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December 18, 2007

ROI? Not With Those Ads You Won't...

I'm one of those people who don't appreciate commercials. They annoy me and, for the most part, I think they're a waste of money on the advertiser's part and definitely a waste of time for me. If there's a commercial on, I usually just change the channel. Print advertising can be slightly better, but that too I generally don't bother to even glance at.

I remember a statistic from a media class I took at the London School of Economics: only 2% of advertising has actually been found to have a demonstrable effect on consumer purchasing. Whether this statistic actually holds any weight or not, advertising can be damn expensive, and the returns often just aren't proportional.

What really flummoxes me is those advertisements that assume you know what they're for so that they offer you nothing but an ambiguous name attached to an esoteric image. Maybe they're banking on you to be curious enough to Google them as soon as you're near a computer. I for one always forget.

So, being the skeptic towards glib marketing efforts that I am, when there's a commercial or a campaign that I take notice of, it sticks with me. Quirky, powerful, containing an element of surprise or originality, and capable of eliciting emotion or a connection of sorts… That's what I think good advertising is.

Continue reading "ROI? Not With Those Ads You Won't..."

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 1:09 PM | 8 Comments

November 30, 2007

From Veejays to Ceejays? Firebrand's Ad TV

A couple of days ago, I happened upon an article in the Los Angeles Times about Firebrand, a new media company dedicated exclusively to commercials. Its TV show, "Firebrand," premiered Monday and airs weeknights from 11 pm to 12 am on ION Television. The show consists entirely of commercials, some as pure entertainment and some as paid placements (though the spots aren't explicitly distinguished by either category).

Are viewers clamoring to sit through an hour of commercials? Firebrand certainly has big backing -- its investors include Microsoft, NBC Universal, and GE's Peacock Equity Fund. And its CEO and co-founder, John Lack, was one of the minds behind MTV.

Continue reading "From Veejays to Ceejays? Firebrand's Ad TV"

Posted by April Joyner at 1:10 PM | 3 Comments

October 9, 2007

Marketing Tuesday: Print Advertising Measurement Evolves to Include Online Responses

Online is the new offline. Like most catch phrases this one doesn't really say anything earth-shattering; it isn’t really news that more and more things are going digital. What it does rather neatly encapsulate is that in implying the launch of a new dominant mode of operation, there are a host of implications, both online and offline, for lifestyles and business in general, and for the media industry in particular.

Harnessing one's audience to be the creators and well as the recipients -- revolutionizing what it means to be an "audience" by consciously leveling out an age-old hierarchy -- seems to be the direction in which the media industry is headed. Our own website is responding to this change. In a few weeks Fast Company will evolve to capitalize on all the capabilities that being an online company can offer, becoming a site that incorporates social networking and user generated content as heavily prominent and very integral parts of the site.

Near the vanguard of this new wave are advertisers who are increasingly responding to new trends of consumer involvement, accountability, transparency, and a focus on customized content. They are also grappling with the challenges of advertising within the rapidly evolving landscape of the print media as online media continues to develop exponentially, changing consumer expectations and responses both offline and online. It's unsurprising that as consumers are becoming more involved and demanding, so are the advertisers…

An interesting response to this has been on the part of GfK Starch(R) Communications, a company that is well known for surveying consumers' responses to print advertising.

Starch's original methods have been by interviewing consumers in person about how effective they think print advertising is, but with a new service called the eStarch Ad Readership service, the company is now also gathering online responses from the readers of print publications that contain the advertisements.

The Times reports that the new information will be far more relevant and predictive about consumer attitudes and habits, measuring "whether readers of an ad recommend a product or brand to others; whether attitudes toward a brand are changed by an ad; what actions, if any, readers take as a result of seeing an ad; and how much (or little) readers of an ad are 'favorably disposed' toward the advertiser’s brand."

On the one hand, print media has and will continue to have its aficionados, and print media clearly has its value, but on the other, advertisers are increasingly disposed to advertise in environments in which they can measure return on investment. The new Starch service seems to be aiming at bringing the two together: harnessing the online arena to bolster existing offline methods of surveying consumer responses to advertising.

"Since the dawn of advertising, industry professionals have struggled to determine whether their ad campaigns drove consumers to think positively about their brands and to open their wallets... Our new metrics, more completely answer than ever before the $64,000 ROI question that advertisers have been asking since the first ad was created," stated Philip Sawyer, Senior Vice President of GfK Starch(R) Communications.

As consumer expectations are changing and more things are moving online, advertisers are facing certain challenges with regard to advertising in print media. What's your take on what makes for an effective advertisement in traditional print media? Is this something that can easily be measured?

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 4:41 PM | Add Comment

September 17, 2007

Wal-Mart's New Ads: Spots Even a Curmudgeon Could Love

The Martin Agency’s new ads for Wal-Mart have finally hit the air, and I’m shocked to report that -- urban cynic that I am -- even I was touched. OK, so the company exploits its workers, squeezes its suppliers, and does other nefarious things, but it also delivers on its central promise: to save people money. And the Martin Agency’s ads capture that message so appealingly that you’re tempted to forget the rest.

Continue reading "Wal-Mart's New Ads: Spots Even a Curmudgeon Could Love"

Posted by Linda Tischler at 12:50 PM | 3 Comments

September 13, 2007

Marketing: Wal-Mart Ads Embracing People and Prices

Yesterday, Wal-Mart announced its new advertising slogan: "Save Money. Live Better." This is the latest move to embrace sustainability and improve the company's image. This line replaces the one that has been used for 19 years, "Always Low Prices."

This evolution of its message makes perfect sense PR-wise, but it is also practical. The slogan still conveys the affordability of the megastore's goods, but also promotes the increased focus on people and improving the world. The idealist in me thinks this is great. But the cynic in me says the company has made this move so criticism that Wal-Mart's employees don't make a living-wage and words like "The High Cost of Low Prices" are downplayed.

You can watch the latest commercials at the company's new Website. Do you think the slogan is an effective display of the company's mission? Or is it merely a calculated move to improve the retail-giant's image? Or is it both?

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 11:20 AM | Add Comment

July 31, 2007

Another Ad Agency Disruptor?

Yes, it’s been a dizzying—and thrilling—past couple of years as new disruptive business models rise to the surface across every industry imaginable like digital froth bubbling over a cappuccino. Just last week I came across another one—this time for the ad industry—that I thought was cool, and worth sharing: OpenAd.net, a sort of eBay for advertising, marketing, and design ideas. How it works: any company looking for a creative idea posts a brief, a timeframe for turnaround, and how much they’re willing to pay. OpenAd’s global network of 8,000 creatives spanning 122 countries can compete for the business—and may the best ideas win.

The companies posting briefs can be anyone from a corporate behemoth like Coke, to a mom-and-pop shop NYC bodega; equally, the creatives competing can be a freelance art director in Ghana, or a creative team at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (assuming Alex okays it). Companies can access the best creative ideas from any corner of the earth, while creatives can win business for brands that otherwise wouldn’t let them past parking lot security. For instance, P&G posted a brief for a Gillette Fusion campaign in the US and Puerto Rico, and Indian agency Live 1 Entertainment won the business, licensing their idea to P&G for some $4,000. Talk about the borderless wild west.

Interestingly enough, OpenAd is hubbed in Slovenia: its cofounders are Katarina Skoberne, an English-French-Italian-German-Slovenian speaking former ad agency entrepreneur and TV-host (not to mention, she has a degree in electrical engineering), and Vital Verlic, a creative, who rolled out the site in 2003.

Of late, ad agencies have been the proverbial dart board for competitive disruptive models--any chance something like OpenAd could be a viable threat? What other democratizing forces have you stumbled upon?

Posted by Danielle Sacks at 11:35 AM | 2 Comments

July 25, 2007

Innovation Wednesday: Advertising In User Generated Nation-Must We Do Everything?

As if programming debates and blogging endlessly about the minutiae of our collective lives wasn’t enough, we the people are now taking matters into our own cams to show the Madison Avenue ad geniuses how it’s done.

The latest entrant into consumer generated advertising is Heinz. Ketchup lovers and wannabe filmmakers have until August 6th to create and upload their own Heinz commercial to the super special website, seeking internet fame, glory and a grand prize of $57,000. (Get it? 57?) The company is using ketchup bottle labels to promote the contest – 57 million specialty bottles were made! – and according to their website, more than 1200 videos have been submitted.

"If the old model was to spend money on TV advertising to get people to go to the store to pick up a bottle, the new one is to use the ubiquitous Heinz packaging to ask consumers to generate TV ads for us," said Michael Bollinger, director of client services for Smith Brothers Advertising, via Media Post.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the impulse. A lot. I’m just watching the great User Generated pile-on and trying to make distinctions between what is truly authentic, and thereby ground-breaking, and what is merely a creative (and thrifty) use of distributed talent.

Continue reading "Innovation Wednesday: Advertising In User Generated Nation-Must We Do Everything?"

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 11:47 AM | 2 Comments

July 24, 2007

D’oh! The Plot to Simpsonize America

I confess, I was a little sad that I was out of the office the day the Fast Company class photo that appeared in the June issue was taken. One crummy reporting trip and I missed my chance to finally get my mug in the magazine! But fortunately, I now have a chance to show you just what I look like….or would, if I had a yellow face, bug eyes, and lips that look like they were drawn on with a crayon. Which, I guess, they were. Now, if only I could get a bit part in the movie….

By July 27, when The Simpsons Movie debuts, the range of product promotions, tie-ins, and spin-offs is likely to make even the marketing of Harry Potter seem wimpy. But for the next week or so, the idea still is fresh enough to enchant. Which is why I couldn’t resist going to Simpsonizeme.com and seeing what I would look like if I had commissioned Matt Groening do my portrait. A striking resemblance, don't you think?

The site, which is a Burger King tie-in, launched quietly last Monday. Or at least it was supposed to. By mid-afternoon the site was overwhelmed by the crush of folks pining for that hip jaundiced hue. All this, without any visible promotion. What’s up with that? Do Simpsons fanatics all have RSS feeds alerting them to every news bulletin from Springfield? Remind me to check out Salary.com’s newest “Wasting Time at Work” survey. Somewhere, there should be stats on web slacking.

This past Sunday night, the first ads promoting the site, by Crispin Porter + Bogusky (full disclosure: my kid works for the agency, so I got a sneak preview of the site during a pre-launch debugging exercise) aired during “The Simpsons.” Since then, according to Burger King, traffic has really gone through the roof. As of 3 p.m. today, the site had had 153,300,000 hits, and 4,067,378 folks had managed to upload their pictures for a full Simpsonesque make-over. Many more were left pining for that marigold glow, as the site’s traffic still outstripped the capacity to keep up with it. Burger King says it's upped the number of servers from 18 to 38. A few dozen more wouldn’t hurt.

And that’s the trick with the viral beast: make sure you can feed what you unleash. Frustrated Simpsonizers can be crankier than Mr. Burns if courted…then thwarted.

Posted by Linda Tischler at 4:52 PM | 2 Comments

June 27, 2007

Geico’s Gecko Gets Action

So here’s a question for you ROI vs creativity freaks out there: Is the growth in Geico’s market share --- the only player in the auto insurer category to achieve double digit growth over the past four years --- a function of its massive media spend (a whopping $501M in measured media, nearly twice that of any other insurer), or of its clever advertising? You’d have to be one of those effete “we never watch TV” types not to have seen Geico’s gecko, its disgruntled cavemen, or its B-list pitchmen spots at least once or twice over the past year or two. And if you watched the NBA finals, you can probably recite the scripts.

Advertising Age today documents the stunning results the company has gotten for its efforts. Meanwhile, we went behind the scenes at the Martin Agency, an ad shop in Richmond, Virginia, where the campaigns were hatched. So what is it? Engaging advertising or sheer ubiquity? Or something even more radical: a great product?

Posted by Linda Tischler at 3:10 PM | 6 Comments

June 8, 2007

The Future of Interactive Advertising

The face of the advertising industry has changed dramatically over the last few years, as the Internet has become increasingly dominant and has shouldered its way into the mainstream. Although advertising professionals are still inevitably grappling with the notion of how best to harness the power and peculiarities of the Web in order to tell their stories in the most effective manner possible, much of what is generating interest is where this dynamic, volatile platform is headed next.

At a panel yesterday at the Future of Online Advertising Conference in New York, several industry experts tossed around their thoughts on what the future of interactive advertising will be. While there was a spectrum of views on the issue, there seemed to be a tendency for the discussion to keep converging back to focusing on a few particular trends.

A sizeable chunk of ad spending has shifted to the online arena in recent times. Is there really something to be said about the effectiveness of the Internet, or are advertisers just going with the latest fad because they are dissatisfied with the returns they are getting from television advertising?

Definitely the most vocal of the four panelists, Chan Suh -- president and CEO of Agency.com -- answered the question with a firmly pro-online stance: he explained that the Internet provides advertisers with clarity, measurement and increased accountability. Advertisers see the Internet as an opportunity to create a more "gauging relationship;" it provides them with multiple options to develop a deep relationship with, and a richer understanding of, their consumers.

But the consumer's experience online often involves coming up a bunch of random ads that are not targeted at all and in fact having no personal relevance whatsoever.

The general response to this seemed to be that while more customized and targeted ads are the direction in which the industry has heading -- this was almost unanimously acknowledged to be the next big growth market for online ads-- there are also big problems.

According to Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps, through data mining processes nowadays, agencies are aiming to easily and anonymously create and collect consumer profiles that can then be used to fashion advertisements that are targeted in a manner that increases their relevance and effectiveness.

Blum went on to add that the click method of tracking involves the inherent danger of engendering a sense of resentment in consumers, who often feel their privacy is being invaded. His suggestion: advertisers should harness the opportunities presented by social media -- 'scrape' sites like MySpace and Facebook in order to make use of information that people make publicly available about themselves.

Suh was quick to knock the feasibility of this idea, arguing that the cost and time it takes to determine trends and figure out what people want through this method of scraping is not proportionate with the results. In an industry in which clients often demand answers immediately, scraping social media is simply too tedious. He went on to emphasize how useful it would be if ad prices could be determined using cost per influence rather than cost per thousand as their benchmark.

Jim Larrison, GM of Corporate Development at Adify, gave his take on the problem: he explained that the industry has to get smarter about getting hold of a rich inventory of consumer preferences that can then be sold to advertisers.

What will interactive advertising look like in 20 years?

Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of Maven Networks, thinks that it will be "interactively richer… consumers will have more choices regarding how they can interact and what they want to see." Advertisers will be more adept at taking "short impressions and turning them into lasting relationships."

Chan Suh's prophecies were the most eloquent, although perhaps the most hopeful: he explained that the face of interactive advertising will change to become "an incredible dance partner, who knows when you are going to take a sudden step, knows when you're going to dip, and who knows what state of mind you're in based just on your behavior." His take on the future is that advertisers will be able to provide stories and ads based on what consumers want, and not just on what the clients want.

Can display advertising ever achieve the same levels of success as search advertising?

Alex Blum took this one, reiterating his stance on targeted ads -- he explained that the only way to counter this very direct experience of conducting a search is to address the targeting problem, and this can be done through data mining.

With the advance of Internet advertising will the TV become less important?

According to Hilmi Ozguc it will not: he argued that television will continue to remain an extremely important medium, however the face of television will inevitably change, with internet TV coming to the forefront in a manner that blurs any and all boundaries that currently distinguish the internet as a separate platform.

What do you think the future of interactive advertising is? Are there particular trends that are clearly emerging or that you foresee will inevitably emerge over the next few years?

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 1:16 PM | 4 Comments

June 5, 2007

The iPhone and the Internet

Sunday night the new iPhone ads appeared on television. They soon appeared at Apple.com in high definition. The news quickly spread. The iPhone is being released June 29. But Apple fans are a tenacious lot and went over the three commercials with an astounding attention to detail. Additional insights and implied features were revealed--the use of the AT&T logo, the changing number of icons between different shots of the phone, the functionality of the map. The Applerati were in their element and doing their thing.

Continue reading "The iPhone and the Internet"

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 11:59 AM | Add Comment

May 21, 2007

The Little Red Book of Chinese Advertising

“Imagine the Beatles at JFK in 1964. That was what our reception was like.” Kevin Swanepoel, president of The One Club, was recounting what it was like to step before an auditorium of hundreds of clapping, cheering, camera-wielding Chinese students in Beijing and Shanghai at this year’s One Show China Creative Youth Competition.

The occasion? The launch party for the Club’s annual show of student work, generated during the organization’s yearly pilgrimage to the Far East.

Ranged around the room at the One Club Gallery’s on the second floor of 21 E. 26th Street in New York, were samples of the students’ work – a poster of increasingly blackened butterflies with the caption “Tail gas is killing our colors,” for HybridCenter.org, an organization that promotes hybrid vehicles. An elderly Chinese woman surrounded by dozens of cats in a riff on the MasterCard “priceless” campaign. Photography in which a crippled Chinese man, makes his way painfully forward in front of a billboard of Michael Jordan zooming in for a lay-up.

The John, Paul, George and Ringos who incited such excitement in the Far East were hardly your customary rock star types – middle-aged guys with sober haircuts and North Face jackets whose day jobs rarely involved thrash guitars. They had come, in their seventh annual trek, to China to hold creative workshops for young Chinese students with visions of big careers in advertising or graphic design dancing in their heads.

The week-long odyssey was designed to introduce 300 young people, some of whom had traveled 22 hours by train to attend, to the basics of Western advertising and design.

The competition this year was particularly fierce. By November, One Club organizers had received entries from over 1800 teams, representing 115 universities in 34 provinces.

And the work they created was, Joe Duffy, chairman of Duffy & Partners, even better than in previous years -- more original, more confident, and less imitative of the West.

But the prize for the winners is potentially more than just a cool week studying with such advertising and design masters as Duffy, Dave Holloway, creative director of Northern Lights, and Tay Guan Hin, regional EDC of JWT in Southeast Asia. In the wake of China’s 2005 decision to abandon the law requiring advertising conglomerates to partner with local agencies, a herd of major international agency groups have set up shop in the country. The only problem? A serious dearth of local talent.

In past years, Swanepoel says, a number of top students from the program had scored jobs with big agencies within weeks of their completing the program. Given the quality of the work on display, it's clear these kids are ready to compete on not just a national -- but an international -- stage.

The show will run through May 25.

Below is a slideshow of images from One Show China:

Posted by Linda Tischler at 1:38 PM | Add Comment

May 18, 2007

Microsoft's Acquisition of aQuantive Jabs at Google-DoubleClick

Who knew? Back in April when I interviewed aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews for the ad:tech San Francisco opening keynote, "The Digital Decade: What the Past 5 Years Can Teach Us About the Next 5," the industry was abuzz about the impending Google-DoubleClick merger. And not once did McAndrews let on that a similar merger was about to happen for his company. What's the old adage, "Silent but powerful," or "Silent but deadly," or something to that affect.

Today, Microsoft announced that it would pay $6 billion in cash for aQuantive, paying an 85 percent premium, with aQuantive shareholders receiving $66.50 a share. This would be the largest acquisition in the company's history. And while aQuantive's shares rose more than 77 percent after the announcement, Microsoft shares fell 1.1 percent.

The merger between technology company and advertising company is becoming a trend. Google recently agreed to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, while Yahoo acquired 80 percent of Right Media in a deal valued at $680 million, and yesterday WPP Group said it would acquire 24/7 Real Media for $649 million.

Microsoft continues to lag behind Google and Yahoo in search traffic and search advertising revenue, so scooping up one of the largest digital agencies, which includes Avenue A |Razorfish, Atlas, and DRIVEpm, might be one of the smartest moves the software giant has made in a long time.

How will all of this merger activity affect the advertising industry? Will the industry become more competitive or more restrictive? With all of the major power in only a few hands, it would seem it wouldn't be good for the industry at large (just look at what happened to the music industry), but who knows, as advertising continues to move toward integration and becomes more digital-centric this could be the only way to go.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 1:34 PM | 1 Comment

May 14, 2007

The Digital Talent Drought

A couple weeks ago I had the luxury of getting behind-the-scenes access to one of the marketing communications holding companies' agency partner meetings (sorry, can't disclose which one). It quickly became extremely clear the one thing keeping these agencies up at night: how can we attract digital talent?!

Open to today's AdAge, and Lisa Sanders reports on the digital acquisition mania happening by the Madison Avenue holding companies: since last year, Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP have made investments in 18 interactive agencies, including Publicis's hefty $1.3 billion purchase of Digitas in January. Then flip to today's Adweek, which reports the hire of Jonathan Sackett as Arnold's new created role of Chief Digital Officer (following the other recent "CDO" hires at Ogilvy North America, Goodby, Silversetin, and Wieden + Kennedy). Ad agencies are salivating to suck up all the digital marrow they can get their hands on.

As a survivor of the late 90's irrational exhuberance, all this digital rage does start to induce flashbacks of those horrid fast-food "e-commerce degrees." Nevertheless, digital has finally arrived in a very real way, and talk to anyone in advertising right now and they'll tell you digital talent is the hottest commodity and the biggest shortage. There aren't enough of these graphic designing Flash-afficionados out there, and the ones who are have the upper hand: they're getting poached and offered the big bucks left and right.

Have you heard any of these wild poachng stories? What feeder pools are the next gen of digital talent coming from (universities, industries, companies, etc)? What innovative techniques are companies using to attract and hold on to this former geek squad? Which ad agencies are doing digitial right and which ones aren't?

Posted by Danielle Sacks at 5:00 PM | 2 Comments

Report: The Open-Source Ad Agency Model

As if dusty Madison Avenue (see Rehab: An Advertising Love Story) needed another punch in the gut: today, Adweek reported the latest study released by the Corporate Executive Board's Advertising and Marketing Roundtable, which reveals that the majority of brands today want to utilize an "open source" model of agencies, instead of the one-stop shop. As both the media landscape and consumers become more fragmented, big bulky ad agencies like the BBDO's and Y&R's of the world can't get at the nuance required by marketers. Instead, cobbling together a customized team of smaller firms that flaunt expertise in areas like ethnography and digital, is the new buffet-style roster of choice.

When we initially reported this trend back in October 2005 ("Is Madison Avenue Ready to Go Naked?"), we chronicled how "media agnostic" London-shop Naked Communications identifies the business problem, and then recruits the smartest agencies to execute. Similarly, brands like Coke were already starting to cherry-pick their mosaic of agencies, regardless of holding company. Since then, we've recently seen Nike shake up its own mix, handing the Running, Nike Plus, and Nike ID portion of the business to Miami/Boulder hot-shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky, despite its some 25-year love affair with Wieden + Kennedy, who's been producing iconic work for over two decades.

This isn't exactly what the Omnicoms and WPPs had in mind when they went off on acquisition sprees, and this certainly isn't going to help their bottom line. But what marketers are doing is keeping the playing field level: may the best idea producers and executors win, regardless of allegiance. And of course, keep the agencies on their toes like never before. Because if a Wieden + Kennedy can get dumped, anyone can.

Posted by Danielle Sacks at 11:29 AM | 2 Comments

March 28, 2007

Should Small Companies Blog?

I scrolled through Technorati today looking for a blog topic, and I simply typed “technology” to see what would come up. Not surprisingly, the search engine produced a wide variety of sites from a guitarist offering online guitar lessons to a blog about online college degrees.

Nothing intrigued me enough and I continued to look down the page and I noticed a blog titled “Meet Dr. William Boothe.” Unless you’re from Dallas, TX or in the eye-care industry, you might not have had any reason to click on the title. But I grew up in Dallas, and Dr. Boothe’s name is plastered on billboards, his commercials are all over the radio, and he even sponsored prizes at Dallas Mavericks games. My thunder-sticks could not escape his campaign. In Dallas, no one could flee his advertising conquest, but now I can read about him in a blog! Yes, a little slice of home from my work computer in New York.

Continue reading "Should Small Companies Blog?"

Posted by Ryan Derousseau at 12:38 PM | 3 Comments

March 8, 2007

Marketers Just Don't Get It

If you haven't read the Thursday Styles yet, you have to check out the article by Eric Wilson about the new Calvin Klein fragrance. This article managed to make me completely nauseated from start to finish -- mega-corporate marketers are the antichrist completely clueless.

It seems that the label that once epitomized cool with ads that launched Kate Moss's emaciated provocative figure to stardom is now trying to recapture its glory with a new fragrance geared toward the millennial generation. Why my generation (born 1982 - 1995) are called the millennials is beyond me; since we grew up in the age of big hair and spandex. But that is for another blog.

Continue reading "Marketers Just Don't Get It"

Posted by Lisa LaMotta at 2:33 PM | 16 Comments

March 6, 2007

What's the Big Idea?

What’s the value of a good idea?

Distilled, that was the main theme of Strawberryfrog CEO Scott Goodson’s keynote speech, “Change the Model, Change the World,” at yesterday’s Future Marketing Summit in New York. So what’s new about that? For as long as they’ve been around, ad agencies have been talking about the value of a “big idea.” That notion has gotten even more currency when it’s supposed to be the framework around which an integrated marketing campaign – the Website, the branded entertainment, the product placement, the POP stuff, the TV spots, the mugs, the T-shirts, the cents off coupons, the guerrilla campaigns to terrify Boston, etc. – is supposed to be hung.

But while clients ostensibly pay agencies for coming up with grand ideas that will resonate with customers and drive them to the cash registers, in actual fact, most agencies are paid for being suppliers – for delivering the commercial, the collateral, and the event. And, in a global world, that’s a precarious place to be.

What you want to be compensated for is a function higher up the food chain – “It is idea generators who will be most valued – because ideas people create the greatest value, across every industry sector, not just our own,” Goodson says.

Truer words were never spoken. And as the US loses its manufacturing to China, and its service industries to India, the imperative to find better ways to generate great ideas has never been more urgent. That is a skill that’s harder to outsource – and the one that will ultimately pay the bills.

What is your company doing to foster what Goodson calls a “new ideas culture?”

Posted by Linda Tischler at 2:18 PM | 4 Comments

February 13, 2007

Online "Will and Grace" Sell Apartments

Product placement in TV and movies has become common practice. The placement may be casual, as when a character drinks a diet Coke while bemoaning their lackluster sex life, or it may be blatant, as when an entire storyline revolves around Oreos and milk. With the proliferation of online video content, advertisers are looking beyond the small screen for ways -- outside of traditional ad spots -- to insinuate their product into the mind of the consumer.

An article in the Chicago Tribune, drew my attention to an intriguing example of "advertainment" -- original entertainment content, that is not a commercial, but is financed by advertisers. The series of professionally-produced videos chronicle the adventures of a single gal in the city and her gay best friend. Just as in a traditional sitcom, the young duo lives in a fabulous urban apartment. However, the webisodes, unlike a network sitcom such as "Will and Grace," purposefully showcase that apartment, because the webisodes were created on behalf of Cressy Developers, a Vancouver-based builder.

Continue reading "Online "Will and Grace" Sell Apartments"

Posted by Leslie Taylor at 12:51 PM | 2 Comments

February 8, 2007

Ad Nausea

Few people at Masterfoods are snickering behind their hands this week, as the company, a division of Mars, has come under fire for the Snickers ad that aired during the Super Bowl. After complaints from organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, marketers have pulled the ad.

At the same time, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has publicly denounced a GM ad that also aired during the game. While it's debatable whether either ad was bad -- in terms of creativity or political correctness and cultural sensitivity -- the hue and cry raises some interesting questions.

As was seen in the recent Aqua Teen Boston Farce, controversial marketing campaigns can increase the reach a campaign might have otherwise had. But that street goes two ways. Controversial ads also give political and cultural advocacy groups the opportunity to protest publicly -- attracting media attention the groups might not have gotten otherwise, and attracting attention to the groups' causes and issues.

So it's arguable that controversial ad campaigns benefit the very organizations that react negatively in response to the campaigns -- by providing them a mass-market platform for their messages.

Posted by Heath Row at 10:22 AM | Add Comment

January 25, 2007

Campaigning for Oscar Viewers

In the wake of Tuesday's Oscar nominations, a newly-envisioned Oscar ad campaign is now fully underway. With a month left until broadcast, it is the typical time when TV ads start popping up. Usually the ads feature the Academy Awards host giving a generic plug for the "big night." But that isn't so this year. Apparently Jon Stewart's unbounded popularity didn't pull enough viewers to their television sets last year to meet the Academy's approval.

In past years, the Academy has relied on the Oscar brand to sustain ratings, but with the number of viewers dropping, they have called for an overhaul of their traditional ad campaign--this is the year to shake things up.

Continue reading "Campaigning for Oscar Viewers"

Posted by Tamara Schweitzer at 3:41 PM | 2 Comments

January 11, 2007

Commissioning a Symphony

This news is a bit old at this point, but I just learned about it, and it might still merit mention. While companies such as Symantec are experimenting with the idea of adverbands, another company -- Nike -- is foregoing promoting fake bands in order to commission original music from already active musicians.

Last fall, Nike commissioned a 45-minute workout mix from LCD Soundsystem. Earlier in the year, Nike had commissioned a mix from the Crystal Method.

Both commissions were less advertisements as such but marketing tools to encourage people to use Nike's Nike+ system, which helps people track workouts using their iPods.

This effort also differs from the formerly popular practice of commissioning company theme songs or using pop songs in TV adverts. But does the resulting music stack up? Reviews seem to indicate so.

Were you to commission music for your customers, what would you aim to accomplish?

Posted by Heath Row at 11:07 AM | 2 Comments

December 11, 2006

The Sound of Advertising

Usually, I avoid advertising like the plague. It doesn't matter what type of advertising either. Television -- I tune out or change the channel. Radio -- I turn the dial. Print -- I flip through pages quickly to get to the content, unless it's a brand that already interests me. And the same goes for Web. Since I work in media, I suppose it's easy for me to do that. But that's probably not the case for most consumers.

Recently, I felt like "most consumers." In New York city, everywhere you go, there's some Bose ad in your face. Either for the TriPort in-ear headphones or for the iPod SoundDock. If you ride the subway, they're there, above your head when you look up. If you enter or leave a subway station, they're there on some poster glued to the wall. Bus stops. Pay phones. They're there also.

New York is inundated with Bose advertising. And yet, a media savvy person like myself got taken in. But in my case it was easy. I've never been a fan of the sound of the headphones that Apple packages with its iPod. The size of the headphones just never work for my ears either. And though I have a pretty nice pair of over the head noise canceling headphones, they're just not that convenient for running around the city. In fact, those are my airplane listening apparatus of choice.

So, I was an easy target. After about the tenth time seeing the TriPort ad, I logged onto the Bose Web site and ordered a pair. Thankfully, they work and fit well, and the sound quality is awesome.

But I wonder, under normal circumstances, does that kind of advertising saturation works as a good marketing strategy. Or do consumers simply become immune to those types of campaigns?

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 10:38 AM | 2 Comments

November 2, 2006

OgilvyOne to Marketers: Let's Get Digital

The boys on stage at OgilvyOne’s big digital convergence at Jazz at Lincoln Center yesterday looked suspiciously like they had wandered in from Internet World circa 1999…earnest young West Coast geeks, with big ideas and even bigger peer influence, making fortunes crafted from bits, bytes, and blogs.

OgilvyOne, the digital arm of the big ad agency, had managed to wrangle a red-carpet’s worth of Web 2.0 talent to dazzle its 700 clients and guests at the private affair: YouTube Co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley, he of the brushed-back hair and recently pumped-up wallet; grizzled relationship advisor Shawn Gold, whose day job is VP of Content for MySpace; Tom Gerace, founder and CEO of Gather.com; Stewart Butterfield, Co-founder of Flickr; and Nick Grouf, co-founder of Spot Runner, among them.

While exuberant about their companies' prospects, these young entrepreneurs weren’t spouting the same business-model –free tripe that got their older brethren (and all of us trusting investors) in so much trouble six years ago. While conceding that most of their businesses were still struggling to make money, they nonetheless offered -- under none-too-gentle probing by Old Media rep Michael Wolff -- some insights into what marketers should know in attempting to navigate this techtonic media shift.

The most entertaining bits:

Best reason why your high school’s Most Popular kids should buff their resumes: According to Gold, the appeal of MySpace is that it offers a creative way for users to connect with each other. The only way, then, for a marketer to ingratiate itself with the site’s audience is to enhance that value by offering tools that cater to users’ desire for attention, belonging, knowledge, and access. His advice on how to do that? “Ogilvy marketers should hire people who were popular in high school who have those skills. “

Most alarming (for marketers) spin on Andy Warhol's aphorism: Noting that his favorite use of Flickr was to check out new pictures of his toddler nephew three times a day, Butterfield offered this piercing insight: “In the network culture, everyone isn’t famous for 15 minutes, they’re famous to 15 people.” "And how do we make money?” a marketer behind me whispered to his friend.

Most embarrassing moment for Ogilvy staffers: When Gather’s Gerace, explaining why marketers need to pay attention to their customers’ opinions, noted, “Consumers can now talk to one another. They can set up “Yourbrandisterrible.com” web sites. If you say, "Coke adds life," someone is sure to write in that they know somebody who drank Coke all their life and died young.” (Coke is one of the agency’s big accounts)

Most productive way geezer marketers can use Youtube: "The site’s a good place to test concepts, “ says Hurley. “Think of it as a video sandbox.” But, he warned, don’t get too uppity with those production values. Gritty is better. “Pixellated content is more authentic.”

Best spin on why Ogilvy clients should let go of their inner accountants and get with the chaotic, brave new digital world: “I know ROI is on your mind, but the value of this is incalculable,” Shelly Lazarus, Ogilvy CEO, said. “Control is so 20th Century.” To break through the noise of a million air guitarists, lip syncing Chinese students, and lonely girl poseurs, content needs to be very very very creative, she says.

And I bet you can guess her punchline: “When it comes to brand engagement, we are the pros.”

Posted by Linda Tischler at 4:49 PM | 1 Comments

October 19, 2006

Disney Says "No" to Transfats and Sex

Just days after Disney announced its healthy food initiative comes the news that Mickey, Minnie, and a snowman have engaged in a threesome at Euro Disney.

Apparently, staff members at Euro Disney made a video of the costumed characters simulating sex acts and then distributed the recording, only to have it appear on YouTube.com and other video Websites.

Although currently focused on launching healthy food selections in theme parks, Disney’s P.R. department sprang into action at news of the sex tape, and issued a statement protesting such an outrageous video. Disneyland Paris has now begun an investigation into the Mickey and Minnie (and snowman) sexcapade, all of which was filmed by Disney employees on Euro Disney park grounds.

There’s no doubt that Disney officials will soon uncover the video-making offenders, but I do wonder if the American public will ever hear of the situation again. Now that it’s in Disney’s hands, this inappropriate event will likely disappear -- just like magic. We can chalk it up to Disney’s excellent P.R. department, which knows how to make health food in the park seem more interesting than a rodent spanking.

If you take a look at Disney’s corporate website, you’ll be impressed with the responsible measures they’re taking to ensure that children who visit the parks receive the appropriate caloric intake and avoid unhealthy transfats. But what about the company’s corporate responsibility to keep the public informed of less appropriate news? It’s fine if Disney wants to keep everyone inside park walls happily oblivious to all things negative, but they can’t continue to ignore those on the outside who want to know what’s really happening.

Most companies Disney’s size have a corporate responsibility blog, or some sort of un-touched news feed where consumers and executives can interact with one another on some plane. But Disney just clings to their P.R. department to put the right spin on everything.

What do you think? Do you prefer to imagine Disney as a true wonderland with no faults, no scandals and no humping mice? Or does Disney need to wake up and deal with real-world corporate problems? Disney is a big player, and they need to keep in mind that it’s a small world, after all.

Posted by Kathryn Tuggle at 4:41 PM | 4 Comments

October 13, 2006

When Entertainment and Advertising Clash

The relationship between advertising and hip-hop music and its artists has proven to be invaluable over the years. A rap verse in an automobile ad, a bass-thudding beat in a fast food ad, an award-winning rapper in a beverage ad -- all par for the course -- it's always clear that it's advertising. So what happens when advertising masquerades itself as hip-hop entertainment, and the line between advertising and entertainment gets blurry? Thanks to YouTube, we have the perfect case study.

In recent months, hip-hop impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs began posting home video clips to YouTube and promoting his upcoming CD -- his first in five years -- Press Play. These videos are also publicized on his MySpace profile page. Videos of the artist urinating or getting a hair cut had become fodder for bloggers and entertainment websites.

But last week, the entertaining novelty of Diddy's home videos took a turn when the artist partnered with Burger King to launch a branded channel -- Diddy TV -- on YouTube and launched with a video of Diddy going into his local Burger King, ordering food, and announcing the partnership. A branded channel like Diddy TV is YouTube's attempt to promote a user-friendly advertising model. It worked in August when the Paris Hilton channel launched. Not so with Diddy TV.

The official Diddy TV launch resulted in some backlash for YouTube, with users posting parody videos and leaving comments about their dissatisfaction with YouTube enabling celebrities and brands to buy their way into the community, as well as calling Diddy a sellout.

Perhaps the site's users should calm down and accept branded channels. They could have to deal with preroll advertising, short spots that are immune to fast-forwarding, or video ads interspersed through each clip they watch on YouTube. The video community site is a business after all.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 2:56 PM | 1 Comment

September 12, 2006

I Want my Bud.TV

Last week I read that Anheuser-Busch will launch its own Web entertainment network, Bud.TV, in February. Instead of spending money on loads of advertising next year, the brewer will launch an online network aimed at the 21 to 27 market.

Already on tap, are channels reminiscent of other Web video properties. There'll be Bud Tube, for user-generated video, including homemade ads for Bud or Bud Light, as well as sports, reality, comedy, and happy hour programming.

Is this a sign of what's to come for the entertainment and advertising industries? Will more businesses start bypassing advertising on traditional television and cable networks and opt to launch their own online networks instead?

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 11:03 AM | 3 Comments

September 1, 2006

Advertising Risk

If you don't know by now, there's been a heap of controversy over CBS' decision to group contestants by ethnicity for the next season of Survivor: Cook Island. Perhaps not the most PC thing to do for CBS. In fact, General Motors, The Coco-Cola Co., The Home Depot, United Parcel Service, and Campbell Soup have all pulled advertising and sponsorship from the reality show.

GM's decision to leave the show, though not based on CBS' new gimmick to reign in viewers, has definitely sent a signal to other advertisers. According to figures from TNS Media Intelligence, GM accounted for $14.7 million, or 18 percent of the $80.7 million spent by the 50 top advertisers of the show. Since GM's pullout, CBS has announced that the void has been filled, yet the television network has not named which companies are now supporting the show.

What would you do? Is it safe for a company to align itself with a brand surrounded by controversy?

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 9:59 AM | 3 Comments

August 14, 2006

Innovation: Start by Leaving the Customer Alone

This post is a complete list of every promotion flung at the crowd during a single Mets-Padres game. 47 sponsored promotions from 36 companies in 9 innings. And you know someone's sitting in a meeting right now trying to work out how to create a promotion that will 'really break through'. Sometimes the best innovation is to be somewhere else.

Posted by Russell Davies at 2:05 PM | Add Comment

Web 2.0 Messaging.

I spend an increasing amount of my consulting time advising companies about the strategic nature of messaging. Not PR, messaging. Not just small companies either, but large and very large ones too. At the highest executive levels. And the one thing that continually surprises me is just how few people realise one simple rule - PR, or public relations to give it the full title, is not a strategic activity. It is tactical. On the other hand, messaging - the crafting of the vision and goals of your company's differentiated personality, for delivery to your target market - is strategic. In fact nowadays it is probably the single most strategic thing you can do, almost more than choosing the products and services you will be supplying to your chosen market.

Continue reading "Web 2.0 Messaging."

Posted by Nigel Powell at 7:43 AM | Add Comment

August 7, 2006

A Very Fowl Film

“People say never to work with babies or animals,” says Alex Bogusky, executive creative director of hot ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. “But I think the people who say that have never worked with chickens.”

Bogusky should know, having buffed his creds yet again as the ad industry’s go-to man for poultry-themed cinema. Having delivered the capon equivalent of “Basic Instinct” with the sleazy Subservientchicken.com, CP+B upped the stakes this time by doing an encore chicken-centered performance piece for Burger King’s fries – this one involving real, live fowl.

The agency’s latest Web foray, which can be seen on chickflix.com, is a series of mini film clips of chickens milling around a tiny set that viewers can string together to create their own barnyard pot boiler.

The stars, Bogusky says, had a “class system that determines who plays what roles.” Guess that’s where the term “pecking order” comes from, although it probably didn’t originate on a sound stage in LA.

Mike Howard, Crispin’s main chicken handler, confessed that, this being Hollywood, a certain prima donna-like behavior ran rampant on the set. “The sad truth is, all chickens act like preening superstars,” he says. “You can’t imagine the immensity of chicken ego we were forced to deal with. Our lead rooster – a young, aggressive Leghorn – refused to place one foot on set with the other chickens (who were actually brown hens and, to be fair, much more docile birds and vastly inferior actors), so we filmed them separately and then composited them together in each of the shots they shared.”

Like all superstars, the birds had their whims, which their posses scrambled to satisfy. “They liked potato chips, and yet ironically, they had the restraint to not eat the French fries all over the set.”

Still, Howard had nothing but praise for his feathered thespians, despite their occasionally diva-like eccentricities. Like any Oscar contenders, he said, “They demanded darkness and complete quiet as they entered and exited the set."

In the end, however, “these chickens were all real pros, drawing heavily from the Brechtian acting traditions. In the words of our director, “We sense their authority as stage actors, and yet there is always a self-reference – the audience is always aware of the satire.”

We’ll be looking for their appearance soon on “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”

Posted by Linda Tischler at 2:06 PM | 3 Comments

July 31, 2006

Water for Women

If someone were to give you a bottle of water that appeared to have an hour-glass frame and then proceeded to tell you that in drinking said water:

1. you will be provided with all of the calcium and magnesium that you needed for that day, and
2. you will have a healthier body and be in better shape...

would you believe them? Well I didn't either, but that seems to be the pitch behind Contrex Natural Mineral Water, another sponsor at BlogHer '06.

Contrex is reported to contain 486 mg/L of calcium and 84 mg/L of magnesium, which equals 11.5% of the RDI for calcium and 5% of the RDI for magnesium --- and with no calories. True or not, the entire marketing strategy comes off a little hokey (from the bottle design to the overall focus on body shape) feeding into many women's insecurities with their body weight and shape.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 5:11 PM | 2 Comments

July 25, 2006

HP's Viral Video Maneuver

What better way to garner the attention of the YouTube generation than with your own brand of viral videos.

Yesterday I watched the premiere of HP's latest installment in its "The Computer is Personal Again" campaign on Vibe.com, an urban music and lifestyle publication's Web site. The commercial featured Pharrell Williams, one half the musical production team The Neptunes, who have produced hits for such megastars as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, No Doubt, and Jay-Z. As of this writing, the commercial had not yet appeared on HP's site and won't air on TV until July 25, according to GEARlog.

Continue reading "HP's Viral Video Maneuver"

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 1:43 PM | 16 Comments

July 20, 2006

Retailing—For Real?—and Dr. Z

Ecstacy! Macy's, the department store chain, tells The New York Times that it will star in a new reality program, "Unwrapping Macy's," debuting in September on WE, the Women's Entertainment Network.

Which is a good thing, of course, because there isn't nearly enough "reality" programming on television. Sigh...

But I digress. The Times says that "Unwrapping Macy's" will offer "a behind-the-scenes look at how the retailer operates its stores, selects merchandise, creates a catalog and runs events like the annual Thanksgiving Day parade." Steven Weinstock, one of the show's producers, said that life at Macy's is "inherently dramatic," because of creative conflicts with staff members and the deadline pressure of each passing fashion season.

Right.

Continue reading "Retailing—For Real?—and Dr. Z"

Posted by Keith Hammonds at 8:18 AM | 14 Comments

July 19, 2006

Your Ad Here

On page 51 of the current issue of FC, we talk about advertising that’s moved beyond traditional media and into the urinal, the airport and the parking lot.

Now we can add to that list. An article today from the AP says US Airways is going to begin advertising on its barf bags. And CBS will start advertising its programs on eggshells using new laser technology.

Continue reading "Your Ad Here"

Posted by Tonya Garcia at 5:43 PM | 5 Comments

June 9, 2006

More Goodies from Larry Weber

More quotes, paraphrased:

The first line of offense in the future marketing department: a 24-hour picture of the conversation landscape.

Creativity will raise its head 'big time' in the next three years. 'Campaigns, content and delivery' are the next wave of getting one's marketing message out. Creativity's going to be about creating webisodes and podcasts that are funny, amusing and can be shared.

Johnson & Johnson has done a great job with Baby.com, being transaprent in saying we sponsor it but have no control over the content... Sponsorship will be big, i.e. "Brought to you by..." I think the smart companies will follow the lead of PBS and NPR model.

The Fortune company I joined had only two C-level titles but by the time I left they were introducing another C-level job - COO. Then I moved to Boston and started encountering all these information system managers. And then CTO's came into being. And then next was CIO's. The fastest growing title these days: CMO - I'm convinced that whenever a category of business gets screwed up we create a C title and let that person deal with it [laughter].

Tells a funny story about a history teacher who was French who reprimanded them for missing a transitional chapter in history, saying 'we did not go to sleep in the Renaissance and wake up in the Baroque.' I think that's where we are now - we're having our own Rococo now. We're in the middle of transition and it'll take time for things to settle down. We need people who can bridge the old and new.

Posted by Hylton Joliffe at 1:54 PM | Add Comment

Larry Weber, Rapid Fire

Quick snippets, mostly paraphrased, from Larry Weber's discussion with Lois Kelly, in no particular order:

On advertising: "I have very little respect for it."

On PR: "It's going through dramatic change - It's still a lazy, unthoughtful, not transparent discipline."

"Marketing and PR folks have convinced themselves they're an industry. They're not. Instead they're tied to the industry of media."

"Brand is the dialogue you have with your constituents. "

"Many will say Disney is a great brand. I say it's broken. Pixar's done a much better job of engaging with its constituents."

"Creation of media brands is happening much faster - Daily Candy, BoingBoing are being built in 10 years instead of the hundred years it's taken to build brands such as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal."