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Google Should Fret About EU, Not Italy
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Google's vast size has always made it a target -- and nowhere was that more evident last week than in Europe, where it got walloped hard by antitrust and legal woes. The question is, will troubling the search giant there spread beyond that region's borders?...
Going for Olympic Gold Not Much Different From Winning at Work
There are a number of parallels between Olympic figure skating and preparation for a big client meeting or presentation...
Healthy Choices Aid ConAgra Resurgence
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- In her three years at ConAgra Foods -- maker of Hunt's, Healthy Choice and Orville Redenbacher -- Joan Chow, exec VP-chief marketing officer, has reenergized several of the company's once-tired product lines, opened lines of communication with senior management, championed strong increases to the marketing budget and...
Web Publishers Left With Little After Middlemen Split Ad Spoils
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The debate is over what parts of the online display-ad ecosystem, estimated by eMarketer to be worth $7.9 billion in 2010, are adding value for publishers or brands, and what parts are preventing the flow of brand dollars into the system....
Will E-Commerce Help Facebook's Ad Sales?
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- There's been a lot of talk about whether social media can drive sales, but one thing is clear: Sales are starting to happen in social media -- specifically, with Facebook....
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Toyota might be telling Capitol Hill it wants to regain the public trust, but judging from Facebook, it may not have lost it....
Advertising Age - Madison+Vine
'Blind Side' vs. 'Up in the Air': and the Media Oscar Goes to ...
Who would win our Oscar for "Best Use of Media to Promote a Film"? We nominated "The Blind Side" from Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. and Paramount's "Up in the Air."...
How Lionsgate Plans to Take on 'Twitter Effect' for 'Kick-Ass'
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- While the so-called "Twitter effect" and its impact on a movie's box office remains enigmatic at best for most studios, Lionsgate is hoping its latest social-media marketing milestone will put them one step closer to a solution. Lionsgate will become the first advertiser to sync up...
How Jeff Bridges Voice-overs Imperiled Hyundai's Oscars Blitz
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Hyundai Motor was all ready to bombard this year's Oscars with a raft of commercials, with seven different spots were locked, loaded and ready to go. Then the company was told its commercials were unfit for air. The problem? Jeff Bridges....
Nielsen IAG PlaceViews Product-Placement Activity Report
"The Jay Leno Show" was the highest-scoring show and Coca-Cola the top brand in the latest Nielsen IAG PlaceViews product-placement activity report....
How YouTube Morphed Into a Movie-Marketing Darling
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Twelve months ago, YouTube was trying to shake off its pariah status among all but the most risk-taking marketers. Today? Well, just try buying the home page....
Gaga, Oooh La La: Why the Lady Is the Ultimate Social Climber
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- As far as breakout musicians go, few artists have had quite the zero-awareness-to-ubiquity time-warp of Lady Gaga. And as far as brands go, few marketers of any kind have leveraged social media the way she has to drive sales of their core product -- in her...
Advertising Age - GenNext
My advice to those who are fortunate enough to be gainfully employed: Don't forget what the job-hunt experience was like, and help others the way you were helped, or wanted to be helped....
Don't Let Your Resume Lose Its Luster
One of the most daunting tasks when getting ready to look for a new job is digging out the old resume, dusting it off and attempting to polish it back to its former glory. I recommend saving yourself the time and trouble by using social media to keep it forever...
It's rough out there. Even if you're lucky enough to have a job, the likelihood of getting a raise or a promotion is pretty slim these days. Everyone is overworked, which means nobody is getting as much attention or gratitude as they deserve. Without incentives, it's easy to lose inspiration....
Don't Mind the Haters, Students; This Career's Still a Worthy Pursuit
Advertising is a great way to communicate to a mass audience and inform them of new products and services. The following are a few reasons why you should consider advertising as a major, and not just because the cool kids are doing it....
What Makes for a Successful Freelance Relationship?
Freelance relationships can be a steppingstone to professional industry experience, connections and great working relationships. Here's a rundown of the key components of a successful freelance relationship....
Often, when we are excited about a potential opportunity, we don't want to seem like a bother; after all, there is a thin line between staying top of mind and becoming borderline annoying. At any given time people have a billion things on their mind, and they may mean well...
Advertising Age - Hispanic Marketing
General Mills Targets Three Groups to Fuel Growth
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- General Mills spelled out its recipe for profitable growth: Hispanics, baby boomers and millennials. The Minneapolis package-food company on Monday revealed products and marketing plans designed specifically for those segments at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York conference....
Degree Backs TV Series Starring World Cup Contenders
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In the brand's first major U.S. Hispanic venture, Unilever's Degree Men deodorant is crafting an eight-week TV show around soccer players hoping to qualify for Mexico's World Cup team....
Clorox and Univision Create a Prime-Time Special
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Clorox has partnered with Univision to create a prime-time special as well as topic-specific content segments that will run for the rest of the year during the Spanish-language network's morning programs and in its other properties. It's the latest example of a big marketer tilting...
The Best of Latin American Marketing in 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Adlatina, one of ad age's international partners, searches Latin America and Spain for the best marketers, ad agencies and industry executives, and publishes an annual ranking. Here are Adlatina's top 10 marketers for 2009....
Agency Hits: African-American Favorites
Among Multicultural Agency of the Year entries, campaigns by Verizon Wireless and American Airlines targeting African-American consumers stood out....
Hot Pockets, Dr Pepper Win Over Bicultural Youth
Here are a few campaigns from this year's Multicultural Agency of the Year entries that resonated with young bicultural Hispanics, an elusive but growing target for marketers....
Advertising Age - Teressa Iezzi
P&G's Production Move Makes Industry a Worse Place
So P&G is now going to choose with which production companies its agencies can work in the U.S. Sounds great. What happens now?...
Lack of Film Standout at Cannes Shows That Creativity Is Evolving
The fact is, for now, Cannes still matters; awards still matter. Simply, awards are a marketing tool, for individuals and for companies. Especially now that clients are taking more of an interest in what goes on at Cannes, winning a Lion is business....
Dell's Della Debacle an Example of Wrong Way to Target Women
Della is worth revisiting for what it represents as a marketing (and social) phenomenon and as an example of what not to do as a brand when you feel you need to speak exclusively to women....
With Virtue, Media Brand Vice Helps Marketers Tap Its Genius
Vice, chronicler of youth culture, purveyor of the profane, is one of the more unlikely yet most convincing cases of a media brand (a real media brand, and that's an important distinction) turned brand partner....
The Effects of 'Benjamin Button' Will Be Coming to Ads Near You
Here's what didn't suck about the Oscars: seeing the wizards from Digital Domain accept the visual-effects award for "Benjamin Button." DD's work here provides a glimpse of what's next in feature and commercials image making....
Gone Daddy Gone: Heinous Ads May Cost Go Daddy Customers
After Go Daddy's execrable ad efforts around this year's Super Bowl, I found that I just couldn't stomach contributing anything to this organization any longer. I'm transferring my domains and my insignificant little piece of business elsewhere....
Advertising Age - GoodWorks
There are people in every community who give their time unconditionally to causes about which they are passionate. Scripps Networks, working within its Fine Living Network's "Surprise Vacations" series, partnered with Walt Disney World to recognize the volunteer spirit of a special group of people from around the country whose...
Cause Marketing Forum to Explore Star Power
...
One Young World: Our Future Leaders
The inaugural One Young World is over, but the real work has just begun, says Havas Worldwide's David Jones, co-founder of the event. Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Bob Geldof and Muhammad Yunus, among others, helped to inspire the nearly 1,000 delegates from more than 105 countries and to provide a...
Helping Smokers Learn New Habits
With tobacco-linked disease expected to kill 6 million people worldwide in the next year, Legacy and the Ad Council are partnering with EX, a quit-smoking effort, for a campaign to help smokers "re-learn" life without cigarettes. The new campaign, created pro bono by GSD&M Idea City, is designed to supplement...
Concerned that companies are investing $250 billion a year on capturing and contouring the public's perception through advertising but not contributing anything in return, model Sky Sheridan decided to do something about it: He created Called2Create to empower people through advertising....
Breaking Down Barriers Around Mental Illness
A new public-service campaign to raise awareness of mental health problems among young African-American adults has been launched by the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, working with the Ad Council and the Stay Strong Foundation. The effort was created pro bono by Grey, New York, for the Ad...
Advertising Age - Global News
Unilever Names Keith Weed as New CMO
BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Unilever has appointed longtime general manager Keith Weed as its chief marketing officer effective April 1, succeeding the outgoing Simon Clift, who announced his departure last month....
WPP Reports 16% Drop in Profit for 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Echoing the sentiment of every other holding company that the worst of the recession's impact on the ad business has past, WPP, the world's largest ad conglomerate, reported a pretax-profit drop of 16.1% to $1.2 billion from $1.5 billion in 2008....
Costa Rica's Annual Pilgrimage Goes Viral
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It sounds like the slacker's version of a religious pilgrimage to substitute a long, arduous trek to a holy site with an effortless stay-at-home digital version. But the Catholic Church welcomed the idea when Costa Rica's Minister of Health last year banned the country's famous 228-year-old...
Soy-Sauce-Flavored Kit Kats? In Japan, They're No. 1
TOKYO (AdAge.com) -- Western marketers are adept at catering to the tastes of Japanese consumers, with quirky products such as McDonald's Filet-O-Shrimp burgers and a cucumber-flavored soft drink by Pepsi. But Nestle has upped the ante for the most creative only-in-Japan product by creating 19 unique flavors for Kit Kat,...
Chile's Earthquake Flattens DDB Offices and Damages Other Agencies
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The devastating earthquake that struck Chile early Saturday morning destroyed DDB's offices and damaged another Omnicom agency, OMD, as well as Interpublic's Lowe Porta and WPP's Ogilvy and Wunderman. All the agencies are located in the same hard-hit Ciudad Empresarial office park on the outskirts of...
AdFest Cancels Thailand Show Due to Political Unrest
BANGKOK (AdAge.com) -- Thanks to Thailand's stormy political outlook, which could easily turn violent, AdFest has canceled this month's festival, one of Asia's top annual gatherings for the ad industry, but hopes to re-schedule the event in May....
Advertising Age - Songs For Soap
Stephen Colbert: Black Eyed Peas Missed Many 'Advertunities' in Latest Video
In last night's episode of "The Colbert Report," Stephen examined this year's summer jamz, and in the process took issue with the video for the Black Eyed Peas' latest hit, "I Gotta Feeling." He lamented: "Peas, please! You guys are the masters of the mass-market sell-out. You missed so many...
Taco Bell Steps Up to the Mic ... Again
What to say about this Taco Bell "music video" for its song "It's All About The Roosevelts"?...
A Taylor-Made Complaint for United Airlines
Halifax musician Dave Carroll has created a viral hit with a video decrying the behavior of United Airlines and its treatment of his Taylor guitar....
Build Your Band and the Brands Will Come
There is no music-branding silver bullet that will skyrocket a developing artist to stardom and riches. Take your time and focus on your own career and we will find you. It's often not the answer these artists want to hear, but it's the truth....
Brands Should Be Wired Into Music Discovery
Music fans care about discovery. Connecting people with what they want and what they don't even know they want yet is the name of the game....
Thank You for Killing Auto-Tune, Wendy's!
Somehow it took a fast-food restaurant to do for hip-hop what Jay-Z couldn't: kill Auto-Tune. He recently told a Chicago radio station that his latest song, "Death of Auto-Tune," was, in part, a reaction to a Wendy's spot that parodied the ubiquitous pitch-correction technology....
Advertising Age - Digital
Time to Rewrite the Brand Playbook for Digital
Instead of simply appropriating everything that we know about branding for digital media, it may be time to focus on how digital media change what we know about branding....
Yahoo Set to Open Checkbook for Audience, Technologies
SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Yahoo's CEO, Carol Bartz, had words of thanks for the advertising industry as she spoke earlier this week at the 4A's Transformation Conference -- thanks for its support the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal that recently won regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe....
Your Man Could Smell Like This Viral Video Chart
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Last week Wieden & Kennedy's ad for Old Spice, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like," made the chart for the first time, and we wondered if it would have staying power. This week, our answer: Yes, the video toppled Doritos and took the top slot...
Will E-Commerce Help Facebook's Ad Sales?
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- There's been a lot of talk about whether social media can drive sales, but one thing is clear: Sales are starting to happen in social media -- specifically, with Facebook....
An App for That, Too: How Mobile Is Changing Shopping
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Here are half a dozen retail-related mobile applications that stand out for the impact they're having on the way consumers shop....
Web Publishers Left With Little After Middlemen Split Ad Spoils
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The debate is over what parts of the online display-ad ecosystem, estimated by eMarketer to be worth $7.9 billion in 2010, are adding value for publishers or brands, and what parts are preventing the flow of brand dollars into the system....
Advertising Age - Rance Crain
Why Delta Is No Longer in the Airlines Business
I'm very much afraid the government has created a dangerous precedent by bailing out the "too big to fail" banks, insurance firms and auto companies....
Newspapers Ought to Embrace the Pay-Per-Inquiry Ad Model
If newspapers had faith in their medium, they'd embrace pay-per-inquiry advertising....
U.S. Appears Hypocritical in Demanding Visa for Reporter
The editor of our German-language newspaper, AutomobilWoche, was denied entry into the U.S. to cover the North American International Auto Show in Detroit because he didn't have a visa....
Dubai's Media Censorship Fuels 'Double Standard' It Denounces
Hiding behind "politically correct" financial terms that have the effect of denying reality won't help bring the changes Dubai Chamber of Commerce President Obaid Humaid Al Tayer thinks are so necessary....
Inconspicuous Consumption Will Motivate Consumers in Next Decade
If it's true, as the Wall Street Journal reports, that the new consumer is "embarrassed by flashy shows of wealth," then it's marketing's job to encourage inconspicuous consumption....
Welcome to the 21st Century. Now, Let's Fix the Mess
How could so many things go wrong in one decade?...
Advertising Age - DigitalNext
Is Content King? Then Distribution Is Crown Prince
In the next decade, we will see significant changes to the way that content is created, monetized and experienced. During the next few years, existing media players will begin to increasingly face the realities and challenges that those of us online have always dealt with -- an audience with a...
Those Hooves? That's the Sound of the Internet Search Apocalypse
Internet search's Four Horsemen are coming. The world may not be coming to an end, but how we search is changing before our eyes. And not for the better....
DIY LBS: Create Your Own Foursquare
Looking beyond the web, marketers are considering location-based services (LBS) as a way to extend their reach and engage consumers in the "real world." Some, including Bravo, HBO and Warner Brothers, are partnering with consumer-facing LBS like Foursquare to do so. Others are seeing a benefit in creating their own...
In my opinion it makes as much sense for MySpace to play the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" charade with Facebook as it would to watch Burger King ignore Mcdonald's....
Did Chatroulette Just Launch the Interactive Video Conferencing Boom?
I would wager that Chatroulette itself has just become the catalyst for interactive video conferencing and will accelerate adoption of video conferencing by the masses....
Publishers: Triumph From Within the Belly of the Content Beast!
Content went from being a prized asset to the cheap fuel needed to feed a "content-serving beast." but we see new ideas about how to thrive from within the belly this beast, aka the internet. Here are two, quite distinct examples that share two things in common....
Advertising Age - Top Work
On this week's episode of Creativity's Top 5, F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi and Fundacao SOS Mata Atlantica ask Brazilians to pee in the shower for this water-conservation PSA; Wunderman/Team Detroit and First Born bring gaming and car customization together for Ford; the Help Remedies package design seems almost good enough...
Stella Taps Swinging '60s, Grolsch's Mobile App, an ARG for 'Tron: Legacy' and Other New Work
On this week's episode of Creativity's Top 5, Mother, London, recruits illustrator Robert McGinnis to lend his sultry '60s style to Stella Artois; Artist Jimena Oddi and director Jorge Jaramillo create visuals as frenetic and eclectic as the N.A.S.A. track it showcases; Grolsch challenges your sobriety with a mobile app;...
Music Videos for U2 and Coldplay, Durex Condoms as Aphrodisiac and Other New Work
In this week's episode of Creativity's Top 5, McCann Erickson and Durex see the condom as an aphrodisiac; David O'Reilly expertly animates U2's latest single; Shynola directs a lo-fi fantasy land of chalk for Coldplay; RKCR/Y&R and Virgin Media go walking on a TV backlot; and Ghostly International releases a...
Twitter Gaydar for Stockholm Pride, Jonathan Glazer Becomes a Dead Weather Man and Other New Work
In this week's episode of Creativity's Top 5, Jonathan Glazer's music video for Jack White's band the Dead Weather, Stockholm Pride's Twitter gaydar and more....
Aussie Beer VB Toasts the Everyman, Nike and Livestrong Send Messages to Cyclists and Other New Work
In this week's episode of Creativity's Top 5, Barkley dresses up the Johnson County Library's delivery trucks with fake brands inspired by literary favorites; 2Degrees and TBWA/Whybin launches a mobile service in New Zealand; DDB, Stockholm, and North Kingdom test if web users are fit for the Swedish Armed Forces;...
Levi's Waxes Whitman-esque, The Economist Walks the Talk, Barclays Gets Real and Other Work
This week's episode of Creativity's Top 5, a new campaign by Levi's and Wieden & Kennedy uses the winning combo of Walt Whitman and prancing nubiles to sell jeans; AMV BBDO and director Tom Carty show how balanced The Economist can be with a new high-wire spot; Venables Bell &...
Advertising Age - Jonah Bloom
What Will a Successful Media Company Look Like in the Future?
Some in media circles seem to be waiting for the return of yesteryear instead of using these turbulent times to make the changes necessary for their media businesses to thrive in the future....
Will.i.am Has Mastered the Art of the Continuous Campaign
Will.i.am is my marketer of the year. Most brands are still grappling like first-time makeout artists with the most fundamental shift of the last decade -- from marketer as message-pushing machine to marketer as creators of stuff consumers will actually pull toward them. But the Black Eyed Peas, having mastered...
Help Remedies Overhauls OTC, Pushes for Better Health Care
Help Remedies could loosely be described as a marketer of over-the-counter drugs (and bandages). But it's also one of those potentially category-changing offerings that tries to solve a problem....
Seven Steps to Help Your Agency Fight Commoditization
Based on reader thoughts and some further discussion with industry leaders, here are seven ways to combat commoditization....
Agencies and Media Brands Turning Into Commodities
Commoditization may be the biggest threat facing agencies and media companies today -- yet we hear precious little about it, and few can articulate a strategy to combat it....
Dedicated Social-Media Silos? That's the Last Thing We Need
You know that social-media department you just built? Go and dismantle it right now, because this stuff is too important to be left to the experts....
Advertising Age - Campaign Trail
Supreme Court Rejects Campaign Finance Limits
the U.S. Supreme Court on a 5 to 4 decision dealt a major blow to campaign finance limits today, potentially opening the flood gates for additional political ad spending by corporations, unions and special interest groups....
Pass Health-Care Bill for the Dying Children
If you can count on the Republicans to scare the bejeezus out of you with bombs and vaguely threatening foreigners, you can also count on the Democrats to trot out some cute kids to basically say that if health-care reform isn't passed they will die and, in the process, bankrupt...
Health-Care-Debate Advertising Runs Risk of Overexposure
As health-care ad spending nears $100 million and the president makes his rounds on most of the talk shows, is it possible that the American media consumer is on the verge of a health-care overload? Now I know between cable TV, Facebook and a good book (on your Kindle, of...
Agency Creative Wants to Teach Congress to Read
The simple mission is to "convince every member of the House and Senate to sign a "ReadtoVote" pledge, agreeing never to vote on any bill before personally reading and understanding every word of it....
Hutchison Camp Uses SEO to Call Rick Perry 'Gay'
Note to politicians: It's hard for people to prove you're behind sleazy brochures stuck under windshields or ads funded by outside groups. It's not so hard to bust your sleazy tactics on your own website. PEOPLE CAN READ YOUR SOURCE CODE!!!...
Will a New Harry and Louise Return to Airwaves This Fall?
The parents of modern issue-advocacy advertising, Harry and Louise, could be poised to make yet another comeback in a new campaign promoting a national health-care agenda....
Advertising Age - Agency News
Mazda's Review of $150 Million Advertising Account Deals Another Blow to Doner
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Embattled independent agency Doner is now facing the potential loss of its biggest piece of business: Mazda. The automaker Friday confirmed its estimated $150 million North American advertising account is in review, and a spokesman told Ad Age the duties up for grabs encompass "basically all the...
Kraft Shifts Mac N' Cheese to Crispin From DraftFCB
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Kraft has moved its iconic Macaroni & Cheese brand to Crispin, Porter & Bogusky from DraftFCB Chicago following a review. This is Crispin's first Kraft account. The business had been with FCB since 1998....
Morgan Stanley Taps Martin as Agency of Record
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Financial-services giant Morgan Stanley has named Interpublic Group of Cos.' Martin Agency ad agency of record for its roughly $40 million account, succeeding its last lead agency, WPP's Ogilvy & Mather....
With Retail 3, Omnicom Salvages Part of BBDO Detroit
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Omnicom Group on Monday is putting a number of former BBDO Detroit staffers back to work with the launch of a new retail-focused shop called Retail 3. Half of the 52-person agency is made up of former BBDO Detroit employees, including Harold Kobakof, president of Retail...
Is DDB Losing Its Touch With Creative and Clients?
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- The theme at this week's 4A's convention might be "transformation," but for one major agency -- DDB's U.S. network -- change isn't coming quite fast enough....
Once No. 1, Interpublic Slips to Fourth Among Holding Cos.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Interpublic Group of Cos. has slipped to the fourth-largest slot among advertising agency holding companies, as confirmed in its fourth-quarter earnings release this morning....