According to Los Angeles Times, the legendary label that once featured A-list recording artists like Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett, Miles Davis, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen is rising from the ashes. CBS Corp. plans to revive CBS Records — a vestige of the glory days of the now-troubled music industry — with an eye toward the Internet age. In contrast to the lavish excesses of the music business of the …
Remote Locations Difficult To Manage
Network World reports on the difficulties faced by offsite workers and their managers. IBM’s efforts to create a flexible work environment have been so successful that 40% of its 330,000 employees work from home, on the road, or at a client location on any given day. But a few years ago, the company realized that as its staff became more distributed, employee morale was weakening. In the region Dan Pelino inherited …
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Merge. Spin Off. Merge. Spin Off.
Troubled Chicago conglomerate Draft FCB is planning to open up "an offshoot that would, if all goes according to plan, become a separate, independent full-service shop that would be part of the same parent holding company, IPG," according to Lewis Lazare of Chicago Sun Times. Lazare says the new agency is being created to handle accounts that present problematic conflicts of interest resulting from the merger of …
How Long Before Your Client Asks For A Flog?
Online Media Daily reports that Sony released a statement yesterday acknowledging that their alliwantforxmasisapsp.com blog was phony. They have yet to admit how lame the stunt was. What I always wonder in these situations is where was the agency's head? Was it their idea? Did they counsel vigorously against it? The article brings to light a possible answer. This comment was made by a person claiming to be a Zipatoni …
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Corporate Record Store Reaches End Of Its Business Cycle
Paul Farhi of the Washington Post laments the loss of Tower Records. There's no doubt the Internet is a superior transactional medium for getting music. But saying so assumes that the transaction is all there is. It values ends over means, destinations over journeys. For a long time, Tower was a great journey. …
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Burnett Likes Arc’s Books
Ad Age reports on further blurring of "the line" that has long separated ad agencies (above-the-line) from their country cousins in direct and promo shops (below-the-line). In a move it hopes can reverse its slumping new-business fortunes, Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett Worldwide is taking direct/interactive sibling Arc Worldwide under its corporate umbrella. While Burnett executives are cautious not to label the move …
Micro Persuaders Gather ‘Round Gates
The world's wealthiest man is getting his groove on. First he hangs with The Secret Machines at a Zune release party, now he's kickin' it with the digerati. According to Steve Rubel's report, Jeremy Zawody, Michael Arrington, Liz Gannes, Niall Kennedy, Chris Pirillo, Molly Holzschlag, Evan Williams, Shaun Inman and others were in the presence of Bill Gates for a an hour yesterday. Here are some of the questions they …
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P&G Goes Viral
The New York Times takes a closer look at P&G's increasing embrance of viral videos that venture into subjects that the marketer wouldn't have previously embraced, like one that discusses menstrual cramps: The campaign started with small classified ads in newspapers around the country, which all carried the same eye-catching headline, “Men: Are You Suffering From Menstrual Cramps?” The ads directed readers to a Web …