January 2, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Large corporations that wish to make podcasts available to their consumers are generating new revenue streams for the rights holders. The Wall Street Journal looks at one such deal between an agency and a major label.

San Francisco-based Rock River Communications Inc. has struck some of the first deals to license major-label content for podcasts. Rock River, which specializes in making the mix CDs sold at the check-out counters of retailers like Gap Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s Pottery Barn, is creating a series of promotional podcasts on behalf of corporate clients including DaimlerChrysler AG and Ford Motor Co.

Chrysler and Ford pay Sony BMG Music Entertainment -- the joint venture of Sony Corp. and Germany's Bertelsmann AG -- a flat fee, which the companies decline to disclose, for the right to distribute the podcasts for a year, regardless of how many or how few copies are downloaded. Users can keep the programs on their personal computers or MP3 players indefinitely.

"What we're doing with podcasts is taking the King Biscuit Flower Hour notion of sponsored content," says Rock River President and Chief Executive Jeff Daniel. "It's a patronage model."

January 2, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

Business 2.0 asked 50 of the brightest minds in business how they do what they do - and how you can cash in on their advice in the year ahead. Here's Crispin Porter + Bogusky CEO Jeff Hicks' response:

Make Your Brand Part of the Conversation

There are three things I think about the most when it comes to making it as a marketer these days. The first one is there's no amount of money I can pay to get my commercial in front of you, because you can powerfully edit what you spend time with. So my job as a marketer is no longer to interrupt, but to produce content that is so relevant, interesting, entertaining, and involving that my best consumers won't want to live without it.

The second thing is understanding that instead of brochures and trade shows, marketing now really begins with the product. Great companies are investing a lot of time and attention into trying to make products that market themselves.

The last piece is that user-generated content has made it possible for consumers to own your brand, and if they don't, you're not doing your job. The brands that are adopted, blogged about, and parodied the most are the ones that are going to win because they're involved in the evolution of pop culture. If you're scared to have your brand played with, you're going to be left behind.

January 2, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

David Wen at The Ranch posted an interview with David Baldwin, ECD at McKinney in Durham, NC. Here's my favorite bit:

Q. Is it hard going from Copywriter to Executive Creative Director? What new challenges/responsibilities does being an ECD entail?

A. You have to realize that you have a new job. Your job is to create culture and possibility rather than to ‘write.’ I’ve always called it a transference of joy. You have to take joy from seeing someone else create a great idea and then either help make it better or get out of the way if you can’t.

January 3, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Having grown up in Atlanta, I've always had a soft spot for Home Depot. Seriously. I remember shopping at their first store. They were known for having good service. The founders of the company were known for being down-to-earth, and now that they've cashed out they've given back to the ATL community in numerous ways.

So John Wagner's recent experience there, along with lots of other things I've heard and read about Home Depot, have led me to think that it's a brand that has lost its way.

What happens when brands stray from the core values they attempt to live up to? What role does advertising and marketing play? It's the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo. Check it out. I hope you enjoy it.

UPDATE (1/3/06 8:50): Man, talk about timing. I wrote the TZ column 4 days ago. On the way to work today, I hear the news that Bob Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot and the person most associated with HD's recent corporate culture change, is out as of today. I'm influential, baby ;-)

January 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Philadelphia Inquirer is sending 17 percent of its newsroom staff packing today.

The New York Times has some reactions from staffers.

“The guillotine has finally fallen,” said Dawn Fallik, 36, a medical reporter for The Inquirer who has been at the paper for four years and will be laid off. “In a way, it’s kind of a relief. I loved being a reporter, and I hope to continue writing,” Ms. Fallik said, “but I’m open to something completely different.”

Jeff Shields, a reporter who covers gambling said, “Newspapers have not shown a whole lot of economic promise, so for me this is a chance to look around and maybe become part of a more dynamic business model. This could be the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Should Fallik and Shields be reading about themselves in the Times today, they needn't look far, for there's an article in the Technology pages about Google's quest for exceptional people.

Google has always wanted to hire people with straight-A report cards and double 800s on their SATs. Now, like an Ivy League school, it is starting to look for more well-rounded candidates, like those who have published books or started their own clubs.

Google’s growth is staggering even by Silicon Valley standards. It is constantly leasing new buildings for its overflowing campus here and opening offices around the world.

Google has doubled the number of employees in each of the last three years. Even though the company now has about 10,000 employees, Mr. Bock says he sees no reason the company will not double again in size this year. That would increase the number of hires to about 200 a week.

To summarize, laid off journalists with a book to their credit might benefit greatly by sending a copy to the recruiters at Google.

January 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Brandweek is running a bit of a scare piece on a new crop of companies offering à la carte marketing services.

Companies like Spot Runner, PayPerPost, PayPerClip, Current TV, BrightCove, BrandWizard, Google's AdSense for radio and newspapers, and, yes, YouTube, now offer cheap, fast, online commercial creation, media placement and public relations services without the need for a traditional full-service agency. And they come at a fraction of the cost of Madison Avenue. Call it the commodification of creativity.

The article points out that it's not merely firms with limited means that are looking for new sources. Major clients are already experimenting with nonagency commercials. Alka-Seltzer, Frito-Lay, the NFL and Chevrolet have all commissioned spots created by amateurs to run on Super Bowl day, for instance.

So, should agency types be shaking in their Kenneth Cole boots? Not just yet. These firms are not the new Craigslist--the company blamed for upsetting the newspaper industry's classified advertising cart. While there may be certain areas of the agency business that can be commodified, creativity derived from strategic insight isn't one of them.

January 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer, Procter & Gamble on the Attraction Economy:

If you can create marketing that makes a difference in someone's life, then that's the gold standard. To reach that standard you have to be authentic. People really can see through you when you're not. Consumers care about who is behind brands and products. This is why your values matter. You can't do something just because you have to grow share by ten points or make your boss happy. You need a deeper sense of purpose and commitment.

[via Diablogue]

January 3, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

I'm not the target market, but a lot of the recent Sprint/Nextel work has made me chuckle. Like this spot. And I don't laugh much at what comes on TV randomly.

But according to Adweek, Sprint/Nextel is looking to consolidate its account at one agency. There's $1 billion at stake:

The client is seeking a "fresh approach" and "new thinking" to drive its business, the rep added.

"It's really about regaining our competitive momentum," said the rep.

Well, OK. I guess clients figure that a big-time review is the best way to agitate all those ad agency dots.

January 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) looks at Turner Broadcasting's success developing online media properties, something its Time Warner brethren have not had an easy time with.

Turner has developed two of the top Web sites in all of Time Warner: CNN and CNN/Money, a joint venture with Time Inc. Atlanta is no Silicon Valley, but being away from the glare hasn't hurt the venture.

And now, on its midtown campus here, across the street from the building where Cable News Network was born, Turner has set up a small team to develop more Web businesses. Many of the ideas for new Web ventures originate within the company's ranks and Turner management has given the team broad license to experiment.

In recent months, the team has launched ACC Select, a subscription site which airs Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games along with other college sports; CNN Pipeline, a subscription-based online news video service; and another such service, Very Funny Ads, which shows humorous television commercials. This month, the company plans to launch SuperDeluxe, a site with original short-form comedy clips.

"We're building businesses outside our core that allow us to compete for other pools of money," says Turner Entertainment Group President Mark Lazarus.

The article makes the point that Turner's low-cost, quick development cycles and focus on niche audiences has helped it outperform rivals. Put another way, to succeed on the web Turner stopped thinking and acting like a big TV network and started thinking and acting like a group of geeks in a garage.

January 4, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 2 Comments

Okay, I'm Paul Revere and the message I'm delivering on my daring midnight ride is a resounding call-to-arms: America, the porn industry needs your help!

According to the New York Times, for every dollar Americans spent buying tickets to Hollywood movies last year, they spent about 90 cents viewing sex movies in various formats. Sound good? Well, it's not.

The sex-related entertainment business grew in 2006 by just 2.4 percent, roughly the rate of inflation, to just under $13 billion.

Because most of the industry is privately owned, accurate numbers are hard to come by. But in one part of the industry where there is independent reporting of sales — sex movies sold over cable — there are indications of a slowdown.

JupiterKagan Inc., a media and technology market research company, said it expected that sex movies sold either as pay-per-view or on-demand would grow over the next decade at only half the pace of overall paid-for programming on cable.

January 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Daily Mail reports that Kate Moss is starring in a Burberry campaign for the tenth time. In this iteration, she shares the page with sons of famous rock stars.

The campaign's images, shot by Mario Testino were inspired by Cecil Beaton, the iconic society photographer who famously captured the artists, rock stars and royalty of his time.

January 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Scotsman.com says the Metrosexual trend is fading away while a new more manly trend is emerging.

In recent years many men have ditched their expensive power tools for even more expensive moisturiser, and some blokes are more likely to rhapsodise over organic fettuccini drizzled with Tuscan olive oil, than the latest souped-up rally car leaking engine oil.

The coming year, according to leading fashion and social commentators, will see the remorseless rise of the Retrosexual, as many men tire of the complexity of city culture and go back to basics.

This article leads me to ponder Burt's Bees place in the market. The company sells Hand Salve and other cremes to men, but it also has a decidedly backwoods brand story.

January 5, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

While social networking in all its forms has bred a lot of new websites, and media hype to go with it, the beginnings of a shakeout seem to be in order.

On Wednesday, Seattle-based Jobster announced it was laying off 60 people -- 40% of its staff. Jobster is a job board/career networking site (think Friendster for jobs) that has yet to make a penny in profit despite pulling in $48 million in venture capital money. With LinkedIn fast becoming the career networking site of choice, Jobster, the beneficiary of a lot of fawning press (imagine that in the web world!) seems to be losing steam.

So I think you'll start seeing more Web 2.0 startups flame out the way so many early web ventures did in 2000 and 2001. It's what happens to shooting stars, I guess.

Meanwhile, our friends at Talent Zoo are stepping up plans to expand--proving that you can grow a web-based business without $48 million in VC money.

January 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

AdAge reports on some changes in the upper echelons of Y&R.

Y&R's new CEO, Hamish McLennan, started 2007 with a bold move: announcing the departure of Michael Patti, vice chairman and worldwide creative director. In a terse, four-sentence press release, the agency announced today Mr. Patti left effective Dec. 31.

According to industry rumor, the agency had agreed to a hefty severance package in the event that he was fired from the agency. In fact, one Y&R insider said WPP made a payout in the millions of dollars to cover the cost of his severance.

"This exemplifies what Hamish is all about," the insider said. "In the new Y&R, there's nowhere to hide. You've gotta deliver."

The Wall Street Journal is also carrying the story.

Mr. Patti, known as a passionate creative talent, sometimes clashed with Y&R executives and clients.

Given that Burger King, Ford Motor Co.'s Jaguar, Computer Associates and Sony Consumer Electronics have all departed under Patti's watch (and Ann Fudge's watch), changes needed to be made. That's business.

January 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 16 Comments

Dorito's Crash The Superbowl promotion is one of a growing number of Consumer Generated Content campaigns currently underway.

Kristin Dehnert, the consumer who generated the content above says, "I'm a Location Manager and Scout for commercials as my paid day job but my true passion is writing and directing. My dream is to make directing commercials and feature films my new day job."

Which leads me to my point—"make your own commercial" ideas are generally not about hearing from the consumer, rather they're about seeing work from aspiring creatives.

January 5, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 5 Comments

A blogger named Spocko is making the headlines today. Spocko posted audio clips of inflammatory racist comments made by DJ's on a Disney-owned radio station (KSFO in San Fran). Recently, Disney's lawyers forced Spocko's ISP to shut the blog down. Spocko retailiated by alerting KSFO advertisers that they've been sponsoring what many people would call hate speech against Muslims.

Of course, the audio has been posted and re-posted all over the Web. (Check it out at BoingBoing .) Surely, Disney's lawyers must recognize that the cat's out of the bag.

On one hand, the right-wing rants are inflammatory and just dumb; on the other, free speech is free speech. Sticks and stones, you know?

January 6, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

So I'm sitting here watching Who Killed The Electric Car?, a documentary about GM's EV1 electric car, which was produced in the late 90's. About 18 minutes into the movie comes a discussion of the TV ads (one shown above) and print work done by Hal Riney.

One of the former EV1 marketing executives interviewed traveled around America and saw the consumer buzz building around the car. In the movie, she says:

"We'd sit down with Hal Riney or marketing executives from GM and say, "How Much?" "How Far?" "How Fast?" These are the 3 questions we're getting. Please put them in the advertising. It's not rocket science. And they'd go back and do the exact opposite."

Still another person says, ""We never saw a TV ad with an electric car scampering
up a hill with a good-looking man or woman draped across it. That's how they sell cars."

Not to advocate triteness, but it's an interesting point. Any new product, as the EV1 truly was, has a learning curve. Go back and look at the early 80's Apple print ads from Chiat/Day and you'll see long copy, multi-page ads about what a personal computer can actually do.

But in "Who Killed The Electric Car?", the creepy, mysterious Riney EV1 ads are revisited, and you have to wonder if Saturn should have insisted on the basics when introducing an electric car. A better strategy might have been to position the cars as just as performance-capable as a gas-powered car, not some radical, mysterious alternative. Perhaps a truly effective ad campaign might have stimulated the demand that was under GM's radar.

January 6, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Tom Asacker's GuruBBQ is gaining traction. In his latest vlog episode, he makes 7 predictions for 2007. They are:

• A big slowdown in the growth of blogging
• Plaid is the new black
• A new medical conditions known as Wii. D.D. will arise
• TVs, computers, cell phones, cameras, radios, MP3 players, and vibrators will all converge into one must-have high-tech device
• More and more large advertisers will play the bored creative masses for fools, soliciting advertising creative on the cheap in exchange for a few cases of beer and a mention in really tiny letters during the commercial airing
• Staples will incur a massive recall of Easy buttons
• Google will release a new service called Google Everything

January 7, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

BusinessWeek takes a look at the various ways companies embed messages in video games.

But beyond running crass advertisements on billboards written into the gaming landscape, many game developers now accept product placements for milk, DVDs and other wares, embedding them deep into the game's software codes. You'd need the type of secret tips and tricks long circulated for unlocking special powers and other bonuses.

Other companies are charging real-world dollars for the privilege of gaining magical powers and better equipment for virtual characters, leading to complaints the companies are exploiting gamers who already pay $60 or more for the most popular titles.

Veterans of the $7 billion U.S. video game market defend the corporate co-option of the techniques once solely the realm of techies: If Hollywood has been employing product placement and other unconventional marketing tricks for years, why not the game industry?

January 7, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

First, Time made 'You' its "Person Of The Year." Now, Ad Age has named 'The Consumer' Agency Of The Year.

From the lead article:

From an agency perspective, there are exactly three ways to look at the rise of consumer control. The first view is like something out of the Book of Revelation -- all conquest, war, famine and death. Happily, the ad industry, thanks to countless foretellings of the death of the 30-second spot and pretty much every other Madison Avenue institution, by now has gotten used to apocalyptic visions of its future, so this will mean minimal leaps out of windows.

The second way of looking at this is to pretty much reject the notion that there's any fundamental change at all. This is perhaps best espoused by Euro RSCG New York Executive Creative Director Jeff Kling, who responds thusly to the suggestion that consumers could one day unseat agencies at the right hand of marketers: "I think the idea that this represents a threat to ad agencies is patently absurd and drummed up to have something interesting to discuss. I don't know anyone who fears for his job. Companies have always wanted to gain control over what's said about them. It used to be letters to the editor; now it's consumer-generated content. Advertising has the same role it's always had, and managing and leveraging all that content that's out there is classic creative direction."

We arrive rather dialectically at the third way: an acknowledgment that there are lessons to be learned but those lessons don't necessarily herald the end of the ad agency as we know it.

If you think Ad Age is simply following's Time lead, Jonah Bloom explains that the editors were already leaning that way when Time published its Person of the Year issue. Plus, it was the 2nd choice anyway; if the whole Wal-Mart/Julie Roehm thing hadn't blown up last month, DraftFCB would've won.

January 7, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

I swing by Sally Hogshead's blog on occasion. She doesn't post much, but when she does she lets it fly.

Since May, I’ve been letting my career rove to and fro. Consciously, I chose to make no plans or goals, do no outreach or inquiry, and instead, simply respond to the clients and opportunities that presented themselves.

This experiment led me to people and places and possibilities that I’d normally never encounter. I became a brand manager for a celebrity, outlined a new book concept, developed two reality TV shows, and created a new kind of speaking program that’s marketing + entertainment. And that was just October.

While I don’t often recommend being a spectator to your own career, at certain points you have to consciously choose to roam. Your career is robust. Don’t overprotect it, or shelter it, or underestimate it. Don’t let it get too precious.

A career, like most things in life, can’t be simultaneously developed and preserved.

Radical Careering is, of couse, a self-help book. Its very purpose is to get you to stretch. While it's heartening to see the author of the philosophy live her message, it's also hard to believe that it might work in one's own life. For instance, doing no outreach and just letting what comes come, would most likely result in disaster (at least economically) for me and just about everyone I know. Yet, being open to possibility is certainly great advise.

Bottom line, to be a successful radical careerist, one must be fearless and one must believe. It works for Sally Hogshead, and without question she believes it can work for you.

January 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Old school packaged goods company P&G is looking for a fresh approach and there are few better places to find it than in Northwest Portland.

The New York Times interviewed the Wieden + Kennedy creative team behind the new Old Spice camapign.

“Previous generations loved Old Spice and had a more emotional attachment to it,” said Monica Taylor, an art director at Wieden & Kennedy who is one of two creative directors on the account. “I remember my dad using it; it was such a deep, rich brand.”

Mark Fitzloff, a copywriter at Wieden & Kennedy who is the other creative director on the account, chimed in: “If you put Nikes on your feet, you’re making a statement. If you’re using Old Spice, you’re not. Procter wanted to see if they could change that.”

“Our timing was good because this is a moment when everyone appreciates authenticity, when retro is not necessarily a bad word,” Mr. Fitzloff said. “So we can say, ‘You can either be authentic or trendy.’ ”

I have yet to see all the work in this campaign, but the ad above doesn't do much for me. It seems like a tame response to Axe (as does the above quote) and there's nothing "authentic" about that. I'm not faulting the creative team as much as I'm questioning the strategy. It seems needy and unbecoming for an established brand to play in this sandbox.

January 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

[UPDATE] AME Info looks at one such buzzword. "Engagement continues to be the hottest buzzword in advertising. Everyone wants a piece of it. Or better yet, to own it."

January 8, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 0 Comments

Well, maybe not. Edward E. Whitacre Jr., former CEO of SBC Communications and now head of a newly super-sized AT&T, seems to have flip-flopped on the net neutrality issue. In 2005, he said Google and Yahoo were "nuts" for expecting free use of his company's network to deliver their content. But now, according to the LA Times, he's saying that AT&T will not sell premium delivery of Web content for the next two years.

AT&T was forced to agree to treat all online content the same to gain Federal Communications Commission approval of its purchase of BellSouth Corp. The $86-billion deal, which the FCC unanimously approved Dec. 29, makes AT&T the dominant phone company in 22 states, including California, and the nation's largest provider of high-speed Internet service.

Advocates of network neutrality requirements now contend that if a behemoth such as AT&T can build its data highways without charging websites for faster delivery of video and other bandwidth-devouring services, so can other providers.

January 8, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Between Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show, both going on this week, we're going to see a lot of new gadgets, doodads, and gizmos that will combine the power of video with the Internet, along with the services that will sell them to consumers.

Like this bit from Sony:

Sony revealed Sunday a system that will allow viewers of its Bravia flat-panel TV sets to access broadband video content, some of it in high-definition (HD).

The Bravia Internet Video Link system will be offered on most new models of Bravia TVs and can be accessed at the push of a few buttons on the remote control. The service is populated with a number of programmed broadband video content channels and initial partners include AOL, Yahoo and Sony-group companies Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony BMG Music and online video site Grouper.

So companies like Sony will attempt to control it all: Make the content, and then offer it only to people who own Sony TV's at home.

And that's just the beginning. Steve Jobs takes center stage tomorrow. This is Geek Week in America. Start saving your $$$$, you've got a lot of stuff to buy soon.

January 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to the Charleston Post and Courier, Augusta-based Morris Communications--the publisher of 27 daily newspapers, several lifestyle magazines, visitor magazines, books, outdoor boards and more--has gone to court to protect one of its brands.

In a lawsuit filed this week, Morris Publishing Group alleges that Pink! "virtually mirrors, and in some cases, directly copies" their title Skirt!

The lawsuit alleges that the owner of Pink!, Hilton Head-based Millen Publishing Group, mimics many aspects of Skirt!, including its size, the kind of paper it is printed on, its style of artwork and its one-word title ending with an exclamation point.

Millen Publishing denied the allegations.

I can pick up both titles for free at various pizza joints, coffee shops, etc. No question, the two compete for the same advertising revenue and seek to deliver like-minded content to their readers. I don't know about this lawsuit though. It seems like bullying from Morris (the firm with deeper pockets). Plus, what ever happened to besting an opponent on the playing field?

January 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal is running a piece on BrightLine, a 15-person Manhattan firm that takes ideas for traditional ads and figures out how those concepts can function in venues such as video on demand and digital video recorders.

Tweaking traditional ad ideas for on-demand services is a niche specialty, falling somewhere between traditional media planning and marketing services -- but one that is increasingly in demand. Because traditional ad firms are more accustomed to developing ads for TV and print, the rapid growth of new commercial formats is creating an opportunity for firms like BrightLine to help marketers figure things out.

For example, BrightLine worked with another small ad firm, The Viral Factory, on a video-on-demand promotion for Unilever's Axe body spray in late 2005. The Viral Factory created a four-minute humorous video featuring a mock news broadcast about a fictional town called Ravenstoke, where men were doused with Axe body spray to help attract more women to the town. BrightLine decided the clip would work as part of the VOD programming offered by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, and arranged for insertion of the video in the on-demand menu.

January 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

With all the brands desperate today to unleash a viral video on the Internets, I think it might be instructive to look at a brand that's been viral offline for decades.

No ad agency had anything to do with the creation or perpetuation of the Gatorade dunk. Maybe this should be the definition of what viral is? Something can only be viral if uninstigated consumers create meaning around the brand. Everything else is just advertising.

[via Where's My Jetpack]

January 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

News Net 5 in Cleveland, Ohio reports on one retailer's desire to capitalize on an Ohio State victory (that did not happen) in last night's championship game.

Macy's made a losing bet on the Buckeyes and now has T-shirts that stores can't sell, proclaiming Ohio State college football's national champions.

Three of the department stores in Columbus had the merchandise ready to go in case the Buckeyes won Monday's title game in Glendale, Ariz. But the Buckeyes suffered a painful 41-14 defeat to Florida.

Full-page ads in The Columbus Dispatch on Sunday said the stores would open at 11 p.m. to offer the "new champion apparel" to fans after the game.

The loss prompted at least one major retailer to put its usual Buckeyes gear on sale. Kohl's ran full-page newspaper ads Tuesday congratulating the team on its season -- and advertising half-off on all Ohio State athletic apparel.

January 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Market Watch reports on a professional association's attempt to use millions of dollars in advertising expenditures to overcome prevailing economic trends.

The National Association of Realtors is launching a $40 million advertising campaign to encourage Americans to buy houses amid the ongoing housing slump.

The Realtors' campaign includes $26 million in television advertising, about double what the group spent in 2006.

The ad campaign comes as the U.S. real estate market is weathering a prolonged downturn. The Realtors' latest data show sales of existing homes down 10.7% over the past year.

New homes sales, meanwhile, have fallen 15.3% in the past year, according to the latest government figures.

The Realtors said the new ads will run more than 8,750 times on national television and radio between January and November. They'll run more than 25,000 times on local radio stations.

January 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

David Utter, a staff writer for Web Pro News, looks at another Web 2.0 acquisition by Yahoo.

Bix. Flickr. Delicious. Upcoming.org. Webjay. Konfabulator. Jumpcut. SearchFox. They all have something in common with MyBlogLog: a big check from Yahoo in exchange for the companies.

MyBlogLog is a social network that lives on blogs, mostly. Many sites, like Scott Karp's Publishing 2.0, display a MyBlogLog widget that shows the names and pictures of recent member visitors.

For Yahoo, the question that will need to be answered is what to do with MyBlogLog and all of their other little purchases. Will Yahoo emerge from 2007 as a mobile powerhouse with tons of tightly integrated social media technology?

January 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

Engadget is all over the MacWorld story of the day/year--the June 2007 release of Apple's new iPhone.

As expected, it's a beautifully designed device. It features a 3.5-inch screen, and the highest resolution screen Apple has ever shipped, 160ppi. Other features include a built in 2 megapixel camera, speaker, mic input, and an iPod connector. It works with any IMAP or POP3 email service. iPhone's mobile browser runs Safari—the first fully-usable browser on a cellphone.

The 8 Gig model will retail for $599 and include a two-year service plan from Cingular.

January 9, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 0 Comments

Today, P&G launched Capessa.yahoo.com, an online community for women. This is P&G's first stab at consumer-generated content in the digital space. Here's what they're saying, as quoted in Businessweek:

"This is not about selling products. It's about better understanding of consumers and learning about their needs and habits," said P&G spokeswoman Robyn Schroeder. "The more we learn about these consumers, the more it will allow us to create better products for their needs."

The site was created by ZizzoGroup.

January 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) looks at one prominent media company's scramble to become a player in marketing services.

Meredith Corp., whose magazine titles include Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, is spending an undisclosed sum to acquire Los Angeles-based digital-ad agency Genex and Arlington, Va., word-of-mouth-marketing firm New Media Strategies.

The acquisitions follow Meredith's purchase of Los Angeles-based interactive-marketing agency O'Grady Meyers, whose clients include Nestlé, last April. The latest deals are the strongest signal to date that Meredith -- confronting slowing growth in its core publishing and television businesses -- is broadening its focus to include marketing services, one of the fastest-growing parts of the advertising industry. Even after these purchases, the Des Moines, Iowa, company is still on the prowl for other acquisitions to round out its marketing-services offerings, says Stephen Lacy, Meredith's president and chief executive.

"We believe the marketing services area will have a faster growth rate than either of the two traditional-media businesses," Mr. Lacy says. Meredith owns 26 magazines and 14 TV stations; publishing accounted for about 80% of the company's $1.6 billion in revenue for fiscal 2006, which ended June 30.

Once upon a time there was a divide between editorial and advertising. No more.

January 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

According to Ad Age, Joe Pytka--the most famous commerical director on earth--will deign to direct a spot conceived by a consumer of NFL football.

Gino Bona of Portsmouth, N.H., is the winner of the NFL's promotion that gave fans the opportunity to determine one of the league's 30-second spots that will run next month in Super Bowl XLI.

Mr. Bona, who works as a sales director at the Garrand & Co. marketing firm in Portland, Maine, traveled to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., in November to pitch his idea to a panel of judges. Under the tagline "It's hard for us, too," Mr. Bona's idea described several scenes of fans' reactions as the Super Bowl comes to an end. After the game, fans pay season-long bar tabs and console one another as they struggle with the fact that there will be no more NFL games for another seven months.

The NFL received more than 1,700 submissions by fans for the promotion. It was backed by a national TV spot from GMR Marketing that first aired Nov. 5.

Mr. Bona will be flown to Los Angeles next week to be on the set for the commercial. He also receives a prize package that includes airfare to South Florida for himself and a guest -- along with two tickets to Super Bowl XLI.

January 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Amsale Aberra, a 52-year-old couture wedding gown designer -- and a native of Ethiopia -- is the new spokesperson for the MKX, Lincoln's first entry in the compact crossover wagon market.

According to The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.), Ms. Aberra's New York-based wedding- and evening-dress house, claims annual sales of about $30 million. The Amsale label is in the same league as Vera Wang, another high-end wedding-gown brand.

Lincoln wants to be the universally likable luxury brand -- the Oprah Winfrey or Ralph Lauren of the automotive world, brand executives say.

"We have a different set of values," says Lincoln Marketing Manager Mike Richards about other auto makers. "Our customers are not concerned about shouting about their success. Lincoln is not arrogant or boastful."

Initially, the commercials featuring Ms. Aberra were slated for the minority media and certain urban markets. But Lincoln later decided to include the Amsale ads in Lincoln's general market ads, shown on prime-time television.

January 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

People love to bust on McDonald's. There's a long history of activism against the global burger dispenser. Ronald McHummer, the latest comer adds a subversive twist to their protest—a make your own McD's sign game.

Here's why they're bothering:

McDonald's often emphasizes its "long-standing global commitment to environmental protection and leadership." So why did they give away 42 million toy Hummers in Happy Meals? The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth cut a deal with General Motors to sell future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV originally built for the military. Use the Ronald McHummer Sign-O-Matic™ to say what you think of this misguided marketing marriage.

Yep, a promotion gone wrong. I hate when that happens.

[via Jetpacks]

January 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Associated Press reports that Cisco is not taking Apple's new iPhone announcement well.

Nor should they. Cisco has owned the rights since 2000 (note the circle R in the graphic above).

Three weeks ago, Cisco's Linksys division put the trademark to use, releasing an Internet phone called "iPhone" that uses the increasingly popular Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

Cisco said Tuesday it had been negotiating for several years with Apple over a licensing agreement but that Apple lawyers had not signed and returned the final contract.

"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name," said Mark Chandler, Cisco senior vice president and general counsel, in a statement. "There is no doubt that Apple's new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission."

January 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

USA Today reports on a new search engine designed to appeal to users that did not grow up on the web.

Does surfing the Web exhaust — and even exasperate — older people? The backers of Cranky.com are betting on it.

Cranky is a specialty search engine designed to please aging baby boomers by processing every request from the perspective of someone who is at least 50 years old.

This steadily growing demographic often feels overwhelmed using high-powered search engines from the likes of Google and Yahoo because they spew out more results than older eyes care to see, said Jeff Taylor, the Cranky mastermind who previously struck it rich as the founder of online employment site Monster.com.

January 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Gwen Yip is an art director from Hong Kong currently working on Yakult at Wieden + Kennedy in London. She has a blog about looking for (and finding) work in the London ad scene. It's adorable and I'm fascinated by it.

In the frame above Yip shows us Michael Russoff, the Creative Director at Wieden responsible for bringing her on board. Here's the copy that attends her post:

He likes my personal work where the advertising portfolio is too commercial or too 'advertising' to him. woo... all the effort to insist working on my own creation is worth it! It makes me feel a strong emotion. He suddenly asks...

"What do you want?" That's what he asks. Not in a mean way. In a tangible yet philosophical way. It's a great interview question, and one we all need a good answer for.

January 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal reports that one of America's iconic brands is going through a late-life identity crisis. Scatch that. The story's really about loss of attention span. Or maybe it's about the Cult of New. You be the judge.

PepsiCo Inc. is seeing its cans in a whole new light.

For 109 years, the Purchase, N.Y., company has fiercely guarded the packaging of its namesake cola, crafting changes to its labels rarely. Now, though, it is launching a series of designs, to debut every three or four weeks -- a marketing shift that the company hopes will grab the attention of increasingly fickle, restless and distracted young consumers.

The new graphics are part of a broader new thematic campaign for Pepsi-Cola that emphasizes the brand's "fun, optimistic, and youthful spirit," Pepsi says.

In realted news, USA Today reports that Pepsi will award a $100,000 sterling silver Pepsi can trimmed with 300 diamonds, 100 sapphires and 100 rubies to the winner of its Super Bowl halftime show promotion.

January 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I just began instant messaging and texting last year. Aware of my new undertakings, Shawn--the publisher of this site--welcomed me to the year 2000.

So I'm not an early adopter. I can deal with it. What I find interesting is people who resist altogether the watershed changes underway in technology and communications.

USA Today lables these unique creatures "tech-nos."

Some tech-no's shun e-mail. Others don't use the Web or don't even have a computer. Many avoid cellphones. In a few rare cases, people say no to just about all of it.

Even tech-loving teens and twentysomethings are starting to think twice. They might use the Internet (93% of American teens ages 12 to 17 do, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project), but a few are turning away from the same social networking sites with which their peers are obsessed.

By choice, Shane Bugeja, 16, of Columbus, Ohio, doesn't have a Facebook or MySpace page. "I don't find it interesting — having someone reading about you, and you don't know them," he says.

"It is going to become very fashionable at some point to be disconnected," Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo predicts. "There are going to be people who wear their disconnectivity like a badge."

On the one hand we have teens who resist the hype as rebels are wont to do. On the other, we have old-schoolers (not quite Luddites) who enjoy the nuance and connection a real conversation offers. I can relate to both positions. You?

January 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

According to Washington Post and Bloomberg, Six Flags, the amusement-park chain controlled by Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, is selling seven of its 28 theme parks to Jacksonville-based PARC 7F for $312 million in an effort to improve its balance sheet.

The seven parks to be sold are Six Flags Darien Lake near Buffalo; Elitch Gardens in Denver; Frontier City and White Water Bay in Oklahoma City; SplashTown in Houston; Waterworld USA in Concord, Calif.; and Wild Waves and Enchanted Village near Seattle.

PARC Management Chairman Michael Jenkins, a former vice president of Six Flags over Texas, was among a group of people who helped oil executive Angus Wynne found the theme-park brand in 1961.

January 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, Nicholas Carr, looks at the Pranksteresque moves of Steve Jobs.

It's hard to imagine the pleasure Steve Jobs must receive from singlehandedly upstaging the entire Consumer Electronics Show. There was just one moment during his two-hour presentation yesterday (at MacWorld) when he went off script, but it was a telling one. His clicker failed, and while he waited for his backstage minions to fix the glitch he launched into a reminiscence about how, back in the day, he and Woz hacked together a little device that could jam television signals. They took it over to Berkeley and used it to mess with the minds of the privileged college kids by interrupting their viewing of Star Trek. Jobs hasn't changed at all. He's still jamming signals, and getting a huge kick out of it.

Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 says, "Steve Jobs doesn’t give a shit what anybody else thinks. Neither does Google. Or Craigslist. For all the love-festing around “social,” “sharing,” and “community,” mosts of the biggest successes of recent years have been driven by a singular vision, rather than “collective intelligence.”

Karp believes it pays to adhere to your vision, instead of trying to placate the masses. This reasoning is, of course, mostly foreign to ad agency types. The agency business is all about serving one's clients, and by extension, the masses. I've never been comfortable with this approach and probably never will be. I believe in catering to the needs and desires of individual customers. In other words, I believe my clients' customers are my bosses. And that my job is to make them happy. It sounds simple but it isn't.

January 13, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 7 Comments

I'll admit I didn't study the Art Directors Club call for entries poster when it came in the mail a couple of weeks ago:

It's intended to be the "Final Call For Entries." But over at Little Green Footballs, a right-leaning political blog, the poster was interpreted like this:

It’s an impressive panoply of moonbat leftist self-loathing, a desolate nuclear wasteland populated by Republican political leaders holding hands with the Devil (lower left), Christians throttling Muslims (lower left corner and center), a priest shoving a lollipop into a little boy’s mouth, gas-guzzling Humvees crushing people, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and a lone polar bear, marooned on an ice floe in a tsunami.

To see the poster larger, click here. It was illustrated by Norbert H. Kox, who apparently does a lot of apocolyptic artwork.

Anyone want to chime in on what the poster means to you?

January 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

High Jive is using classic ads from years gone by to persuade a new audience. Aside from the ad pictured above, he's modified VW's "Think Small" campaign, the old Hathaway shirt ad, an old Avis ad and several others. All drive you to his site, MultiCultClassics, for a more lengthy discourse on the need for minority representation in the ad industry.

January 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

In today's Sunday Style's section, the reality of fashion and popular culture magazines is exposed. What is found there may not please those looking for the fictional renderings recently made popular by books, film and TV.

Krishtine De Leon, one of six interns picked to star in an MTV reality series set at Rolling Stone, expected an office out of “Almost Famous,” the 2000 movie about the early-1970s heyday of the rock music magazine. “The type of place where people were doing copious amounts of drugs to get their stories in on time, hobnobbing with lots of celebrities, no real rules,” she said.

Instead, she found a workplace that was less like Woodstock and more like Wachovia bank. “It was like any other freaking office with cubicles,” Ms. de Leon, 24, said. “Very typical.”

Keeping with his magazine's corporate identity, Jann Wenner describes reality television as “a very good marketing idea.” AdPulp's complimentary translation: "Wow, free exposure for my brand...this is almost as good as the Summer of Love!"

January 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

CBS Interactive isn't going to fake it on Superbowl Sunday, they're going to place a real consumer generated video on the airwaves. Mercifully, it will only last 15 seconds.

The video above is actually one of the better contest offerings I viewed. It's produced by a You Tube "pro," with 64 homemade videos to her credit. She's even been profiled by SiteSpeed's News of the Day.

This video is a better example of unpolished consumer generated content.

January 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Richard Edelman is the president and CEO of the world's largest independent public relations firm with 1800 employees in 40 offices worldwide. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1972, has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. In other words, he's a smart guy.

Given his native intelligence, he wants to "set expectations" for the myriad bloggers on his staff, including one of the the world's foremost bloggers, Steve Rubel.

Coming off the Wal-Mart flog and the Microsoft Vista give-and-take, this is a smart move.

If our firm has made a mistake, I will blog about it, in the spirit of continuous improvement and commitment to excellence.

Unless "clients request that we stay clear." Naturally, this is a brilliant out for Edelman, but it's also a fact of life in client service. The agency can promote transparency all day and all night, but clients harbor their own beliefs on such matters, not to mention their own "trade secrets."

January 14, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Another month, another young, high-profile, so-called "change agent" gets the boot. Ad Age reports on the departure of Kerri Martin, the marketing exec at Volkswagen who dumped Arnold and hired Crispin:

Ms. Martin, the 36-year-old executive who helped establish BMW's Mini in the U.S. with a much-lauded campaign from Crispin, arrived at Volkswagen a marketing rock star. "VW has always been at its best when we make people think," she told Advertising Age earlier this year. "We've always been fearless and not afraid to make a left when everyone is taking a right."

Can we please stop referring to marketing and advertising people as "rock stars"? Bono is a rock star. Mick Jagger is a rock star. Middle management marketing executives and group creative directors aren't.

January 15, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

This Ad Age chart shows, in actual percentages and numbers, the mandates for diversity hiring in New York City's advertising agencies.

But we all know how unpredictable the ad industry is, and inevitably, some of these ad agencies may hire new staff only to fire them if they lose business. So will their layoffs reflect that diversity? At the Philadelphia Enquirer, now run by a former ad agency exec, it's already an issue:

On Jan. 3, the Inquirer began laying off 71 newsroom employees, or 17 percent of its staff, based on seniority guidelines in the newspaper union’s contract. According to the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, 17 of the 71 journalists laid off, or about 24 percent, are minorities.

“It’s a serious moral issue. We must maintain the diversity of the newsroom,” said Henry J. Holcomb, the president of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia. He said that if the paper were willing to offer buyouts to senior employees, the paper could call back several junior African-American reporters.

If the ad industry follows the mandates and hires more minorities, it'll be quite telling to see who'll eventually get the ax. Will more minorities be fired out of spite if the perception is they were hired because of a mandate? How will office politics play a role?

January 15, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age reports on one agency's solution to the industry-wide shortage of Spanish-speaking creatives.

In an innovative solution to the chronic talent shortage facing the U.S. Hispanic market, one Latino shop is going where the creatives are: Buenos Aires.

Los Angeles-based independent Grupo Gallegos is opening an office this month in Argentina, where creative teams are starting work on Comcast, the California Milk Processor Board and other U.S. clients.

January 15, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 0 Comments

Despite having sold 550 ads to local businesses since April, citizen journalist website Backfence is in trouble, according to The Washington Post. In May 2005, Backfence won $3M in funding from local investors and national firms, but last week they lost three executives, including their co-founder. Apparently, the management team reached an impasse with investors on the best way to enter new markets.

"It always ends up being so much different than the way you imagine it to be," Potts said. Over the next three months, he said, Backfence will add more features, such as social networking, online video and mapping. "We haven't rolled out as quickly as we'd wanted to. But we think the basic concept we went after is absolutely still the right place to be."

Media analysts agree that many readers are looking for hyperlocal content, but they say most citizen-journalism sites aren't mature enough to tap into the lucrative local advertising markets.

"Realistically, it's going to take close to 10 years for the business models to be there and for there to be enough advertisers willing to give money to hyperlocal start-ups," said Vin Crosbie, managing partner of Digital Deliverance, a Connecticut media consulting firm. "Backfence's problem is that it was too early."

January 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) looks at the publishing industry's recent moves in India.

Lured by a growing pool of deep-pocketed readers and advertisers anxious to reach out to India's 300 million-strong middle class, some 10 foreign consumer magazines have launched Indian editions in the past two years, and close to 20 more are expected to start publishing in India in 2007.

Indian versions of Maxim, Marie Claire and Good Housekeeping are already on magazine racks; Vogue and others have announced plans to publish here. Even Playboy and Penthouse have indicated interest in coming to India, though they are still working to devise tamer layouts to suit India's more conservative society.

"Compared to developed markets like the U.S. and U.K. that are showing single-digit [annual revenue] growth in the entertainment and media sector, India has close to a 19% growth rate and a large, untapped market," says Smita Jha, a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. in New Delhi.

Where publishers go, advertisers follow.

January 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

The National Association of Television Program Executives, a.k.a. NATPE is conducting its annual conference this week. Naturally, AdAge sent a reporter. Here's a slice of what he heard:

The only thing holding up the explosion of the mobile phone content and advertising business continues to be the lack of interested viewers, panelists bemoaned at the second annual NATPE Mobile conference here.

Currently, 20% of all mobile users have video-enabled cellphones, but less than 10% of that sector has actually used that video access, said David Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corp. "What we have is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news is the low percent of people actually using it, but the good news is that we have all these people with new video opportunities. All we have to do is get them to start using it."

Looks like this is not a "build it and they will come" moment. I, for one, don't care to view video on the tiny screen. I have a laptop that works just fine for that purpose.

January 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Interpublic has shuttered its Consumer Experience Practice and lost one of the most frequently quoted Madison Avenue media experts--Stacey Lynn Koerner--in the process.

According to Media Daily News:

Launched in May, the Consumer Experience Practice was the brainchild of long-time Interpublic media research diva Stacey Lynn Koerner, who left Initiative to assemble a team of elite thinkers with the goal of developing next generation research methods and tools that would help Interpublic's agencies and clients understand how technology is altering consumer use of media.

While the eight-person unit was beginning to generate genuine insights, it was also incurring significant costs without a clear revenue stream back to Interpublic, pitting it in a political quagmire with other operating units doing similar research tied directly to client business.

Koerner is currently writing a book, Hyperlink Society, which will be published by Annenberg School of Communication.

January 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

"If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect." -Ted Turner

USA Today is running a feature today on the thickness of CEO skin.

PsyMax surveyed 13,000 employees, including 242 CEOs, to determine which ones were resilient, thick-skinned and good at taking criticism. PsyMax called it being tough-minded. Among non-management workers, 83% had those qualities. Among those promoted to supervisor or foreman, 78% had those qualities. That indicates little erosion from promotion to promotion.

But something happens to those who take the last step up: Just 65.5% of CEOs, presidents and chief operating officers were tough-minded.

"That wasn't a finding we expected, but it holds up statistically," says Wayne Nemeroff, PsyMax CEO, who has Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology.

Can you think of any agency CEOs with thick skin?

January 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.), in what may be a first for the paper, is running a piece on K-Fed.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance has tapped Kevin Federline, soon-to-be ex-husband of pop star Britney Spears, to star in its 30-second Super Bowl spot, a move that guarantees the insurer acres of free publicity.

The spot, which will run in the game's third quarter, is set up to look like a rap video featuring Mr. Federline, wearing a baseball cap and wireless headset. Among the lyrics he raps: "Ain't got no more time for Miss BS; and PS, now I'm rappin' patty. Yeah number one. With a shimmy shake too...lovin' that special sauce from me."

As the camera pulls back, the punch line is revealed: Mr. Federline is seen working the drive-thru window at a fast-food joint. "Life comes at you fast. Be ready with a Nationwide annuity and you could be guaranteed income for life," a voiceover intones.

Federlines also endorses the Five Star Vintage line by the San Francisco-based Blue Marlin clothing company.

January 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

According to Ad Age, Shine Advertising of Madison, Wisconsin, could not simultaneously meet Bob Parson's creative demands and live with themselves.

A little more than a month after winning the GoDaddy.com account, independent Shine Advertising has resigned, citing irreconcilable creative differences.

The shop also renounced responsibility for the GoDaddy work that will appear during the Super Bowl.

What might have Shine been thinking when they landed this account? Were they thinking that their unique powers of persuasion would move Parsons to a new place? It certainly looks that way.

Brands have DNA. DNA doesn't change because a new agency is on the account. Yet, agency executives consistently make the error of believing they have the secret formula that will, in fact, allow for radical change. The arrogance of it all makes me recoil.

Speaking of arrogance, here's a bit of copy from Shine's website:

We hate advertising. Actually, we hate what the advertising industry has become. A river of mediocrity—her slopes, slippery—her current, swift. Think about it. When was the last time your agency brought you a big idea? Not just a great ad, but an idea that made your socks go up and down. Day to day, scores of agencies deliver safe, least common denominator thinking, all in the name of preserving the client-agency relationship. We've been there. We've done that. And we think it sucks (pardon our French).

So we did what everyone says they're gonna do. We started an agency. A different kind of agency. A place where conventional thinking is challenged. A place where the idea is king. A place where advertising just might get born anew.

Shine doesn't just want to alter the DNA of its clients' brands, it wants to reinvent advertising. At one time I might have enjoyed the youthful enthusiasm in this copy. Now, I think it's over-reaching, if not ridiculous.

January 17, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 2 Comments

Can interactive shops continue to grow and challenge traditional ad agencies for ownership of the big idea? Are I-shops capable of leading creative or merely executing and implenting it? If you're rooting for interactive, good news came today when Avenue A/Razorfish announced that it has secured a 19.4% stake in a Japanese interactive shop called Digital Palette, which is part of Dentsu, Japan's biggest ad agency. Online Media Daily reports:

In the last year, Avenue A/Razorfish has acquired NDA in the U.K., Amnesia in Australia, and most recently, Neue Digital in Germany. The Digital Palette deal adds offices in Tokyo and Kobe to Avenue A's stable of shops in London, Frankfurt, Sydney, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Across the ad industry, executives seem well aware of clients' increasing demand for international reach.

"It's critical to have a regional presence in key markets around the world," said Harvey Goldhersz, chief operating officer for MediaCom Worldwide, a media buying firm owned by aQuantive rival WPP Group. "It's a growing part of the business, but agencies have to be prepared to meet demand."

Furthermore, agencies can benefit indirectly from their work in markets like Japan, according to Goldhersz. "Japan is clearly out in front in areas like mobile. We see returns in the form of insights about integrating mobile with the Internet."

January 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Spencer Morgan's New York Observer article on internet video star Ze Frank is highly informative.

Here's some of what I learned by reading the piece:

• Mr. Frank has high powered Hollywood agents and will soon have a deal.
• United Talent Agency owner Nick Stevens said to him, "We’ll do this, we’ll do that, we’ll pump that area."
• DreamWorks is laden with waterfalls and free ice cream.
• In March of 2001, Mr. Frank was an art director at Dennis Interactive.
• Mr. Frank studied neuroscience at Brown.
• His college band was called Dowdy Smack.
• 25,000 to 30,000 people watch his online show each day.
• The ad space at the top of zefrank.com goes for $900 a week. The ads that run at the end of his videos go for 30 cents per click.
• Ze Frank's real first name is Hosea.

January 18, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 5 Comments

This seems to be becoming a weekly occurrence. From The New York Times:

The TJX Companies, the retailer that operates the T. J. Maxx and Marshalls discount clothing chains, has joined the ignominious list of companies that have had sensitive customer financial data pilfered by identity thieves.

Yesterday the company, based in Framingham, Mass., said that as early as 2003 and during most of last year, an intruder had gained access to a computer system containing the private records of customers, including credit and debit cards, checks and driver’s license numbers.

The article goes on to say that it appeared T.J. Maxx was keeping records, obtained from the point of sale, that "most data security experts advise companies not to keep."

But I'm sure some direct marketing fucker told them "hey, you could leverage that information to maximize ROI through segmentation, customer relationship management and one-on-one purchase incentive initiatives."

I'm not paranoid, but this just freaks me out and pisses me off. From now on, when I go shopping, I'm bartering for everything with livestock.

Oh, wait. That might be a problem, too.

January 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Ad Age takes an accusatory tone in an article about top level creatives leaving one shop for another.

McGarryBowen has been stealing Walt Disney Co.'s theme-parks creative work away from Leo Burnett, and now it's swiping some of Burnett's Disney creatives as well.

The independent New York-based agency has hired Ned Crowley and Jonathan Moore as executive creative directors. The two held similar positions at Chicago-based Burnett, where they worked on a wide swath of accounts including Disney and Hallmark Cards.

"There are few people in this business who know how to tell a story with heart and a smile," Gordon Bowen, chief creative officer of McGarryBowen, said in a statement. "They will be a huge asset for this agency, and I can't wait for our clients to see the results."

Do agency personnel actually belong to the agency that employs them? I think not.

January 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Barclays, the British financial services company claims to be a "proud partner in Brooklyn's renaissance."

According to The Wall Street Journal, the well-heeled Brits are dropping $300 mil on the naming rights for the future home of Nets basketball.

Barclays Center, at the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, is scheduled to be completed by the start of the 2009-2010 National Basketball Association season.

Robert E. Diamond, Barclays's president, said the deal with the Nets will improve the brand recognition of Barclays's retail and investment-banking offerings. "We knew it was time to invest more in our brand," he said in an interview Thursday. "I don't buy the fact that branding is only for retail products."

Last month, Citigroup Inc. purchased rights for the new Mets baseball stadium in Queens to be called Citi Field.

January 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, print journalism took another blow to its midsection this week.

In a broad retrenchment, Time Inc. announced yesterday that it would cut nearly 300 employees at its top magazines, including the most profitable publication, People, as it moves to invest more in its Web sites.

The number of cuts — 289 in total — were deeper than expected, with 172 of them coming from the editorial side and 117 from the business side.

Time magazine is losing close to 50 people and is shutting its bureaus in Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta. Sports Illustrated is losing about 30 people.

John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., said in a memo that the cuts were being made to help “move quickly into a future of flexible, multiplatform content.”

January 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

A Washington, DC-based blogger going by the screen name of "Woodstock" reads Gaping Void "with varying degrees of regularity." He says he's "revolted and compelled at the same time" by Hugh's content.

Woodstock goes on to say, "I believe marketing to be one of the primary sources of evil in modern culture."

What's interesting here is Hugh MacLeod's repsonse.

You can replace marketing with management or even sales, it's the same age-old argument! What I've come to realize is people don't hate good marketing, good management, or effective sales people.

Those functions exist to improve the customer's experience, life, business in some way. Bad marketing, management, and sales, however, is what we all seem to associate the aforementioned functions with.

Hugh, the great tearer-downer, comes to marketing's defense. Of course, Hugh doesn't despise marketing, he merely despises the way "Madison Avenue" does business.

January 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Radio station promotions are often lowest common denominator affairs. But the category reached a new low last week when Sacramento's KDND 107.9 The End, appears to have accidentally killed a woman with one of their ill-conceived concepts.

According to News 10, a 28-year-old mother of three from Rancho Cordova was found dead in her home just hours after competing in the station's "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest. The contest involved drinking and retaining copious amounts of water.

Sacramento County assistant coroner Ed Smith said a preliminary investigation showed evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death."

A message from the station's General Manager posted on the station's website says, "I want to assure you that the circumstances regarding this matter are being examined as thoroughly as possible. We are doing everything we can to deal with this difficult situation in a manner that is both respectful and responsible. Effective immediately, the Morning Rave show is canceled."

January 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Johnnie Moore and James Cherkoff have been putting alot of thought into co-creation, also known as open-source marketing. In fact, the two have put together a Change This manifesto on the topic. The manifesto is also available via their Open Sauce Wiki.

Their manifesto gives 17 rules of the co-creation road, which ought to be mandatory reading for all brand managers and agency creatives contemplating a consumer generated campaign.

Here's rule 15:

15. BE CHANGED

"Show me you've listened"

When you set up co-creative relationships the most exciting thing that happens is not that your product or service gets more famous. The most exciting thing is that you are changed by the experience.

In the world of improvised theatre, which inspires a lot of our thinking, the player who tries too hard to drive the narrative is accused of scriptwriting. The one who tries to tell jokes is encouraged to stop gagging. The real skill in performance is to fully take on the offers of the other players and be changed by them. Then what you offer back is likely to develop the drama.

In France, L'Oreal's first stab at blogging involved a fake character talking about the product. A strong backlash from bloggers led the company to a change of direction that worked much better. L'Oreal followed rule 11 and learnt something. Then they let themselves be changed. That's co-creation at work. And many people argue that the biggest change that arises from developing co-creation takes place inside the organisation.

Of course, most companies are not looking to BE CHANGED. Typically, most simply want to jump on the shiny new thing and hope for the best.

January 19, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 13 Comments

People just really hate this ad.

UPDATE: Here's a shocker: Bob Garfield doesn't like it, either.

January 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The New York Times is giving out some valuable consumer advise in an article titled, "Don’t Call. Don’t Write. Let Me Be."

Whatever you do, do not respond to an unsolicited e-mail message when it gives you the option to opt out of receiving more e-mail. That is a trick used by spammers to confirm they hit a live address. Once that happens, your address goes to a prime list and is sold to other spammers. You may even find legitimate businesses eventually using addresses on that list.

January 20, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 1 Comments

Not to get all Bill O'Reilly on you, but does anyone find it rather lame that parents are suing MySpace because thier teenage daughters were sexually assaulted by weirdos they met while using the service? CNET reports that families from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina have filed seperate civil suits against MySpace and parent company News Corp., alleging negligence, recklessness, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

How is MySpace negligent and reckless for providing a platform for people to post pictures and chat? If you went home with a psychopath you met at the Hard Rock Cafe and he stole your kidney, you wouldn't sue the Hard Rock Cafe. So what's the difference?

Long before Dennis Miller turned into a sour, bitter old Republican, he used to rant about how America was too conerned about "the children" and that the public sphere was being dumbed down by moms on a jihad for a G-rated world. This MySpace lawsuit strikes me as an example of what Miller was talking about. Our legitimate concern for children can be so easily misdirected. MySpace can't possibly be expected to guarantee the safety of its users.

According to CNET, MySpace will develop a software program called Zephyr to help parents monitor their kid's activity on MySpace.

January 21, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Ad Age, Interpublic and OneSeven have severed ties.

OneSeven is the agency made up of the Saatchi 17--the group of General Mills account people and creatives who followed Mike Burns out the door at Saatchi in February 2005.

The agency's clients include: ConAgra's Hebrew National; Gorton's seafood; McGraw-Hill's BusinessWeek; Dun & Bradstreet; and Unicef.

The agency was not profitable, according to a knowledgeable executive, which led to Interpublic's decision. Mr. Burns would not comment directly on financial matters, but said, "Our business scale did not make sense for a multinational, multibillion-dollar holding company, but our focus makes sense for our client partners."

January 21, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I hadn't seen the 60-second version of this Toyota Tacoma commercial unitl now. At this length the spot is allowed to build a bit before Nessie emerges from the depths.

January 22, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Ad Age looks at the ambitions (and restlessness) of some prominent creative men on the West Coast.

Lee Clow's heir apparent, Chuck McBride, is putting the finishing touches on what could be his greatest work: a breakaway from TBWA/Chiat/Day to form a creative supergroup.

Mr. McBride is negotiating with Omnicom Group to back a hotshop comprising four superstar ad execs, including his former creative partner on Nike at Wieden, Hal Curtis. Brad Harrington, co-president at WPP Group's Cole & Weber United, Seattle and Alex Wipperfurth, president of Plan B (recently renamed Dial House), San Francisco, are the other two under consideration.

The agency is expected to focus on branded entertainment as well as interactive, design and other elements at the front of the creative process.

Given that I don't breathe the rarefied air that these gents breathe, it's hard for me to assess the rightness of this move. I can say that being Lee Clow's heir apparent is at once bone-chilling and incredibly flattering.

January 22, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

[via Spike Jones]

January 22, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Hey, it's in the New York Times business section, so it must be newsworthy:

The high-definition format is accentuating imperfections in the actors — from a little extra cellulite on a leg to wrinkles around the eyes. Hollywood is dealing with similar problems, but they are more pronounced for pornographers, who rely on close-ups and who, because of their quick adoption of the new format, are facing the issue more immediately than mainstream entertainment companies.

Producers are taking steps to hide the imperfections. Some shots are lit differently, while some actors simply are not shot at certain angles, or are getting cosmetic surgery, or seeking expert grooming.

“The biggest problem is razor burn,” said Stormy Daniels, an actress, writer and director.

OK. Get back to work. Or, uh, insert your penetrating double-entrendre comments below.

January 22, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Publicis/New York is encouraging high school students to take the steps necessary to attend college.

According to the press release, the KnowHow2GO campaign primarily targets low-income students in grades 8 to 10, and secondarily, their parents and adult influencers. Research conducted for the campaign showed that low-income and first-generation students have high aspirations for college, but do not have clear information on what steps they need to take. Campaign research also showed that particularly in low-income households, parents expect the student to take the lead in pursuing college.

KnowHow2GO focuses on four creative messages that speak directly to young people. Those steps are: "Be a Pain," "Push Yourself," "Find the Right Fit" and "Put Your Hands on Some Cash."

The campaign will run for approximately two years. The PSAs are being distributed to 28,000 media stations nationwide.

January 22, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

ExxonMobil spent approximately $16 million between 1998 and 2005 on 43 organizations that have cast doubt on the reality of human-caused global warming.

Funding ranged from $30,000 for the group Africa Fighting Malaria to $1.6 million to the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business think tank in Washington.

Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent for Reuters, sees a parallel between the energy company's aim to discredit the science of global warming and the tobacco industry's decades long "cancer causing" cover up.

I see more bad PR for a firm with a long-standing curse on its house.

[via Hill | Holliday]

January 23, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

No matter what you think of the ad's imagery and message, the Chevy Silverado spots featuring John Mellencamp are a huge deal. Really. Advertising professionals aren't the target audience for pickup trucks, but trucks like the Silverado and the Ford F-150 are what's been keeping GM and Ford in business. American-built trucks enjoy a brand loyalty that the regular cars don't have anymore.

That loyalty will be put to the test--as BusinessWeek reports, Toyota is gunning straight for the heart of the pickup business, right in the heart of Texas:

Toyota is taking aim at market share and the big profits pickups bring home. For any carmaker who can keep incentives low, a loaded full-size pickup can make $5,000 or more in variable profit.

Local press coverage of the new San Antonio plant has gotten Toyota plenty of buzz in the year leading up to the new Tundra's launch. To add to that, Toyota aired commercials during National Football League conference championship games over the Jan. 20-21 weekend. In the commercials, the narrator—complete with Texas drawl—tries to appeal to blue-collar sensibilities by bragging about the Tundra's transmission and towing abilities. "These ads are doing what they need to do," says Jim San Fillippo, consultant with Automotive Marketing Consultants.

Toyota's new Tundra plant in San Antonio is capable of building 200,000 trucks a year. Currently, Nissan and Toyota have less than 10% of the truck market. I have a feeling that's about to change, big time. I believe loyal buyers of American trucks will give Japanese brand trucks a closer look now that their neighbors and fellow countrymen are building them. It's subtle but it happens: after 18 years of driving Japanese-built cars, I always tell people that my new Hyundai was built in Montgomery, Alabama. For some reason, it makes me feel better.

January 23, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 8 Comments

AdAge calls Crispin a pioneer in forging a new compensation model in which agencies truly partner with their clients, up to and including getting paid for an idea that really works.

"The discussion is beginning to shift from 'What does it cost to generate work and services a client wants?' to 'What is the value of the services and materials the agency is creating for the client?"' said Ronald Urbach, partner, Davis & Gilbert. "Innovation is reaching a critical mass."

Here are two great examples of how agencies get screwed when they get compensated only for time billed:

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, which developed the "Got Milk?" campaign in 1993, reaped no extra benefits from the millions of dollars in licensing fees and royalties generated after the campaign's launch. McCann Erickson created the concept for client Staples' plastic Easy Button, a $4.99 gadget that's sold more than 1 million units since its launch in January 2005, but received no financial reward beyond its original fees.

My understanding is that, traditionally, agencies got paid by skimming off the media buy and that the creative idea was essentially free. Of course, creative has always been a way--the way--to stand out from the crowd and attract big clients.

This business model breaks down in the interactive world since there's no media buy to skim. It costs nickels and dimes to set up a Web site, so most i-agencies charge by the hour. That's a fine way to make money, but timesheets turn creative ideas into just another commodity. A good idea--like Got Milk--is worth so much more than the 2,000 hours it took to develop.

January 23, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Fortune is featuring an in-depth look at Second Life. They really have no choice, given the way big business is foaming over the site's potential.

"The 3-D Internet may at first appear to be eye candy," CEO Sam Palmisano writes in an e-mail interview, "but don't get hung up on how frivolous some of its initial uses may seem." He calls 3-D realms such as Second Life the "next phase of the Internet's evolution" and says they may have "the same level of impact" as the first Web explosion.

Apparently 3,000 IBM employees have acquired their own avatars, and about 300 are routinely conducting company business inside Second Life.

Laurent Haug sees Second Life a bit differently. He calls it irrelevant and over hyped. "Second Life is an ugly, hard to use and unfriendly game. It is the hotmail of online 3D games. At the end of the day it is far from being the revolution we have been sold."

January 23, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 5 Comments

I just *love* how Ad Age declared the Death of the Rock Star CMO. Well, who do you think anoints them as rock stars in the first place? I decided to explore this asinine trend:

Now, there’s nothing wrong with saying someone has extraordinary skill or talent. Heck, even an extra helping of charm and good looks can help you succeed in the ad biz. But to elevate someone to “rock star” status is sheer lunacy. In a business where we seek “universal truths,” the embrace of such poseurs is universal bullshit.

What’s even worse, it sets up unrealistic expectations for the person considered to be the rock star. Let’s face it, it only takes a little time spent working for a bureaucratic corporation, dysfunctional agency, or hack Executive Creative Director to kill off that reputation. And in corporate America, where nearly everyone has a leash-like electronic entry badge and a lengthy employee ID number, some things are simply beyond the power of one person to change--no matter how much that person thinks of him or herself as a “change agent.”

Read more in my new column on TalentZoo.com. And as I'm approaching nearly 5 years as a columnist on TalentZoo, I've created an easy-to-scroll website at AdColumnist.com where you can read them all. I hope you enjoy it-- there's over 85 columns there that I've written since 2002, it makes a good time waster at the office.

January 24, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal looks at one tobacco company's attempt to create a kindler, gentler smoker.

The world's No. 3 tobacco maker is betting on an unusual strategy amid a widening backlash against smoking: Keep smokers on their best behavior.

Japan Tobacco Ltd. is bombarding Japanese subways, newspapers and billboards with ads that resemble earnest public-service announcements.

"Don't smoke in a crowd, coats are expensive," says one of 40 different print and outdoor advertisements that hang in Tokyo's subway and other public areas. The ad shows a stick-figure man with a giant cigarette next to a woman wearing a coat with a hole in it.

Japan has the highest percentage of people who smoke in the industrialized world—half of the male population smokes.

Japan Tobacco controls more than 70% of the cigarette market in Japan. A state-owned monopoly until 1985, the Japanese Finance Ministry now own half of the company.

January 24, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 2 Comments

eMarketer picks up on a study conducted by BIGresearch that suggests the power of word-of-mouth, the far less manageable little sister of Advertising. Nothing new here, but I find stats and studies helpful when debating clients, account people, and suits of all sorts.

January 24, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 4 Comments

The radical notion that marketers must cede control and enable consumers to create brand meaning for themselves is no longer radical, at least in theory. We talk about it all the time. And to a greater or lesser extent, many of us are making it happen.

But have you ever wondered what to do with a brand that no one wants to talk to, co-create, or have a conversation with? It seems like the same ideas get tossed out at every brainstorm I attend: let's invite consumers to blog, chat, communicate, converse, co-create, develop new products, etc. These are great ideas for some brands in some contexts, but every now and again it occurs to me that perhaps the majority of the brands we use every day simply can't reasonably ask consumers to spend all that much time with them.

Do you really want to co-create your favorite brand of shoelaces, toothpaste or bottled water?

January 24, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Is it just my clouded memory, or does this seem to happen every few years? The Gap goes along strong, then they try selling trendy clothes and sales drop, then they go back to basics, then they get stronger, then they screw up again, then they go back to basics?

I swear I've heard this 3 or 4 times in the last 20 years or so. From USA Today:

Remember The Gap when it was the epitome of hip and trendy, purveyor of the new uniform — basic jeans and T-shirts — for a generation that rejected "dress up" clothes for work and play? Its T-shirts were so cool that actress Sharon Stone wore one on the red carpet at the 1996 Oscars.

That was then. This is now.

"The Gap doesn't seem hip any longer. They simply market one color or one style," says shopper Pam Schmidt of Chandler, Ariz. "They're too preppy and sterile."

After suffering declining sales since 2004 and a depressing 8% drop in sales during the five-week holiday season this year, Gap Inc. dumped CEO Paul Pressler on Monday after five years.

January 24, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Lots of strange things happen in Adlandia, for it's a place populated by strange (sometimes wonderfully so) people.

Chuck McBride, heretofore to be known as Chuck McBlood, is one of the indsutry's more high profile oddballs. Yesterday he made a mock horror video, apperently in reaction to news that he would be leaving TBWA Chiat/Day to form his own firm.

Ad Age calls it "an innovative alternative to the standard-issue press release reassuring employees and marketer clients."

Of course, it's all just a big bad joke. No art directors nor copywriters were harmed in the making of this video. Reputations are another matter.

McBlood's message--that he killed the agency that supports him and his staff--is meant to reveal the absurdity of that claim. Sadly, the absurdity of the video overpowers the cleverness of the rebuttal.

January 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Julie Roehm, the former Wal-Mart marketing executive whose December ouster caused a media firestorm, has filed a lawsuit against the retailer, claiming Wal-Mart breached her contract and smeared her in the press.

The lawsuit was filed without fanfare last month in state court in Michigan, where the former Chrysler executive keeps a residence, but it was transferred to federal court.

In addition to financial damages, Ms. Roehm is looking to retrieve items left in her office at the Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. She's demanding the return of her media exchange files, material from presentations and work she did prior to joining Wal-Mart, and copies of her Microsoft Outlook folders, including her personal contacts.

[SOURCE: Ad Age]

January 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Adweek looks at HP's latest consumer generated content efforts.

To whet consumer appetites for its digital cameras and notebook PCs, Hewlett-Packard is sponsoring a series of autobiographical mini-films at the Sundance Film Festival made with HP equipment.

"We want consumers to feel like they too can be filmmakers," said Doug Cole, director of entertainment marketing at HP. "Providing easy-to-use tools is a very easy way to get them engaged."

Let's run that through AdPulp's bullshit meter...

Hobbyists armed with a video cam are now "filmmakers!" Wow, this CGC stuff is incredibly empowering.

January 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

photo courtesy of Josh Hallett

I'm attending Blog Savannah's Un-Conference today. Currently we're hearing from Phillip Sellers of iTour Savannah. He's moderating a session on podcasting. Sellers, a former radio exec, makes audio tours of historic Savannah. His podcasts are offered as "teasers," for the audio products available for sale on his site.

Like any conference of this sort, it's a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with the sharp people who write (and talk) about topics they care about. Some of the people present at Bryson Hall today:

• Andrew Odom and Diego Orjuela from Evoca
• Josh Hallett
• Christian Livermore, Scott Larson and several others from Savannah Morning News
• Shawn Lata
• Gennie Bailey
• Burton Sauls
• Amber Rhea
• Chris Cree
• Sherry Heyl
• Susan Isaacs, Andrew Davies and Philip Joiner from Paragon : A Design Consortium
• Fitz Haile and Chris Miller of Creative Coast Initiative

My favorite quote of the day came from Scott Larson. He said, "to be a journalist you need truthfulness, fairness and accuracy."

View the Flickr stream and WTOC's news report.

[UPDATE] I'm quoted in today's Savannah Morning News article on the conference. And on this video recap made by Paragon.

January 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

When it invloves a beautiful woman, business ethics isn't an oxymoron. Rather it's time for the mainstream press to go all Gawker on us.

Here's how the Globe and Mail describes the situation:

She is the face that launched a thousand stocks, a television fixture whose movie-star looks and expanding influence have earned her the nickname "Money Honey" on Wall Street, along with a place in FHM Magazine's list of the 100 sexiest women on the planet.

This week, respected CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo found herself making news, rather than covering it, after she was linked to a high-level ouster at the world's largest financial service company.

Word is Todd Thomson, formerly of Citigroup, spent $5-million of the company's money to sponsor a new show Ms. Bartiromo was set to host on Sundance Channel. The man, known by his peers as "Todd Mahal" for his lavish work space overlooking Central Park, also is said to have bumped colleagues from the Citigroup jet to make room for Bartiromo.

According to Associated Press, CNBC said Bartiromo, 39, has done nothing improper.

"Her travel has been company-related and approved, and involved legitimate business assignments," CNBC spokesman Kevin Goldman said. "Permission was sought, permission was granted, and reimbursement procedures were arranged for her travel on corporate jets."

January 27, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 5 Comments

I simply have no idea what to make of this. From The Wall Street Journal:

While many advertisers lavish dollars targeting well-off consumers, in Latin America the vast majority of people have far less money. According to the World Bank, 25% live on less than $2 a day, and many millions of others earn only a few hundred dollars a month. Increasingly, big brands are deciding that people once thought too poor to buy their products may be their biggest growth market.

Now McCann is launching a $2 million research project to seek clues to tapping demand among Latin America's less-well-off. Starting in March, staffers will spend a week to two weeks living with 100 low-income families in a half-dozen countries, including Colombia, Chile and Mexico, looking to understand how they are influenced by brands, what symbols and celebrities motivate them, and to find innovative ways to influence what they buy.

January 28, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Rob Walker's Consumed column in the New York Times Magazine today looks at a youthful company trying to bring new meaning to a crusty old word.

One of the sturdy clichés of contemporary brand-building is the importance of avoiding an image that’s too “crunchy” or, worse, too “granola-y.” That’s particularly true — and maybe particularly challenging — for businesses that want to transcend green or health-conscious consumer niches. But it’s really challenging if what you’re selling is, in point of fact, granola.

The founders of Bear Naked were conscious of this when they started selling their product in 2002. It was “an enormous issue,” Brendan Synnott says, and for the first two and half years of the brand’s existence, he and Kelly Flatley didn’t even put the word on their packaging. “I used to hate being called granola,” he says. “You hear ‘granola,’ and you think hairy legs and Birkenstocks. That was the reputation.”

Bear Naked's mass market strategy appears to be working--it is the top-selling granola brand in natural-foods stores and the No. 2 branded manufacturer in conventional stores, including places like Target and Costco.

January 28, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Ben Brown "lives in San Francisco but dreams in Austin." As such, he's uniquely qualified to create an innovative mashup.

Powered by BBQ and an animal desire to parody everything I see, I registered the domain "kottkekomments.com," mostly as a joke.

Everyone loves alliteration.

Well, this evening, I found a few spare brain cycles and finally launched the site! It's not even a joke.

Johnnie Moore calls the development, "fascinating - another straw in the wind suggesting the conversation will happen whether you support it or not."

Commenting on Church of the Customer, Chris in Cincinnati says "Ben Brown and Jason Kottke are part of the original, old school, last century A-list. I'm pretty sure the left hand knew what the right hand was doing before the public at large did."

January 29, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to USA Today, Whirlpool is launching a nationwide search for a next generation Maytag repairman.

It could be a professional actor, an ordinary guy next door or even a real-life appliance repairman, the company says. The search will include casting calls for union actors and calls open to the public in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

Whirlpool acquired the Maytag brand in 2006.

The Matytag repairman first appeared on American TV screens in 1967 during NBC's Today.

January 29, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

Author, educator and art director/brand strategist, Robin Landa, spoke with some of the industry's top creative directors and compiled their best advise in a downloadable document available from Amazon.com for $0.49.

Here's a small slice:

Robin Landa: “What’s your philosophy about advertising?”

John Butler: “It has to be likeable. It has to inform and inspire. It has to have some emotional hook to it that makes consumers interact with it. It can’t talk down to the consumer. There’s a great quote—although I can’t remember who said it—but it’s hanging on my door: “He who writes the stories defines the culture.” I think that pretty much sums it up. We are given a voice, and we have to be responsible in how we use that voice.”

Butler, a partner in Sausalito's best agency, nails it in his succinct dissertation.

January 29, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

While we probably ought to be more interested in upcoming Super Bowl spots, this political ad caught our eye. Stop Hillary Public Action Committee is working to halt the New York Senator's path back to the White House. In the video above the PAC catches Iowa Democrats on camera expressing their doubts about her candidacy.

[via Adfreak]

January 30, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 0 Comments

Consumers (i.e., us) are so good at multitasking that they now prefer to consume multiple media types simultaneously. The fact that we’re listening to NPR while shopping on Ebay while watching 24 is no newsflash. But the implications of this behavior are profound for marketers who now must reconsider fundamental measurements of time.

To set up their handy little chart, eMarketer quotes a 2006 study by Yahoo and OMD that suggests "consumers now live a 43-hour day filled with more than 16 hours of interaction with media and technology."

January 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Years ago, McDonald's relied on creative franchisees to concoct new items in the back of their kitchens. Restaurant owners invented the Big Mac, the Egg McMuffin and other favorites. Those days are long gone. Today a chef trained at Culinary Institute of America devises new menu items for the quick serve giant.

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) has the story.

Mr. Coudreaut borrowed edamame, a type of soybean served in sushi restaurants, to create McDonald's Asian salad, and he buys experimental ingredients at ethnic groceries. He winnows as many as 1,800 ideas a year down to a handful of items that must be tasty, inexpensive and easy to prepare.

Known at headquarters as "Chef Dan," the 41-year-old was lured to McDonald's by a headhunter. "You can impact 250 people a night at the hotel or 26 million [a day] at McDonald's," he says. "It's an easy decision."

After he arrived, he redesigned the company's test kitchen with upscale touches like granite countertops. The company made him a white chef's jacket.

Finding products that work inside a McDonald's has been tricky. Mr. Coudreaut considered adding a shrimp salad to the menu but couldn't because, he says, McDonald's would need to use so much shrimp that it threatened to deplete the nation's shrimp supply.

January 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

David Armano, Creative VP at Digitas/Chicago is looking for help. If you have the goods (plus a warm coat, hat, mittens and scarf) you could be on your way.

January 31, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

I love a good analogy. And in describing the current desire of marketers to precisely target messages at specific consumers, Teressa Iezzi, writing in Ad Age, comes up with a good one:

I heard a media expert say this on a panel a while back: "If I'm a dog-food maker I am now able to send my commercial messages only to dog owners."

In the mainstream media, it's the Fox News effect -- with more media outlets trying to emulate that ideologically single-minded approach and screeching to an ever more credulous choir.

Interesting--are marketers slowly giving up on trying to change consumers' mindsets by targeting folks predisposed to like their products?

January 31, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The New York Times points out another case of ad creep. At more than 40 colleges around the country, basket stanchion support arms are being used as messaging platforms.

The signs, one at each end of the court, are perpendicular to the backboards; they bear the words “State Farm” and the familiar red-and-white logo of State Farm Insurance.

State Farm made the deal — for the 2007, 2008 and 2009 basketball seasons — with ANC Sports Enterprises, a marketing company in Purchase, N.Y., that represents more than 150 arenas, stadiums and other sports locations in North America.

January 31, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The New York Times explores Microsoft's attempt to "go viral" with its new operating system, Vista.

Marketers are turning to unusual, often little-known personalities who offer the kind of novelty and freshness that young people might blog about, link to and comment on in chats: in other words, make viral on the Internet.

Demetri Martin is not exactly a household name. And that’s exactly the point, said Tommy Means, co-founder of Mekanism, the San Francisco agency hired to create a campaign aimed at the 18- to 30-year-olds who populate online communities.

Along with Microsoft’s ad agency, McCann Erickson, a unit of the Interpublic Group, Mr. Martin and Mekanism developed a Web site (clearification.com) that offers a series of “webisodes" from Martin.

Microsoft liked Mr. Martin’s in-the-know humor, but was also drawn to his built-in digital audience. His page on MySpace.com lists more than 80,000 friends.

January 31, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

A new blog called The Toad Stool offers the unique insights of Tangerine Toad, a NYC-based copywriter and self-described "Student of the Absurd."

In this post, Toad talks about Gino Bona, the dude who's written the Joe Pytka-directed NFL spot, and why some creatives get stuck at the Big Dumb Agencies:

At the ToadStool, we've long believed that luck and a degree from Portfolio Center were often the only things that separated creatives at hot shops from the ones toiling away at the DMB&Bs of the world. We remember the first time we freelanced at one of those shops, armed with our awards and our attitude and expecting to be met by a gaggle of hacks. But we weren't.

We were in fact, surprised, at the quality of the creative and the drive of the people we met, who seemed genuinely concerned with doing good work and frustrated by the CDs, accountniks and clients who held them back. (Well a bunch of them, anyway. Clearly not the whole agency.)

Why didn't they flee? Well, it turned out most of them had tried, but to no avail. It seemed just seeing the name of the hack agency on their resume made them lethal to the recruiters at most of the good shops. And, not having gone to Miami Adfolio Circus Center, they didn't have any contacts at those top shops to vouch for them.

There's some nice bloggin' going on his site. I like folks willing to call bullshit on the industry's bullshitters. Keep it up, Toad.

January 31, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

People in Boston freaked out today because of a guerrilla marketing campaign on behalf of Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Reuters has more details, too.

What's really interesting is that right now, as of 7:00 PM EST, the agency responsible for this, Interference, Inc. has yanked their website down.

A Google search identifies the shop as "A nationwide guerilla and alternative marketing agency from idiation through tactile implementation and staffing."

I think they meant "ideation." Or perhaps they meant "idiocy."

January 31, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

Holy freakin' crap. In what looks to be a first for the nascent field of guerilla marketing, the man hired to execute a buzz campaign has been arrested as a terror suspect.

The Boston Globe (registration required) has the story:

The man who sent city and State Police rushing to defuse what they believed were explosive devices around the Boston region was arrested tonight.

Attorney General Martha Coakley scheduled a 9 p.m. press conference to announce the arrrest of Peter Berdovsky, an Arlington artist.

On his personal website, he posted pictures of a small group installing the figures -- little square-shaped men frowning and making an obscene gesture -- on the exterior wall of a hospital, on the awning of a Cambridge bar, at an Urban Outfitters, and a bridge.

Berdovsky was doing this on behalf of Interference Inc.. They'd better help this guy out--and they're in deep shit anyway.

I'm sure we'll hear more about this in the coming days, but if you're about to pull some guerrilla marketing stunt, think carefully, or you might become a "brand ambassador" in the slammer.