Advertising News and Know-How
By David Burn
I started drinking beer when I was 15 (the drinking age at the time was 18). Did I do it because cleverly crafted 30-second TV spots told me to? No. I did it because I liked to become intoxicated. But never mind all that. Ad Age reports that state attorney generals do see a connection between advertising and underage drinking. Unleashing a fresh attack on alcoholic beverage advertising, 20 state attorneys general are …
Continue Reading about This Bud’s Not For You (It’s For Your Dad) →
By David Burn
TechCrunch's Michael Arrington wants to see the big boys get a bit more creative in their approach to new product development. I am seeing an increasing trend of the big guys simply copying what successful startups are doing. AOL with AOL UnCut and AIM Pages. Google with Google Notebook and a flurry of other projects, etc. The only large company that is even experimenting with unproven concepts at this point is …
Continue Reading about We Can Do It Too (And Outspend The Bastards) →
By David Burn
USA Today is running a story about a firm hoping to capitalize on the growth of product placement. It's a somewhat pedestrian account, unitl you get to this part: Hamet Watt, CEO of NextMedium says his firm will keep deals confidential. "To feel organic, it can't be publicized that the brand paid for placement," he says. That's exactly what worries critics of this trend. "Undisclosed product placement is dishonest …
Continue Reading about You Know What This Scene Needs? A Diet Pepsi. →
By David Burn
According to Lewis Lazare: Jose Cuervo, the popular Mexican tequila brand, has pegged Thursday, May 18 as National Flavors Day. That is a day when the company is making a major guerrilla marketing push in several key cities, including Chicago, New York and San Francisco, to launch three new flavored tequila brands -- orange, lime and tropical fruit. Commuters and visitors to key local landmarks such as Wrigley Field, …
This isn't an eBay auction. It's from a site called MergerPlace. Since the Seller has already slashed expenses, a new owner could take advantage of a "bare bones" approach, choosing when and how to grow, without the burden of high extra overhead. In addition to having an outstanding reputation, many long-term clients, substantial repeat business, and strong relationships with top-notch skilled independent …
Continue Reading about Buy Your Own Hawaiian Ad Agency. Seriously. →
Want an outsider's perspective on the Clio's? Read Slate magazine writer Seth Stevenson's report: For an awards gala, the vibe here is distinctly self-hating. Even the eminent old-timers are cynical. At the Lifetime Achievement dinner on Sunday night (held in a ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton's mammoth oceanside compound here in South Beach), the Clios honored Bob Greenberg. Greenberg is the chairman of the agency R/GA, …
By David Burn
Rance Crain, publisher of Ad Age and a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, listened to the new dean of the school, John Lavine, address the challenges facing media professionals today. Here's a bit of what he heard: "The challenge will be to engage increasingly elusive audiences who, in real time, rapidly form and deteriorate. Yet without a motivated, connected audience neither a free …
Continue Reading about The Line Between Editorial And Advertising Grows Blurrier Yet →
By David Burn
There are group blogs and then there are group blogs. According to the New York Times, The Huffington Post has some 700 bloggers, most of them far from famous. And those aren't the only impressive numbers the site has to its credit. The Huffington Post had more than 1.3 million unique visitors last month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, and more than 2 million in February. It seems that Ms. Huffington, who has …
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