DavisElen Hits the Ice

Picks Up NHL’s L.A. Kings, Staples Center
LOS ANGELES–The Los Angeles Kings franchise of the National Hockey League has drafted DavisElen here to handle its advertising.
DavisElen will serve double duty as the agency for the Staples Center, the Kings’ future home in downtown Los Angeles. The $300 million sports and entertainment arena is now under construction.
The Kings’ estimated $1 million account was previously handled by Rubin Postaer and Associates in Santa Monica, Calif., which resigned the business this year.
“RPA did a great job for us for two years, but sports teams are very taxing and not very profitable [for an ad agency],” said Kings president Tim Leiweke. “DavisElen is [located] right across from the arena. They understand the synergies of the central business district.”
As one of the few ad agencies remaining in downtown L.A., DavisElen has been active as a civic booster there. Its support of the new arena included buying a corporate suite.
DavisElen’s first ad campaign for the Kings launches next month and will be comprised of TV, radio and outdoor ads, as well as “guerrilla marketing,” according to Leiweke. While previous campaigns have featured Kings players, the new work will focus on the fans and the experience of going to an NHL game, he added.
“We are going to be very aggressive,” said Mark Davis, chairman and chief executive officer of DavisElen. “We will start with the Kings, then as the Staples project happens, we’ll do whatever we need to do for it.”
Davis would not say if the Kings’ current themeline, “Serious hockey,” will be used in the new campaign.
The agency will use diverse outdoor media, including street pole banners, taxi tops and bus signs, as well as airplane banners in beach communities, Leiweke said.