The Christmas Can-Can!

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

Hoping you and yours have a safe and happy end of 2010! :)

Get Your Own!

If my office is anything like yours, everyone is food motivated. Here's to Subway for channeling the inner lunch room kid in all of us:






(Courtesy of Youtube)

Accenture Drops Tiger Woods as Sponsor

Global consulting firm Accenture PLC has ended its relationship with Tiger Woods, marking the first major sponsor to cut ties altogether with the golfer since his alleged infidelities surfaced and he announced an indefinite leave from the sport to work on his marriage.

In its first statement since the Woods' scandal erupted, Accenture said Sunday the golfer is "no longer the right representative" after the "circumstances of the last two weeks."

The move ends a six-year relationship during which the firm credited its "Go on, be a Tiger" campaign with boosting its image significantly.

Accenture has used Woods to personify its claimed attributes of integrity and high performance.

"After careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising," Accenture said, adding that "it wishes only the best for Tiger Woods and his family."

The firm plans to immediately transition to a new advertising campaign, with a major effort scheduled to launch later in 2010. An Accenture spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Advertising firm Young & Rubicam, which has handled the company's Tiger Woods ads, also would not comment on the move.

One of the risks of advertising tied to a celebrity is that "your image gets carried by someone you can't control," said Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management.

"They definitely understand there's damage," Bernstein said of Accenture.

Accenture's advertising campaign was almost entirely built around Woods and his success, portraying his ability to sink a key putt or hit out of the rough.

If Woods had acknowledged mistakes and said he would be back in a month, Accenture might be able to ride it out, said Rick Burton, a professor of sports management at Syracuse University, in an interview.

But Accenture can't afford to wait for what could be a long time before Woods returns.

"They had tied everything in their campaign to Tiger Woods it appeared," he said. "If he's not golfing, those ads don't make sense."

Burton said Accenture's billboards and airport advertising need to be replaced quickly.
Without a backup plan, the company might fall back on something simple and conservative that could highlight its logo.

"It is probably prudent to take a low-key, conservative approach until they determine what their next message is that they want to send," he said. Accenture will have to determine whether it wants to stick with sports or whether its been too burned by what happened and will go another route, Burton added.

"Accenture has made a decision to not continue with their sponsorship. We are disappointed but respect their decision," said Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG Worldwide.

The PGA Tour said it would have no comment.

Accenture has been title sponsor since 2001 of the Match Play Championship, a lucrative World Golf Championship event that draws the top 64 players from the world ranking.

Accenture earlier this year renewed its sponsorship of the tournament through 2014. The contract is separate from its business endorsement with Woods.

The management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company has clients in more than 120 countries and about 177,000 employees across 52 countries.

Starting as the consulting arm of now-defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen, it split off in 1989 under the name Andersen Consulting, eventually ending all ties with Andersen and changing its name to Accenture.

The company went public in 2001 and now has a market cap of $26 billion.

Earlier this year Accenture shifted its place of incorporation from Bermuda to Ireland, where it has done business for about 40 years.

Woods' array of endorsements helped him become the first sports star to earn $1 billion, according to Forbes. But while not terminating its relationship completely, another major Woods sponsor pulled away this weekend.

On Saturday, Gillette, which uses the slogan "The best a man can get," said it won't air advertisements featuring Woods or include him in public appearances for an unspecified time. Woods was hired by Gillette in 2007 and has been in ads for Gillette Fusion Power razors with titles like "Phenom" and "Champions" with other stars including tennis great Roger Federer and soccer player Thierry Henry.

Other sponsors continue to stick with Woods for the time being.

On Monday, Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer said it will continue its association with Woods.
"He's the best in his domain," spokeswoman Mariam Sylla told The Associated Press. "We respect his performance in the sport."

Sylla said Woods' personal life was "not their business."

Electronic Arts, whose EA Sports division has been selling Tiger Woods video golf games for a decade, said Sunday, "We respect that this is a very difficult, and private, situation for Tiger and his family. At this time, the strategy for our Tiger Woods PGA TOUR business remains unchanged."

The game's next edition featuring Woods comes out in six months.

AT&T said Sunday that it continues to evaluate its relationship with the golfer.

Nike Inc. said late Friday that it supported Woods' decision to take time off.


(Courtesy ESPN.com)

Goal Celebrations - Coca-Cola Loves Them, Too

Don't know who all follows soccer out there, but after hearing the news yesterday that my beloved Western Mass native Jay Heaps is retiring from the NE Revolution after playing in MLS for 11 seasons (we'll miss you, Jay!), I was in a soccer state of mind.

I have to say, one of my favorite moments in any game is the goal celebration. (Or most loathed, depending on who is doing the scoring.) It's just one of those joyous occasions where it's OK for grown men to act completely ridiculous and leap into each other's arms and celebrate. Love 'em.

Anyway, Coca-Cola has a few different programs they're launching for the World Cup that sound pretty awesome:

Coca-Cola Celebration Award
For the first time ever, Coca-Cola will recognize the tournament's best goal celebration. Fans will be able to vote for the eventual winner online. For every goal scored during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ and celebrated with a dance, Coca-Cola will make an additional donation to the Company's "Water for Schools" effort that helps provide schools access to safe drinking water. The award will only recognize celebrations conducted within the rules of the game.

World's Longest Celebration
Coca-Cola is inviting football fans to film and upload their own goal celebrations to the Coke website. All clips will be edited into a continuous 'loop' to create a non-stop celebration that will air on the website. Eligible fans will have the chance of winning great FIFA World Cup™ prizes including match tickets.

'Coca-Cola Presents: Celebrating the Goal' Documentary
Coca-Cola is producing a 60-minute documentary which investigates the stories behind the world's most famous goal celebrations and catches up with 2010 FIFA World Cup™ players as they plan their African inspired celebrations for the tournament. The documentary will be broadcast globally in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

Sweeeeeeet! Consider this my official run to the corner and fake-boxing-with-my-teammates dance of jubilation!

(Courtesy of Coca-Cola and YouTube)

Best Buy Holiday Ad Controversy

Every year around this time, Americans are bombarded with holiday advertising messages.

Oh, whoops, I used the word holiday and not Christmas. I'll probably be hearing soon from the American Family Association that I'm anti-Christmas and get written up on their "Naughty or Nice Christmas list." On the naughty side, naturally.

Best Buy sent flyers out last week promoting Thanksgiving sales and included what seemed like an innocuous message saying "Happy Eid al-Adha," a holiday of sacrifice for followers of Islam that occurred on Nov. 27 this year - the day after Thanksgiving.

Apparently not so innocuous, according to some, but decide for yourself. The image below is the full page of the flyer, and the second image is a close-up view of the message under fire:


Close-up:
The AFA was already upset that Best Buy was going to use the phrase "Happy Holidays" instead of Merry Christmas" for it's December advertising and sales promotions, and it's not the first time for THAT either...

Karen Datko at MSN Money writes:

The Mississippi-based American Family Association targeted Best Buy Inc. in 2006 after a company spokeswoman said it would favor “happy holidays” in its ads in recognition that several holidays occur at that time of year. Meanwhile, Christmas themes did NOT disappear from Best Buy ads.

Sure, it's fine to say "Merry Christmas" to all those who celebrate that holiday, but we're not allowed to celebrate the multiple other holidays that occur around the same time? And sure, the shopping this season may be mostly for Christmas, but I don't think we need to be freaking out about this. Who cares what holiday someone is buying presents for? Shouldn't we be happy that consumers are actually spending some money?

You'd think the AFA would be pleased that so many parents are able to provide gifts for their children on Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, etc. and in turn create happy family holiday moments.

But wait, I forgot, the AFA doesn't like it when other holidays are even mentioned in advertising, because the organization is calling on consumers everywhere to boycott Gap, Inc., and it's other properties, including Old Navy and Banana Republic:

Randy Sharp, a rep for the AFA, said that a Gap rep sent the group an e-mail alerting them to this year's campaign, via Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, that does use the word "Christmas," but Sharp said the ad, which features the line "Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, Go Kwanzaa, Go Solstice," and beckons consumers to "86 the rules," is offensive. "It looks like an attempt to patronize people," he said. "What they did was almost make a joke of it."

A Gap rep, however, said the advertising mentions different holidays because the brand "is and has always been an inclusive, accessible brand in which everyone can participate and we embrace diversity across all of our customers, and more importantly respect their beliefs as individuals . . . We focus our marketing on the joys of the holiday season as a whole."

If you ask me, the AFA is sucking the joy right out of the season. The HOLIDAYS are about family and togetherness, no matter your religion.

If anything I think Hanukkah should be getting more advertising airtime - they have 8 whole days of presents! Think of the advertising opportunities there!

(Courtesy of AdWeek, Brandweek, AFA, and MSN Money)

Happy Turkey Day!

Hope you and yours have a happy holiday tomorrow! :)

More than 8.6 million Households Obtain Coupons via Text Messages and/or E-mail

Providence, RI, Top City for Text/Email Coupon Users

New York, New York (Vocus/PRWEB ) August 19, 2009 -Americans continue to watch their spending and to look for good deals in the sluggish economy, and coupons are an important method of saving money. Consumer and media research firm Scarborough Research released an analysis highlighting the ways households are obtaining coupons. The study found that text messages and/or email are an emerging method for households to obtain coupons. 8.6 million (eight percent) of U.S. households currently acquire coupons via text messages and/or email. While not the leading medium for household coupon obtainment - the Sunday newspaper holds this distinction, and other means such as in-store circulars and regular mail still surpass it - couponing via text messages and/or email is gaining a following among American consumers.

"We began measuring text/email coupon usage in our most recent Scarborough study, and I am not surprised to see that households are taking advantage of this new couponing medium," said Gary Meo, senior vice president of digital media and print services, Scarborough Research. "Coupons received via text messaging are typically sent only to consumers who have opted-in to receive them. This increases the relevancy of the offer and the potential for the consumer to act on that offer. An additional benefit is the mobility of cell phones and other personal communications devices, which allow consumers to access the coupon at the point of purchase."

Those consumers who obtain coupons via text messages and/or email tend to be young, affluent, educated and female. Scarborough data shows that they are 14% more likely than the average adult to be ages 18-24; 51% more likely to be a college graduate or have an advanced degree; and six percent more likely to be female.

Where do these consumers live? The top local market for text message and/or email coupon users is Providence, RI. Twelve percent of households in Providence typically obtain coupons via text message or email. Washington D.C., Atlanta, San Diego, Austin and Chicago, where 11% of households get coupons via this medium, are also among the leading markets for this activity.


(Courtsey of PRWeb)

Political Advertising to Surge in 2010

It will rise 11% over '08 to $3.3 billion, but still lag behind the record-setting spending of '06

Oct 21, 2009

- Katy Bachman

NEW YORK Political advertising will hit $3.3 billion in 2010, an 11 percent increase over 2008, but a 4 percent decrease from 2006, according to a Wells Fargo Securities report released today.

The ad windfall, more than 60 percent of which goes to local TV, will be fueled by the election of 37 governors, 38 senators, the entire House of Representatives and issue advertising (which could approach $1 billion) on hot-button topics such as healthcare.

The factors affecting the 2010 forecast are similar to those that made the ad spending of $3.4 billion in '06 a record year for political advertising.

"2010 political spending will most closely resemble 2006, as it was the last time a large number of governor races were held, and congressional elections faced similar conditions (i.e., declining presidential and congressional approval ratings and contentious issues)," wrote Marci Ryvicker, senior analyst and author of the report.

Broadcast TV will reap the lion's share at $2.2 billion (or 67 percent of the total), with $2 billion going to local TV, $150 million to cable and $50 million to network TV. Direct mail will get $650 million (or 20 percent of the ad spend), followed by radio at $250 million (or 8 percent) and newspaper at $95 million (or 3 percent). Outdoor and the Internet are forecast to reach $55 million and $50 million, respectively.

A robust political advertising market couldn't come at a better time for the TV business, which has been hammered by the soggy economy and a sinking auto category. Political ads are likely to be large contributors to a modest increase for spot TV between 3.6 and 6.1 percent, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising's forecast.

TV groups most exposed to hotly contested races include Disney's ABC stations at 63 percent, Journal Communications (53 percent) and CBS (46 percent).

Although political advertising has made up only 3 to 5 percent of total revenue radio also stands to gain. Radio groups most exposed to political races include Disney's radio properties (63 percent), Beasley Broadcast Group and Regent Communications (both 61 percent) and CBS (58 percent).

"Any incremental ad dollars will contribute significantly to [radio's] year-over-year top-line growth, especially given the easy comparisons of 2009," Ryvicker wrote.


(Courtesy of AdWeek)

The Eternal Struggle: Miracle Whip vs. Stephen Colbert

OK, "eternal struggle" is probably pushing it, but as sandwich condiment debates run, this is epic.

A few weeks ago on the Colbert Report, TV faux pundit Stephen Colbert picked a fight with Miracle Whip. Specifically, he poked fun at a new commercial targeted toward a younger crowd, claiming that Miracle Whip "will not tone it down."

Colbert, so offended by the so-called mayonay-sayers, created his own commercial extolling the virtues of mayonnaise. (Check it out here!)

Well, in the struggle for sandwich spread supremacy, the MW marketing team made a smart move by publishing an open letter in a number of newspapers calling out Colbert for his recent attacks and announcing they were buying airtime to run multiple ads during last night's episode of the Report:

Awesome. Not only does the BOLD MW marketing team understand the value of Colbert's quips, they see the value in engaging his audience in an ongoing mock debate about whether mayo or Miracle Whip is better.

Colbert banks on his viewers to do his bidding (as Colbert Nation has recently become a sponsor of US Speed Skating and is raising donations on the CN website) and true to form, he addressed the Great Mayo Debate on last night's episode. Here's the video:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Miracle Whip Buys Ad Space
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

(Courtesy of Comedy Central and YouTube)

Silly Ad Wednesday

AdLab's 5th anniversary was yesterday - congrats!

Go check out some of the ridiculous advertising schemes that are posted over there, good for a chuckle on Hump Day:

Advertising on Flies - They have mini banner ads attached to them, check out the video

Armpit Video Advertising - Yep

School Exam Advertising - Just in case the kids aren't bombarded with enough ads, we'll throw this in for good measure

Branded Shadows on the Moon - You read that right, and it's just as ridiculous as it sounds

Enjoy!



(All courtesy of AdLab)

90% of Teens Disapprove of Advertisers Texting Them

The following information nuggets were taken from a Teen Advertising Study conducted by Fuse Marketing and UMass (whoop whoop, my hometown of Amherst!):

- 75% of teens believe TV advertising is an appropriate way to reach them and/or prefer to be reached this way.

- Print ads receive high approval too - magazines (50%) are second most effective medium in reaching teens

- While 79% of teens surveyed have visited a brand's official website for product information, results indicate they are not interested in interacting with brands on social networks. Only 29% of teen respondents say they have "friended" a brand on their social networks.

- While 90% of teens text, the survey found that 90% of teen respondents disapprove of advertisers texting them with product messages


Obviously social media and cell phone advertising (including texts and apps) are a great way to connect businesses with consumers, we just have to remember that once advertising becomes too invasive it can start to turn teens off.

To view the full survey results, click here (and be prepared to sift through 90 Powerpoint slides).

The Power of Advertising - Ripley's Believe It or Not Style

So I spent this last weekend in Branson, Missouri with my younger brother. We tooled around town, saw some GREAT shows (Liverpool Legends were fantastic, and the Dixie Stampede was the dinner show to end all dinner shows - if you are ever in Branson, see BOTH of these!), and met some really amazing people along the way.

And of course, the following exhibit in the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum about the power of advertising caught my eye:

It's true the old "cure-all" and patent medicines had no basis in fact (or even in reality, I mean, a blood, liver, and stomach renovator? What does that even mean??), but they definitely knew how to advertise.

Here are a few funny ads for patent medicines. Don't be fooled!

Final Score - Revolution 0, Fire 0....Cranberries Win!

Saturday night I was at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA for a soccer game with my Mom and brother. (Go Revs!)

Anywho, the game ended in a scoreless tie but there were some interesting marketing opportunities that caught my eye, similar to the ones I'd mentioned in a previous post about the Red Sox sponsors...

As we entered the stadium, we were greeted by a number of people in Ocean Spray cranberry grower overalls (you know, like the ones from the TV commercials) handing out samples of various products. Along with that there was a simulated bog of the wonderberries:

Following our close encounter of the cranberry kind, we made a pit stop at the restroom, where we noticed the hand-dryers had been updated:

If you can't read the small print under DO SOMETHING PATRIOTIC, it says "INSTALL PATRIOTS HIGH-SPEED ENERGY-EFFICIENT XELERATOR HAND-DRYERS IN YOUR RESTROOMS."

Side Note: Maybe I'm totally missing it, but go to Patriots.com and try to find anything, anything at all, on purchasing Xelerator hand-dryers. I dare you.

And then, of course, American Airlines wanted to get in on the act. And since they are a sponsor of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, there were signs distributed that were pink on one side and said "GOAL for the cure!" which everyone was supposed to hold up when the Revs scored a goal. (It was a scoreless tie, so there was no opportunity for that to happen, but a solid idea). The other side that faced all of us in the stands reinforced the sponsor's logo:

I guess the moral of the story is that marketing is everywhere, even in the bathroom, so you really can't escape even if you try. I mean, we knew that already, but it's fascinating all the same.

Report: Top Keyword Price Nears $100 Per Click

The highest-priced keyword in the United States last month sold on Google for $99.44 per click, according to the AdGooroo Search Engine Advertising Update: Q309.

And before I tell you what it is, why don't you think about it for a minute and take a guess...

Used Cars? Not even close.

Debt management? Nope.

Auto Insurance? Getting up there, but still not the correct answer.

Give up?

It's Mesothelioma. Yes, really.

The report released Wednesday pegs Mesothelioma as the highest-selling keyword in September. The same word sold on Yahoo in the No. 1 spot for $60.68 per click. The phrase "auto insurance comparison" took top honors on Bing, bringing in $55.20 per click.

Well, that's certainly news to me. I've seen the TV commercials for the class-action lawsuits - "if you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma due to negligence, etc..." - but wouldn't have guessed it would pull $100 per click as a keyword. You learn something new every day!

(Courtesy of MediaPost)

SEO & SEM - Can't we all just get along?

Here's what you need to know about these two acronyms:

SEO = Search Engine Optimization
SEO is simply optimizing the keywords and links to your site and improving other aspects of your site to maximize your search engine rankings, resulting in an increase in traffic. Potential customers are already searching for your products and services, and by positioning your business at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) they will find you! SEO increases your organic (non-paid) search results.

SEM = Search Engine Marketing
SEM places your text ads to appear as sponsored listings on the SERPs (top and right-hand side of the page). It allows you to put your business in front of potential customers at the precise moment they're searching for what you sell. SEM makes it easy to test different ad copy, target local areas or the entire nation, and control your budget through spending limits and campaign optimization. Because your keywords are tailored to your business, you reach only those people interested who are interested, and only pay for your ad when it's clicked on! SEM increases your paid search results.

With the basics out of the way, you're probably wondering now why you'd pay for search results with SEM when you can get the organic results for free with SEO.

Think of it this way, if you've put the time and effort into creating, maintaining, and optimizing an SEM campaign to drive traffic to your website, you need your website to be set up correctly to give them what they came to find. If you can bring someone to your site but they can't find what they want immediately, your SEM is a waste.

From Raise My Rank SEO Services:

You only have a few seconds to convince them that your site can deliver what they want. Will your visitors, failing to find what they're looking for, click their browser's back button and try another site?

Your site has to be ready for your visitors. It needs to be written, structured, and coded in such a way that the information is clearly laid out and easy to find. If it isn't, your site will either be immediately forgotten by visitors, or worse, it will be remembered as one that fails to deliver.

On the other hand, SEO can take 6 months to fully optimize, which can be a long time to wait if you need to see results sooner or if you have a limited-time offer.

Gareth O Neill, a Microsoft Media Specialist, says:

If you do SEO properly then you will get clicks for free but if you have a fresh offer your site will take time to get spidered and start showing up in the organic listings.

This is where SEM will deliver better results. You can create the campaign straight away [...] and have your ads appearing in the paid listings.

For example, if you have an entertainment site and big news has come out from Hollywood or you have a computer games site and the latest game has just hit the shops, then there is nothing as quick as PPC to provide you with visibility.

So now what? Well, the bottom line is that your SEO and SEM should be working together. Here's just one great reason why your SEO and SEM should suck it up and be friends, from AllthingsSEM.com:

Recently Google made public some changes to their AdSense program. These changes include the addition of a quality score that is used when determining the cost of an ad. This quality score will mean that two exact ads will have different costs depending on the quality of the destination page. Although there are many factors that will be used to measure the quality of the destination page, most of these factors can be influenced by SEO. In fact, improving the quality of a web page as perceived by the search engines is pretty much what all SEO is about. So if you use SEO to increase the quality of your site, you will end up reducing the cost per click of your ads.

And now you know (and knowing is half the battle).



(Courtesy of Microsoft Advertising Community, All Things SEM, and Raise My Rank)

Times Square Owners Create Ad Network

Sept 24, 2009

- Katy Bachman

NEW YORK A newly formed group of media companies controlling some of the biggest digital signs in Times Square will make it easier for brands to simultaneously put their names in lights across multiple venues.

Called Times Square Domination, the networking effort offers marketers a one-stop shop for creating an unprecedented campaign in the nation’s largest out-of-home arena, visited by 565,000 people each day.

The network will be able to sync marketers' messages across many of Times Square’s most captivating video billboards, including Clear Channel’s Spectacolor HD sign, ABC SuperSign, the Nasdaq monitor and News Corp.’s Astrovision sign. As part of the package, TSD offers accompanying marketing and event services such as sampling and the use of street teams to create brand immersion.

“Sometimes, the benefits of coming together as an industry for customers are so compelling that even strong rivals see the value,” said Harry Coghlan, president of Clear Channel Spectacolor, one of the companies participating in the network along with ABC Regional Sports & Entertainment Sales, Nasdaq, News Corp. and Reuters.

TSD will also include the Times Square Network, a fully integrated platform created around Clear Channel’s Spectacolor HD sign at 47th Street at Duffy Square. When it launches next year, Clear Channel is hoping to turn the sign into a new entertainment source, complete with original programming broadcast from a Times Square studio and streamed on a companion Web site. Short segments will focus on popular interests, including major product launches or interviews with people on the street. Sponsored advertising will air in pre-determined slots and be combined with live-event marketing, mobile messaging, polling and contests.

“When we build SpecHD, we knew this attraction could also support a new model,” said Coghlan. “We knew that we could enable true interaction with the audience, going beyond traditional one-way broadcasts to create true two-way conversations.”


(Courtesy of AdWeek.com)

Natural Born Clickers - Follow Up

Following up on a previous post regarding click-through rates, Starcom has released a new report on measuring online ad success.

The number of people online who click display ads has dropped 50% in less than two years, and only 8% of internet users account for 85% of all clicks, according to the most recent "Natural Born Clickers" study from ComScore and media agency Starcom. As the pool of people who click on banner ads rapidly decreases, it begs the question: Is the long-used click-through rate now officially useless?

Useless? Probably not. Outdated? Absolutely.

"The click has always been of dubious value," said Joshua Spanier, director of communication strategy at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. "But clicks are easy to understand and easy to measure. We still know that display advertising has unequivocal value; your search performance improves as well. Together, search and display are much stronger than apart."

So how do we now measure the success of an online campaign if we can't use the click-through rates? Here are some tips:

1. Goodby's Mr. Spaniers points out that it's important for marketers to ask their agencies how display ads fit into the larger marketing plan. "With the media mix, how do you set up overall metrics?" he said. "It's unrealistic to look at one element of one media for success. Since online media is so trackable, it's is held to a higher standard. The reality is no one looks at print advertising like that. You can't measure print that way or TV because they don't have built-in capacity. It's a little unfair that display becomes the whipping boy."

2. In the digital space, look at how elements like display and search coalesce, Mr. Spanier said. How do people end up at a website to make a purchase? Look at sales of a product on-site with consumers' exposure to ads. "There is no way display advertising is wasting money," he said, "even if people don't click."

3. Clicks are a direct-response measurement. For display campaigns, look at brand-awareness studies, purchase-intent lifts and engagement rates. "Users might work with an ad, but not click on it," said Paul Gunning, CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide.

4. Look at display view-through rates. "CTRs have a value, there is still a hand being raised, but view-through is more important," Mr. Gunning said. "How many people actually end up where you wanted them to? How much time are they spending?"

5. Look at the creative. While consumer attitudes online have undoubtedly changed, think about how messaging does or doesn't demand clicks. If you want to measure success against click-throughs, include strong calls for action. Or, if you have a rich-media experience, other metrics such as engagement time are probably more telling. And that may be the case as more banners include innovations such as embedded video and rich media, said Atmosphere BBDO's Warren Griffiths, group account director for Visa, Emirates Airlines, Hertz and Starwood. "More banners have become the destination. I don't believe that would account for a 50% drop in clicks, but this may have had some impact."

Read the full article here.


(Courtesy of adage.com)

'Glee' banks on risky strategy

By Lisa Respers France

(CNN) -- When Fox aired a sneak-peek episode of its new series "Glee" four months before the show actually premiered, it took a big chance that the audience would still care.

To help maintain the buzz, it delved into social networking, maintained a strong online presence, dispatched the show's actors to malls across the country and held a fan contest.

In an era when episodic television is battling for ratings against reality television and broadcast TV faces the loss of audience to cable networks, those familiar with the industry said, such innovation may have to become the norm.

"Particularly for those networks that skew younger such as Fox, CW and ABC to an extent, they are going to have to really promote all of their shows all year long and find new ways to keep them in front of their viewers and remind them that they are there," said Ed Martin, a television critic who writes for JackMyers.com. "What Fox did last spring was something totally new that had never been done before."

In a week when most prime time shows are debuting with the hopes of attracting an audience, "Glee" seems to have already found its niche. On Monday, Fox announced that it had ordered a full season of the show.

"Glee" follows the exploits of a group of underdogs who are members of a high school show choir.

The hour-long musical comedy, co-created by "Nip/Tuck" producer Ryan Murphy, created high anticipation after its first airing in May, following an episode of the wildly popular "American Idol."

The pilot was re-aired with a special director's cut prior to the premier of the actual season with Fox counting the pilot as episode one. Episode four debuts on Wednesday.

Bill Gorman, editor and co-founder of the site TV By the Numbers, said he would put the level of interest in "Glee" on his site "as pretty strong for a new show."

Gorman said the show -- whose premiere numbers may or may not have been helped by the fact it was one of the few airing during President Obama's health care address -- is initially faring well among the coveted 18- to 49-year-old viewer demographic.

According to the Nielsen Ratings, the "Glee" premiere garnered 7.44 million viewers, placing it in 19th place in the top 20.

"The 'Glee' premiere this fall did better than what Fox is calling the preview after 'American Idol,' " Gorman said.

To maintain interest over the summer, the show embarked on an ambitious marketing scheme. Joe Earley, executive vice president of marketing and communications for Fox, said the show was screened at summer camps, stars engaged in a 10-city tour, street teams handed out "Glee"-related items, and trailers were shown in front of the latest "Harry Potter" film.

Online, characters had Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, the pilot was available for streaming, and the show's stars took handheld cameras to events to gather behind-the-scenes content. The director's cut of the pilot was followed by a "Tweet-peat" where the stars and the fans took to Twitter to discuss the episode.

Martin said he was present when Fox screened an episode at the geekiest of all events: Comic-Con in San Diego, California.

"It was a standing-room-only crowd of several thousands of people," Martin said. "The cheering and yelling and screaming was ear-splitting. The crowd almost blew the roof off the place with their enthusiasm for the episode."

Visibility seemed to be key for the quirky show that some have referred to as " 'High School Musical' on steroids."

Earley said one challenge came in that the many facets that have given "Glee" its distinction -- it's a black comedy, it's a musical, it's a drama, it's about high school, it's about adults -- also made it difficult to market.

Still, airing the pilot four months before its regular run could have easily backfired, he said.
"If people didn't like it, it would have been four months of negative buzz," he said. "We could have been killing a show before it even began."

The result has been an strong fan base with a deep engagement who are taking to social networking to spread the message and buying the songs on iTunes, Earley said.

"What we have is this core of really passionate, very savvy fans, and they are definitely ambassadors for the show," said Earley, who added that executives have been pleased with the ratings.

Chicago Tribune TV critic Maureen Ryan said executives seem to have totally committed to a show that from the onset was a risk.

"You either love this show, or you really don't care," she said. "There's not really a huge amount of in-between."

Ryan said that, in her opinion, the show is far from perfect (she points to the unlovable character of teacher Will Schuester's wife as a weakness) but says it has an opportunity to do well commercially.

"The terrific thing about 'Glee' is not only that it has this interesting concept going for it, but it has a ton on money-making potential," she said. "They've been selling the DVD of the pilot at Walmart, and they sent out a press release saying five of the top 200 songs on iTunes are songs from the show, and they are releasing a soundtrack soon."

Critic Martin said, given its mix of music and satire, the "Glee" strategy may not work for every show -- say a medical drama -- but if the network strikes gold with the new series, he imagines that it may serve as a blueprint for others.

"It would not surprise me at all if Fox had another promising new show in their development plan for next fall and decided to give it the same treatment as 'Glee,' " Martin said.



(Courtesy of CNN.com)

Facebook is taking over the world...

Or at least the United States. The big news today is that Facebook has reached the 300 million user mark, which is quite the feat considering I remember when I signed up about 5 years ago and it was only available to college students.

The bigger thing to note here is that the population of the U.S. is at about 307 million people right now, and it looks like Facebook will soon have more users than the United States has people.

Sort of makes me feel like a proud mama - Facebook is all grown up!

It also marks the first time that they've actually seen some profits, here's the deal:

As Facebook has grown, it also has drawn criticism from privacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which says people on Facebook unwillingly give up personal information to advertisers and Facebook application developers.

In a video interview with Fortune, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook gives its users robust privacy controls.

She also told Fortune that a new approach to online advertising has helped Facebook's revenue grow throughout the recession.

"Our advertisements are very much part of the user experience," she said. "So the same way you can RSVP for an event on Facebook -- you know, a party your friend might throw -- you can RSVP for a movie premiere. And that's really a movie advertisement saying, 'Our movie is opening this weekend. Do you want to go?' "

Read the rest of the article here.



(Courtesy of CNN.com)

Proofreading: The Lost Art

Without further ado, your Tuesday afternoon silliness...

These are headlines that probably should have been proofread before they were published:

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Miners Refuse to Work after Death
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
War Dims Hope for Peace
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
And the winner is....
.
.
.
.
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Number 9...Number 9...

In honor of 09/09/09 - a day I've been counting down to for 6 months - here's a short film for The Beatles Rock Band game that was released yesterday. (I saw it when watching John Lennon's film Imagine on Palladia last night.)

Even though it looks waaaaay better in HD, it is 100% worth watching:



(Courtesy of YouTube)

Yahoo! and Microsoft to Challenge Google Search?

Yahoo! will soon be using the bing search technology to power it's own searches, but only on the back end. This means Microsoft will have a bigger share of online search (about 30% of the market), and be positioned to take on search giant Google.

So if you've been optimizing and marketing your website with Google and thinking you're all set - think again. Even though Google controls much of the internet search today, this Yahoo/Microsoft partnership opens the door for some real competition.

Michael Learmonth of Advertising Age writes:

Turning up on the first page of organic search results when someone types your product or brand into a keyword box is pretty much the cost of entry for any substantial e-commerce entity or marketer. And for the past decade or so that's meant pretty much one thing: optimize your site for Google, maybe a tweak or two for Yahoo, and everything else, well, didn't matter all that much.

"If you were well-optimized for Google, you were pretty much set, because it means you were well-optimized for everyone else out there," said John Ragals, chief operating officer of digital agency 360i. "The gap wasn't significant enough to warrant the extra investment."

But Bing is quite a bit different from Google and Yahoo, both in the way it ranks pages and the way it presents results on the page. And if search becomes more of a two-player market, it could mean a return to the late '90s, when it was common for marketers to create separate pages optimized for Yahoo, Google, Lycos and AltaVista, and as they do now for the iPhone or other mobile devices.

"You'd effectively have two pages, one for Google and one for Bing," said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com. If all goes according to plan, Yahoo will make the switch to Bing's organic search results in the third quarter of next year, and then fold in Bing's paid search results soon after.

Other interesting reading on the subject (links directly to article):

Yahoo! still intends to compete with Microsoft on internet search
Yahoo unveils new features
Microsoft, Yahoo's next battle: Antitrust probe



(Courtesy of AdAge, bloggingstocks.com, San Francisco Chronicle, and Chicago Tribune)

The Slammer - Nothing Sells Newspapers Like a Mug Shot

One newspaper that's still alive and kicking is The Slammer, a 15-page collection of crime stories and mugshots that's apparently selling like hotcakes in Phoenix right now. From The Slammer website:

Why is The Slammer important?
The Slammer provides important information related to your community- local arrests, sex offenders, fugitives and most wanted, missing persons, and many more note-worthy crime stories concerning your area. We have numerous success stories of helping find absconders from the law.

There's nothing I love more than finding absconders from the law. Except maybe using the word 'absconder' in an actual sentence.


(Courtesy of Ad Lab, abc15, The Slammer)

RadioShack would like you to call it 'The Shack'

Apparently the 'Radio" in the name sounds too old-timey, so RadioShack is re-branding itself as 'The Shack' - a move that doesn't just happen overnight:

Analysts say that a brand overhaul requires lots of time and capital — and consumer acceptance.

Sales of sports drink Gatorade have suffered since changing its name to "G" in January. After a test earlier this year to change its name to The Hut, Pizza Hut is sticking with its original.

There's also risk involved, especially as the company markets itself as The Shack but operates its 4,450 U.S. retail outlets as RadioShack. The company's logo also will go unchanged.

Martin Bishop, director of brand strategy for the San Francisco office of design and branding firm Landor Associates, says there's a logic to what RadioShack is doing. " 'Radio' sounds old-fashioned, and they want to sound cutting edge," he says.

But Bishop warns of possible trouble. When Federal Express changed its name to FedEx, he says, "FedEx had no other meaning than Federal Express. With The Shack, there is a contrived familiarity that I'm not sure is helpful."

Yeah, I don't know about you but "The Shack" conjures up images of leaky tin rooftops and dirt roads for me - not exactly the techno-savvy image I think they're hoping for...

Anyway, I posted all that to get to this gem, one of my favorite current ads:





(Courtesy of USA Today, YouTube, and Radioshack)

The Monetization of Mimi: Mariah CD to Have Ads

Aug 1, 2009 By Becky Ebenkamp

As music sales continue to drop like they’re not so hot throughout the industry, Island Def Jam Music Group is jamming on a new business model: integrating brands into artists’ CD booklets.

The first deal, created for the Mariah Carey release Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel on Sept. 15, is a 34-page co-production with Elle magazine that includes lifestyle ads from Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffens, Le Métier de Beauté and the Bahamas Board of Tourism. Providing the experiment goes well, the label is eyeing bigger brand deals for booklets of CDs by Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Kanye West and other artists.

The mini magazine contains Mariah-centric editorial (“VIP Access to Her Sexy Love Life,” “Amazing Closet,” “Recording Rituals”) and lifestyle advertising along with lyrics and other CD booklet elements. Elle contributed the editorial and designed the layout.

The booklets were created for the first run of U.S. CDs (1 million) and the first 500,000 overseas, said Jeff Straughn, svp-strategic marketing for Island Def Jam Music Group. It will also be available in a digital format for those who buy music online. A condensed version of the Mariah mag, sans the 14 pages of CD-specific material, will be inserted into 500,000 subscription copies of Elle’s October issue, which arrives mid-September.

“The idea was really simple thinking: ‘We sell millions of records, so you should advertise with us,’” said Antonio “L.A.” Reid, chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group, a unit of Universal Music Group. “My artists have substantial circulation—when you sell 2 million, 5 million, 8 million, that’s a lot of eyeballs. Most magazines aren’t as successful as those records.” Carey was “very open” to the concept when Reid showed her a mock-up of the booklet in a magazine format that included brand imagery synonymous with her lifestyle. “I wouldn’t want to do Mariah Carey and Comet abrasive cleaner,” Reid said, laughing. “I wanted things that really reflected her taste.”

Reid said the program was unprecedented. Terry Dry, president of Los Angeles-based digital-word-of-mouth marketing agency Fanscape, agreed, saying that the CD booklet advertising is a first, though he wouldn’t be surprised if more labels look into doing the same thing: “Hollywood Records [Disney], I know they love to monetize all over the place for something like a Jonas Brothers record. Open any rap record and a couple of inserts will come flying out, usually for a business the artist is a part of. I wouldn’t be surprised if 50 Cent had a Vitaminwater thing.”

Labels are looking for ways to eke out extra bucks, borrow equity and cut costs anywhere they can today. Year-to-date album sales were down 13.9 percent for the week ending July 19, 2009, compared with the period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan (227 million units vs. 195.5 million units). Of those 2009 sales, 18.9 percent, or 41.9 million, were digital. Ad revenues are subsidizing 100 percent of Island Records’ costs for the Carey booklet, but label execs also see the alliance as a way to expand distribution at a time when the local music store is becoming as rare as the Beatles’ Yesterday and Today LP with the “Butcher” cover.

“We don’t have music retailers any more, so a smart consumer products company that understands the value in distributing music is going to restore the vitality of our business,” Reid speculated. “If we distribute music properly and if it’s done tastefully, it could be a huge profit center for all of us. That is the missing link—we need partnerships.”

To underscore the point: At one large retail establishment, partner Elizabeth Arden is allowing the label to cross-promote the release. The CD Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel will be merchandised directly outside Walmart’s music aisle with Carey’s new signature Arden fragrance, Forever, which has its ad on the booklet’s back cover. The CD and scent will also be displayed together in the beauty department.


(Courtesy of Brandweek)

Official Tarp Sponsor of the Boston Red Sox

I was watching the Red Sox game last night with a few friends, and when we were done laughing at Youk for throwing his batting helmet at the pitcher while charging the mound after getting hit by a pitch, there was a rain delay and the tarp came out.

I don't know if I've just never noticed before (and I don't know why I was at all surprised knowing the team's history of odd sponsorships) but there it was - the Bob's Stores logo:



That got me thinking of other sponsorships around Fenway, and I remembered I had seats on the Right Field Bud Deck when I went to a game in June:




And that led me to continue finding other interesting Red Sox sponsorships. During my search in the depths of the interwebs, I found this funny blog post from Surviving Grady, which I'm posting here for your amusement:

So, having been kicked out of every other bar in town, I found myself strolling into a 99 Restaurant the other day, and saw a sign on the door proudly proclaiming that the 99 is, in fact, "The Official Family Restaurant of the Boston Red Sox." Just a few days earlier, while fetching one of my kids a Hoodsie cup, I saw that Hoodsies have also achieved lofty "official" status, being the "Official Ice Cream of the Boston Red Sox." So it got me thinking. Am I, as a fan, doing enough to live the "official" Red Sox lifestyle? And could I go through an entire day utilizing only those officially sanctioned-by-the-Red-Sox products?

I'm happy to report that I'm almost there. I spend most of my free time sleeping on a couch procured through Jordan's Furniture, the Official Furniture Store of the Boston Red Sox ("Julian Tavarez buys all his bedding and harnesses here" would have been a great Sunday-circular headline, IMO.). I'm often found drunk in local alleys in my Schilling jersey from Bob's Stores, the Official Apparel Store of the Boston Red Sox. And this blog gets typed up on a desk brought to me through the good folks at W.B. Mason, Official Office Supplies Supplier to the Boston Red Sox. If I can round the day out with a couple meals at the 99, getting my blood alcohol content checked by the good docs at Beth Israel (Official Hospital of the Boston Red Sox), taking a business trip on The Official Airline of the Boston Red Sox, snapping some photos for this silly-ass blog with my Nikon (Official Camera of the Boston Red Sox), making some hefty withdrawals from the Official Bank of the Boston Red Sox, experiencing only music that is channeled to me via products bought through the Red Sox' Official Sound Partner, and limiting my noshing to Official Snack Foods of the Boston Red Sox, then I could do it even better.

(Courtesy of Youtube, Boston.com, & Surviving Grady)

Size DOES Matter When it Comes to Newspapers

But it may surprise you to find out that smaller may be better...

As I touched on in a previous post, smaller community newspapers are continuing to flourish even in these tough times for the industry.

The AP reports that the hyperlocal focus of these daily and weekly papers makes them an asset to the communities they serve:

CNN is not coming to my town to cover the news and there aren't a whole lot of bloggers here either," said Robert M. Williams Jr., The Times' editor and publisher. "Community newspapers are still a great investment because we provide something you can't get anywhere else."

The scarcity of other media in small- and medium-sized cities has helped shield hundreds of newspapers from the upheaval that's causing dailies in big cities to shrink in size and scope as their print circulations and advertising sales decline.

Less competition means the print editions and Web sites of smaller newspapers remain the focal points for finding out what's happening in their coverage areas.

In contrast, large newspapers carry more national news, as well as local, and have many competitors, including Web sites and television and radio stations. They report much of the news the day before printed newspapers reach homes and newsstands. Large newspapers' Web sites also provide the news for free a day ahead of print editions.

And the larger the paper, the higher the operating costs. While the major players have had huge staff layoffs, fought with the unions, and stopped printing on certain days of the week, the small papers don't have many of those concerns simply due to their size.

That's not to say that community papers don't face challenges - the changing marketplace has affected everyone across the board.

"It would be wrong to assume there is some sort of bubble over our market," said Chris Doyle, president and publisher of the Naples Daily News, a daily newspaper in southwestern Florida with a circulation averaging about 64,000 during the six months ending in March. "We are becoming leaner, more scrappy and more aggressive than ever before."

So if you're looking to market your products or business in newspapers, go where the readers are:

Rather than filling their pages with material that is readily available on the Internet, smaller newspapers focus on the politics, business, sports, crime and community affairs occurring in narrowly defined geographic areas — a county, a town or, in some cases, even a few neighborhood blocks.

"If it walks, talks or spits on the concrete in our area, we cover it," said John D. Montgomery Jr., editor and publisher of The Purcell Register in Oklahoma.

(Courtesy of the Associated Press)

Interactive Travelers Insurance Wall Ads

After returning from an out-of-town family vacation on Tuesday, we passed some pretty cool interactive wall ads for Travelers in the airport terminal. Not the first time I've seen them, but definitely still worth sharing.

True to form, my 7- and 10-year old cousins and I waved our arms and jumped around like lunatics while our parents stood there saying "Huh, I didn't realize those pictures moved."

Click Here to check out how it looks in person!


(Courtesy of Monster Media)

Shark Week, Long John Silver's, & Hammerheads

So Long John Silver's is promoting it's new fish tacos by buying up a ton of ads on the Shark Week microsite at Discovery.com.

According to the article in MediaWeek:

“Long John Silver’s partnership with Discovery.com is a unique opportunity to organically marry two brands with strong commitments to quality,” said LJS senior marketing director John Villanueva, by way of announcing the deal. “It’s a playful, creative fit.”

Sure, it's a cute move, but honestly? Fast food fish has always given me the jibblies...

Fun side note, the Shark Week website has a quiz that will tell you what type of shark you are. Here's what I got:

You're like a... Hammerhead Shark!

You may be goofy, but don’t think other sea creatures aren’t aware of you! You like to swim in large schools, and your sleek and slender figure lets you get up to speeds of 25 mph. You are normally calm unless provoked, and you usually feed around dusk. You like to live in tropical climates with warm waters, and most of your litters have up to 25 little sharks!

Hey, what a coinkidink! I DO usually feed around dusk...



(Courtesy of MediaWeek and Discovery Channel)

Quote of the Day - David Ogilvy

Because I'm a self-proclaimed nerd, I really enjoy the "Quote of the Day" application on my homepage. Here's a relevant one from today, from "The Father of Advertising," David Ogilvy:

Political advertising ought to be stopped. It's the only really dishonest kind of advertising that's left.

For more on Ogilvy and his influence on advertising, visit this website. I particularly enjoy the Ogilvyisms...

Moonfruit's Twitter Push Provides Cautionary Tale

NEW YORK Marketers looking to leverage Twitter beware: the company will only let you rig the system so much, as one brand recently discovered.

Moonfruit, a U.K.-based company that offers free Web site building tools, saw a great opportunity to raise brand awareness on Twitter. The company last week kicked off a sweepstakes, giving away 10 MacBook Pro computers to Twitter users that include the #moonfruit tag in their tweets. (The sweepstakes ended on July 7.)

The campaign worked, maybe too well. The hashtag #moonfruit was Twitter's top trending topic for several days, with more than 250 tweets a minute. According to the site builder, at its peak Moonfruit represented 2.5 percent of all Twitter traffic, beating topics like Michael Jackson, Iran and Wimbledon. Twitters also created posters and a Moonfruit song, which helped shape the campaign, said Wendy Tan White, Moonfruit's founder.

Then it was suddenly over. Late last Friday, Moonfruit dropped from the top of the trends list and never returned. According to the company's stats, however, Moonfruit was still emerging above other trending topics. White said Twitter seems to have removed Moonfruit from the trend's list. Twitter could not be reached for comment at press time. But according to Moonfruit's blog, "the campaign sets a dangerous precedent and could have implications for how Twitter is used and abused by marketers . . . it's certainly their right to protect their network and technology investment." What left Moonfruit puzzled is why it was censored without explanation.

Ben McConnell, co-founder of the Society for Word of Mouth (an educational network for word of mouth efforts) and co-writer of the Church of the Customer blog, said Twitter might have been annoyed by the attention Moonfruit was consuming, or simply tired of the topic. "There's not a big basket of marketing campaigns successfully launched via Twitter because, people being people, there's a natural resistance to being a receptacle for marketing messages," McConnell added. "Plus, there's no formula for creating consistent viral success."

In offering advice to other marketers launching similar campaigns via Twitter, White said it's important to "keep on your toes" as things can change very rapidly. "The difference between this and a normal campaign is that it is an ongoing conversation," said White. "This means messages can evolve over the period, but it also means you have to stay on top of it and react fast."

There is another lesson to be learned here for marketers. "The Moonfruit story is a great example of money versus gold," said McConnell. "Give away money and people will question your motives or yawn in boredom. Give away gold, in this case MacBook Pros, and they'll line up for blocks."

(courtesy of adweek)