’s gun sounds on March 6, big-time companies including Mercedes-Benz of North America, AT&T; and Eastman Kodak, will join Guess as sponsors.

It is only in the past few years that marathons have gained popularity with many big-time sponsors.

Except for the Los Angeles, New York, and Boston marathons, however, most races are lousy marketing tools for national companies, said Harlan Stone, vice president of marketing at Advantage International, a Washington sports marketing firm.

But, Stone added: “For a company trying to break into a new market, conventional advertising can be very expensive. . . . So, marathons are suddenly appealing.”

There wasn’t much appeal three years ago when the Los Angeles Marathon went begging for sponsors.

“I begged so much,” said William Burke, president of the marathon, “that I had to walk around town wearing knee pads.” Already, however, there’s a waiting list for sponsors, he said, and only two openings for new sponsors remain over the next three years.

Among the marathon’s newest supporters is Nordstrom Inc. Although the Seattle-based retailer has never sponsored a marathon before, it plans to make a tidy profit. Nordstrom is licensed to sell all sorts of items, from $5 lapel pins to $42 sweat shirts.

“It’s one of our first entries into sports marketing,” said Cody Kondo, a Los Angeles-based regional manager for the chain. “We know that the demographics of most runners parallel the type of customers we like to attract--yuppies.”

Seven-Up, meanwhile, plans to slap its name on cups of water provided to runners and offer them the Uncola at the end of the race. It has also put marathon logos on 200 million Seven-Up cans and bottles to be sold locally, said Steve Wold, brand marketing manager for Seven-Up/Royal Crown Bottling Co. of Southern California.

In addition, Seven-Up is so impressed with the event that it sent a crew from its national agency to Los Angeles to film a local commercial. But the morning the ad was filmed happened to be frigid. That caused big headaches for the crews from the Chicago-based ad firm, Leo Burnett, who were to film ads showing perspiring runners.

“I felt so sorry for some of the actors,” said Jennifer Garr, an account executive with Burnett. “They had to act like they were hot,” she said, “but between takes we had to warm them up with blankets and giant heaters.”

Executive Says Aloha to Hawaii, Hello L.A.

While many ad executives might relish a move to Los Angeles, what about those who work in Hawaii?

For more than two decades, Dave Park has worked at several Hawaiian ad firms and three years ago was named chairman of a DDB Needham subsidiary in Honolulu, Milici Valenti Park & Gabriel, whose biggest client is the Hawaii Visitor’s Bureau.

Now, however, the 45-year-old Park has been named president of the Los Angeles office of DDB Needham and must leave the spot where he went on his honeymoon some 22 years ago--and has worked ever since. “I must admit I’m going to miss the view,” said Park, whose office in Honolulu overlooks the Honolulu Harbor. But he vows to log many hours in his new Los Angeles office. Said Park: “I guess you could call me an office potato.”

That Was Then but This Is ‘Memories’

These days, audiences may be more familiar with actress Carrie Fisher than with her father, singer Eddie Fisher. There is, however, a whole generation of people over 40 years old who still might wonder what happened to Carrie’s one-time superstar father.

For these people, one of the largest special-interest magazine publishers in the country, Diamandis Communications Inc., has created the new publication, Memories.

The magazine, which hit the newsstands this month, is an attempt to cash in on those who may be more interested in stories about Marilyn Monroe than Madonna. The logo on the cover of Memories: the Magazine of Then and Now. “We can bring a contemporary sensibility to events that might have passed us by at such a rate of speed that we didn’t fully understand them at the time,” said Carey Winfrey, editor-in-chief of Memories.

For its premiere issue, the magazine has attracted such big-name advertisers as Colgate-Palmolive, Eastman Kodak and Campbell Soup.

“We’re still an unknown quantity,” Winfrey said. “We’d like to be as successful as the supermarket tabloids but get the critical acclaim of the Atlantic.”

Denny’s Aims Ads at Latino Market

Denny’s executives have long known that Latinos are big fans of the coffee shop chain. But they didn’t know how big until last year, when a house-to-house survey of several Los Angeles-area Latino neighborhoods revealed that half of those surveyed said they had been to Denny’s within the past 60 days.

That survey has persuaded Denny’s to actively pursue this market nationwide.

And this week, in the Miami area, Denny’s has begun to air its first TV advertising geared specifically for the Latino market.

The ad, created by the Newport Beach ad firm Mendoza, Dillon & Asociados Inc., features Latino actors gobbling up the La Mirada-based chain’s new Mother Butler pies.

“We think this is a good hook to get Hispanics to come to Denny’s for dinner,” said Joe Herrera, national marketing manager. “In Miami, Hispanic families tend to go to Cuban restaurants for dinner, and in Los Angeles, they often go to Mexican restaurants. We think we can change those habits.”

Council Head Sees More Education Ads

For decades it was Smokey the Bear. Then it was seat belts. And most recently it’s been drugs.

These have all been hot topics of public service advertising produced through the New York-based Advertising Council Inc. But now, with a new chief at the helm, it appears that the direction of the Ad Council is about to change.

“Over the next several years and into the 1990s, we’ll see any number of ads that focus on efforts to improve the educational system in this country,” said Ruth A. Wooden, newly appointed president of Ad Council.

As baby boomers continue to have more children, there will be increased pressure to improve the country’s educational system, Wooden said.

Indeed, a new Ad Council campaign will soon attempt to glamorize teaching as a career. The ad, which depicts the teacher’s life as exciting, carries the slogan “Grab the power of teaching.”