Forget what you might have heard about already-cracked DRMs, ethically questionable blogger relations or any other problems surrounding the new Microsoft Vista operating system. The software has finally arrived and its launch is being accompanied by a $500 million marketing push. That includes not only TV, print and online buys but also sponsored games and huge publicity events like the one featuring Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and, of course, Bill Gates. Everyone is out to make this the biggest product launch in Microsoft history, which in their mind equals best.
Microsoft is just one of a number of companies who have decided to eschew ad campaigns with celebrities in favor of ad campaigns with some not-quite celebrities. They're using a relatively unknown comedian named Demetri Martin to promote Vista to the tech-savvy, Comedy Central watching crowd. More and more companies are using non-celebs for their campaigns as a way to break through the ad clutter in a more down-to-earth way.
There's about to be an advertising show down between K-Y and Zestra, both of which make products to help with female sexual arousal. Zestra is a small brand but it's hoping that the wealth of clinical research it has done will help it compete.
A bunch of middle-aged or outright old and rich white guys, all of whom preside over professional sports leagues, talk branding and other issues.
I don't think "prepare" is the right word. I actually think TV stations are salivating over the estimated $1 billion that's about to be dropped on the upcoming Presidential campaign. One way they could handle the overflow of candidates looking for ad time is to divert some of them to the web.
Microsoft is on the cusp of launching a $500 million campaign for the debut of its Vista operating system. That buys a lot of TV spots and banner ads but, ironically, only about a dozen copies of the software itself.
With all the stories that have been printed lately about how Crispin Porter & Bogusky and how its work hasn't actually helped its clients, it's not that surprising to see a story like this that reminds us how wonderful and creative they are.
Marketers are questioning just who the glamorous productions that are the upfront presentations are actually meant for. Networks could start to rein in how extravagant their shows are in the future under pressure that these are more shows than they are business meetings.
So many dumb moments in business, so little time. But Business 2.0 mag has their picks for the 101 dumbest of 2006.
Wal-Mart is #1, for hiring a big firm to create their "Candidate Wal-Mart" campaign. #2 is Northwest Airlines, for giving their employees a "How To Save Money" booklet after laying them off. #3 is the contest McDonald's held in Japan, with the winners getting free mp3 players with a virus on them. The rest of the top 10 are GM, Kazakhstan, Steve Wynn, The New York Times, Spirit Air, Porter County, and Comcast.
There are 101 in all, so grab a hot beverage and get comfortable. You can't see the entire list on one page, which is a little annoying, but there is a handy scroll function at the bottom.
Mediaedge:cia has been picked by Federated Department Stores as their new agency of record. The change came after the complete lack of review and will include national planning and buying for Macy's.
The drastically reduced print spending by major auto companies is at least one factor - albeit likely a big one - in Time's decision to cut almost 300 staffers. The decreased ad revenue was just too big a hit for the publisher to take.
It should be as no surprise to anyone who's seen the spots that Orville "Deadenbacher" is creeping consumers way the heck out. A reanimated dead guy who wears as iPod while he's microwaving popcorn...yeah...it's creepy.
Introductory Note: Rounding up all of the goodness that is the world of television cross-promotion.
Sprint will be delivering "24"-related content to its mobile phone users to promote the just-premiered sixth season of the show. That includes streaming video, games and more but unfortunately doesn't give users the ability to get a ringtone of Jack Bauer saying "Pick up the phone or millions of people will die" which I think is what we all want.
One good thing about the existing upfront system is that when advertisers pay a relatively cheap price for a show and then it winds up being a decent success, as in the case of "Ugly Betty", they wind up looking like geniuses. The show has become the biggest value on TV, with ads running about $1.85 for every 100 veiwers.
I have to believe that the biggest reason the creative team behind "Lost" have announced their intentions to set an end-date for the show is to lure back viewers. Some watchers had written off the show, signaling their frustration with unanswered questions, mysterious polar bears and mysteries that seem to go absolutely no where. By showing they are thinking of wrapping things up and actually answering those questions.
Online email services such as those provided by Yahoo and MSN have long been bastions of banner advertising. Now, it seems, the percentage of display ads being claimed by email sites is dropping. Just 44.2 percent of display ads were devoted to email sites in December, which was down from 47.5 and 51.1 in the two months prior. Even with smaller overall percentages Yahoo continues to dominate the market, accounting for 36.4 of ads in December compared to MSN Hotmail's 6.4 percent. Google, of course, relies on contextual keyword ads and so doesn't factor as a player in this market.
Apparently the National Association of Realtors feels that it's not high energy prices, increasing debt load or the problems being to creep up in home purchase lending practices that are causing the drop in new home buys. In actuality it was the lack of advertising. To right that obvious wrong the group has launched a $40 million campaign to encourage people to go out and buy a house. The NAR wants people to know there's plenty of housing inventory available at a good price since sales are down in the past year, something that I might not be so quick to flaunt since plenty of homes being available means not only are there market forces at work but it also means realtors haven't been successful in either getting people to buy or helping people to sell homes.
Yet another prediction for 2007. This one comes from TNS Media Intelligence, who forecasts only a 2.6 percent rise in ad spending this year. Keep in mind, though, that TNS does not include keyword search buying in their calculations. The firm also says inflation is being held down by expanding inventory.
Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson of Digg get a big wet sloppy blow job in this interview about Digg competitors, the Diggnation podcast and their new company Revision3. And what's with the "AdAge Digital rang up the duo..." line? Yeah, it was spur of the moment and they both were around with press-ready quotes. Mmmm-hmmm.
Google keeps chugging along despite the efforts of all sorts of competition. And their competitors are spending a whole lot more (Google spends practically nothing) on marketing their products but have little market share strength to show for it.
Despite hopes that it would go away, the issue of hiring minorities is likely going to stick around in 2007. Renewed vigor in the Democratic party and other factors are going to take the issue to a more national level.
Ok, this is one of my favorite commercials. "Are you agitating my dots...?" Classic. I knew a guy at my last job who would have done exactly what the guy with the cake did in this spot, and he even looked like him. Enough about dots. Sprint/Nextel is thinking about combining their account at one agency, which puts $1 Billion at stake. They are hoping that by consolidating their dots and connecting those dots with the dots of only one other agency, they will inspire the dots to be fresher, to get the dots to think in new ways and maybe create a bunch more little dots to run around and pick things up over the push-to-talk service (and boost sales). For your enjoyment, one more time, and because I love it so much:
The Super Bowl is fast approaching, as is the angry mob that will lynch Rex Grossman in Daley Plaza if he doesn't pull his head out of his hinder and turn in a good playoff performance. But we're not hear to talk football (sometimes it seems Grossman isn't either) we're here to talk about the commercials that will be scattered throughout the big game. So what can we expect?
Well first off, while CBS might be able to get a few suckers buyers to pony up 2.6 million Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers for a 30-second spot, some expect the average price paid by advertisers is more likely to be about 2.2 million 5-piece Chicken Nuggets. Everyday that passes where there's still word that even the first half isn't completely sold out, meaning there's likely plenty of inventory in the second half, that average goes down by a couple hundred dollars.
Most marketers just want to create something memorable that will justify not only the 2.6 million Crispy Chicken Sandwich ante but also the 2 million Medium Frosties that the production of a super-duper Super Bowl Cost can cost. Diamond Nuts has just that in mind as they create an ad for their third Super Bowl appearance, one that will star singer Robert Goulet. At least Emerald, even if they haven't announced details, is saying there will be some sort of web execution following the game.
When I first read the headline of this story on French retailers finally being allowed to advertise I thought I must be missing something or reading it wrong. Surely, I thought to myself, retailers in France have been able to advertise their stores before. After I told myself not to call me Shirley I read the article and found out that until 12:01 AM of the first day of 2007, retailers were forbidden to advertise on television. The ban was put in place to protect the advertising revenue of newspapers in the country but in 2004 the European Union called the ban a restriction on free trade. Since then commercials have slowly begun appearing on cable and other specialty channels but now, for the first time, the ads will be allowed on "mainstream" TV channels. The lifted restriction is expected to increase not only ad spending but consumer spending as well now that supermarkets, malls and others can hawk their services. And, just as the French officials first suspected, that will likely lead to smaller budgets for radio, print and other media.
No, you weren't imagining things. You really did see more drug ads in 2006. That's because pharmaceutical marketers upped their ad spending by nine percent, from $4.1 billion in 2005 to $4.9 billing this year. Sepracor's Lunestra marketing accounted for a good deal of that, spending 78 percent more this year than it did in 2005. Viagra also bounced back to mount a comeback, raising its output to $65 million, a level that doctors say can be unhealthy if it lasts for too long.
Where's Alan Greenspan when you need him. There are now dire warnings that online advertising prices are rising at an irrationally accelerated rate. But let's be clear about what we're discussing. It's more the big portal sites are are jacking up prices and big publishers who are trying to make a web page equal a TV spot in revenue who are leading so most of that increase. While budgets are certainly going up they're being focused on big sites that get a ton of traffic or on networks that get reach by adding up lots of smaller sites. There's still a lot of untapped inventory out there on non-affiliated blogs and other sites that might be attractive buys if the marketers would spend the time to find them. And there are a number of companies who haven't seriously committed to online advertising because it doesn't serve their branding needs.
So yes, there is some concern that speculative money could lead to "Bubble 2.0" but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Forget what you might have heard about already-cracked DRMs, ethically questionable blogger relations or any other problems surrounding the new Microsoft Vista operating system. The software has finally arrived and its launch is being accompanied by a $500 million marketing push. That includes not only TV, print and online buys but also sponsored games and huge publicity events like the one featuring Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and, of course, Bill Gates. Everyone is out to make this the biggest product launch in Microsoft history, which in their mind equals best. 
There's about to be an advertising 
Microsoft is on the 
So many dumb moments in business, so little time. But Business 2.0 mag has their picks for the 
Introductory Note: Rounding up all of the goodness that is the world of television cross-promotion.
Some interesting facts from this 
Online email services such as those provided by Yahoo and MSN have long been bastions of banner advertising. Now, it seems, the percentage of display ads being claimed by email sites is dropping. Just 44.2 percent of display ads were devoted to email sites in December, which was down from 47.5 and 51.1 in the two months prior. Even with smaller overall percentages Yahoo continues to dominate the market, accounting for 36.4 of ads in December compared to MSN Hotmail's 6.4 percent. Google, of course, relies on contextual keyword ads and so doesn't factor as a player in this market.
Apparently the National Association of Realtors feels that it's not high energy prices, increasing debt load or the problems being to creep up in home purchase lending practices that are causing the drop in new home buys. In actuality it was the lack of advertising. To right that obvious wrong the group 
No, you weren't imagining things. You really did see more drug ads in 2006. That's because pharmaceutical marketers upped their ad spending by nine percent, from $4.1 billion in 2005 to $4.9 billing this year. Sepracor's Lunestra marketing accounted for a good deal of that, spending 78 percent more this year than it did in 2005. Viagra also bounced back to mount a comeback, raising its output to $65 million, a level that doctors say can be unhealthy if it lasts for too long.
