Bay Area Multicultural Ad Agency Crossover Creative Group Donates Professional and Monetary Resources to Save Lives.

Feature Editors/Business Editors/Government & Minority

Writers/Advertising & Marketing Writers

RICHMOND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2004

CHP Promotional Budget Limitations Prompt Crossover Creative Group

to Underwrite TV Commercials for CHP Traffic Safety Outreach Campaign

"For every mile driven, an African American is twice as likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than other Americans," states concerned Crossover Creative Group president and creative director Steve Climons. "What's more, African American children are three times as likely to die from a car crash than are their white counterparts." With a desire to help improve fatality statistics in the black community, San Francisco Bay Area-based advertising agency Crossover Creative Group, made an offer to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) that it could not refuse. When Crossover learned the CHP budget would not cover development of video broadcast-quality public service announcements, Climons made a decision to contribute his company's advertising expertise and to underwrite the cost of developing and producing three high-quality 30-second public service announcements (PSA) for television. On Monday, March 22, 2003, the final segment of the three-part campaign will launch with the statewide print and radio promotion on the appropriate and consistent use of child safety seats and restraints. Billboards and community newspapers, and the top urban radio stations will be used to educate parents on the need to utilize child safety seats.

In 2003, Crossover Creative Group was awarded the CHP Traffic Safety Outreach Campaign to the African American Community (TSOAAC). Though supported by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), the funding was insufficient to cover the cost to deliver traffic safety messages via television, as well as radio, urban community news publications and strategic outdoor placement. The overall campaign was designed to positively influence African American driving safety behaviors statewide. The first two segments of the campaign addressed seat belt use and Driving Under the Influence (DUI) issues.

Crossover's monetary contribution was just part of the agency's multi-tiered effort to increase impact. In order to supplement the million dollar grant funding supplied by the OTS, along with corporations and media partners, Crossover also solicited bonus media space and airtime to help extend the reach and frequency of the overall print and radio campaign.

Such dedication to hot community issues is status quo among the J. Walter Thompsons of the ad world, but virtually unprecedented among relatively small, independent creative houses like Crossover Creative Group. In proportion to its billings, a contribution of this nature is a sizeable investment.

"Most agencies like ours can't afford to make such large scale pro bono gestures," says Climons. "In this case, we simply could not afford to have this program fall short of its potential."

Employing a unique marketing tool it calls the "crossover factor," Crossover Creative Group will not settle for stale, stereotypical messaging. One of Crossover's team captains, writer Terri Murray, said, "We respect and leverage our target market's on-going aspirations, need for self-enrichment and propensity to achieve against the odds.

Crossover Creative Group worked diligently with the research firm of Mason Tillman Associates, LTD. of Oakland and its strategic and media partners, the Crocker/Flanagan Agency of Sacramento, to match the California Highway Patrol's Traffic Safety Outreach Campaign to the African American community goals.

"We at the CHP are delighted with the work that Crossover Creative Group has done leading this campaign and we are particularly appreciative of the television PSA productions Crossover donated in support of our efforts against DUI, seatbelt us and child safety seats," said CHP Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick. "Crossover has a tremendous history of effective partnerships within California's diverse communities. We are confident that adding the CHP to those partnerships has resulted in saving lives.

"According to reports, unsafe driving habits represent not only a law enforcement challenge, but an urgent public health crisis," warns Crossover account executive Charlie Alketruse, point man on the CHP account. "Our contribution proves that Crossover Creative Group sees this outreach campaign as more than a business opportunity, but a calling to serve our community."

Crossover Creative Group's advertising approach is particularly sensitive to urban culture, while the Company fervently lends its expertise and charitable support to societal messaging needs in diverse communities. Spearheading the CHP Traffic Safety Outreach Campaign to the African American Community permitted Crossover to showcase the unparalleled work of his imaginative, energetic and strategic thinking advertising staff.

About Crossover Creative Group

In 1989, president and creative director Steve Climons founded SCCS Advertising, which he re-launched with a new focus as Crossover Creative Group in 1996 based on the increase in diversity of the major markets, which was redefining consumer trends. The population/economic growth and evolution of the multicultural population (African American, Hispanic and Asian American) across the country has resulted in a trans-demographic target group Crossover refers to as "the new mainstream."

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Crossover is a contemporary company that takes a unique forward-looking approach to advertising and marketing, specifically when it comes to its specialty -- targeting multicultural markets. Crossover Creative Group has employed unique and extensive mass market research methodologies that, along with its real-world experience, qualify the group as experts in the field of multicultural marketing. Crossover offers advertising experience in all the major business categories with companies such as British Airways, Citibank, General Mills, Gulf Oil, Pacific Bell, McDonald's, PG&E, Safeway and Sony.

Press Release by: PR, et Cetera, Inc. Toni Beckham, 408-499-3664 [e-mail]