Speaking at a conference this week, Beth Comstock, president of NBC Universal Integrated Media, said this a "golden age" of media. "It's a great thing to be a content company in the digital age," she said. "Content is always going to win." She also said media technologies can be considered mainstream once 40% of houses adopt them. That means video-game consoles, just over 40% by her account, are already mainstream …
Trouble Ahead, Jeffrey In Red
According to Adweek, JWT worldwide chairman and CEO Bob Jeffrey opened Nielsen Businesss Media's Next Big Idea Conference here yesterday with a broadside against current industry practices, declaring that in stressing "execution over ideas" agencies were responsible for "dumbing down" brands. "The relationship between the brands and their core truths are crumbling," Jeffrey said. "And we are all responsible for these …
Scary Good
We have a saying where I work, "It's our job to surprise and delight." It's something I've come to believe in. Much more so than the tired old, "I wonder if this will get me into CA" bullshit I used to run on. While this has nothing to do with solving marketing problems for clients, I was surprised and delighted to see this latest creation from Fusebox in Lincoln, Nebraska. For more on Fusebox, see …
Is There Anything Diddy Can’t Do?
According to Ad Age, Diageo has tapped Diddy, the CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment, to act as brand manager on its Ciroc vodka brand. Diddy will be in charge of marketing, advertising, public relations, product placement and events. Here's how he sees the opportunity: I didn't think there was a vodka whose marketing spoke to my lifestyle, that made me feel like I want to feel. I've branded myself as the king of …
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, …
Carving Out New Kingdoms
Richard Huntington, Planning Director at United London, has some interesting things to say about advertising's capacity to hold truly big brand ideas. It is not the global shortage of quality ideas that concerns me most. It is the role that advertising plays in serving those ideas. In short, while a brand idea can never be too big, it may well be too big for advertising. Advertising has always liked to see itself as …
Digital’s Rising Star
Does the name Mauro Alencar roll off your tongue the same way Jeff Goodby does? Publicis certainly hopes so. Ad Age reports that Alencar, 32, who formerly worked at Organic and AKQA before that, is now executive creative director of Publicis Modem West. "Mauro's ... portfolio boasts some of the best-known and most highly awarded creative in the business," CEO Martin Reidy said. "When a talent of Mauro's level joins …
What If…
David Goss and Phoebe Coulton are a creative team in London who like coming up with ideas. Not just advertising ideas but ideas for the real world too. Here's one: For more, see What If.... …
