Ad Firm Places New Unit in L.A.

Recognizing the waning clout of television’s 30-second commercial spots, Initiative Worldwide, a major Madison Avenue ad-buying firm, has hired a former network marketing chief to pursue new venues for advertising.

The firm plans to announce today that Alan Cohen -- who spent two decades working for Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, General Electric Co.’s NBC and News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox film studio -- will head the U.S. division of Initiative Innovations, a unit to be based in Los Angeles.

Cohen’s mandate will be to develop effective ways to get Initiative clients’ messages onto cellphone screens and the Internet and into video games and digital downloads of movies and TV programs.

“The traditional 30-second [TV] ad doesn’t have the weight that it used to have,” said Alec Gerster, chief executive of Initiative Worldwide. “We’ve got to add to our skill sets.”

The goal, Gerster said, is to go further than so-called product placement, in which an image of a company’s product fleetingly appears on the screen during a movie or television show. Cohen pointed to Sears’ sponsorship of ABC’s hit show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” as an example of melding advertising and popular entertainment that Initiative hopes to emulate.

“Everyone is realizing that the business has changed,” Cohen said.

“There’s a lot of experimenting going on,” he added. “It’s very fertile ground.”

Initiative’s clients include Home Depot Inc., Coors Brewing Co., Bayer Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s America Online. Initiative is part of the global media giant Interpublic Group of Cos.