The next time you go food shopping, the floor might start talking or a TV screen will start playing when you reach for the peas or your phone will ring telling you to check out the Campbell's soup on sale in the next aisle. These and other technology related ad mediums will soon be part of the grocery store experience. There will even be a radio station you can listen to as you approach the store hawking specials. Ideally, the messages will be on target having accessed you shopping database and offer only relevant specials. We wonder, though, what sort of message you will receive if you buy condoms and a package of sausages.
Deep in the winter woods is a warm log cabin in which a girl decides she simply must have the guy she's with. The joke behind why she ends up "attached" to the guy is beyond me but it's sure fun to watch. Lynx is the UK version of Axe in the States.
Men's shopping magazine Cargo is upping its rate base to 350,000 for the February 2005 issue and will increase frequency from 6 to ten times per year in 2005. The magazine has achieved newsstand sales of 110,000 for the first two issues and has apparently hit on a market need. Ad pages are up too. The September issue carries 116 pages.
Personally, I thought this would be a flop but I picked up a copy of the September issue the other day and was sucked in. It had page after page of stuff that made me start drooling. And no, it wasn't the iRiver or Paris Hilton Guess ads that did it. It's got everything. Cars, clothes, phones, shoes, booze, vacuums, watches, gadgets, ladders, fishing poles and gaming stuff. Conde Nast might have a winner here.
eMarketer has put together an overview of how people are using the Internet, what they are doping doing with it and where they are going. Big uses are finding directions, communicating with friends and family, checking weather, getting news and buying tickets.
The Women's Image Network, (WIN), has announced the addition of a new television advertising component to The 11th WIN Awards Show and presents its panel of judges.
The 2004 WIN Ad Award judges include: Michael Conrad: Dean, Cannes Lions Academy /Cheryl Berman, CCO, Leo Burnett, Charlotte Moore, Sally Hogshead, Ellen Steinberg, Amee Shah: Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty, Monica Taylor, Weiden+Kennedy, Tone Garmann: New Deal-DDB, Jamie Barrett: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Joyce King Thomas, McCann-Erickson, Mr. David Oakley: Boone/Oakley, Chris Staples: Rethink, Luke Sullivan: GSD+M and Jury Chairman, Liz Paradise, Mckinney+Silver.
The new WIN Awards television advertising component will recognize outstanding television advertising that is created, written, directed or art directed by a woman. Men are encouraged to enter The 2004 WIN Ad Awards, as WIN also honors advertising that empowers women.
The WIN Awards Show is scheduled for November 7, 2004 in Los Angeles, (with a follow-up presentation of the winning ad work in New York City in January). Entry deadline is September 15, 2004.
Rick Bruner was hoping Conan Obrien's 10th anniversary DVD "faux infomercial" episode would capture the humor normally found on the show. He thought otherwise.
It was supposed to be funny, but Conan's full-length infomercial for his "Late Night with Conan O'Brien 10th Anniversary Special DVD" was just lame and an actual infomercial. The joke was on us suckers who actually watched it.
www.shopnbc.com/conan flashes frequently on the screen along with 800 YO-MAMA-IS-A-SKANK (not the real number, but I won't give them the satisfaction).
To add (or should I say "ad"?) insult to injury, this hour-long ha-ha infomercial was frequently interrupted with, yes, commercials for the usual litany of advertisers.
Beyond lame. Desperate and soulless is more like it.
Diagnosed with cancer in May and told only a liver transplant could save his live, Houston man Todd Krampitz, 32, has launched an ad campaign, including two billboards, a website and media interviews, hoping to find a liver donor.
Krampitz's web site says, "Unfortunately, tragedies happen every day. If you hear of anyone that is in a situation where they could be a donor, they or their family can request that the liver be designated to Todd Krampitz." The two billboards, both on Route 59, read, "I Need A Liver Please Help Save My Life!" and include the 800 number, 1-888-How-U-Can.
While Krampitz is sensitive to established guidelines regulating the allocation of donated organs, he's doing what humans to when faced with tragedy. He's trying to stay alive.
Wired magazine has a good summary article adressing the media habits of the 18-34 male. From reduced television viewership to increased video game useage to porn to TiVo to multitasking to tactics used to reach this elusive audience, the article will give you a clear picture of what's going on and where it's all going when it comes to men, media and advertising.
Hip-Hop has gone mainstream, ad agencies have seen that trend and now full service shops run by hip-hop producers and musicians are springing up. They are run by the likes of Sean Combs whose Blue Flame Marketing and Adverising has done work for Calvin Klein and Andre Harrell whose Nu America is doing work for Tommy Hilfiger.
"This is part of a bigger picture about how urban America is changing, not only in the way advertising looks and feels, and the way the country looks and feels, but also how you reach this new consumer and get a piece of the pie," Vibe Magazine's Emil Wilbekin said. "That's all it is. They're being very smart business people."
In what media buyers are calling a wave of the future, Time Inc. is launching it's new women's service magazine All You with a decidedly different strategy. The magazine will be launched exclusively in Walmart stores which Lowe Worldwide EVP of Media Mike Neiss called "the seventh TV network." It's not clear how long the relationship will last. Wal-mart spokesperson Karen Burke said, "It will be treated just as any other magazine. It is at the checkout for the time being, and I don't know if that will change."
The move allows Time to skirt around expensive newsstand delivery wholesalers which cuts heavily into profits. In doing so, All You, along with Time's admittedly "cheap" approach to editorial, allows for the very low $1.49 cover price.
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