On the heels of last week's well publicized dismissals of two prominent film critics, The New York Times wonders if classic trade publishing, as practiced by Variety and its younger rival, The Hollywood Reporter, can survive these tough times. "Having something that is valuable enough to pay for is the trick," said Martin Kaplan, the director of the Norman Lear Center for the study of entertainment and society at the …
SXSW Can Be Overly Social Even For The Most Social
I feel Brogan's pain here. No one wants to be used. Plus, the whole idea of limited access (to a party in this case) runs counter to one of the Web's main attributes. …
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Clients Pay For Reaction, Not Proaction
Another week, another poll in Adweek that shows how agencies are lacking. The complaints are all too familiar, but a new poll of client executives finds that agencies still aren't proactive enough and need to make more of an effort to grasp the business challenges that clients face. Asked to identify their top sources of frustration with agencies, the execs pointed to "more reactive than proactive" above all else, …
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Episodic Content Continues To Grow On the Web
Bertolli's new web series, "Into the Heart of Italy," features Rocco DiSpirito, Marisa Tomei and Dan Cortese on a journey to uncover the secrets of Italy's passion for food and life. Day One: Lucca @ Yahoo! Video According to Ad Age: Unilever, along with media agency MindShare Entertainment, has produced what have arguably become web video's biggest branded success stories. It started in 2007 with "In the …
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Brand Loyalty Is Tough To Measure, Until You Convert It Into Sales
James Cherkoff of Modern Marketing has a new and interesting take on David Ogilvy's admonition, "We sell, or else." That most crucial aspect of markets and marketing, the Point-Of-Purchase (P-o-P) is changing quickly and in some very surprising ways. In doing so, this shift is throwing light on some long-standing weaknesses of the marketing industry, whilst throwing down new challenges. Even the forward-looking …
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The Oracle Of Omaha Likes Insurance Advertising That Rocks
Warren Buffet isn't shy about saying that he loves to spend money on Geico advertising, because it works. I don't know if the following "ad" is going to work very well, but Buffet does have a cameo in the spot (careful, you might not recognize him in the wig). [via BrandFreak] …
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Foursquare v. Gowalla — Just One Drama Playing In Austin This Weekend
The Wall Street Journal addresses the buzz around location-based services at SXSW this weekend. According to the Journal: Foursquare, which launched last year at SXSW, has 16 new badges that users can collect as they check in at different places around Austin. The service updated its iPhone app in time for the conference and has teamed up with PayPal and Microsoft to raise money for Save the Children's Haiti fund …
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P&G Has A Long History Of Branded Storytelling
Redwood Custom Communications in Toronto is now known as Totem Brand Stories. Totem likes to refer to its works as "marketing journalism," which might be problematic for some real journalists with no interest in forwarding brand stories. I like to call this type of work content, or branded content, to be specific. But I digress... Eric Schneider, CEO of Totem, explains, "As consumers have gained a new level of …
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