Cooking the bird on Thanksgiving can be a nerve-wracking experience. Your family and friends are counting on you. There's little room for error. That's why Butterball instituted a help line, 1-800-BUTTERBALL (1-800-288-8372) back in 1981. Since then, the help line—one of the first ever created—has become an unparalleled marketing tool for the company, even playing a starring role in a Thanksgiving episode of NBC's …
Wayward Journalist Builds Storm Shelter, Invites Colleagues
MSNBC kicked Dan Abrams to the curb this fall. Now the lawyer, color commentator, show host and former MSNBC General Manager, is organizing a new PR firm that he plans to staff with journalists. According to The Wall Street Journal, Abrams Research will help business executives navigate public-relations challenges -- from major acquisitions to bothersome bloggers to outright scandals. The firm's chief selling point …
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From Sweet Talker To Sweet Maker
Some marcom execs invent brands as intrapreneurs, others simply hang up their agency cleats and start fresh. Brian Pelletier, 41, a public relations executive at Fleishman-Hillard in St. Louis, is one of the latter. According to St. Louis Beacon, Pelletier left his PR job and is now the sole proprietor of Kakao Chocolate. He dons an apron and comfortable Crocs instead of a starched shirt and tie at his small …
Lee Clow Wins Again
The man surfs and wears flip flops and a long beard to meetings with the world's most loaded marketers. And he wins them over, time and again. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Pepsi account is leaving BBDO, where it's been for 40 plus years. The account will be placed in the hands of Lee Clow, chief creative officer TBWA Worldwide, who is known for the successful Apple ads, including the Mac vs. PC …
If You’re So Smart, Go Ahead And Invent Something
We know that some of the brightest bulbs in Adlandia like to invent their own products and bring them to market, when they're not busy polishing their reels. It's a healthy exercise and all that... According to Ad Age, London's Bartle Bogle has a unit called Zag dedicated to the practice. The idea is to identify "brand lag" -- areas where consumers are active but there are few brands. For instance, only 12% of people …
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Real Journalists Scraping By Online
I don't mind saying I'm fascinated by this story on startups in online journalism. At the center of the piece is VoiceofSanDiego.org, the creation of San Diego venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Buzz Woolley, and a rag tag crew of journalists swimming to shore from sinking print vehicles. “Information is now a public service as much as it’s a commodity,” Wolley says. “It should be thought of the same way as …
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Makers Of Media, Please Stand And Identify Yourselves
It was fortunate that Ad Age had a reporter in place to hear Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co. speak at a Nov. 15 forum on digital media presented by the Ad Club of Cincinnati Let's examine his radical humanist point of view: Mr. McConnell pointed to the drumbeat of complaints about social networks being unable to monetize their sites. "I have a reaction to …
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The First Lady of Brand Advocacy
According to The New York Times, Mrs. Obama gave a big shout out to J. Crew during her Oct. 27 appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Dressed in a $148 pencil skirt, a $148 yellow and brown tank top and a $118 yellow cardigan, she seemed to be promoting both fiscal prudence and the overlooked appeal of mustard-colored clothing. “I want to ask you about your wardrobe,” Mr. Leno told her, alluding to the news …
