MySpace made three major announcements this week—two of which served to underscore a deepening fundamental difference in philosophy from its closest rival, Facebook. The third is a half-hearted attempt to mimic Facebook. 1) MySpace announced Tuesday that it has forged a splashy licensing agreement with Sony BMG—the world's second largest label—for access to streaming videos, music and other content. The partnership …
Bitchin’ Ads The Tip Of The Iceberg For Nike
The Wall Street Journal is running a great article on how Nike is reaching well beyond the sports world to find inspiration for their lifestyle products. At Nike, the drive to recruit under-the-radar influencers like Mr. Cartoon is on the rise and a key part of the company's strategy. While other sneaker-makers have also called on cultural soothsayers to shape their aesthetic agenda, Chief Executive Mark Parker has …
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Godin’s Viral Equation
We've mentioned before, as have many others, that there is no such thing as a viral video. Hence, a client can't legitimately request one in her brief to the agency. Marketing guru Seth Godin endeavors to explain: Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that's it. It amplifies the marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. A lousy flight on …
The Opportunity In Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate
Cause-related marketing is increasingly taking center stage these days. According to Ad Age, Coca-Cola Co. is the latest mega marketer to toss some chips in this pile. In the mid-1980s, Coke t-shirts, sweatshirts, miniskirts and even eyeglasses were all the rage. So, in a nod to its past but clearly conscious of a growing consumer backlash to plastic water bottles, the marketer is rolling out a line of RPET t-shirts …
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Soc Nets Are The New Epidemic
The New York Times looks at LifeAt.com, a social networking site that creates password-protected Web sites for apartment buildings and housing developments. The company, based in Brooklyn, is surviving on the roughly $6,000 it receives from each building that signs up for the service. It does not charge the buildings yearly fees. More than 335 buildings have joined since LifeAt began in March. About 600 more …
Ad Age Presents The Indie Digerati
Ad Age takes a look at independent digital shops that are presently flying under the radar. They are: AgencyNet The Barbarian Group BIG SPACESHIP Campfire DEEP FOCUS Fantasy Interactive firstborn iCrossing NIGHTAGENCY North Kingdom Nurun One to One Interactive Poke Profero Sapient Corp. Sarkissian Mason 360i WHITTMANHART Poking around Campfire's site led me to this splendid graph: …
You Can’t Size Up The Web With A Tape Measure
According to The New York Times, the growth of online advertising is being stunted because nobody can get the basic visitor counts straight. There's also no one source for credible stats. Bloggers often turn to Technorati, but their data appears to be suspect, just like their competitors' data. There's Quantcast, but one needs to embed their code for it to return accurate data. The marketing and ad blog …
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Relationships Are Everything
DDB/NY was on the receiving end of unexpected news last week. Their $150 million car account peeled out and punched it to Minnesota without prior notice. According to Stuart Elliot, "executives at DDB were told of Subaru’s decision to dismiss them over a lunch meeting today at the agency, which had been scheduled previously to discuss creative plans." The reason behind the change is a desire by Timothy J. Mahoney, …
