Ad Age is running two articles about blogs stepping out of their pajamas and into neatly tailored suits. One piece is about John Battelle's Federated Media announcing a $50 million minority investment from Oak Investment Partners. Federated Media aggregates and packages popular blog content for marketers. The company is thought to be worth as much as $200 million. The other article looks at music blogs being sold and …
Every Brand Needs A Hero
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Element 79 is on the ropes after seeing its biggest accounts--PepsiCo's Gatorade and Tropicana--walk out the door. PepsiCo has been dissatisfied with Element 79's recent creative work, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company is shifting its Gatorade business to a sister Omnicom agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, and ad responsibilities for Tropicana also are being …
No Face-To-Face, No Community.
Spike Jones is on the box. Ninety-two percent of word of mouth happens offline (so says Keller Fay Group). 92%! And that’s not going to change. Working from that factual place, Spike's premise is a brand has to have an offline, real world dimension to any community building efforts it undertakes. Why is it the more I am connected online, the more alone I feel? Because I an missing the one thing that online can help …
Today In Twitterverse: Debating Jaffeisms
Paul Isakson is a planner working in Minneapolis. His tweet is in response to Joseph Jaffe's talk last night at the Fine Line. For the record, Steve Hall sees social media and conversational marketing as "two entirely different things." …
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Robbins Steps On Broadcasters’ Toes Necks
"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is just lights and wires in a box." -Edward R. Murrow in 1958 Members of the National Association of Broadcasters are in Las Vegas for their annual get together. Like any such meeting of minds, it's a time for some networking, learning and …
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There’s One For You, Nineteen For Me
It's taxes due day in America and the perfect time to look at consumer spending and the retail segment of our economy. From today's New York Times: The consumer spending slump and tightening credit markets are unleashing a widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing, prompting thousands of store closings that are expected to remake suburban malls and downtown shopping districts across the country. Since last …
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Chocolate Better Than Blogs
BlogHer released the BlogHer/Compass Partners 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study today, which reveals new insights into the power of the blogosphere and the significant role it plays in the lives of U.S. women. Women are so passionate about blogging that large percentages of women said they would give something up to keep the blogs they read and/or write: 55% would give up alcohol 49% would give up …
Letting Design And Designers Lead The Way
Paul Isakson, Senior Strategic Planner at space150, wants ad peeps to start thinking like designers, not like ad peeps. As an industry, we have to stop thinking about things like traditional advertising people. We need to start thinking about things like designers, engineers, architects and the like. We need to think about the action we want people to take and what will be required to make that action happen. We …
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