According to today's WSJ (paid sub. req.), Agency.com in the U.K. has been hired by Ikea to make print and outdoor ads, in addition to the digital work the shop already handles. It is possible that Agency.com could make TV spots in the future, an Ikea spokeswoman says. Other digital agencies are starting to gain some traditional work, as well. AKQA of San Francisco has been appointed the main agency for Yell.com. …
Speaking About The Series Of Tubes, Jarvis Says, “It’s Anarachy!”
Jeff Jarvis interviewed scholar and author David Weinberger on camera at Always On in Manhattan last week. Beet.tv has the full transcript of the interview. Here's one bit from the Cluetrain conductor that I enjoyed: Entering a conversation in order to influence it is almost always a corrupting influence on a conversation, although there are exceptions. I spoke with David briefly at SXSW in 2003. He seemed like a …
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Fluid Markets Demand Discipline
Hal R. Varian, professor of business, economics and information management at the University of California, Berkeley explains "Kaizen, the practice of continuous improvement," in today's NYT. Kaizen doesn’t just mean a business should keep trying new things. Rather, it refers to a disciplined process of systematic exploration, controlled experimentation and then painstaking adoption of the new procedures. The most …
Ads On Auto Pilot
It's nearly impossible to do something creative with stock footage. But it looks like Zimmerman found a way. From the NYT: Zimmerman Zimmerman Advertising, an advertising agency that is part of the Omnicom Group, is selling stock advertising and online buying for TV, the Internet, print publications, radio, direct mail and in-store ads. The automated system it is offering to advertisers, called Pick-n-Click, is …
Coffee Just Wants To Be Free
Ervin Peretz, a 37-year-old Google programmer, just might be a genius. He opened Terra Bite Lounge, a coffee shop in Kirkland, WA that has no prices for any of the food or drinks it "sells." Instead people volunteer money if and when they choose. Those who do pay simply put whatever they want into a drop box. According to Seattle Times: The idea emerged during a booze-fueled debate in a Saigon bar, where Peretz and …
Adbloglandia In 60 Seconds
Let's look at ad blogs ourselves for a moment. Shall we? Steve Hall tells Shedwa that the work ad bloggers do is important. We have a huge impact. Ad Age reads us (by us, I mean all ad blogs) because they don't want to miss anything. In one sense, we do a lot of early reporting for them. Uncover new trends, stories, scoops which then sometimes find their way onto the pages of Ad Age. I'm not saying we're a …
The Clown Triumphant
Irene Done points to a story in LA Times, about a Consumer Reports finding that people like McDonald's coffee better than Starbucks coffee. Consumer Reports magazine said today that in a test conducted at two locations of each emporium, its tasters found McDonald's coffee to be "decent and moderately strong" with "no flaws." On the other hand, the Starbucks brew "was strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your …
Live Blogging Fashion Week
The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) examines a new kind of reporter attending Fashion Week in New York City--the retail blogger, whose aim is to drive traffic to stores where the latest fashions are available for purchase. Ken Downing might look like any other reporter at the New York shows. But he's the fashion director at Neiman Marcus, the Dallas-based department-store chain that caters to well-to-do …
