Publicist and back up challenged Lizzie Grubman is getting her own reality show on MTV called PoweR Girls. Debuting in Spring 2005, the show will tag along Grubman and her team of celebu-snarkers as they sachet through Manhattan, LA, Hamptons and Miami nightlife in search of the latest Lohan boob sighting or Hilton beating. It will also give us a glimpse inside what is supposedly real work including paparazzi bashing, guest list fights, party crashing and office life. I want my MTV for this one!
MarketingVOX reports on a new service, called Blogversations, which will, for a fee, hook advertisers up with bloggers in the advertiser's industry. The advertiser will get their product or service "discussed" and the blogger will make money doing it. It's positioned as topical matching service and explained thusly:
- We match advertisers with bloggers
- Advertisers choose a topic or question (not an advertorial)
- Bloggers discuss the topic or question, and place a link to the discussion on their blog's front page
- Advertisers truly engage audiences without doing evil; bloggers get paid for doing what they do best - blogging!
What's not clear is how these linked "conversations" are branded by the advertiser or whether the advertiser gets mentioned in the blogger's post.
Jeremy Martin has placed the back of his head up for auction as ad space. He's asking $60,000 for a one year placement in the form of a tattoo. He'll also place the winning bidders logo on his car as well as make a personalize vanity plate for the advertiser. He's holding firm on his price saying, "I will not take less than that because I'm going to have a tattoo on the back of my head for the rest of my life.
He's had 1,100 inquiries so far but no bidders. "I don't think anybody wants to be the first person to try something out," Martin said. Truth be told, he's not the first to offer up a skull as a billboard. Earlier this year, Jim Nelson did it for C Host. Thanks to Rick Bruner for the tip.
Mischa Barton, star of the WB's FOX's The O.C. and drool stimulant for all teenage boys, will grace a new Keds campaign set to launch this fall in national print, outdoor, online, POP, direct mail as well as personal appearances. Barton can now add Keds to her growing spokesperson list which already includes Aeropostale and Neutrogena. Barton joins the spokesmodel club with co-star Rachel Bilson who fronts for BONGO, a division of Candie's.
Maybe they just won a "sex toy" account or a porn client but Euro RSCG is interested in sex. So interested they conducted a worldwide survey on the number of hook ups each country's citizens tend to make. The British are the most active with 60 percent stating they've had 10 or more lovers during their single years. Britain is followed by the Germany at 52 percent and the U.S. at 49 percent. Additionally, less than half of all surveyed Britons believe staying faithful is natural. The Chinese appear to be the most chaste with only 17 percent reporting 10 or more lovers and 70 percent believing in monogamy. What are you up to, Euro? Thanks to Charley Brough.
Tia Fix writes about a dreamy morning struggle with her alarm's snooze button and how she heard a Radio Shack tagline she once thought was her own.
"'If you have questions, we have answers?!' That's totally Tia.
What the heck is Radio Shack doing with a Tia Fix slogan?
I've been using that spiel in email and in person for 1.5 yrs!
I bet it's copyrighted and everything!
I'm foiled by my own celebrity!"
Proof positive there are no new ideas anymore.
See comments for how, apparently, wrong I (and Tia) am/are and for the usual hilarity that goes along with commenters who just have to set the record straight.
Revue Media, Inc. has launched REAL Magazine, a women's guide to "living with passion, grace and style." REAL Magazine is a newsstand publication initially distributed in Wal-Mart stores, as well as 23,000 other retailer channels nationwide. Time Inc. recently used the same distribution model for its All You Magazine. The first issues was June, 2004, and had a rate base of 210,000. REAL Magazine, written for the value-conscious women, covers a range of topics from finance to home repair to parenting, while providing real-life, practical solutions and encouragement in a high-end glossy editorial & design environment.
FreeiPods, which gives away a free iPod to anyone who signs up to receive online marketing promotions and gets five other people to do so, is moving marketing to the people. Combining the increased control consumers have over media consumption, a shift to permission-based marketing and the power of viral marketing, FreeiPods is, in essence, recruiting consumers to do marketing for its clients. Nothing is more powerful that a friend telling you a product is great and that is exactly what FreeiPods is tapping into. While some thought the company to be a bit sketchy, it's been vetted and many people have joined.
"Of course I was skeptical, but I didn't see any harm in trying," said Collin Grady, 22. They never once asked for a credit card number and I didn't have to pay shipping. I just told them where to send it.... All in all, a very painless process."
FreeiPods is run by Washington, D.C. based Gratis Internet, a marketing firm that is paid by its clients based on how many customers it delivers to its clientele. this is smart marketing.
Writing for iMedia Connection, Alan Schulman makes a case for media leading the charge as opposed to creative saying "in this age of hyper-audience fragmentation, the "who" you're speaking to is now as important as the "what" that's being said." With intense media fragmentation and increasing ability to directly address messages to consumers, he may have a point. What do you think?
Britney Spears may take over where Jessica Simpson left off. Spears is in talks with MTV to star, along with possible future husband Kevin Federline, in the next season of MTV's Newlyweds. The two would have to actually get married though and that is most certainly not a sure thing.
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