Here's a somewhat interesting read.
Young and Aitken's Profitable Marketing Communications encourages marketers to think about marketing the way Warren Buffett thinks about investing (yes, at some point they make that connection): as a quantifiable value-add, with a focus on targeting platforms as opposed to diversifying.
A few decent case studies (brands include Samsung and Unisys) are included, and emphasis is placed on measuring campaign ROI, which we hear lots about but don't see much of.
To get the most value for your buck you might want to skip straight to chapters 12 and 13 ("Leverage Your Employee Capital" and "Is Your Organization Marketing ROI-Fit?") which finally cuts the bull and gets into how you, too, can implement some of this advice.
The book concludes with "Happy investing," possibly its best instance of straightforward message delivery. In the end, it was a lot like reading Malcolm Gladwell, but not as funny, and Benjamin Graham, but not as informative.
With the ubiquitous YouTube video, Leno appearance and online video site, famed (at least if you watch movies and TV) Fred Thompson has entered the 2008 presidential race. We're not much into politics finding ourselves oddly aligned to some things Democrat and some things Republican but not comfortable with Independent status and certainly not or right or left wing crazy...at least in real life. So it is with confusion, we are drawn to Fred Thompson who appears to be as Republican as they come but also pretty laid back about a lot of things.
more »
- DraftFCB...in need of anything good these days...has landed the $200 million 2010 U.S. Census campaign. We can only imagine the creativity that'll come out of this one.
- This is over a year old. Don't know how we missed it. Although, knowing us, we didn't miss it and have simply forgotten we covered it. Anyway, watch Will Video For Food's Kevin Nalty take on the role of viral video broker and lampoon the early days of big brands misunderstanding YouTube.
- Copyranter has what he's been told is the CP+B script for Al Gore's not-yet-released Climate Project commercial.
more »
Irish marketers and media mavens now have their own online network - The Media Show.
Right now neither the site nor the show look very exciting, but that's what ads are for. If you have an abiding interest in the burgeoning marketing industry in Ireland, it might do well to sponsor these guys. To tell the truth, we have no idea whether the advice they're dispensing is good or bad, because the whole thing just made us too sleepy.
Talk about deception. Here's a campaign that looked like something it wasn't.
Mastercard's Priceless Pep Talks with Peyton Manning gives you two text-entry boxes: a place for your name, and a place to enter something you're bummed about.
But if your name isn't already in a pre-set database, you officially do not exist. And the second box seems to be stuck on one setting: "I drive a minivan."
more »
We need another award show like we need another email newsletter from MediaPost. Oh wait. Sorry. We used that one already. But wait. Read further. Maybe we do need another award show because the really good stuff...the stuff that should win awards but always gets killed by the client...needs its own platform on which to seek praise.
Enter The Speckies. Yup. An award show for great work that got killed, canceled, spat on, trashed and otherwise suffered the indignity of pompous, know-it-all clients who crapped on it just to feed their ego-driven power trip. So here's your chance to slap down those pontificating morons and show the industry your true, unfiltered talent. Or something like that.
Shortly after snarling at L'Oreal for its Telescopic Mascara product, which vowed to make lashes "up to 60 percent longer" (a promise aided and abetted by Penelope Cruz), the UK's Advertising Standards Authority has unearthed another deviant: Avon.
Avon claims its mascara makes lashes 65 percent longer. Despite a lie that's five percent more misleading, however, the company isn't using a celebrity model to push its snake oil, so hopefully the body public won't be too susceptible.
more »
W+K Amsterdam has whipped up some not so magical spots for EA's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix video game. In the two spots, three characters take on the roles of Hermione, Harry and Ron and try, first, to run through a wall in their school and, second, to hide from their teachers in the teachers lounge. Sadly, their school isn't quite like Hogwarts. And it isn't in a movie. And the school must suck if it hasn't been able to properly educate these three idiots on the difference between fantasy and reality.
Hurrah, new browser-sporting wi-fi iPods, and they look just like everybody said they would.
Steve Jobs previewed an ad for the new toy in his keynote yesterday, which you can find if you dodge all the 'Amazing!'s, the bad jokes, and his overextended attempt to make a ringtone out of Aretha Franklin's Respect.
The ad is short and follows the same see-what-my-finger-can-do aesthetic as the iPhone ads. Looking forward to seeing the "official" version.
Also, Apple announced a partnership with Starbucks where you can log onto iTunes for free on a wi-fi-ready Apple unit, and even - get this - buy a song in a Starbucks while it's playing. Cashing in on the impulse has never been easier.
more »
- Yahoo grabs ad network BlueLithium for a $300 million.
- It outlasted every other dot com magazine but Business 2.0 has finally succumbed to the tightening economics of magazine publishing and will cease to publish on its own, becoming part of Fortune.
- Make sure your Facebook profile doesn't include any salaciously incriminating information. The site has just made profiles publicly searchable.
- JupiterResearch reports just 15 percent of viral campaigns achieved success in the last year. Good. Maybe we'll see a lot less crap from marketers now.
more »
|
