"We've pretty much stopped with TV ads or radio ads or branded ads. It just wasn't worth it anymore. Online, there are just many more possibilities." That's a refrain we've hearing more on more over the next few years as marketers realize traditional advertising ain't all it's cracked up to be anymore. Amsterdam Tourism Board Internet manager Sebastian Paauw uttered that phrase when commenting on the Board's deal with BlogAds under which the Board, in connection with BlogAds, will send 25 bloggers to Amsterdam in exchange for ad space on their blogs. While the bloggers are not required to write anything about their trip, bloggers being bloggers, there will, no doubt, be a litany of posts covering their escapades during their five day stay.
The promotion, called "Bloggers in Amsterdam," calls for bloggers to be interviewed by the Tourism Board and provide the Board with one month of advertising on their blogs. The program is an extension of standard industry practices in which travel journalists are given a free ride so they can experience a destination and write about it.
We're sure this isn't quite what Warner Brothers and UPN had in mind for their new TheCW website following the merger of The WB and UPN but if they want to put the cat back in the bag and launch a proper network television website, they're going to have to transfer some cat treats to this cat lover.
As Adland properly comments, "what the hell were the creatives on this job smoking?" Yes, it's unlikely this came from the U.S. Government. They have no sense of humor when it comes to taxes. Someone's just having a bit of fun here.
Next week, ExxonMobil will announce it turned a profit of about $32 billion in 2005 and it's not going unnoticed by a group called Exxpose Exxon who pokes fun at the giant's earnings with a humorous video entitled, Toasting the Earth, in which ExxonMobil execs are shown toasting the earth in a less than environmentally friendly manner. With an extra $32 billion in ExxonMobil's coffers, Exxpose Exxon feels the organization should take a more active roll in protecting the earth's assets.
Lynx Deodorant has launch yet another one of its mysterious promotions. This one arrive via email with nothing more than an image of a hot chick and an invitation to click. Once clicked, we arrived at a site called Clickmore and had to...yes...click more. Upon clicking, a big window opened where a collection of world flag-clad asses presented themselves for us to choose from . Once we chose our ass, we were whisked away to a page that asked for our email and and a promise that all would be revealed February 13. When we clicked on another ass, however, we were whisked away to an MSN page that contained a bunch of videos. Sadly, we navigated away from the page before we were able to fully explore its content. Perhaps we found a little hole into what will actually be revealed on February 13. Unfortunately, no amount of ass clicking would return us to the MSN page so we'll just have to wait like everyone else.
Perhaps it was all fire and brimstone or perhaps it really was the truth but Commercial Alert Executive Director Gary Ruskin Minced no words when he told ad execs at an Association of National Advertisers luncheon yesterday that "most Americans really despise what you do." He also told the audience what we all have known for a long time; we are not loved by people. Poll after poll ranks us right up there with car dealers in terms of trust. Citing yet another study, Ruskin said, "your industry is not yet as unpopular as the tobacco industry." It's not inconceivable that, with the increasing amount of ad-avoidance control people gain, that will happen quite soon.
He had no kind words to say about product placement or buzz marketing either and that's not surprising. The walls between advertising and content have long since disappeared because of media fragmentation which gave people more choice to avoid advertising and because of ad-avoidance platforms like pay-per-view, DVRs, bit torrent, file-sharing and the iPod. It's no surprise that marketers are grasping at straws to regain the control it once had over consumer eyeballs when a three network buy would reach every person in the country.
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Pepsi's Mountain Dew and Plum TV are getting together during the Winter X Games in Aspen January 26-30 to promote Mountain Dew MDX. During the games, Mountain Dew will sponsor nightly shuttles outfitted with cameras to capture nocturnal reveler's escapades to be broadcast on Plum TV in Aspen, Vail and on the Mountain Dew MDX Be Noctural site. Also, a party hosted by Mountain Dew MDX will be held at the Sun Deck on Ajax Mountain where antics will also be captured for Plum TV broadcast.
Stay tuned for videos from the event. We'll post them as we receive them.
Extending the tease we pointed out a couple weeks ago, Agent Provocateur has released yet a bit more of its soon to be eight minute long film, Tied Up At The Office, by Mike Figgis starring models Lara Jones and Amanda Grace. The film goes well beyond the previous Kylie Minogue lingerie video she did a couple years ago for the retailer and focuses heavily on self-gratification, lesbianism and S&M. This clip is 50 seconds long with the full film due to be released February 9. While this clip has no nudity, the subject matter and the particularly tantalizing female vocal emanations suggests it be viewed in the comfort of your own private hideaway.
If this video pans out the way it teases us to belive it will, we've got to hand it to Agenct Provocateur for being this daring and for brining some serious cinematic power to this this we call advertising. No doubt, this will rank up there as one of the most viewed virals of the year.
Those radical exaggerators over at PETA are up to their old sensationalism again with the launch of Milk Gone Wild, a spoof on the Girls Gone Wild series which uses titillation and human udders to call attention to the apparent health hazards of drinking milk. While we have a decidedly different viewpoint than PETA does on the whole milk thing owing to our attachment, through marriage, to the realities versus fiction of dairy farming, PETA has, again, done what it does best; use sex and controversy to bring attention to its causes. With all the anti-everything campaigns PETA produces, it would be intriguing to watch a video of PETA employees deciding what to choose from the organization's cafeteria menu: lettuce, lettuce or lettuce topped with lettuce.
Heineken, the official beer sponsor of The 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards, is launching their second nationwide advertising campaign on Internet jukeboxes throughout the United States on Ecast's interactive jukebox network. The campaign will run on 4400 broadband-enabled jukeboxes in bars and taverns throughout the country. The campaign features a Heineken micro-site, downloadable collections of music from Grammy-winning artists, and a Heineken-branded trivia game.
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