AOL Time Warner Considers Name Change

At a corporate retreat for AOL Time Warner execs, one of the items being discussed whether or not to drop the AOL part of the company name. AOL was initially a very positive entity but lately is seen as a drag on the company. No decision have been made as of yet.
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Marketers Take Note: Summer Blorgy 2003

This event will likely become more popular than MTV Spring Break:

Summer Blorgy 2003
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Are You Hot is Not

From Marc Berman's Programming Insider:

"In series debut news, ABC's Are You Hot? The Search For America's Sexiest People stumbled out of the gate with a 6.7/10 from 8-10 p.m. Although this is marginally better than what ABC normally has in the two-hour block, a 6.7 is still, well, a 6.7. The morale of the story: not every reality series is poised for success."

Maybe we do want at least an excuse for a plot in our reality programming rather than just a pure flesh-a-thon. Go figure.
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Oh Please...

The surest sign that the reality genre is heading towards decline.

NBC to Offer Single Moms Up for Marriage
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Kmart Launches Joe Boxer Advergame

Kmart has taken its Joe Boxer Holiday themed microsite and converted it into a new advergame. Users can visit the site and choose how they want the dancing dude to dance. Of course, it has a viral component allowing you to forward the game to a friend. It's mildly entertaining but not so much so that it will be spread around the Internet like Mahir was.
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Online Advertising Gets Offline Results

�There has been a lot of skepticism about whether online could drive offline,� says Don Marshall, director of communications at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. �The light-bulbs are going off; advertisers have gotten smarter and realize it�s a real smart way to reach people.�

He is right. More and more studies point to the effectiveness of online media driving offline sales and brand awareness.

More.
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New York Times Ad Revenues Up 5.5% in January

Despite the economy and looming war, The New York Times Company is doing quite well.

The New York Times says its January 2003 advertising revenues increased 5.5%, compared to the previous year. National advertising led the way, with increases in technology products, entertainment (studio and live), telecommunications and financial services spending. The retail and classified employment ad sectors continued to slump. The Times says its Boston Globe posted 3.4% increases in ad revenues last month. It is the first time the Times� numbers have included advertising for the International Herald Tribune, which the Times bough on January 1. Since it took over ad sales of IHT, advertising revenue for the international daily has increased 6.7%.

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Arbitron Radio Ratings Response Falls

Fewer and fewer people are responding to requests by Arbitron to fill out diaries causing the company to have its lowest response rate in 20 years as reported in MediaPost.
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Happy Valentine's Day From Google

In the usual holiday tradition, here is Google's Valentine's Day logo: