Absolut Vodka is creating a special-edition flavored vodka to honor New Orleans, and the proceeds will go to Gulf Coast charities, the company announced Wednesday. Absolut made the announcement and previewed the mango-with-black-pepper flavor at the annual New Orleans culinary festival, Tales of the Cocktail. Absolut New Orleans, which goes on sale Aug. 1, commemorates the second anniversary on Aug. 29 of Hurricane …
Give It Away Now
According to Advertising Age, Sean Finnegan is leaving his post as U.S. director of digital at OMD to become the CEO of Omnicom Media Group Digital, a new unit that oversees all of Omnicom's media entities, such as OMD, PHD and Fuse Sports & Entertainment. In a 2006 interview, the 35-year-old Mr. Finnegan said digital simply can't be siloed anymore. "Back in the dot-com heyday, it was an art form for the digital …
Flickr Becomes Free Stock House
You know how credit is never given in an ad? Well, no more. The above print ad from Virgin Mobile gives credit to the photographer, which is especially nice since Virgin did not pay for the image. Their agency found it on Flickr and published it under a Creative Commons license. While this is an interesting idea, there are a few problems with it. One, neither the models nor the phtotographers were contacted, thus no …
Buzz Loses Some Sting
Nielsen Buzz Metrics is stripping some of the gloss from the fledgling field of Viral and Buzz Marketing. According to their latest findings, high blog interest, or buzz, around new product launches is tightly linked to paid media spending. “Splintering media sources along with emerging consumer-generated media are challenging one-way, mass-media advertising models,” said Robert Mooth, vice president of product …
MediaBistro Cashes Its Check
MediaBistro.com is one of the more useful web properties in my sphere. So I'm pleased to see its founder, Laurel Touby, cash in. According to The New York Times, Jupitermedia of Darien, CT has agreed to pay $23 million for the site. “This company is a true Internet success story,” Ms. Touby said. “This started as an offline community, a cocktail party, that turned into this Web site that actually makes money.” …
Toppling The Tipping Point
Duncan Watts, a Columbia University sociology professor, is rocking boats with his challenge to the influencer model that much modern day marketing relies upon. Brandweek endeavored to speak with Mr. Watts abou this ideas. Brandweek: Why aren't influentials as influential as everyone thinks? Watts: Common sense notions of cause and effect are deeply misleading with respect to social processes. It is relatively easy …
Ask Apu
During this morning's commute some AdPulp fodder emerged from the car radio. NPR's Elizabeth Blair interviewed Reed Collins, a creative director at Leo Burnett about the transformation of a dozen 7-Elevens into Kwik-E Marts--a stunt meant to promote The Simpons Movie. Collins loves the move, in part because it was his team's idea. Collins says Burnett presented the concept to receptive managers at 20th Century Fox, …
Not A Black Turtleneck In Sight
Did you know that Brand Flakes for Breakfast and Make the Logo Bigger are related? Yep. And not just that, they've leased an innocent van, covered it in Plaid and are now en route to Dallas, TX via New England. Strange, I know. …
