October 26, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Do adolescents require special new protections against digital marketing techniques? In her talk at the Children's Advertising Review Unit Conference, Ellen Wartella cited new findings that suggest they might. The regulations for children's' advertising developed in the 1970s are based primarily on television viewing. But today's digital communications have completely changed the marketing environment. Ms. Wartella is a professor of psychology at the University of California and a CARU advisor.
October 22, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Nielsen executive, book author and Ad Age columnist Pete Blackshaw is astounded by the number of brand managers who still have no coherent strategy for dealing with negative blog posts. The customer service guru was keynote speaker at the Children's Advertising Review Unit Conference. But during the Q&A, audience members seemed more interested in tips about how to deal with negative blog posts -- than children's advertising issues.
October 20, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The flap over Self magazine's heavily retouched photo of singer Kelly Clarkson for a recent cover flared anew at last week's Women at NBCU breakfast. The event kicked off the network's new advertising sales initiative around health issues. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, moderator and chief media editor at NBC News, opened a panel discussion by highlighting the national problem of body image, anorexia and bulimia among young women. Self editor in chief and panel member Lucy Danziger defended her publication's controversial image enhancement.
October 15, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Graphics software giant Adobe, which has shifted 74% of its entire advertising budget to digital venues, is making similar changes with its product launches. CMO Ann Lewnes cites two reasons for abandoning traditional product launch strategies: high cost and limited reach. The latest launch of Adobe's CS4 suite of creative programs went completely digital. And the difference, according to Ms. Lewnes, was quite dramatic.
October 13, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Although Sherwin-Williams was the first paint company out of the gate with a consumer iPhone app, competitor Benjamin Moore PR-ed its own app into a top hit with the media. Speaking at the recent Ad Age/Applicious "Apps for Brands" conference, Benjamin Moore's director of product development used his own success to underscore the importance of launching PR strategies in the new world of apps marketing.
October 09, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- On-screen and in-lobby advertising have become ever more important to the movie theater business in the last decade. In 2008, Cinema Advertising Council member chains -- which control 82% of the country's screens -- took in nearly $600 million in ad revenue. And as they work to expand that further, they're seeking new ways to sell their lobbies to marketers.
October 07, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The bevy of new digital ways to deliver Hollywood movies directly to the home is not really a threat to the movie theater business. So says Cinema Advertising Council Executive Director Dave Kupiec. Pointing to the fact that ticket sales have risen nearly 8.5% during the recession, he says the unique experience of theater-going itself has a strong hold on American consumers -- and that they are not likely to abandon it for digital convenience.
October 05, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Few TV content producers can top Ken Burns for the worldwide acclaim and audiences his work has drawn. Over the past 30 years, Burns has produced 20 major documentaries -- some of them as long as 18 hours. And, beginning with his 1990 "The Civil War," they have also included some of the most remembered media events of the entire age of TV. Burns appeared at the Grand Hyatt New York last week to be honored in the seventh annual "Giants of Broadcasting" awards ceremony.
October 02, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Savvy as they may be in other things, more than a few editors and producers across the traditional media universe are befuddled by mobile apps. In a rare public admission, Men's Health editor Matt Bean said his magazine initially blew off apps but later realized that mistake had helped competitors "immeasurably." He was speaking at the recent Apps for Brands conference produced by Ad Age and Appolicious. On the positive side, he went on to offer practical advice to print publishers who have yet to wrestle their way into the apps world.
October 01, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The technology for placing ads in mobile phone applications is advancing at breakneck speed and getting ever more elegant. At the recent Apps for Brand conference hosted by Ad Age and Appolicious, Yahoo's Adam Taggart demonstrated the new Subway and Toyota ads running in the company's new Fantasy Football app for the iPhone.
September 29, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Major League Baseball has become a large-scale player in the digital-media business. Its latest application has hundreds of thousands of users watching baseball games live on their iPhone screens. And MLB.com, its digital arm, has grappled with the question of whether WAP -- mobile web pages -- or downloadable apps are the best road forward to higher digital revenue streams. MLB.com President Robert Bowman discusses his conclusions at the recent Ad Age Apps for Brands Conference.
September 25, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Finding new pets for your penguins? In his lively Mixx Conference session at Advertising Week, Wired editor and best-selling author Chris Anderson used humor and a child's game to again warn print publishers that they need to embrace the jarring concept of a "freemium" online business model.
September 23, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Do online advertisers need protection against Google and the other ad networks they deal with? And should new federal regulations be enacted to provide that protection? Those were central issues at a Monday Advertising Week panel exploring a proposed "bill of rights" for online advertisers. Among the five panelists was Benjamin Edelman, the Harvard Business School professor who wrote the proposal that has been widely distributed by Advertising Week organizers.
September 21, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It's certainly not unusual that a standup comedian like Tim Washer would be producing absurdist viral videos. What is surprising is that the IBM communications executive is doing so for his straight-laced corporate employer. He appeared at a Business Development Institute seminar on corporate social media practices last week. There, he championed the cause of creative absurdity in corporate marketing. And he warned the audience that fear and rigid thinking were the greatest obstacles to their companies' social media success.
September 17, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Business Week, the latest poster child of the troubled print-publishing industry, was the focus of analysts' discussions at Tuesday's Gotham Media seminar. The iconic McGraw-Hill title, which lost more than $40 million last year, is on the auction block. Investment banker Reed Phillips called the speed of the publication's decline in value "alarming." He's a partner in the media-focused firm of DeSilva and Phillips. The seminar, which drew together five media specialists, was entitled "Buying and Selling Media Assets in the New Economy."
September 15, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Ronald McDonald doesn't come to mind as the most likely brand icon to be integrated into New York's Fashion Week. But as part of McDonald's larger promotional involvement in the event, his gloves have been given a couture redesign and are selling for $50 a pair -- and you can only buy them via Twitter. Meanwhile, the burger chain's McCafe is the official gourmet coffee provider at the high-fashion fest in Bryant Park.
September 09, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Centers for Disease Control recently created a new unit called the National Center for Health Marketing. Like all marketing organizations, its mandate is to change consumer behavior and it has organized an incredibly savvy social media department to do just that. Its first comprehensive national campaign is for the H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak and tightly coordinates its message across virtually every kind of social media. The effort is one that many other marketers might do well to study.
September 04, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- During the last six years, Western Union has transformed itself from a U.S. operation with 100,000 retail outlets to a global network of 385,000 such outlets. The money-transfer giant has offices in 200 countries and territories and a $265 million annual advertising budget. CMO Gail Galuppo manages international marketing campaigns executed in more than fifty languages. In this interview she discusses the company's expansion into new digital remittance venues.
September 02, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Much like a software company, The New York Times is courting outside developers to design their own applications for its content. Quietly launched a year ago, the program has resulted in the creation of eleven web feeds from which developers can access and manipulate streams of Times' articles, best seller lists, movie reviews and other materials. Appearing at the recent Creativity and Technology conference, Times programmer Derek Gottfrid provided an update on the web and mobile phone apps built so far by outsiders.
August 31, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Many marketers are struggling with the new world of Twitter and social media but few face the dilemma of pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer. Twitter-using consumers are highly interested in their drug products, but their marketing communications are rigidly constrained by federal regulations. While Pfizer has just launched a Twitter site, the company is not exactly sure what it's allowed to say on it.
