Nestle Launches New Ad Campaign

Nestle is launching a new ad campaign to introduce a line of Nestle Toll House Candy Bars. Yum! J. Walter Thompson in Chicago will handle.

The campaign will consist of television, cable and direct marketing. The spend is $22 million and the campaign is set to start September 29.

I can't imagine they will be but I hope they do taste as good as the cookies.

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Recommendations for the Survival of '24'

Fox's '24' has been a success. Can that success continue? Is the format still viable? What will make sense for for the next two years of the show? MediaLife's Ed Robertson has some pointers.
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More Talk on the Death of the :30

"PVRs are not going to go away and video on demand is increasingly going to challenge traditional television advertising," said Aditya Kishone, an analyst with the Yankee Group.

We keep hearing more and more along those lines of thinking. It's time is coming, some think.

"It's not a very rapid change. It will be years before the 30-second commercial is laid to rest, but the value of that commercial will steadily go down (sooner)," Kishone said.

TiVo, interactive television, and video on demand. All these new technologies are slowly taking a bite out of the age old :30 advertising model. Advertising will be come more user-requested than it's current intrusive nature. Marketers will have to learn that it is a conversation that needs to occur between corporate America and consumers rather than corporations shouting down from on high about their product benefits.

How about blogging? How about starting a conversation on a corporate weblog where both positive and negative are discussed? Where users of the product and the company's brand stewards actually talk to one another about the product? Where the conversation isn't sugar coated and the realities of the product and product usage benefits both sides? Sure, there's discussion groups out there now but corporations steer clear of them. The conversations are already out there. The corporations just need become active participants in those conversations because the days of talking AT people versus talking WITH people are drawing to a close.
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Wal-Mart Goes Conservative on Lad Magazines

Walmart has banned Maxin, Stuff, and FHM from it's stores after "listening to our customers and associates," said Melissa Berryhill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart. "I know we've heard on at least one of those magazines, they weren't pleased with the offering."

Publishers had the obvious replies to the move.

"Maybe they think Tyra Banks should have been wearing pink instead of black," said Stephen Colvin, president of Dennis Publishing (Stuff and Maxim) of a recent cover model. "I don't think that these decisions are often rational; they are subjective. For any men's magazine to put a woman on the cover seems a bit troubling to them."

Wal-mart newstand sales account for about 3% of the two publication's newtstand sales.

And from the FHM camp: "We respect Wal-Mart's right to make a product decision, however we do not agree," said a spokeswoman. "FHM never publishes full frontal nudity and never will. And FHM is far more consistent in its adherence to this policy than Details, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue and many women's fashion magazine's, which publish bare breasts under the guise of art."
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