In LA, marketers can’t escape the influence of Hollywood – but they don’t want to

Today, many of the digital platforms and publishers that make up the backbone of the modern marketing and advertising business – such as Snap, Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Fandango Media and Fullscreen – have grown up in LA. A handful of influential ad agencies, too, have set up shop in LA or have established major outposts in the region. These include RPA, Amp Agency, BBH LA, Deutsch LA and David&Goliath, to name a few.

But the groundwork for great commercial creativity and media was laid decades ago.

In fact, marketing itself helped to build the Los Angeles of today. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city was aggressively marketed as an idyllic paradise through a well-coordinated ‘booster’ campaign led by city leaders and the Chamber of Commerce.

Promoters crafted an idealized vision of the city, highlighting its sunny, Mediterranean-like climate and job opportunities. They leveraged myths of a romanticized Spanish past, tapped into celebrity endorsements and launched creative exhibitions to attract settlers and businesses – while downplaying its more challenging realities and glossing over its imperialist history. The effort ultimately helped to lay the foundations for modern LA.

Now, the city’s metropolitan area is home to nearly 12.5 million people and, in the US market, its gross domestic product is second only to New York City.

And the tradition of storytelling and myth-making is still alive in LA. It continues to influence the ways in which both entertainment and marketing are practiced in the region. The city’s deep-seated history of reinvention, along with its role as the entertainment capital of the world, is evident in how agencies, brands and production companies approach talent recruitment, creative strategies and advertising campaigns.

A legacy of storytelling wrapped up in Hollywood glamor

For every Starbucks in greater Los Angeles, there are six businesses tied to the film industry, according to a 2018 report from the Center for a Competitive Workforce. It should come as little surprise, then, that the growing convergence of entertainment and marketing is more apparent in LA than in almost any other global market.

“LA is where storytelling and brand-building are inherently intertwined, with advertising often reflecting a cinematic approach. This ability to merge authentic storytelling with visual spectacle is a defining feature of marketing in LA, creating campaigns that are not merely messages, but experiences,” Grayce McCormick, founder of Lightfinder Public Relations, tells The Drum.

It’s a sentiment echoed by other industry movers and shakers, including Ramaa Mosley, co-founder and chief creative officer at youth-focused creative agency Adolescent Content. “LA’s entertainment industry shapes the city’s approach to marketing. We are constantly looking to infuse campaigns with cinematic quality and show our storytelling prowess,” she says. “The mash-up of studios and ad agencies in Los Angeles has given rise to more immersive, narrative-driven marketing strategies that often feel more like entertainment than traditional advertising.”

Mosley points to the rise of branded content series and documentaries produced by brands as prime examples of this phenomenon. It’s an approach that’s been adopted by the likes of Nike and luxury titan LVMH, both of which have launched their own in-house content studios to produce various video projects that are, in essence, quietly branded storytelling endeavors.

These kinds of projects can “subtly incorporate… brand values without feeling like traditional ads,” Mosley says.

Proximity to Hollywood’s elite also plays a distinct role in shaping the city’s ad industry, particularly through the use of celebrity endorsements and partnerships. Brands in LA have long understood the power of celebrity while digital platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube now provide even more ways to amplify the reach and impact of star-powered campaigns.

The city’s entertainment infrastructure has also paved the way for viral marketing and influencer partnerships, tapping into trends that often start in Hollywood and quickly spread globally. A quick scroll through Instagram or TikTok reveals a smattering of trendy LA-based brands that have mastered the art of generating buzz with the help of influencers (think Revolve, Alo, Bumble and ColourPop).

Even in the more technical world of media buying and selling, the influence of entertainment is apparent, according to Michael Cooper, head of media and entertainment at Effectv, a Comcast-owned ad sales organization. “When I think about LA and think about all the studios and all the content providers here… whether it’s the conferences we go to or [the meetings we take, we’re constantly] interacting with all these people who are talking about the future of the industry – the future of content.”

Beyond brand strategy and execution, the city’s deep roots in storytelling and entertainment also produce a competitive talent pool for the region’s biggest brands and ad agencies. Deutsch, for instance, which set up its LA branch more than two decades ago, today has “access to top-tier talent – from directors and writers to animators and musicians,” according to Diego de la Maza, executive vice-president and head of production at the agency. The region’s rich talent, de la Maza suggests, has helped to bolster the agency’s production firm Steelhead.

But increasingly challenging economic conditions are putting strain on the region’s talent pool. Mosley says that she’s been carefully tracking LA’s job market for four years running and has seen “a major pullback as talent across entertainment and advertising choose other cities with lower costs of living to pursue their dreams.”

Multiculturalism reigns supreme

Los Angeles County is the US’s most diverse county – more than 75% of its residents are non-white, with over a third born outside the US, according to the latest census data. The area is also highly diverse in terms of income levels, age and religion. This medley of demographics lends itself to the creative prowess of the city’s marketing sector, insiders say.

“Driving down a single stretch of road from Mid-City to downtown, you encounter so many different communities living mere feet of each other: Koreatown, Little Bangladesh, Thai Town, Historic FilipinoTown and then, finally, you land on the doorstep of downtown – probably one of the grittiest in the country. This is how great ideas happen – the coexistence and collisions of different ideas, people and art,” says Thas Naseemuddeen, CEO of LA-based creative agency Omelet and an alum of Deutsch and BBH LA. “The diversity of LA is what makes creativity flourish in our business. LA is not a monolith of a city – it’s everything no one imagines it is.”

In the midst of this melting pot of global cultures, the city’s marketers are increasingly focused on inclusive and representative storytelling. As Lightfinder’s McCormick puts it: “The city’s creative ethos champions voices from all backgrounds, encouraging marketing to move beyond traditional advertising and embrace a more people-first approach.”

To rise to the demand for more culturally conscious marketing, a variety of Spanish-language-focused agencies and specialty shops have emerged in the Los Angeles basin.

And in an effort to nourish LA’s diverse community and economy, adland players such as Deutsch are also helping to prop up diverse-owned local businesses. In 2020, the agency launched Blackness in Full Bloom, a free, community-focused brand-building program designed to equip Black-owned businesses with the tools and resources they need to flourish. “Drawing from the pulse of a city that thrives on making big dreams come true, we take the seed of an idea [that an entrepreneur has] planted and help it blossom,” explains Ayn Howze, the agency’s executive vice-president and head of advocacy and communications.

The rise of Silicon Beach & LA’s tech scene

LA’s marketing industry has also been bolstered by its growing tech scene, particularly in ‘Silicon Beach,’ the stretch of coastline that birthed digital platforms such as Snap, Hulu and Tinder.

In LA, “entertainment, technology and advertising constantly cross-pollinate,” says Adolescent Content’s Mosley.

Snap is a prime example. Born in 2011 in Venice, the company is “one of the tech darlings that came out of Silicon Beach,” explains the company’s global head of agency development and sales partnerships, Alex Dao. Today, it’s a tech company with a market cap of more than $16.6bn – and it’s also a playground for creativity and branding, enabling advertisers to launch custom lenses, run ads in Stories and even promote specific places on a user’s Snap Map.

This year, the company is forging ahead with more advanced offerings for melding creativity and advertising. Last month, it unveiled an AI-generated video tool for creators and a revamped version of its AR smart glasses. It’s also investing heavily in innovative AR ad formats.

In McCormick’s telling, consistent collaboration between tech companies, production firms, agencies and creators in LA helps to foster a strong creative ecosystem – one that empowers marketers to make the most of digital platforms and emerging channels.

The future of LA’s marketing sector

As the lines between entertainment, marketing and technology continue to blur, LA is poised to remain at the forefront of advertising innovation. Industry leaders expect continued growth in areas such as immersive content, AI and cross-platform promotion, all of which play to the city’s strengths in both creativity and digital infrastructure.

At the end of the day, the dominant force in LA’s prospering ad industry is still the silver screen.

“People think of LA as the entertainment capital of the world and it’s true – ‘the business’ drives so much of the everyday bustling of how our communities operate,” says Omelet’s Naseemuddeen. “But it’s also a city that thrives on disruption and reinvention. It’s what makes the city so fun. It’s what makes it, at its very core, creative and interesting.”