As an entrepreneur with a boutique promoting company that handles conventional tv, radio and print, as effectively, as digital and social media, Karen Park has the chance to spotlight her heritage.
“We had a campaign for our client Kia to celebrate AAPI heritage month,” Park stated. “We were able to create a social campaign that featured an Asian entrepreneur, an Asian fusion chef, an Asian dancer and an Asian nonprofit leader. This campaign was adapted into their general market and Hispanic market social channels, too.”
Based in downtown Los Angeles, Park’s Ten Advertising has a rising roster of clientele.
Current shoppers embrace Nokia, Hyundai, Genesis, AstraZeneca, Pacific City Bank and Yaamava Resort and Casino.
The company has additionally created campaigns for Amgen Inc., Caruso, Kaiser Permanente, LG, UPS and Southern California Gas Co.
The company specializes within the Asian shopper. With Union Bank, as an illustration, Ten Advertising has developed campaigns centered on the Japanese demographic.
The company’s success has come at a time of increasing shopping for energy within the U.S. Asian market. According to the report “The Multicultural Economy 2021” from the University of Georgia, complete U.S. buying energy grew 55% between 2010 and 2020, whereas Asian-American shopping for energy grew 111% in the identical interval.
Even so, the pandemic proved to be a problem for the Ten company. Revenue dropped as a result of shoppers diminished advert spending, however Ten labored to retain all workers.
Park, an energetic member of the Asian Business Association of Los Angeles, relied on the group for assist throughout the downturn.
“When the PPP program was announced, we had applied via our mainstream bank and we were turned down because they were funding much larger clients,” Park stated. “ABA was steadfastly sharing really timely information and we were able to contact a community bank that was able to help us with our PPP loan.”
Dennis Huang, president of the Asian Business Association, praised Park’s dedication to the 1,200-member group, the place she is a previous board chair.
“Prior to Karen serving on the board, she was very active in the local community,” Huang stated. “After terming out on ABA’s board, she currently chairs ABA’s foundation, Asian Business Center. Above all, she runs a very successful advertising agency helping corporate America tap into the Asian-American market. She has grown her company nice and steady over the years.”
Family enterprise
Many Asian corporations perform as household affairs, as within the case of Angela Chang, who serves as chief technique officer at KCAL Insurance. Based in Hacienda Heights, KCAL — which additionally has areas in San Gabriel, Diamond Bar, Irvine, Cerritos and Ontario — was based by her father, Kenny Chang. Her mom works as the corporate’s chief monetary officer.
Chang’s mother and father immigrated from Taipei with to the U.S. in 1983. In 1984, Kenny Chang entered the insurance coverage enterprise.
“I joked that I started with my dad since he started KCAL in 1992,” Angela Chang stated. “I went to USC from 2012 to 2014 and worked at Ernst & Young. I was on the strategy consultant side.”
Chang joined her father’s enterprise in June 2016.
“My day-to-day role is to help guide our company’s direction and establish the partnerships with community organizations, insurance carriers and our clients,” she stated. “My dad focuses on the marketing and public relations aspect.”
KCAL covers the gamut of insurance coverage insurance policies, from auto and residential insurance coverage to enterprise insurance coverage, particular person medical health insurance, life insurance coverage and Medicare.
“We wanted to help the Chinese American community with whatever it was they needed,” she stated.
Working at her father’s firm was tough at first.
“When I first joined, I had bad imposter syndrome,” Chang stated. “We have a lot of imposter syndrome, even if we’re capable.”
Chang, now 35, needed to show her personal worth to the corporate and never be accused of nepotism.
“I took a lot of courses,” she stated. “I spent a lot of time shadowing our employees. I spent a lot of time interviewing clients.”
Also, she joined ACE NextGen, a gaggle for second-technology enterprise house owners.
“I wasn’t the only person feeling scared, afraid to destroy my family legacy,” she recalled.
Chang additionally bought concerned with the Asian Business Association.
“I feel like our voices really need to be amplified because Asian voices often not heard. It’s nice to have an organization like this where I get to befriend and get to know other business owners and community leaders.”
Chang is fluent in Mandarin. As a baby, she resented being despatched to Chinese faculty.
“Now that I’m an adult, I’m so grateful for that education,” she stated.
KCAL employs 140 domestically and one other 60 individuals at two again places of work in Asia serving to with translation proposals.
The most rewarding a part of Chang’s job?
“Customer success stories,” Chang stated. “We’ve had so many clients who were very stressed. We’ve been able to be a resource for them.”
One shopper had a $10 million home that burned down in Malibu throughout the Woolsey Fire. KCAL was in a position to assist the shopper rapidly.
“They’re now super close family friends since that incident,” Chang stated.
Chang has been serving to the enterprise increase.
“During the pandemic, we opened our Ontario office because we saw some of our clients move east into the Inland Empire,” Chang stated. “We currently focused on the Chinese-American community but our goal has always been to serve a multi-ethnic group.”
Unplanned entrepreneur
Park didn’t begin out with the purpose of operating Ten Advertising, and even coming into the advert enterprise.
Born in South Korea, she grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, earlier than coming to California at age 13. Initially, she lived in Huntington Park, the place her mother and father had a enterprise. Then she moved to Downey and Cerritos earlier than attending USC.
While in school, Park didn’t plan on embarking on a profession in promoting.
“That was an evolution,” she stated. “I was in the fashion business before, but I met someone who had an agency in New York and was opening a new branch in Los Angeles. That agency was focused on Asian marketing.”
Park started at Kang and Lee Advertising in 1994 and labored there till it closed in 2000.
She then labored at an advisory agency and — happening the shopper’s facet — was employed to be the nationwide supervisor for Asian advertising and marketing for Hyundai.
After 4 years, she was recruited to run the promoting agency Ten Communications in 2007.
“During the economic downturn, they were going to close the agency,” Park stated. “I decided to take over the agency and change it to Ten Advertising (in 2010).”
Ten Advertising was not an on the spot success.
“It took a lot of time,” Park stated. “Many years of struggling with cash flow and clients leaving. But now we’ve built it up to a good place.”
The greatest a part of being an entrepreneur for Park is working with the crew that she’s constructed, she stated.
However, there are the each day work challenges.
“When we submit the work to the client, we have to translate it into English,” she stated. “Not everything translates 100 percent and sometimes you lose the essence of the ad. It becomes double the work because you have to get approvals on both trains of thought.”