Radio Shown to be Reach Medium

Erwin Ephron takes a detailed look at the radio advertising medium and debunks the myth that radio is a frequency buy more so than a reach buy. Armed with the latest PPM figures from Arbitron, Ephron very clearly demonstrates buying radio based on reach trumps a radio buy bought based on frequency.

Paper Company Launches Graphic Designer Resource Site

Dayton Ohio coated and carbonless paper maker NewPage, as part of it's name change promotion from MeadWestvaco to Newpage, has launched The True You, a portfolio collection site where designers can submit work, glean advice from other professionals and enter contests.

Professional advice comes from industry leaders as Linda Cooper Bowen, author of Marketing and the True You, Hank Richardson, who tackles The Ubiquitous Portfolio, and Olivia Fox Cabane, who discusses Networking Basics. Cooper Bowen also offers a Q&A session where graphic designers can ask a question on any marketing issue.

According to the press release, "Current contests include personal makeovers for five lucky designers who can shuck their scruffy wardrobes and plunge into the world of chic to match their snappy new portfolios, and an opportunity for one winner to promote themselves or their clients by designing a truck that will be featured at an upcoming race in the NASCAR truck series.

Who knew paper could be so exciting?

McDonald's Get Billboard Culture Jam

Boing Boing points to Laughing Squid who covered The Billboard Liberation Front's culture jam activities Memorial Day in San Francisco when the group changed a billboard to humorously illustrate what some think McDonald's has come to represent. The billboard, with the headline, "To Serve Man," had an animatronic Ronald McDonald force feeding a fat kid. Laughing Squid has the whole story and tons of pictures.

Jib Jab Gets Jib Jobbed

Either a bunch of pissed of bloggers really did create this "oh the horror of JibJab selling out" viral or Jib Jab created it itself to deflect criticism and reassert its wit. The clip is a spoof of the recent work Jib Jab did for Budweiser which some have called not great and an indication of sell out. We say shut up. Everyone sells out sooner of later. Sure Budweiser can be categorized as swill - as in the clip - but they have boat loads of promotional money.

Think for a minute. Do you want to see more lame beer babe ads or see something a bit more original from the likes of JibJab. Oh wait. Don't answer that. Of course you want more beer babes you hip, self important, Neanderthal advertising buffoon. Oh wait. We're all that too. We take that back. We want JibJab. Ditch the babes.

Television Weather Promotions Go Mary Poppins Mad

New Haven television station WTHN (channel 8) has become the whipping boy of television station weather promotions in this spoof that calls attention to the insanity of Doppler-focused newscasts as if they've actually done something to improve forecasts. In typical, "First, there was this, then there was that, now there's...," a very convincing television promo announcer exclaims "now the most biggest name in weather forecasting just got more bigger. Introducing news channel eight's Supercali Fragilistic Expiali Doppler." You'll love the final statement referring to Mother Nature. Watch it here.

Weblogs Help Marketing Book Climb Bestseller Lists

Without any advertising, authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg have landed their book, Call To Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results," on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon and saw sales of 17,000 copies within three weeks of the book's May 9 publish date.

To promote their book, the two brothers went the word of mouth route and sent review copies to weblog and newsletter publishers who gave positive reviews.

Netscape Rips Off Hosting Company's Marketing Idea

In early April we wrote about Bob's Cube, a promotional microsite for hosting company Hostway. The microsite presented the virtual world of an office cubicle which allowed visitors to click into the cube and explore. It was engaging enough to grab attention for a few minutes. Well, it seems the idea has been stolen by ailing Netscape to promote its browser. Called "The Cubicle," Netscape's microsite is a near identical copy of the Hostway's concept. Hostway's "Bob's Cube" was launched April 1 (oh no, is the whole thing a joke?). Netscape's "The Cubicle" was launched May 27.

Unfortunately for Netscape and fortunately for Hostway, not many people will see "The Cubicle" because it is delivered as a blockable pop up. They call it a "daughter window" to somehow make it sound less nefarious. Not very smart on Netscape's part when they could have simply launched the rip off in a separate, regular window.

UPDATE: Hugh, in comments, rightly points out this cubicle thing has been going on for quite some time.

Visual Thesaurus Hopes to Eliminate Writers Block

Replace Meaningless Words

If you write copy, marketing plans or white papers, you know the power of well chosen words. You also know how excruciatingly difficult it can be to come up with those words. A company called ThinkMap feels that pain and has created a thesaurus on steroids.

ThinkMap's Visual Thesaurus uses a graphic interface to animate the English language in a unique way, revealing the meanings, origins, pronunciations and relationships between words. After entering a word it creates a matrix of type, colored dots and floating lines to display the meanings, parts of speech, synonyms, antonyms, and the relationships between 145,000 English words.

Catholic Church Recruits Priests With Beer Mats

While the standard reaction might be to call this latest move by the Catholic church blasphemous, others might say, hey, what better place to promote priesthood than on beer mats in bars? Or on posters in the London Underground? The bishop's National Office for Vocations in England and Wales has, for the first time, publicized priesthood outside the walls of churches. Not a bad idea, actually. After all, there's probably plenty of people who might consider priesthood as a career who have never set foot in a church.

Vocation Director Father Paul Embry has no problem with the effort saying, "Pope John Paul didn't spend all his time in the Vatican. He went out, and took his message to where people were. We can do something similar to encourage young men to think about the priesthood."

Verizon Says Jobs Suck, Offers Cheap Messaging

Highlighting certain jobs such as portable toilet cleaner, nursing home nurse and nanny, Verizon sympathizes in this viral video saying you won't need a job to afford its $5 per month unlimited text and picture messaging plan.