January 1, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 12 Comments

I'm in Boulder today, so I thought I'd take a drive out Diagonal Highway toward Longmont to see where Crispin Porter & Bogusky has set up shop in a nondescript office park. And look, there are a bunch of cars in the parking lot. On New Year's Day. Which leads me to believe it takes extraordinary drive (and an obsessive nature) to reach the top and stay there.

January 2, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

The context for this contextual advertising dust up, or why this is here.

Hat tip to High Jive.

January 3, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

It seems the bone of contention over Facebook's Beacon application was but the tip of the iceberg. Now Wired is exploring the company's "Social Ad" platform and raising more questions about consent and privacy.

Have you used Facebook to give a shout-out to businesses you like? Best make sure your profile picture catches your best side, because you might be an unwitting star in those businesses' next Facebook ad campaigns.

These ads, bought by participating businesses, insert your name and profile picture directly into their pitches. Based on anecdotal evidence, the ads started to roll out right before the holidays.

According to Facebook, a user has to take a "social action" in order to trigger the appearance of their name and picture in an advertisement.

Egg is hard to get off one's face. Especially when it dries.

I can just hear the Facebookies explaining the concept to the ad buyers. UGC is all that, blah blah blah...But the problem is none of this matches up to user generated content. It's all Facebook generated content riding on the backs of mostly unwitting users.

January 3, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 has some great advice, as always, for those working to understand the new advertising culturescape.

Google turned search advertising into the most profitable media business on the web by following the basic principle that advertising must create value for consumers. Search advertising is so powerful because the ads are relevant and USEFUL.

The most successful new advertising models will be those that create huge value for consumers, not those that manipulate users or violate their privacy (i.e. be like Google, not Facebook).

January 3, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

January 3, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The New York Times looks at American Eagle Outfitter's journey into branded entertainment.

Last summer, on its Web site, ae.com, American Eagle introduced a dedicated media channel called 77e, which plays music and videos. The idea was to make visitors intrigued enough by what they saw to entice them to click further and buy clothes. Much of the content on the channel has been commissioned specifically as entertainment and used the American Eagle brand almost incidentally.

“Our customers know about media. They are curating their own consumption of media — making their playlists of music, selecting their own video clips,” said Kathy Savitt, chief marketing officer at American Eagle Outfitters. “We thought more could be done than just another 30-second spot on television.”

January 4, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

More than two-thirds of consumers who use the internet have used it to research package-goods products, according to a new survey by Prospectiv, a firm that provides online customer leads for marketers.

Of the consumers who use the internet to research package-goods brands (48%) do so primarily to get product information. Another 46% use the internet to seek savings or coupons, while 6% are primarily looking for tips on how to use the product.

[via Ad Age]

January 4, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Jason Calacanis has some ideas for Twitter monetization. Namely, in feed advertising, SMS advertising and subscriptions. But that's not the interesting part of his post. This is:

Ev shouldn't worry about a business model for another two years. Just build the service to *massive* critical mass. Get to 100M users--which is where the service is headed. If the service gets to 100M monthly users it will be worth a couple of billion.

That's what I learned at AOL: Once you have critical mass you can't help but make a fortune. An absolute idiot with 10-20M users can make a ton of money. So, get to tens of millions of users and forget about money.

Speaking of Ev, The Economist is running a feature on him. The British magazine's premise is that Ev is an accidental innovator. That Blogger and Twitter were not intended, but rather the outcome of something else he was working on.

The irony of trying to plan accidents, and orchestrate their frequent occurrence, is not lost on Mr Williams. So he tries mental tricks. One is to ask “what can we take away to create something new?” A decade ago, you could have started with Yahoo! and taken away all the clutter around the search box to get Google. When he took Blogger and took away everything except one 140-character line, he had Twitter. Radical constraints, he believes, can lead to breakthroughs in simplicity and entirely new things.

January 6, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Are "real" journalist's capable of writing moving ad copy? I say, yes. And Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times is my proof.

Let's watch her role with this lurid product description...

Our redeemer is Scrivener, the independently produced word-processing program of the aspiring novelist Keith Blount, a Londoner who taught himself code and graphic design and marketing, just to create a software that jibes with the way writers think. As its name makes plain, Scrivener takes our side; it roots for the writer and not for the final product — the stubborn Word. The happy, broad-minded, process-friendly Scrivener software encourages note-taking and outlining and restructuring and promises all the exhilaration of a productive desk: “a ring-binder, a scrapbook, a corkboard, an outliner and text editor all rolled into one.”

Ring, scrap and cork sound like fun, a Montessori playroom. But read on — and download the free trial — and being a Scrivener-empowered scrivener comes to seem like life’s greatest role. Scriveners, unlike Word-slaves, have florid psychologies, esoteric requirements and arcane desires. They’re artists. They’re historians. With needs. Scrivener is “aimed at writers of all kinds — novelists, journalists, academics, screenwriters, playwrights — who need to refer to various research documents and have access to different organizational tools whilst aiming to create a finished piece of text.”

Of course, journalists don't typically write ad copy without a smirk on their learned faces. Lest we think Heffernan is truly out to sell, she brings us back to earth with this send off.

Let’s just say it: It’s biblical. And come on, ye writers, do you want to be a little Word drip writing 603 words in Palatino with regulation margins? Or do you want to be a Creator?

Still funny and dead on, but willfully over the top, as well. Not that that's bad (from a journalist's perspective).

January 6, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

January 6, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

13th & Jackson in Omaha's Old Market

January 6, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 12 Comments

Steffan Postaer has taken to writing about his agency, Euro RSCG/Chicago, and other topics, on his new blog, Gods of Advertising. The blog's subhead is "We make you want what you don't need."

One of Postaer's first posts, "The True Meaning of Integration" paints a pretty rosy picture (but hey, cheerleading is part of the job).

Integration. Unification. Call it what you will. As many of you know I’ve likened it to being on a submarine: We’re at sea. We’re at battle. We’re in this thing together. Because that’s what it’s all about: Working Together. That’s what the word “integration” originally meant before all these holding companies got a hold of it.

And so here we are, art directors, writers, planners and suits. Working more and more together, more and more everyday. Sharing our experience, strength and hope. And while I’m sure we’re too busy to sit around and complain, do any of us realize how rare community like this is? And how blessed we all are to have it? I know I’m blessed. And I have you and Euro RSCG to thank for it. A few years ago this place was like the island of misfit toys. And now look at us! It’s Christmas and we’ve this great big tree to celebrate it under!

For more tangible proof of our integration we have only to look at one of our very finest creative business ideas in 2007. It was a piece of advertising copy written by an art director who usually works on direct. Effen is a five-letter word, created by Bernardo Gomez.

I'm not convinced that an art director writing a nice line is "integration," but I do like Postaer's teamwork theme and the call for cross-discipline pollination.

January 7, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

According to The Wall Street Journal, Liberty Media is paying more than $100 million to buy a stake of BodyBuilding.com from the site's founding family and a private-equity firm.

Once known primarily as an investor in media companies, Liberty has taken steps in recent years to become more of an operator of its own businesses. In the past couple of years it has assembled a sizable portfolio of Internet ventures to complement its QVC home-shopping network, whose growth has slowed as retail sales shift to the Web. Last year, Liberty purchased Buyseasons Inc., which operates an online costume site, and a controlling stake in Backcountry.com, an outdoor and action-sports retailer. In 2006 Liberty paid nearly $500 million to buy Internet flower and food seller Provide Commerce Inc.

Liberty Chief Executive Gregory Maffei said the company is committed to acquiring more high-growth Internet businesses targeted at narrow customer segments, viewing them as highly attractive as audiences fragment online. "We would do as many such deals as we could get our hands on," he said, stressing that the number of independent companies that meet those criteria is relatively small.

These are big numbers dished out by a media company for what is essentially a retail business, but online. We live in interesting times.

January 7, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Jonah Bloom of Ad Age sees falling debris on the MyFaceSpace horizon.

Facebook and MySpace will have the longest lines of advertisers looking to get into their clubs in 2008. Of course, as those advertisers pay their admission fees and filter in, there'll be more Beacon-backlash-type tales and plenty of grumbling from the natives. Gated communities, with subscription or premium-service business models, will pop up offering better online living without the nasty ad riff-raff. Still, the leading social networks already have the scale to record rapid ad revenue growth this year. The question is whether they'll grow fast enough to persuade all the VCs to stand by the thousands of Web 2.0 businesses that are also seeking ads as their major source of income. They can't all be winners -- marketing money moves more slowly than venture capital, if it moves at all -- and there'll be a host of implosions.

January 7, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Edward Wasserman, professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, argues in the Miami Herald that journalism ought not be subject to the brutal trappings of online metrics.

Under the new rules, the commercial value of specific editorial offerings is estimated with precision, rewards and punishments doled out accordingly, and coverage cut to fit.

The problem with online Popularity Pay is it that it mistakes journalism for a consumer product, and conflates value with sales volume. Journalists don't peddle goods, they offer a professional service, a relationship. The news audience renews that relationship to get information and insight on matters it trusts journalists to alert it to, even though the news may be disquieting or hard to grasp.

Gawker Media already operates on the Popularity Pay model. Nick Denton's goal is to discourage "self indulgent" posts and "mind-numbing frequency" in favor of "linkworthy material."

January 7, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

“This is a business that is changing like crazy, but Sullivan’s advice is timeless.” –Mike Hughes, President, Creative Director, The Martin Agency

This updated third edition of Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan presents a real-world look inside the big agencies and examines the industry’s best and worst work – from the hilarious to the horrid. New chapters cover online, guerilla, and direct marketing as well as new case studies and tons of cool new examples of great work.

It’s available in stores first week of February or so, and "it’s a much better book than it used to be," according to Sullivan. I remember the first edition being a good read, but I'll take his word for it.

Amazon is accepting pre-orders now.

January 8, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

AdvertiseSpace presents seven reasons for running paid advertising on blogs.

• Good bang for your buck
• Easy to get started
• Blog readers are power internet users
• It elevates your products status
• Blogs tend to be read by other bloggers
• Bloggers are early adopters
• Bloggers are very influential

Which leads me to this line of asshattery...AdPulp is an indie site with no ad network behind it, but Shawn and I would be more than happy to help you place a paid ad here.

For more information on rates and traffic and all that goodness, please contact us.

January 8, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

According to The Wall Street Journal, Jana Partners LLC, which holds an 8.1% stake in CNET Networks Inc. plans to nominate seven people to the San Francisco company's board, saying there is a need to revitalize the "underperforming company."

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jana said its nominees -- including a former AOL chief executive, Jon Miller -- will increase shareholder value at CNET by leveraging the company's editorial content and staff, broadening the company's properties and by focusing on return on investment. Jana wants to increase CNET's board size to 13 directors from eight. Jana said it believes CNET has "significantly lagged peers in value creation and performance."

CNET said in a press release that it has considered Jana's proposal for board seats and determined that it is improper under its bylaws.

January 8, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Kings of Leon have coughed up their song "Red Morning Light" to Ford Motor Company, which is using it to sell the Ford Focus--a car I can't see the Tennessee rockers driving.

January 8, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

According to Creativity, Fred G. Sanford's old pal Grady is a comedic and creative inspiration of sorts at the New York office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, thanks to Gerry Graf's appreciation of the sitcom.

January 9, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

"Chase What Matters" are words I might respond to in the right setting. Like at a family dinner. Or at a meeting with my guru.

But "Chase What Matters as long as it leads to more money flowing through the bank" is what this says.

[via The New York Times]

January 9, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

David Armano is VP, Experience Design for Critical Mass and he has a new theory. He believes we will move from multiple connected touchpoints to infinite touch points.

I am fairly certain that we are moving toward a time where the way we interact with brands and their products and services will seem infinite.

Maybe, just maybe—each time we have any interaction with a brand's product or service we'll create a mental note of how that experience felt. If touch points become infinite—or just seem that way, then the opportunity for deeper levels of a relationship become possible.

But only if the infinite touch points succeed in reaching that ideal "iiquid state of flow"—or at least make it feel that way to the end user, consumer or participant.

Thankfully, The Kaiser has another read and delivers it in the comments: "I think that during the next 20 years we will learn to avoid and negate brand touch points and experiences. I believe that these touch points will become so "average" that we will learn to opt out and ignore them."

January 9, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Here's the scoop on the new building Ogilvy NY will occupy beginning next year, on the West Side.

The building at 636 Eleventh Avenue was built in 1913 and originally housed the Auerbach Chocolate factory. Ogilvy is calling its new space the "Candy Factory." It has high ceilings on the first floor, a courtyard and a roof-top terrace that Ogilvy plans to design as a garden space.

Thanks to Google Maps, here's a sneak preview:

What would David Ogilvy think of this?

January 9, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Ernie Schenck, executive vice president and creative director at Hill Holliday, explores the tendency in creative people to occupy their minds with thoughts about how much better things are "over the hill and through the trees."

We are terrible longers, we ad people. No matter where we are, we long to be somewhere else. Goodby. Wieden. Chiat. If only I weren’t stuck in this sorry ass agency in Davenport, we think; if only I could squeeze my eyes shut and a wormhole would pass over me at that very moment and when I opened them, I would be awash in the glorious radiance of Crispin; if only I could be anywhere but here in Davenport, in Tacoma, in Providence, in Oklahoma City, life would be good, life would be perfect. The creative grass is never so green as it is anywhere but where we happen to be.

Truer words have rarely been written.

I don't see one of the name brand shops as "the answer" like I once did. For me personally, it's about working with people I like on projects I find worthwhile.

[via Communication Arts]

January 9, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ian Rogers, VP Video and Media Applications at Yahoo, spoke at the Creative Artists Agency conference in Aspen recently.

Here's a small portion of what he said:

There is more opportunity in leveraging the scale of the Web than trying to create scarcity. We’ve all been engaged in many attempts at creating scarcity in digital music and none of them have worked. Meanwhile, others have been leveraging the scale of the Web with great success. We should learn from this pattern and apply our energy appropriately.

It only gets deeper from there.

Today users are creating tremendous value and for the most part we’re ignoring it. They’re writing blogs about your artists, putting bios on Wikipedia, documenting last night’s concert on Flickr and video sharing sites, showing what songs are most popular by their behavior on Last.fm, building “box sets” on community sites, etc. How has the music industry leveraged this? What tools have you created to enable or encourage it?

Nothing and none, and what we’ve done is forced a disconnect between content and context. As I mentioned in my October presentation, iTunes is a (mostly) context-free content experience and the Web is a (mostly) content-free context experience. Whoever puts the two together wins.

January 9, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Go David, go.

David is the owner of The Next Wave in Dayton. Find out more at his campaign site Esrati.com.

January 9, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

I like what Marshall Kirkpatrick has to say about launching a social network in today's media environment.

Social networks have caught on for a reason - they offer functionality that's very useful for a lot of people in many different communities of interest. That said, everyone is wary of copy-cat, roach-motel, me-too social networks. Why not have your cake and eat it too? By framing the extension of your existing site as just that, an extension of your existing users' profile capabilities, instead of as a social network launch - you can make everyone happy and maintain your dignity.

He also has some interesting things to offer on while labeling a soc net.

You could build your own social networking functionality for your site, but chances are that's not your area of expertise. In that case, you may want to let someone else do that for you. Check out KickApps, CollectiveX, Elgg, PeopleAggregator and the TechCrunch list of white label social network vendors.

There are enough white label social network options on the market that it should be a buyer's market and vendors should be innovating rapidly to serve user needs and differentiate themselves.

I'm likin' what I'm hearing because I'm intent on building a soc net for bars and those who frequent bars. If you have any advise for me concerning this project, or want to contribute in some way, please let me know.

George, you can be a charter member!

January 10, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Thought I'd give loyal AdPulp readers a preview of an upcoming TalentZoo column while it's all fresh in my mind. Lord knows, this could all change in a week.

In a Presidential campaign, politics is theater. It’s entertainment. And above all else, it’s marketing. Can the ad industry learn anything by watching this $1 billion spectacle? I think so. As of January 10th, here’s what I’m learning:

A loved upstart brand can beat an unloved brand with deep pockets. Campaign money goes to advertising, but also to staff, supplies, phones, etc. They burn money fast, long before the first primary or caucus takes place. That’s a huge gamble with no way to predicting ROI. Already, we’ve seen some campaigns like John McCain’s and Mike Huckabee’s win without the most cash.

People want something to believe in. Americans are an optimistic bunch at their core—we still believe that our government can work the way Schoolhouse Rock said it could. Which is why so many deeply cynical, apathetic voters are moved by Barack Obama’s message.

If you can’t close the sale, no sales pitch, emotional or rational, will help you. There is a difference, though: In politics, you only have to make a sale once or twice—at a primary or general election. On the night of the Iowa caucus, Obama and Huckabee made sure their supporters showed up. Otherwise, they’d have been screwed.

Consumers don’t like being told what to do. When Hillary Clinton was considered inevitable, Obama won. Then Obama was considered inevitable, and Clinton won.

Chuck Norris has very, very, white teeth.

January 10, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal has a strange way of seeing things sometimes.

The biggest independent on the scene, with billions in annual billings, is still small change to the WSJ.

January 10, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Because I worked on the Coors account and now work on the Camel account, I've long since learned that legal has as much say, if not more say, than the brand managers on the business. Which is why I find it amusing to see Stuart Elliott puzzle over the legalese involved in marketing alcohol.

The Coors Brewing Company is offering consumers a chance to win tickets for the 2008 or 2009 Super Bowl. The video clips that contestants are invited to submit on two Web sites (coorsbeer.com and coorslight.com), to demonstrate why they deserve a trip to the Super Bowl, cannot depict Santa because the character appeals to those under the legal drinking age of 21.

Also forbidden in the videos, according to a lengthy list of contest rules, are famous people; references to football teams, players, coaches or owners; political themes; depictions of drinking while driving; drinking games; drinking beer “rapidly, excessively, involuntarily”; religious references; gambling; illegal or explicit sexual activity; any form of intoxication; any beer brands that compete with Coors or Coors Light; violence; and dangerous situations.

Oh, yes, and everyone who submits a video or appears in one must be 21 or older.

One more thing. You have to enter your date of birth twice before you can visit the sections of the Web sites devoted to the contest.

The UGC-based promotion is being handled by Avenue A/Razorfish and The Integer Group.

January 10, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

See the entire series of blanks from Aaron Whelton.

January 10, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Kaiser is lamenting the state of creative affairs today.

If you work in the creative department of an advertising agency in 2008 you will be hard pushed to find either a member of your team who can remember the old process or somebody who can handle a pencil and can draw - but I bet everyone is pretty savvy with a Mac, Photoshop, Quark and InDesign.

Suddenly everyone with a computer, a mouse and a piece of software could do “creative” stuff, which is morally superb - but has proven to be, functionally and qualitatively speaking, an absolute bloody nightmare and has created what Walter Gropius called an “art-proletariat” - a mass of people misled into believing that just because, they had secured a place in art education (whether it be painting, architecture, design or sculpture), that they had all the tools needed to be artists - and were somehow muddying the waters of creativity.

Gropius, of course, passed away well before the introduction of desktop publishing. But what of The Kaiser's argument? Are there any real artists left in the ad biz, or did they head for the hills decades ago?

January 10, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Fred Wilson, a.k.a. "A VC" on the need for a great Chief Technology Officer:

Great managers are hard to find in any line of work. But managing developers is even harder. The better the developer the harder they are to manage. I assume its a bit like managing high maintenance entertainers. The best developers are artists who are often moody, are anarchists who have bursts of creativity and equally long periods of uselessness. They are strong willed people who will fight with their colleagues over anything and everything. The people who have mastered the art of managing these kinds of people are a rare breed and every great technology-based business needs one of them.

Wilson invests in start up tech companies, but the same can be said for the agency business. We're all in communications technology today, as well as marketing communications. Providing strong leadership for the code monkeys is good stuff, but the ability to translate the thinking into English for one's team members and clients is arguably even more important.

January 10, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Craigslist is home to many things, some of which prove to be valuable.

The Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership (Estuary Partnership) requests proposals and qualifications for the development of a strategic plan for a consumer education campaign. This campaign will inform consumers on the significant risks to human and environmental health that are associated with flame retardants (a common ingredient in products ranging from computers to mattresses) and some ingredients found in personal care products (such as lead and plasticizers). Campaign objectives are to educate consumers on human and environmental health risks and provide information on alternative ingredients that are safe for both humans and the environment. The strategic plan should outline a campaign that can be implemented in stages, presented in different media (including print, radio, and television and in paid and public safety announcements), creatively use any proposed outreach materials (e.g., consumer pocket guides), and reach diverse audiences.

Proposals are due at the Estuary Partnership office by 4:00 p.m. on January 22, 2008. Please submit applications to Krista Jones, Monitoring Coordinator, Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership at 811 SW Naito Parkway, Suite 120, Portland, Oregon 97204. Faxed or emailed applications will not be accepted. For more information and RFP details, see the Estuary Partnership's website: www.lcrep.org

I never thought of scanning Craig's for RFPs before, but now I know.

January 10, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

When you win an account, you want it to be an account you can believe in and profit from. That can mean any number of things, depending on the account and the people who win it.

While a sunglasses account isn't a car account, I've got to believe McGarrah/Jessee is pleased to beat out Fallon and Carmichael Lynch to win the Costa Del Mar business.

I used to work on Bolle at Integer/Denver and they'd invite us over to their warehouse for employee-only blowouts, where I'd walk away with six or seven pairs of glasses and goggles for $10 to $15 each. Perks are important.

According to The Austin American-Stateman, McGarrah/Jessee has 51 employees, and is expected to report about $70 million in billings this year.

The agency's clients include Whataburger, Shiner beer and Frost Bank.

January 11, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Ad Age has breaking news out of Richmond.

Effective Jan. 14, the Richmond, Va.-based VCU Adcenter, founded in 1996, will be called VCU Brandcenter. It also is unveiling a new logo, courtesy of New York-based design firm Collins, as well as a website, www.brandcenter.vcu.edu, created by Interpublic Group of Cos.' RG/A, New York.

Following lengthy debate, faculty, board members and students concluded that association with advertising was too limiting and that the school needed a broader name to reflect the rapidly changing industry landscape in which the school's graduates find employment, said Rick Boyko, managing director of the VCU Brandcenter.

VCU Brandcenter also dropped $9 million to move to a new building, tapping world-famous architect Clive Wilkinson to lead the effort. Wilkinson partnered with local firm Baskerville to transform a historic 27,000-square-foot building in VCU's Monroe Park campus into an open, airy space with a modern feel.

Boyko hopes the changes will help the school further set itself apart from the pack of portfolio schools and traditional academia by more closely aligning itself with an evolving ad business.

January 11, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Dabitch of Adland shares a funny tale on her personal site from the dark side of adbloggerdom.

A bloke from the UK calls, I can hear that he's in a rather noisy spot, cups hitting tables and chatter in the background and he tells me that he has a blockbuster idea for a commercial that would sell every unit of Levis (or whatever) brand they had. It's that great, it's so great he almost doesn't believe it himself, he's got three outrageuously good commercial ideas and two great ones, and he wants me to tell him how to get them sold.

I didn't know what to say to the poor chap who "saw my company on the internet at this internet café and thought I could possibly help him with contacts to sell his commercials".

Strangely, this call is not out of the ordinary. The Swedish art director living in Malmö gets this treatment regularly.

It is a bit odd that this questions has been asked at least once a week recently. My reply is the standard; "animate it, stick it on youtube, hope you get lucky." The people asking this sincerely believe that one hit commercial might make them rich for life, a bit like those people who dream of doing one novel and retiring. The truth is, a career creating commercials or novels never relies on one or three good ideas, but hundreds of thousands, and you have to work really hard for a long time before you get anything done. Ever.

I love that last bit. It's so true. And so hard for the impatient to accept.

January 11, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

How many glowing phrases are used to describe GSD&M's Roy Spence in this ABC News article about his work with the Clinton for President campaign?

Let's see:

• "quirky message guru"
• "advertising guru"
• "soul-searching message guru"
• "branding and messaging whiz"
• "Idea Man"

You have to get way down into the article and infer a little to add "chairman of a struggling ad agency."

January 11, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

January 11, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

I've invited three more highly accomplished marketing pros, writers and big thinkers to join the action here. I'm flattered and thrilled that they've all agreed to participate.

Please join me in welcoming real journalist Catharine P. Taylor, author, speaker and consultant Tom Asacker and author, speaker and innovation consultant Annette Moser-Wellman to the party. Look for their bylines to appear here in the coming weeks.

Every "blog" should be so lucky.

January 11, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Agency Spy took note of an original idea from Trumpet in New Orleans.

Instead of responding to yet another boring Request for Proposal, Trumpet has issued it's own RFP, but with a twist. Trumpet's RFP stands for Request for Problem. Their hope is that potential clients will submit their marketing problems via this web-based channel.

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from also sharing a problem with the Trumpeteers. I have one...an underfunded startup media company in need of capital.

January 11, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Scamp posted about Jon Williams, a digital creative taking the helm as ECD at Grey/London. He chose an unusual title for the post: It's No Longer Safe In The Water.

The post has generated some interesting commentary, pitting old school TV addicts against the new school. Here's how it starts...

At 12:18 PM, rjhayter said…

'Above-the-line-creative' sounds like such a quaint, old-fashioned thing to say, these days. According to the story in Campaign, Mr Williams has looked after lots of different kinds of creative departments. Sounds like he could be the archetypal 'modern' creative director.

Just like you, eh Scamp ;-)

And Brummy Trev wouldn't have hired him if his work was shit – he's no mug.

January 12, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Ad Age, the CondeNet division of Conde Nast has decided to turn its Flip.com business model on its head -- and cut headcount from 18 to two in the process.

CondeNet yesterday said its focus for Flip, a 10-month-old virtual scrapbook site for teen girls, would shift to ad-supported Flip applications that run on much more popular networking sites such as Facebook.

The move underscores the difficulty growing that many teen sites are having (in an environment where MyFaceSpace dominates). Traffic at Flip peaked last May, when the site attracted 468,000 unique visitors, according to ComScore; that figure fell to just 104,000 last December.

January 12, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

[via Cubemate]

January 12, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The New York Times has an interesting look at the use of text messaging in the college athletics recruiting environment.

Desperate to connect with the best players, college coaches have adopted text messaging with zeal, and some athletes have had enough. Beginning in August 2007, the N.C.A.A. banned Division I colleges from using text messaging to recruit athletes, citing complaints from students that the practice was driving up cellphone bills and intruding on personal time.

Now, in an unusual move, representatives from the N.C.A.A.’s Division I members are expected to revisit the issue Saturday at their annual convention after 34 of the 329 colleges asked for an override vote. To reverse the ban, at least five-eighths of the delegates in attendance would have to approve it.

The issue has turned into an unlikely battle of the generations. In one corner are college coaches and athletic directors making a passionate pitch for the right to use a 21st-century technology. “I’m sorry, it’s 2008,” said Christine Plonsky, the women’s athletic director at Texas. “Face up.”

In the other corner are college and high school students asking for a little more respect.

January 13, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Choire Sicha and two other Gawker editors walked out on Nick Denton late last year. They'd had enough, but enough of what? The New York Times had to find out.

...During a vacation at a house on Fire Island in November, Mr. Sicha decided he’d had enough. He said he resented Mr. Denton’s pressure to produce more mass-appeal content.

“I don’t care that top 10 lists perform well on the Internet,” Mr. Sicha said by phone last week from New Hampshire, where he was covering the primaries for The New York Observer. “I don’t want to write a top 10 list in my life, ever. I don’t want to construct a charticle.”

He said he had long understood from Mr. Denton that Gawker’s sought-after audience was supposed to be prominent members of the Manhattan news media like Tina Brown and Kurt Andersen.

Ms. Brown, speaking by telephone from her apartment before leaving for a cocktail party last week, said she had never been a regular reader.

January 13, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Today in Sunday Styles, readers encounter one Charlotte Voisey, a “brand ambassador” at William Grant & Sons, Glenfiddich’s parent company. Turns out, she is responsible for creating a Scotch-laden libation known as "Sweet Solera."

A mixture of Glenfiddich 15-Year-Old Solera Reserve, Lillet Rouge, and a winsome dash of caramel syrup, and bespangled with a maraschino cherry, the Sweet Solera is a cousin to a Rob Roy, meaning it’s kin to a Manhattan. That is to say, it comes from a good family.

This new cocktail, born from whims of a creative mixologist, is also pure marketing strategy. It's about cracking the perception that single-malt Scotches are designed for rich old men to sip, neat or on the rocks, after a round of golf or a corporate merger or both, a stereotype Ms. Voisey is eager to dispel. “Cocktails are supposed to be fun,” she said.

January 13, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Evelyn Rodriguez is on her way to New Orleans. She's using Twitter to keep her friends and followers informed about her journey across the American southwest.

This seems like a particularly good use of Twitter to me. Even in its condensed form, it's a travel journal. Not Kerouac--he could never have been bothered with such short form--but it's evocative text in real time, or mobile time to be exact.

Personally, I think this is where the best content is. I know many compose tweets from their desktop environment. I do it. But, for this micro-blogging medium, I like composing on the fly, and I like reading text composed on the fly.

January 13, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Chevy bought a full page in today's New York Times and created a microsite at nytimes.com/chevy, in an effort to "educate" the car buying public about GM's commitment to green practices.

The ad and microsite both feature a letter from Beth Lowery, GM's VP for Environment, Energy and Safety Policy. She says the right things, like:

Because GM's environmental footprint is indeed large, so is our obligation to change.

So, are you buying? Are you ready to run out and buy a 2008 Chevy Tahoe? It's a Hybrid dude, so it's cool. I mean think about it, do you want a Prius or a truck? You can pull a boat with a truck.

Prices for the 4x4 model start at $53,295.

January 14, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, Zagat Survey is for sale and may fetch as much as $200 million.

The Zagats, who met at Yale Law School, could not find a publisher for their annual Manhattan restaurant rankings guide in the early 1980s, so they began publishing it themselves and delivering copies to any bookstore that would stock them. They set up a publishing company in part to get tax deductions for meals.

The business has since expanded wildly with international guides in multiple languages and into new categories. The company also began making custom guides for corporations. For example, Walt Disney commissioned a guide for attractions at its theme parks and WellPoint, the health insurer, commissioned a guide on doctors in its network. In both cases, the rankings and reviews were completed independently of the companies that paid for them.

The article suggests that the media company would make a great acquisition for a carrier looking for a mobile content play. I can also see a credit card company wanting to buy this firm. Am Ex is already deep into custom publishing with titles like Travel & Leisure and Food & Wine.

January 14, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

To help mask its layoffs and reorg, Ogilvy has adopted the language of tech startups. The agency is now in "perpetual beta," according to Ad Age.

Starting immediately, the WPP Group-owned agency is trying to get small, requiring that client meetings center around four key people at the table -- marketing, creative, strategy and program management -- and it will gradually streamline its structure, doing away with many of its 20-plus departments.

Ogilvy already has done a lot to anticipate the post-advertising world. It got out ahead of many of its rivals by investing in a full suite of marketing services, which it combined a couple of years ago under one profit-and-loss statement.

Perpetual beta? Post-advertising world?

I'm starting to wonder where I am.

Where am I?

January 14, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Associated Press, Microsoft-enabled smart carts will be rolling down the aisles of ShopRite later this year.

Customers with a ShopRite loyalty card will be able to log into a Web site at home and type in their grocery lists; when they get to the store and swipe their card on the MediaCart console, the list will appear. As shoppers scan their items and place them in their cart, the console gives a running price tally and checks items off the shopping list.

The system also uses radio-frequency identification to sense where the shopper's cart is in the store. The RFID data can help ShopRite and food makers understand shopping patterns, and the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points - an ad for 50 cents off Oreos, for example, when a shopper enters the cookie aisle.

January 14, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Music blog, Motel de Mocha, is showcasing a great quote from W.E.B. Du Bois. It's one that creative professionals can certainly relate to.

"Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime."

January 14, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

January 14, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Hugh Macleod is not part of the Facebook-hating mob (or is it a clique?) but he does like this critical Guardian piece on the politics behind the company.

Investigative journalist, Tom Hodgkinson, says he hates Facebook in his lead. He then delves into a deep background check on the money men behind the soc net.

Although the project was initially conceived by media cover star Mark Zuckerberg, the real face behind Facebook is the 40-year-old Silicon Valley venture capitalist and futurist philosopher Peter Thiel. There are only three board members on Facebook, and they are Thiel, Zuckerberg and a third investor called Jim Breyer from a venture capital firm called Accel Partners. Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook when Harvard students Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskowitz went to meet him in San Francisco in June 2004, soon after they had launched the site. Thiel now reportedly owns 7% of Facebook, which, at Facebook's current valuation of $15bn, would be worth more than $1bn.

Thiel is widely regarded in Silicon Valley and in the US venture capital scene as a libertarian genius. He is the co-founder and CEO of the virtual banking system PayPal, which he sold to Ebay for $1.5bn, taking $55m for himself. He also runs a £3bn hedge fund called Clarium Capital Management and a venture capital fund called Founders Fund. Bloomberg Markets magazine recently called him "one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the country".

But Thiel is more than just a clever and avaricious capitalist. He is a futurist philosopher and neocon activist. A philosophy graduate from Stanford, in 1998 he co-wrote a book called The Diversity Myth, which is a detailed attack on liberalism and the multiculturalist ideology that dominated Stanford. He claimed that the "multiculture" led to a lessening of individual freedoms. While a student at Stanford, Thiel founded a rightwing journal, still up and running, called The Stanford Review - motto: Fiat Lux ("Let there be light"). Thiel is a member of TheVanguard.Org, an internet-based neoconservative pressure group that was set up to attack MoveOn.org, a liberal pressure group that works on the web. Thiel calls himself "way libertarian".

January 14, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

[Courtesy of Sarah Lane]

[UPDATE] Looks like there's a lot of this stuff going on.

January 15, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

I like Tim Brunelle's enthusiasm for the business.

In a piece prepared for Talent Zoo, Brunelle says he's teaching a class at Minneapolis College of Art & Design. He also reflects on the changes he's seen in his career and how monumental shifts are still coming at blinding speed.

Compared to 10 years ago, today's strategizing, budgeting, staffing, production processes and maintenance of marketing and advertising ideas is both wicked awesome and wicked hard to wrap your head around. Get used to it.

Before I retire, I believe we will see ourselves completely tear apart and rebuild Marketing, perhaps even Business. We are abandoning long established trading and promotion cycles, media, tactics, metrics and compensation methodologies. In their place are "always-in-beta" practices, consumer empowerment and the conversation economy. The key to understanding, implementing and harnessing these forces comes from a willingness and ability to comprehend the new ecosystem.

Speaking of the new ecosystem, in class yesterday, Brunelle tried selling "the kids" on Twitter. I wonder how that went. I tried to demonstrate its merits to some friends on Saturday night, but I failed to convince, much less convert anyone. Maybe I need to be more like Brunelle. More enthusiastic.

January 15, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

I like when bloggers report earnings. It makes me think and gives me hope.

The Wall Street Journal has two bloggers on record in an article about advertising on blogs.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger says he made $250,000 in 2007. ProBlogger's Alexa ranking is insanely high at 2,994. There's clearly a huge audience for Rowse's type of advice.

Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.com, a site with articles on rainforest conservation and other environmental issues, makes $15,000 to $18,000 a month from AdSense. Mr. Butler says his blog currently gets about 1.3 million unique visitors per month.

January 15, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

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[Leigh Himel via CrapHammer]

January 15, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

We've seen how many premium brands fool customers into thinking a product is of a higher quality when in reality, it may not be the case.

So check out this study as reported on Bloomberg.com:

Volunteers in California who were given sips of wines with fake prices said they preferred the cabernets they thought were more expensive to the ones they thought were cheaper about 80 percent of the time, according to the study published tomorrow in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers scanning the volunteers' brains while they drank confirmed they enjoyed the pricier wines more. The experiment helps explain how marketing practices can influence both the preferences of consumers and the enjoyment registered by their brains, said Antonio Rengel, one of the study's authors.

``The lesson is a very deep one, not only about marketing but about the human experience,'' said Rangel, an associate professor of economics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. ``This study shows that the expectations that we bring to the experience affect the experience itself.''

I'm sure there's a bit of a wine snobbery in effect here, but there's an argument to be made that this principle extends across a whole range of products. Which is why attractive, elaborate packaging works well, too.

But what about advertising agencies? Can a BDA (Big Dumb Agency) charge more and fool clients into thinking they're getting better work because there's a prestige factor as opposed to getting less expensive work from a relatively smaller, independent agency?

January 15, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Ed Cotton of Butler Shine & Stern wonders aloud how well equipped clients are to forge ahead in today's decentralized media sphere.

Marketing departments need fundamentally new skill sets, new positions/job titles and they are also going to need some smart technology to assist them.

Given how little bandwidth most departments have these days, it's safe to assume that there are quite a few brands out there who risk damaging their reputations because they simply aren't structured to cope with the new era of conversation and participation.

In my experience, clients are far from ready to engage. Two-point-whatever is mostly just talk. Brand managers read the NYT and WSJ, lift the most appealing ideas, tell their agencies about them and then wait to see if the agencies can pull rabbits from their various hats. Agencies for the most part are prepared to deliver, but their rabbits run wild.

A lot of the new conversational marketing ideas require an investment in infrastructure. Without it there's no order and no control-things most clients still desire.

January 15, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Today at MacWord, Apple introduced the world’s thinnest notebook: MacBook Air. It measures an unprecedented 0.16 inches at its thinnest point while its maximum height of 0.76 inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.

Here's a more detailed report, or if you prefer some tweets from fakesteve.

[UPDATE] Emily Chang won't be buying one.

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Another graffiti campaign to show how "street" the brand is, is not needed. But Crisis, a London outfit that helps the homeless and really is of the street has put a spin on street art, and with help from Rapp Collins/London have come up with an innovative way to advertise their cause.

Crisis estimates there are 400,000 homeless people ‘hidden’ in hostels, squats, B&Bs or sleeping on friend’s floors.

To highlight this scandal they have used ‘Reverse Graffiti’. Instead of using spray cans, they clean the dirt from walls with water so, unlike normal graffiti, it doesn’t damage property. The designs are currently present in 15 London locations.

[via Brand Republic]

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age is looking at agency business growth from an employment perspective. Meanwhile, Adweek is reporting that Chief Marketing Officers have a bug up their asses.

Get ready to defend. In the coming year, nearly half of marketers plan to fire at least one of their agencies and change direction, according to the second annual forecast to be released today by the CMO Council.

The survey of 825 chief marketing officers also indicates a trend away from traditional advertising and public relations and toward "customer-facing" and lead-generation programs such as event marketing and e-mail.

Last year, 54 percent of respondents predicted an agency change, and almost 60 percent of CMOs were true to their promise.

Agencies are criticized by CMOs for "lack of innovation, no value-added thinking and poor creative."

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Sun Times ad columnist, Lewis Lazare, takes the temperature of the Chicago ad scene. He says the "business stabilized last year, after a couple of truly traumatic years."

He also says Draft/FCB isn't asserting itself and he wonders if it ever will.

Here's his take on JWT:

JWT/Chicago is perhaps the biggest mystery. It nearly was wiped out last spring when Kraft pulled more than $170 million worth of business from the shop. Top management was fired, and the search was said to be on for new leaders. But so far none has materialized.

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

Wal-Mart is the brand urban hipsters love to mock. But what to make of the company's far-reaching environmental initiatives? They're hard to argue with and might even persuade anti-Wal-Mart consumers to reconsider their super-store preferences.

Don Moseley, director of sustainable facilities for Wal-Mart, inside the new energy efficient pump house.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Wal-Mart is rolling out new eco-friendly stores around the nation. The goal is to make them 25 percent to 30 percent more energy efficient than existing stores.

On the packaging front, Wal-Mart will begin scoring its vendors on the sustainability of their packaging. The results are expected to influence Wal-Mart's buying decisions. Wal-Mart aims to reduce overall packaging in its supply chain by 5 percent by 2013.

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Politics is a word-of-mouth business. Families discuss it over dinner. Colleagues over lunch. And increasingly, we turn to political communities on the interwebs for more "discussion." Communities like Huck's Army, a site run by 19-year old twin brothers.

According to Wired, Huck's Army could turn out to be crucial for Gov. Huckabee's campaign as it expands its territory; the campaign hasn't had the finances to build its own official infrastructure throughout the 24 states holding primaries on Feb. 5.

So who are these new king makers? Brett and Alex Harris got started with online organizing in 2005 with Therebelution.com, a burgeoning Christian youth conference, blog and book-selling business. The boys define the term as "a teenage rebellion against low expectations of an ungodly culture." Their message: Young people should reject the idea that their teen years are meant for goofing off, and instead find challenges to work on. Their book Do Hard Things, which grew out of a blog post on the subject, will be published in April.

Do Hard Things, huh? Is that kind of like, Just Do It?

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Tim Siedell is co-founder of Fusebox, a highly regarded brand communications studio in Lincoln, Nebraska.

January 16, 2008 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 1 Comments

If you updated your iPhone in the last 24 hours to the iPhone Software Version 1.1.3, you've likely already experienced the home screen customizations with WebClips.

Just browse to AdPulp.com with Safari. click the Plus sign at the bottom of the screen and choose "Add to Home Screen." You'll get the freshly squeezed AdPulp.com icon instead of the shrunken version of the homepage that is added by default.

With one touch of the WebClip, you'll be instantly transfered to the AdPulp.com home page.

If you are saying to yourself, "What is the 1.1.3 software of which he speaks?" Head on over the iPhone Section on Apple.com for all the update information. If you want to jump right in, fire up iTunes, connect your iPhone and Upgrade.

Note: I'd recommend a fresh Sync/Backup before running the updater, just in case. For Mac users, connect and hit Sync. For Window users, I believe you have a Tab in the iTunes interface specif to Backup.

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Do your big ideas keep getting shot down? This little video might help you feel better.

January 16, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Well, Al Franken has to tell people he's serious. Literally.

Will Minnesotans buy it? Maybe. They elected Jesse "The Body" Ventura, didn't they?

January 16, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

I think we can all agree that agency websites suck. Ad peeps claim to know how to make them for clients, but when it's their turn to step up, they choke.

Minneapolis agency, Zeus Jones however, did not choke. They bunted. But that's not bad when the point is to get on base.

The shop's home page is simple. It's merely a map to the content they've created that exists elsewhere on the inters. If you want a capabilities presentation, hit up their Slide Share page. If you want to see how they think, there's a blog. And so on...

I found their list of goals on 43 Things to be particularly telling. For instance, Zeus Jones wants to "always add something new to culture," "invent the next form of media," "inspire a generation of business leaders" and "bring out the best in people."

January 17, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Lexus Hybrid Living is an interesting content play by the luxury car brand. While many hybrid buyers are Birkenstock-wearing eco-number crunchers wanting to know all the pertinent facts and figures, Lexus appeals to another demo. The demo that says, "Hey, I'm rich. The least I could do is be responsible." Of course, never before in history, has it been so easy to "act responsibly" while stroking a check.

The site doesn't aim to sell cars, but to support the lifestyle. As such, it introduces and promotes key figures from green design like fashion design Linda Loudermilk and architect Michelle Kaufmann. The designers' stories are told in video and text.

Lexus Hybrid Living also offers city guides for NYC, LA, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix and San Francisco.

The navigation is a bit hard to follow and I'd like the videos to benefit from "share this" functionality, but the content is right and well packaged.

January 17, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

David Weinberger is author of Everything Is Miscellaneous.

January 17, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to the The Wall Street Journal, Scrabble's owners, Hasbro and Mattel, are working to shut down Scrabulous, one of the most popular applications on Facebook.

While there are authorized Scrabble games online, Scrabulous has gained popularity because it's free, easy to play with friends and easy to access on Facebook. Scrabulous listed more than 600,000 daily active users on Facebook as of Wednesday and is one of the 10 most used applications on the site. People can also play at Scrabulous.com.

The game was developed by brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla from India. They created it after they couldn't find an online version of Scrabble that they liked.

Instead of going to court, a better idea would be to introduce an official version of Scrabble on Facebook--one that is clearly better than the knockoff.

January 17, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Real estate mogul, Samuel Zell, is intent on changing the culture at The Tribune Company, his latest acquisition and first media company.

Zell tapped Randy Michaels, Tribune CEO for interactive and broadcasting, to rewrite the company's employee manual--that lovely document workers snuggle up with at night.

According to Los Angeles Times (a Tribune paper), the document--which shrunk from 11,519 words to 3,663 words--is nothing like the mind-numbing, lawyered gobbledygook in most corporate manuals. Consider the opening:

"Rule #1: Use your best judgment."

"Rule #2: See Rule 1."

It appears that Zell is using his best judgment. Should his employees do the same, Tribland will be, no doubt, be a happy place.

January 17, 2008 by Tom Asacker | Permalink | 2 Comments

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is Tom Asacker's first piece for publication on AdPulp. It's great to have Tom join our efforts here. -dB]

"To point at the moon a finger is needed, but woe to those who take the finger for the moon."

Symbols can become powerful conveyors of emotion and meaning. However, you should never confuse the symbol with the meaning, like many marketers frequently do. They absolutely love to commiserate (and waste a lot of money and time) on logos, colors, fonts, sizes, placements, ad nauseum. They don't just "take the finger for the moon," they suck on it for comfort. In contrast, great marketers keep their sights (and investments and activities) firmly set on the moon; co-creating meaningful, valuable and ever evolving customer experiences.

Take Nike's logo. As the story goes, Carolyn Davidson designed the swoosh in 1971 while a graphic design student at Portland State University. For her services, she billed the company a whopping $35 (around $180 in today's dollars). Or look at Google's logo. Yes, Google has had several logos since its renaming from "BackRub". But none took years to conceive and six figures to create. In fact, the first one was created by founder Sergey Brin using a free graphics program after teaching himself how to use it.

The question is not whether the choice of a logo is important. The important question to ask about a logo - about any and all aspects of your brand - is: is it appropriate for the feelings that I want people to conjure up? If so, don't get all hung up on it. It's simply the visual representation of an invisible meaning; meaning that gets built into the symbol as distilled perceptions and feelings accumulate over time in people's unconscious minds.

January 17, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Amy Jussel, Founder and Executive Director of Shaping Youth, is unhappy with the sexual innuendo implied in this outdoor board from Target.

What's wrong with the ad can be debated, but there's little to debate in Target's response to Amy.

“Good Morning Amy,

Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest.

Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.”

I know it must be hard to engage with just any old customer, but companies are going to have to try a lot harder, or they will be consistently BLASTED on these here interwebs.

January 18, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

Dov Charney, CEO of American Apparel, is not one to shy away from controversy. In fact, he actively pursues it, as his bordering on porn ad campaigns have well established. But now, Charney is going political in this political season.

According to The New York Times, Mr. Charney said American Apparel’s customers appreciate the company’s views on immigration. He said his customers were “borderless.” He named the company American Apparel, rather than “USA Apparel,” he said, on purpose.

“I think my Latino workers are American workers,” he said. “They’re from the Americas. We’re all here together.”

January 18, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Wired, Yahoo's adoption of OpenID is a huge victory for the OpenID foundation.

Until now, despite support from larger sites like AOL and Plaxo, OpenID has remained largely a tool of the geek-elite, but Yahoo’s announcement is set to change that since it provides even those Yahoo users who’ve never heard of OpenID a simple way to use it. And that in turn gives startup sites an even greater incentive to support OpenID logins.

Right now there are roughly 120 million OpenID accounts. Add Yahoo's 248 million users worldwide, and OpenID is set to triple in size.

January 18, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

According to The Washington Post, the coal industry is fighting for Mr. Peabody, even though his coal train long ago hauled it away.

In Kansas, where a state agency rejected a permit for two proposed coal plants, opinion polls show that roughly two out of three people opposed the plants. That sentiment, plus soaring construction costs and uncertainty about federal climate change legislation, last year prompted U.S. companies to abandon or postpone plans to build dozens of new coal plants.

The coal mining industry is fighting back. It increased the budget of the National Mining Association, the industry's main lobbying group, by 20 percent this year, to $19.7 million. Last September, the industry also boosted the budget of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices more than fourfold. The roster of backers includes 28 companies and trade associations such as Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Duke Energy, Southern Co. and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, has spent $1.3 million on billboard, newspaper, television and radio ads in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina. The group has also deployed teams on the campaign trail; about 50 people, many of them paid, walked around as human billboards and handed out leaflets outside Tuesday's Democratic debate in Nevada with questions for voters to ask the candidates.

January 18, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Trade show advertising isn't exactly the sexy stuff ad people clamor to do. Which is too bad, because consumers have nothing to do but wander from booth to booth between cocktails. In other words, it's the perfect time to engage the audience.

The ad above (for an unknown intellectual property company) is part of Engadget's "best of the worst" collection from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year.

January 18, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Evan "Ev" Williams is a native Nebraskan who went on to help create Blogger, which he and his partners then sold to Google. Now, he and Biz Stone have Twitter and whatever else becomes Obvious.

January 19, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Microsoft's $240 million investment in Facebook, which bought them a paltry 1.6% of the company, might now be a model for other social media investments.

According to The New York Times, Slide, the maker of applications for social networks, has raised another round of funding – $50 million from the private equity funds at Fidelity and T-Rowe Price, two major Wall Street investment houses. The firms have taken a nine percent stake in the three-year-old, 64-employee Slide, valuing it at $550 million.

Max Levchin, Slide’s chief executive, explained the valuation, “It’s impossible for social networks focused on scaling the network itself to build all the niche applications that bring people and keep people on these sites.” Just as consumers bought Windows to play games, organize their taxes or create documents, application makers like Slide “add the bulk of perceived value to the consumers of these Web platforms,” he said.

In other words, if Facebook is worth $15 billion then Slide is worth 1/30th of that.

All of which leads me to speculate on how much of the value in Slide, or another company like it, is found in the technology versus is in the brand. I understand the technology comes first in a company like this, but from there it's about building the brand. Yet, is there a brand team at Slide? Do they work with consultants or an agency? Or does the Slide brand build itself?

January 19, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

For any brand that builds community in real life, doing so online is a natural.

Starbucks wants to be your community gathering spot. In many cases, it is. But I feel Starbucks has a ways to go online.

Here's what I can "discover" about my local Starbucks on the company's site:

I'd like to discover more than that. I'd like to see a list of the people working there, with a little bio on each. They know my name. I want to know their names. And why not open that functionality up to the regulars, as well.

The web is social. Coffee is social. This is a solution waiting to happen.

January 19, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Time Magazine has a disturbing story about people paying faux paparazzi up to $1500 to follow them around town with cameras.

The trend is driven by the twin obsessions with chronicling one's life and experiencing fame. "We live in a culture where if it's not documented, it doesn't exist," says Josh Gamson, a University of San Francisco professor of sociology who studies culture and mass media. "And if you don't have people asking who you are, you're nobody."

University of Pennsylvania sociologist David Grazian, who wrote On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife, calls personal paparazzi reality marketers, who make the act of being photographed more meaningful than the actual photos. "The goal isn't to produce a product," he says. "It's to heighten the experience of the event. In that sense, there doesn't even need to be any film in the camera."

It's okay to be grossed out.

January 20, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The dark clouds of recession are upon us. People want answers to their quesions. "What's the Fed going to do about this? Can I sell my house in this market? Will my business fail?"

Business too seeks answers. The Wall Street Journal looks closely at the key retail sector after weak holiday spending.

Chains are slamming the brakes on store openings, cutting back on inventory and girding for leaner times as consumer spending chills. The speed with which sales slowed during the holidays caught even cautious retailers off-guard, prompting a flurry of profit warnings.

And while data on December consumer spending won't be released until the end of the month, plummeting sales suggest consumers are snapping shut their pocketbooks.

"Financial stress from high energy costs, the fallout from the housing slump and sluggish employment and income growth" will weigh on shoppers, projects Rosalind Wells, chief economist of the National Retail Federation.

So, it's gloom and doom for the average American shopper and those companies who serve this vast market. A fact which makes this New York Times "Sunday Styles" piece on conspicuous consumption all the more far out.

EXHIBITION and theater are far more important at Harry Cipriani than the taste of the food. Diners go to see who’s there. And they go to prove they can afford to be there. As Frank Bruni wrote in The Times in November, in a review that gave the restaurant a rating of poor, “prices are the point of Harry Cipriani, which exists to affirm its patrons’ ability to throw away money.”

January 21, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

According to The Wall Street Journal, NBA star Steve Nash went native and produced his own Nike spot.

Mr. Nash, who plays for the Phoenix Suns, says he is happy with how Nike has marketed him but felt he could come up with an ad that reflected more of his personality. There was little financial risk to Nike, since the campaign would require no ad buy. He says he got the idea from the young fans who take pictures of him with cameras and phones during his informal workouts. "There's such an appetite for the ordinary stuff I do every day," he says.

Mr. Nash received little input on the shoot from Nike, which pays him about $1 million a year to promote its sneakers, although the company provided one of the two cameras and edited the piece.

A Nike spokesman said the company has no problems with Mr. Nash's ad and welcomes other athletes to follow in his footsteps.

Nash didn't act alone (and it's a stretch to call his spot user generated content). He enlisted Lola Schnabel, the daughter of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, to shoot the self-styled Web ad for the shoemaker. So, it's star generated content, but it's still indie and that's cool.

January 21, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Joel Johnson of Boing Boing Gadgets caused a bit of a stir yesterday, appearing on an AT&T Tech Channel online show and changing the subject to discuss AT&T's plans to filter the Internet.

As Joel says:

As you can see from the video, the crew ended up scrubbing the interview about half-way through. Figuring that might happen, I asked my steely-nerved friend Richard Blakeley to tape the first take. I wanted to make sure that we had a record of the event, primarily to ensure that AT&T would have no reason to try to bury the interview entirely—the same reason I am running this clip now, while discussion about what to do with my segment in post-production is surely underway.

After the crew got their wits about them—they were not very happy with me, understandably—we went on to shoot a second take, which to Hugh's credit also included not only talk of gadgets, but of network neutrality and AT&T's collusion with the NSA. I look forward to seeing that segment air on the The Hugh Thompson Show.

It's yet another lesson for all you Join The Conversation/Two-Way Dialogue/New Transparency/Consumer Engagement gurus: Companies want to control the conversation as much as possible. And it could get very, very ugly.

Thanks to The Consumerist for pointing to this.

January 21, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, The Communications Workers of America union is seeking to restart stalled contract talks with The Washington Post. The union represents 400 manufacturing workers at the Post.

The union is running a radio, print and outdoor campaign that seeks to embarrass the paper's management and bring them to the bargaining table for the first time in five years.

January 21, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

Ad Age chose Goodby Silverstein and Partners as its agency of the year.

Two things jumped out at me from the article. GSP's understanding of content's central role in our business.

"Content is an evolution of where agencies are going," Mr. Silverstein says. "We have become a content house. We, in a sense, are our own Pixar. [In 2008] I hope to evolve to a point where we make more content for our clients and ourselves."

And the challenges GSP continues to face.

David Roman, VP-worldwide marketing communications, Personal Systems Group at Hewlett-Packard, who praises the agency for significant contributions to HP's success, also says Goodby still has to master the social web and work out its position on public relations, where the line with advertising has begun to blur.

Content, the social web and pr are intertwined practices that help create conversation around a brand. By next year at this time, I'm sure GSP and others will have solved some of the riddles native to this new culturescape.

January 21, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

David Armano of Critical Mass knows how to talk the talk.

We’re focused on relevant, groundbreaking solutions that fuse style and substance—insight driven creative, supported by technology, which ultimately leads to measurable results. Not merely flashy creative or fleeting viral campaigns, but rather, applications that shift consumer behavior, brand experiences that deepen customer relationships and game-changing strategies that meaningfully impact the bottom line.

Apparently, Armano also walks the walk. In this same post he mentions that he's "making a leap from leading teams to leading an entire department of over 40 people." In an interesting twist, Armano humbly asks himself (and his readers) if he's ready for the promotion.

January 21, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to BusinessWeek, over 99% of all the pings and updates pouring into Technorati’s servers come from spam blogs.

Technorati CEO, David Sifry’s take: “All healthy ecosystems have parasites.”

Wikipedia's definition of spam blog:

Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs, are artificially created weblog sites which the author uses to promote affiliated websites or to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites. The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Spam blogs are usually a type of scraper site, where content is often either inauthentic text or merely stolen (see blog scraping) from other websites. These blogs usually contain a high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless websites.

January 22, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

The New York Times is running an interesting piece on MySpace, which receives more than 1.3 billion page views a day and has 110 million members.

For instance, I now know that Chris DeWolfe, the business face of the company, and co-founder Tom Anderson, 37, the product specialist, both recently signed new contracts reported to be worth $7.5 million a year.

But the thing that stands out for me is the realization that soc nets like MyFaceSpace ostensibly function as portals today.

“Some people still perceive MySpace like it was in early 2004, as a niche place for scenesters in New York and Los Angeles. That’s how it started, but it’s become very mainstream,” Mr. DeWolfe, 41, said. “It’s about consuming content and discovering pop culture.”

As a result, the MySpace site resembles a portal like Yahoo or AOL as much as a social networking site. Peter F. Chernin, the president and chief operating officer of the News Corporation, called MySpace a “contemporary media platform” and said the site existed to “create content and connect people to one another.”

Fox Interactive “clearly envisioned them as a portal,” said Alan Rambam, a senior vice president at the ad agency Fleishman Hillard.

January 22, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Duncan Watts is causing a ruckus. Just as Madison Avenue gets its head around niche marketing on a macro scale, the academic Aussie says marketing to so-called Influentials doesn't work. He says the whole idea is bunk and that he has the data to prove it.

Watts has performed a series of controversial, barn-burning experiments challenging the whole Influentials thesis. He has analyzed email patterns and found that highly connected people are not, in fact, crucial social hubs. He has written computer models of rumor spreading and found that your average slob is just as likely as a well-connected person to start a huge new trend. And last year, Watts demonstrated that even the breakout success of a hot new pop band might be nearly random. Any attempt to engineer success through Influentials, he argues, is almost certainly doomed to failure.

Watts is currently working for Yahoo in Manhattan.

[via Fast Company]

January 22, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Chicago Tribune, HBO is rolling out a new service today to allow subscribers to watch HBO programs, movies and sports shows on their computers.

The service will be offered first in Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wis., through HBO's sister company Time Warner Cable, which is also part of the Time Warner Inc. media conglomerate.

The service is only available to HBO subscribers who also use Time Warner Cable for high-speed Internet access.

HBO is in talks to expand the service to other areas and also to other cable providers.

January 22, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

John Bell, who heads up Ogilvy PR's global 360° Digital Influence team, touches on the difficulty of selling social media plans to mainstream clients.

Many brands and businesses want to take advantage of social media - influencer outreach, activation of networks or communities and radical visibility - to fill out their marcom plan. They are not ready, or maybe even suitable for organizational change. They need to launch a product, boost sales this quarter, or demonstrate that they are innovative. We see this with many consumer package goods companies (CPGs). They are sales machines. Often their brand leadership is transitory at best. The brand managers move from brand to brand within the organization as they conquer challenges.

Bell advocates experimentation, but notes that a less-committed approach, can lead to shortcuts and shortcuts can lead to program "underperformance" and a perceived sense of failure.

January 23, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Maurice Lévy invited Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, to Paris so the two could discuss Publicis joining forces with the search juggernaut.

According to International Herald Tribune, Schmidt said, "We all carry around the notion that advertising is a television ad or a print. But in fact, there are millions of ads distributed in very sophisticated ways. Maurice's message is, 'Eric, you're missing the opportunity in mobile. You have to get an integrated mobile strategy so we can give a mobile offer to our advertisers.' "

Levy told Ad Age, the goal is to create a "triple-win" -- not just a win-win -- situation. "Our clients win, the platform Google wins and the ad industry/Publicis wins. We're bringing Google our knowledge of advertising communications, consumers and client needs. They're bringing us knowledge of technology and the world of the web."

January 23, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Kansas City Star takes a look at Lee Jeans, a firm that ended its 18-year relationship with Minneapolis-based Fallon. The account is now at Arnold in Boston.

Lee is centered on a pull, not a push, strategy. In other words, the consumer dictates needs and Lee fulfills them.

Lee president Joe Dzialo said the company has undertaken extensive research to understand its customer, research that includes large-scale quantitative analysis and one-on-one interaction, including asking consumers about purchasing intents before and after trying on its jeans.

What Lee came away with is that its customer demands mostly middle-of-the road clothes with a bit of style that are reliable but that most importantly resolve a litany of fit issues confronting its customers’ ever-changing — and often challenging — body shapes.

For instance, many women the company queried complained of jeans “gapping” at the back. So Lee now has a line of jeans that have a wide yet discreet elasticized band in the back. There’s also a line that includes a panel in front that provides a slight pull-in effect.

For both men and women, Lee and other brands have added a “stretch” element to their jeans that “give” at key points, although Lee marketing vice president Liz Cahill said men’s products are positioned as being “flexible.”

“You can’t say ‘stretch’ to men,” Cahill said.

I'm taking note of this story, primarily because we often read about and talk about how companies need to improve their product and that better marketing flows from there. Lee could be a case study for this idea.

January 23, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age named Boston's Hill Holliday, "Comeback Agency of the Year." Which led Agency Spy to dig up this year-old video celebrating HHCC's 38th anniversary.

January 23, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

In his latest blog post, Steffan Postaer examines some weighty issues (while promoting his fiction).

In my novel, The Happy Soul Industry, God and the Devil engage one another in a modern fable about advertising, good and evil. Needless to say, the topic interests me deeply.

Selling cigarettes, liquor and gambling has been called “dark marketing.” Well, what if everything we sell is shaded? When we build a brand are we, in a way, creating an idol?

I think we all (at least those of us with a working conscience) struggle to some degree with what we do in this business. Yet, it's interesting to see someone who's gone as far as Postaer struggle too. Why is it interesting? Because the concept that "more money" or "better clients" will solve what ails you is a hollow dream.

January 23, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Have you had a chance to dine on bison at Ted's Montana Grill? I was in Omaha earlier this month, where I had the Kansas City Strip prepared medium. What an outstanding dish.

I liked the bison steak so much, in fact, I want to buy some of Ted's National Bison Association-certified meats for preparation at home. And I'd like to send some bison steaks to friends and clients.

Here's the free idea: An Omaha Steaks-like mail order business for bison (and grass fed beef, for that matter).

Presently, there are small operators that market bison and grass fed beef online and through the mail. What I'm suggesting here is taking this business to the next level by backing it with Ted's branding and operational know-how.

January 23, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Media Shift's Mark Glaser spoke to BusinessWeek executive editor, John Byrne, about sweeping usability changes to the venerable magazine's website.

In response to a question about upping participation from the user base, or community, Byrne says:

We have had a very rigourous, very lively reader involvement on the site for a long time. In any given month, roughly 15,000 people participate in conversations on our site, but they are largely hidden from view. You have to either go into a blog and see how people are responding, or you have to go into a forum to see how people are exchanging views, or go to the end of a story to see the comments on it. We want to elevate those conversations and make them more apparent to everyone that these conversations are occuring.

We are rewarding our readers for making thoughtful comments on our site by going to the reader and saying, “We like what you’re saying and want to feature it in a prominent way, can you send us a digital picture of yourself so we can put it on the home page.”

This is about elevating our conversation and giving credence to the rhetoric that everyone has, that the web is a dialogue and not a lecture. The truth is that very few people are delivering on it, having reporters actively engage with readers or elevating comments and saying, “This is as important as any story we have, any video we have, any audio we have.”

January 24, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

LA Times sent a reporter to DomainFest, the annual get together of domain name speculators, brokers and developers.

Two of the biggest practitioners, Oversee.net and Demand Media Inc., are based in the Los Angeles area and have collectively received more than $450 million in venture capital investment to fuel domain name buying sprees.

The bidding paddles flew Tuesday and Wednesday in the hotel ballroom at DomainFest. Individual speculators and deep-pocketed companies snapped up domains such as Porn.net for $400,000, Bookmarks.com for $300,000, Alimony.com for $75,000, Butcher.com for $50,000 and Satinpanties for $10,000.

The more than 600 people who paid as much as $995 to attend the conference also got to hear from one of the "domainer" idols: college dropout Frank Schilling of the Cayman Islands, who started buying Internet addresses with credit cards and eventually amassed 300,000 addresses valued by some would-be buyers at more than $100 million.

Schilling works out of his beach house, where he watches what was until recently the largest TV in the world, and clears about $20 million a year from sites as varied as Homeforeclosure.com and Crosswordpuzzles.com.

January 24, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Ad Age readers were quick to spot the typo in the next-to-last line of Fallon's new ad for TheLadders.com:

Look, typos happen. Very often, the fast nature of advertising, particularly online, leads to slips like this. No one's perfect, least of all me. But when you're sending out copies of a new ad for PR purposes, it doesn't look so good.

January 24, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Men's Vogue paid a visit to Miami, which is home to scorching hot Hispanic marketing agency, La Comunidad.

It's the kind of office where flip-flop-wearing employees kiss on both cheeks when they arrive on Monday morning. It's the kind of office where business meetings are held by the pool and where the company chef lures staff with a family-style lunch. And there's a nearly perfect duplicate of it 4,000 miles away, in Buenos Aires, where another three dozen staffers work under Joaquín Mollá, 38, José's brother and partner.

Joaquín explains that they are driven by the notion of community (the literal translation of comunidad), which is why they've turned down business that would have allowed them to grow even more quickly at the expense of their culture of on-site yoga and painting classes. "You can't change the world, but you can do something about the people that surround you," reflects Joaquín, who studies Buddhism.

La Comunidad/Miami will soon be moving in to a 20,000-square-foot warehouse renovation in the heart of Miami's Wynwood Art District. The new office will have an adjoining gallery space.

January 24, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

It's time to start talking about Super Bowl commercials again.

I'm pleased to start that process this year with PepsiCo. Their new production, "Bob's House," will air during the big game.

It's a spot where many, especially at a loud party, may think someone hit the Mute button. But they would be wrong.

January 25, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I'm using Twitter today (when it's up) for note-sharing on the panels I'm attending at BlogSavannah Unconference 2008.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about unconferences:

An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants (generally day-by-day during the course of the event) rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event. The term is primarily used in the geek community.

My colleagues are also live blogging some of the sessions.

January 25, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The New York Times is running an article that says advertisers are sticking with their network broadcast commitments despite the lack of new television programming, because there isn't a better alternative at the moment.

In a column on Wednesday, Wayne Friedman, the West Coast editor of MediaPost, noted that broadcast television continues to deliver a significant audience.

“Where can advertisers turn?” Mr. Friedman wrote. “Not to the Internet right now; it’s not ready. Some money may go to cable, as well as syndication, or even local TV. But the bulk of TV advertising points will still remain on network TV.”

The internet's not ready? Harsh.

January 25, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

A couple weeks ago my subscription to the online version of The Wall Street Journal expired, then seamlessly auto-renewed. I don't like auto-renew and didn't know it was on. Add to this, the Journal's move to a free content model supported by ads, per Rupe, and I said to myself, I hope they give me a refund when they do go free.

But, today The New York Times reports that Rupe said not so fast on the free thing. When you think about it, why be free when you have people like me on auto-renew? It makes sense to keep paid subscribers.

Here's a more twisted reason to keep things the way they are:

Dow Jones executives argue that the firewall not only generates revenue, it also creates an elite audience of high-income business-oriented readers whom advertisers pay a premium to reach. The Journal has a million paying online subscribers, some of whom also subscribe to the paper in print.

January 26, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Tyson Foods, Inc. has been touting its line of antibiotic-free chicken as part of a $70 million advertising campaign. But, competitive poultry producers are upset that the Arkansas-based company has been making false claims about its product.

Calling themselves the Truthful Labeling Coalition, Perdue Farms, Sanderson Farms Inc., Gold'n Plump Poultry Inc. and Foster Poultry Farms accused Tyson of displaying misleading advertising claims in violation of federal and state law and sent a letter to Tyson asking the company to pull its ads.

At issue is Tyson's use of an animal medication called ionophores, commonly added to poultry feed to help prevent an intestinal parasite that can lead to lower body weight or death in poultry, causing economic loss to producers.

Last month, Tyson agreed to stop using a version of its antibiotic-free labels on its chicken products after the U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded it had awarded the label mistakenly, because the company was still using medication that it characterized as antibiotics. Tyson has also agreed to amend its advertising.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

January 26, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Ad Age, WPP Chief Martin Sorrell, isn't impressed by Puclicis' deft use of the press to forward its agenda.

When Sorrell, in Davos for the World Economic Forum, was asked by a Reuters reporter about WPP's "esteemed rival Publicis" and its deal with Google, he interrupted to say, "I think our most esteemed rival is Omnicom."

January 26, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to a press release published on Yahoo Finance, The New York Times is happy to send you a text with links to its latest articles.

By sending a text message with the appropriate keyword to 698698 (NYTNYT), users can receive the latest three articles from a given section of the paper. Articles can be displayed on any type of cell phone or PDA. The services are free to use, although standard carrier charges may apply.

For example, when you text, "business" to the given short code, three story previews appear on your phone. Each preview has a link to the full story as displayed on mobile.nytimes.com.

The sectional keywords for texting: Latest, World, National, Metro, Science, Technology, Political, Health, Sports, Style, Dining, Week, Arts, Magazine and Emailed.

You can also receive the latest work from these op-ed columnists: Brooks, Cohen, Collins, Dowd, Friedman, Herbert, Kristof, Kristol, Krugman and Rich.

January 26, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Scott Karp writes Publishing 2.0, a blog about how technology is transforming media.

January 26, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Ad Age, National Public Radio has been able to grow its total ad revenue from $18 million in 2002 to $46 million in 2007, in part by the leading the podcasting charge.

In August 2005, Honda became its first sponsor to sign up for a podcast-specific deal, a trend that has since been followed by its sibling brand Acura, UBS Investment Bank and MasterCard.

January 26, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Jackie Huba and her man moved from Chicago to Austin recently. She's finding lots of things to love about Austin, including a retail space she likes to call Mr. Flagship, or Mr. F, for short.

I love the Whole Foods flagship store at 6th and Lamar in Austin, Texas. I've dated its cousins in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but Mr. Flagship is a hunk.

As an expression of her devotion, Huba ate every meal for a week at Mr. F.

Here's her visual documentation, a.k.a. photoset on Flickr. Whole Foods doesn't allow photographs to be taken in its stores, but Huba asked for and received permission.

January 26, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Yesterday at the second annual BlogSavannah UnConference, social media consultant and keynote speaker, Josh Hallett, said it was interesting to see how different cities adopt hyperlocal blogging. He mentioned that Tampa and Orlando (near his home) both have lots of hyperlocal bloggers.

One of the things I look for at a conference is memes. They're often hanging there in the air, ripe for inspection.

As it happens, today I stumbled upon EveryBlock, an aggregator play in the hyperlocal segment.

The service is available in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, so I put Lincoln Square in the search box and bingo, the site returned news and images from the old 'hood.

EveryBlock offers updates on everything from business and liquor license applications to street closures and press releases from the city. They also aggregate local news from local blogs. One article that grabbed me right away details green building practices at a new 18-unit condo development in the heart of Lincoln Square.

January 27, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Do you notice anything strange in this bit from the Arts section of today's New York Times?

A few (striking) writers have returned to gigs they had hoped to forget: waiting tables, bartending, copywriting, tutoring. Some who began as performers have returned to the grind of auditioning for commercials.

That's right, copywriting is just one of the shitty jobs held by real writers who later go on to work in TV.

January 27, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Even though it's been around for a while, I just found my way to TwitterLit, a site that offers the first sentence from an unidentified book. Provided that the sentence is less than 140 characters, which is Twitter's size limit for text.

This offering capitalizes on the widespread like of word games and puzzles. Presently, TwitterLit has 2420 followers on Twitter and offers 541 updates, or posts, each one linked to an Amazon page where one can purchase the book in question. The service is a brilliant use of Amazon Associates and Twitter.

January 27, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

Ad Age looks at an age old truth about mature brands. They need to get new customers in the franchise in order to survive.

Talk about a marketing conundrum: Revive Colt 45 malt liquor -- once seen as an exploitative product that preyed on the urban poor -- as an edgy choice for young hipsters.

But Pabst Brewing Co. is trying to do just that, with a campaign from Seattle boutique Cole & Weber. To appeal to younger drinkers, Cole & Weber tapped graphic novelist Jim Mahfood (author of the volume "Classic 40 Ounce: Tales From the Brown Bag" and a regular contributor to alternative newsweeklies) to create a series of scenes and stories of young adults enjoying themselves with Colt 45. Most of the creative shows 20-somethings flaunting their oversize cans in social settings such as rooftop parties and dance clubs.

January 28, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

LA Times takes the phrase "integrated marketing" to a new place with a piece on content's role in creating compelling advertainment.

Younger viewers are "less married to traditional long form shows and, as a result, more receptive to different forms of content as long as the content is engaging and entertaining," John Shea, executive vice president for integrated marketing at MTV said. "Overall, the audience is very savvy and understands that sometimes 'content' is working hard for a brand or product."

Appropriately, it is MTV, the pioneer in blurring the lines between advertising and content, where many of these new initiatives are being undertaken.

One of the examples the story points to is "How She Move," an urban dance movie that opened Friday. The film was woven into MTV reality series, "Super Sweet 16." The choreographer of "How She Move" interacted with the girls planning a Sweet 16 party, helping them master dance moves from the film so they could wow their friends on the big night.

A parallel promotion for mobile phones and other wireless devices featured briefer videos with simplified dance lessons.

January 28, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Stuart Elliott's Monday morning wake up call is all about how clients and Madison Avenue saw "the recession" coming a mile away and have already adjusted accordingly.

Whatever. Let's click over to where the action is, shall we?

LA Times Staff Writer, Alana Semuels, paid a visit to the Rubicon Project's offices, where "dozens of twentysomethings in jeans crowd around tables in one big room, hunched over laptops, typing away. A few play a Nintendo Wii game in the corner. One sips a beer."

Investors may be jittery about the current economy, but Rubicon -- a start-up online advertising company -- isn't worried. It hired most of its 37 employees in the last few months, and today it plans to announce it has received a new round of funding, bringing its total to $21 million in eight months.

Here's Rubicon's pitch to web publishers:

January 28, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 14 Comments

Steffan Postaer, in an otherwise nice piece on his dad's legacy at RPA, wanders off into a rant about integration.

Pops couldn’t keep up with the times. The brave new world of banners and microsites was too much for him. Time to let the Facebook generation take over. Social networks are where it’s at. Give them something viral. Integrate or die!

Or recognize, as my father did, that integration is just a word we marketers use to sound smart; that in fact, the wizard beyond the curtain of Integration is basically a dumbfuck. An avatar of a know-it-all. A Google-eyed Yahoo.

When Postaer started his blog he tried to convince readers that integrated marketing is the saving grace for agencies in trouble. But this new entry sounds more real/less scripted.

But what of the message? "Dumbfuck behind the curtain" is pretty strong language for a marketing practice that is standard operating procedure today.

January 28, 2008 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ever wonder what three hundred of "the most influential and successful websites" would look like if they were graphed to the greater Tokyo-area train map? No? Well, take a look anyway.

The good people of Information Architects Japan have done a great job presenting a ton of information in a visually intriguing way. Each subway line (21 in all) represents a Web trend (e.g., the social networks line, the classic design line, the file storage line). All told, the map works as a handy thought-starter and crib sheet.

January 28, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Paul Martecchini, formerly of Yahoo, appears in a video on Brandweek to help brands understand how to play on soc nets.

There's a lot of what NOT to do, but then Martecchini points to how Adidas rolls.

Martecchini says, "Nobody one wants to join the social network of a corporation. It's too impersonal." He believes brands need to let real people do their social networking for them; hence the appeal of Adidas' approach.

January 28, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Ad man Jerry Della Femina owns a restaurant and a free weekly newspaper in The Hamptons.

According to Newsday, his newspaper is causing trouble for his restaurant.

A recent column about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton in a free weekly owned by Hamptons luminary Jerry Della Femina so infuriated members of the East End Gay Organization that they canceled a fundraiser in Della Femina's restaurant, leaders of the group said Friday.

Ken Allan, co-chair of the gay organization, said the language about Clinton in Rick Murphy's "Low Tidings" column of Jan. 16 could not be ignored. "Terms were used such as 'bull -- -- on steroids' and 'steely-eyed lesbo -- -- from hell.' There was no reason to put homophobic slurs in that article," Allan said.

"Oh, my God. We wrote that?" Della Femina said. "I'm in Manhattan. I didn't read that."

January 29, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, Subway is suing Quiznos and iFilm, for running less than flattering content about their sandwiches.

The spot shown above was the winning entry in a 2006 contest conducted by Quiznos. Its creators won $10,000, and their video was shown on VH1 and on a giant screen in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in 2006.

January 29, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Once again, we are headed toward Super Bowl Sunday. And once again, the two head coaches of the Giants and Patriots, who are leading their teams to the NFL's premier contest, have themselves never played a day of professional football.

Is there a lesson in the advertising industry can learn from this? I think so. I first wrote about this in a Talent Zoo column from 2004. I got some nice compliments on it, so I thought I'd repost it:

January 29, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Nina DiSesa, chairman of McCann Erickson, New York, and author of the new book, Seducing the Boys Club, says the ad world is still a sexist place.

The most dramatic change in advertising since 1962 is that most of us have stopped smoking.

She adds, "Forty years after women burned their bras to liberate their sex, only 2 percent of the Fortune 1000 CEOs are women. Two percent!"

[via Adweek]

January 29, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The fine folks at Zeus Jones in Minneapolis have put a nice slide together that reframes the debate around digital divides.

January 29, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Steve Novick is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Oregon. He was also born without a left arm. That doesn't seem to stop him much:

Nice.

January 29, 2008 by Catharine P. Taylor | Permalink | 0 Comments

Hi folks. I know David Burn said I'd be posting on here, and I'm finally doing it. Though I sincerely doubt anyone has been checking their AdPulp RSS Feed to see when Cathy Taylor was finally going to start doing some posting here, the moment is at hand, and, I admit, for this week anyway, it's blatantly self-promotional. So here's the topic: I got a call late last week from the 4As, seeing if I wanted to do an interview with incoming president-CEO Nancy Hill. My first thought in these instances is that they must have forgotten that I'm no longer at Adweek, but, then again, I know the 4As PR person Kipp Cheng well, so that wasn't the case. Turns out that Hill wanted to include the blogosphere in the press tour, and so the 4As reached out to me. You can read her comments over at my blog. I promise not to be so self-promotional next week and enjoy the opportunity to post for a broader audience.

January 29, 2008 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

If there's two things I love, it's sweet n' salty kettle corn and challenger upstart brands with great stories. Combine those and you get LesserEvil Snacks.

The packaging caught my eye at Fresh Market so I picked it up, and the writing on the box was great. As is the fun brand story on their website:

Here at LesserEvil, we are all about the snacks. We love to eat them. Love to share them. Love to think up wild new snacks. Simply put, we just love snacks.

When we started this company three years ago, we were all about the snacks then too. Unfortunately, we’d head to the store to pick up some snacks and have a huge predicament: pick up some healthy, yet bland snacks – or – delicious, mouth-watering but REALLY unhealthy snacks. Where was the great taste and better nutritionals? Where was the “LesserEvil?”

And the "Ask Us Anything" FAQs page is great.

So I wrote to them and got a response from Kyser Thompson, their "Chief StoryTeller," who couldn't have been nicer or more appreciative.

LesserEvil is the kind of brand I root for. They have all sorts of popcorn and potato snacks, without trans-fat and corn syrup. You can find it at places like Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and on their website. It's great stuff, and I'm happy to spread the word. There are a lot brands that could learn from these guys.

January 30, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

MySpace is now "open" for business.

According to The Wall Street Journal, MySpace will formally launch the MySpace Developer Platform next Tuesday with a kickoff event and workshop at its new San Francisco office.

The company said the program should result in innovations in how friends connect and communicate.

MySpace already has informally allowed developers to create interactive applications known as "widgets." The photo-sharing service Photobucket became so popular that MySpace's parent company bought it for about $300 million.

By creating a formal developers program, MySpace plans to give programmers "deeper access" to the site and the ability to "build richer applications as part of it," said Amit Kapur, 26, named Tuesday as MySpace's chief operating officer.

January 31, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

In this day of quarterly numbers and short-term decisions, it's refreshing to see a company move counter to this trend. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is such a company.

Messrs. Brin, Page and Schmidt made it starkly clear in Google's so-called "Owner's Manual," filed as part of the company's IPO prospectus in April 2004, that they would not shy away from making big long-term bets at the expense of short-term gains.

"If opportunities arise that might cause us to sacrifice short-term results but are in the best long-term interest of our shareholders, we will take those opportunities," the document says. "We will have the fortitude to do this. We would request that our shareholders take the long-term view."

Google shares have sunk 22% in the past month as the search and ad giant looks to move into the mobile business by purchasing at auction rights to the 700 MHz spectrum. The price of entry is expected to be in the billions.

January 31, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Shelly Lazarus, the CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, is speaking my language.

"Brands are more than checkbooks to develop content. Brands are cultural artifacts that have inherent story values. We see ourselves as being both in the entertainment business and the product business."

But she loses me here:

"We can come up with a brand idea, but we can't do programming. We wouldn't start to even try."

Why wouldn't we try? In my opinion, we in the agency business need to do the work. It goes without saying that we'd partner with our friends in the production community to create advertainment, just like we do with advertising.

[via Ad Age]

January 31, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

January 31, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Publicis Groupe is intent on helping corporations go green. As such, they've purchased Act Now, a pioneering sustainability consultancy in San Francisco. Effective immediately, Act Now will be part of the new Saatchi & Saatchi S network. The group's mission is to "activate corporate and consumer action on a mass scale to address environmental and economic sustainability."

Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide Saatchi & Saatchi, said, “Sustainability is not a fad for me. It is something that comes right from a core belief that going forward, it will be impossible for a brand to be truly loved by consumers unless it creates a positive, sustainable impact.”

Act Now's Adam Werbach has been appointed CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S and will report to Andy Murray, Global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi X.

San Francisco Chronicle has an article from earlier this month on Werbach's work for Wal-Mart, a fact which apparently caused some purist enviros to choke on their tofu pops.

January 31, 2008 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

If you have yet to join Ad Club Seattle, this spot from Creature might persuade you.