Inter Media Advertising

On the surface, Inter/Media Advertising, an Encino-based advertising agency, seems an unusual choice to handle billionaire and former presidential candidate Ross Perot's campaign to win converts to his new political watchdog group, United We Stand America. Inter/Media, despite its $85 million in annual billings in 1992, is relatively unknown among advertising professionals.

On the surface, Inter/Media Advertising, an Encino-based advertising agency, seems an unusual choice to handle billionaire and former presidential candidate Ross Perot's campaign to win converts to his new political watchdog group, United We Stand America. Inter/Media, despite its $85 million in annual billings in 1992, is relatively unknown among advertising professionals.

Like most small-business owners, Bob Carriere, owner of Carriere Clothing in Westlake Village, relied mainly on word of mouth, print ads and direct mail to draw customers to his upscale men's clothing store. But these techniques weren't bringing in enough new customers. A few months ago, Carriere approached advertising executive Robert Yallen to discuss the possibility of advertising on television.

Bill Clinton didn't start it. But there are undeniable signs--as the President-elect prepares to take the oath of office Wednesday--that some of America's biggest marketers are now embracing the same racial-harmony themes that Clinton wove into his campaign speeches and stitched into the fabric of his transition team and Cabinet appointments.

Whenever Christine Lubinski wants to see what beer makers are up to, she turns on "Saturday Night Live," where the big brewers often test their newest TV ad campaigns. Her latest observation: Beer makers are targeting ads at women--a market they had previously ignored. "Beer makers are responding to a shrinking and aging population of young, white males," said Lubinski, who is director of public policy at the Washington-based National Coalition on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

Perhaps the oldest Super Bowl tradition--aside from the game often being a dud--is for advertisers to go bonkers trying to out-hype each other. On Jan. 31, Pasadena will host what may well be the most overly commercialized Super Bowl ever. And on Feb. 1, dozens of marketers who spent many millions of dollars trying to catch the consumer's eye may wake up and ask themselves: Why? "Marketers seem to lose their senses at Super Bowl time," said Jack Trout, president of the Greenwich, Conn.

* James F. Ricketts has been appointed to the newly created position of vice president and worldwide treasurer for Ingram Micro Inc., a Santa Ana wholesale distributor of technology and microcomputer products. He will be responsible for establishing the company's global financial management strategies. Ricketts was previously vice president and treasurer of Sundstrand Corp., a Rockford, Ill.-based manufacturer of systems and components for international aerospace and industrial markets.