NYT: Google said yesterday that it would spend up to $1.24 billion to buy dMarc Broadcasting, whose software can allow marketers to send advertisements directly to local radio stations. It is the most tangible indication yet of Google's stated ambition to extend its Web-based network, which sells advertisements on thousands of online sites, to other forms of media as well. Google agreed to pay $102 million in cash …
New Rule: Agencies Should Only Be Allowed One Talking Cow Campaign At A Time
In the spirit of Bill Maher, that's the first thing I thought when I read this Adweek article about The Richards Group's first ad campaign for its Shamrock Farms dairy client, which features "Roxie, Shamrock Farms' beloved spokescow who appears on all the packaging." As all good Southerners know, Chick-Fil-A has quite a lot of brand equity in talking (or at least, expressive) cows. Which is also a creation of the …
Getting The Choir To Sing
Digital and direct marketing powerhouse, Digitas, recently conducted a study of online behavior. Marianne Oglo posted some of the findings on Digital Hive, the blog from the agency's brand planning department. One of the more polarizing observations gleaned from our mini-ethnographies involves consumers perceptions of blogs. We witnessed a pervasive “blogs are for liberals” attitude among consumers residing in …
Hecho En Mexico
Cultural anthropologist, Grant McCracken, on Hispanic American's preference for Coca-Cola made in Mexico: You might think that The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) would embrace this development. After all, Classic sales are down %10 (since 2000) and the TCCC's share of the industry is at an eight-year low. Consumers are so passionate about "hecho en Mexico" Coke that they are prepared to pay a premium, as much as $.25 a …
Myrtle Vegas Wants To Be Your Beach
According to The Sun News, high energy prices and economic uncertainties - combined with fewer state marketing dollars for the Grand Strand - present the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce with significant challenges for the 2006 summer vacation season. The chamber, the area's main tourism promoter, is trying to grow the number of visitors from 14 million to 20 million. Perhaps a new branding campaign--the first …
Continue Reading about Myrtle Vegas Wants To Be Your Beach →
Mmmmmm…Shrimp
Over the years, I've developed a taste for shrimp. Seems I'm not alone. Accourding to this article in Slate, "the average American ate 4.2 pounds of the curved critters in 2004, up from 2.2 pounds in 1990." It's a marketing phenomenon as well as a biological and economic one. The price of shrimp has fallen in the last 20 years because researchers have found a way to raise shrimp in controlled conditions on farms. …
Goodbye, Literary Industrial Complex
MarketingVOX, via the Boston Globe: Boston-based Gather.com, set to receive $6 million funding this week, intends to become an eBay of sorts for bloggers, other writers and their readers—with a business model that recruits writers by offering them a share of online advertising revenue, writes the Boston Globe. The most popular writers would eventually earn hefty paychecks, according to Gather founder Tom Gerace. The …
Continue Reading about Goodbye, Literary Industrial Complex →
Founding Father’s 300th Birthday Presents PR Opportunity
My alma mater is running a full page ad in today's New York Times to celebrate the 300th birthday of Ben Franklin. Dennis Trotter, F&M's Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing, said, "This ad is just the beginning of an aggressive marketing campaign to make sure that people know about Franklin & Marshall College.” Modernista! created the ad. …
Continue Reading about Founding Father’s 300th Birthday Presents PR Opportunity →
