Whether this goes anywhere or not is anyone's guess but no one thought the online ad banner would become what it is today either. A new online magazine, Dormant Forces, has launched and will be supported by what it calls an AdFrame designed to elicit "curiosity clicks." The Adframe consists of small, subtle squares with nothing but the advertisers name or tagline. Clicking the square takes the visitor to the advertiser's site. The publisher plans to do a similar thing in the printed version of the magazine. Anyone care to predict the future of this venture?
In a mash up of a webcam stripper video and that news show where the anchors strip while reading the news, the authors of the book, Punk Marketing, have placed a video on YouTube in which a bespectacled, smart-looking, sexy woman, Cleo, reads an excerpt from the book while slowly removing her clothing. It's hard to pass judgment on this one since there are two ways to go with it. Close your eyes and listen leading you to believe you are present at a fancy book reading event or open your eyes, turn down the sound leading yo to believe you are just enjoying yourself watching many of the thousands of webcam stripper video floating about the web. So, as a dutiful reporter, we think we're going to have to watch this again...and again...and again to properly assess the effort and offer you a fair and balanced report. Pardon us while we click the Play button again.
AdJab's Chris Thilk told us a few weeks ago AdJab would be ceasing its operations at the t'end of January. Well, the end of the month is here and that last jab has been published. Four of the main contributors to the site, Chris Thilk, Tom Biro, Adam Finley and Bob Sassone leave their parting thoughts and send AdJab off into the good night. We're told all of its content will live on to be forever indexed by Google and referred to by those of us in the advertising industry.
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- Former Gawker Founding Editor Elizabeth Spiers, now founder of Dead Horse Media plans to launch several new blogs. One will cover organic living.
- Online ad spending is predicted to increase 18 percent in 2007 while media spend in other media decline.
- If you want the background behind those 20 websites Toy, New York created for OfficeMax, here's the video that recaps the project.
- Apparently, consumers aren't the only ones having trouble understanding a brand's positioning. In a recent Louws Management Corporation study, it was found just 1/4 could clearly articulate their company's brand positioning. Oops.
- Incumbent Riney is out of the Sprint Nextel pitch. Goodby, O&M and Y&R remain.
- Boobs and bikinis are now hawking coffee at coffee shops.
If you're a small publisher and you want to insure you are getting the most revenue you possibly can from your advertisers, you might want to check out the just launched RMX Direct from Right Media, a service that pits inventory-bidding ad networks against each other and serves the highest paying one to the publisher. Automatically. Currently, RMX Direct has nine ad networks in its system but publisher can add as many others as they want and pit them against the existing networks for bidding.
We'll admit it's one of the few sites we've been to that actually does a good job explaining what the company does and how it can benefit the parties involved: advertiser, publisher and ad network. While we haven't used the product, if you're trying to maximize revenue as a publisher, it sure sounds like something one should check out.
Part way through reading George Parker's new book, MadScam: Kick-Ass Advertising Without the Madison Avenue Price Tag, we informed George we had found the perfect coaster for our scotch. Amused, he agreed but told us to get off our ass and read the book. We did. And we can whole heartedly tell you you should too. With or without a glass of scotch. The man has things to say and things you won't hear from your average "I'm a hot shit marketer and everything I say is gold" flatulence. The man has been through it all and he has no problem telling marketers they don't need Madison Avenue for all their marketing needs.
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We're amazed by how the Patriot Act has affected every one of our rights except protection from double jeopardy, which remains Simpson's ongoing joke on a rubbernecking nation.
It was only a matter of time before the definitive chapter of his botched If I Did It... book leaked to the press. Our favourite part of what he would have done (if he did it) was the end: "Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how."
Laughter. And the smacking of gloved hands.
Read the rest of the chapter summary here.
To promote her new book Wife in the Fast Lane, Karen Quinn is running a contest for fast-lane provocations. Anybody living a zippy life can turn in a video, essay or one-liner. Winners get to be characters in her next novel, which means you'll have something to send to people next Christmas that doubles as both gift and holiday card.
Come on. How many people get immortalized in pop fiction?
Guerilla and marketing efforts for the campaign were stealthily conducted by BL Ochman of What's Next Online. She's also to blame for the Up Your Budget treasure hunt of '05 and that funny little American Greetings campaign which niched itself by highlighting quirky twists in our favourite nuclear unit.
Time revamps its tired old site to better serve the interests of 2.0-savvy readers who'd rather sift through snarky blogs than stiff Reuters streams.
The new site vibes like a cross between Yahoo, ZDNet and AdAge, which can be useful if not totally confusing. Critiques about Iraq rub shoulders with Top 10's, quotes du jour and wincing-hip TV-related titles like "Whiteyz with Attitude." Urg. Well, it'll definitely make eye-candy for the scroll-happy.
Time will provide 24/7 news and, in a surprise move that contrasts those of major papers like the New York Times, rendered the entire Time archive of stories, covers and images - from its 1923 debut! - available for free.
Neat. For a brand so big we're sure they'll come up with a way to keep profits from hurting during this most curious process. And we probably won't be the only ones watching closely.
Saatchi and Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts reveals that Lovemarks, allegedly written by him and out for three years running, is not actually a book but a "new-business development tool" according to AdAge in a video interview. Indeed, what appears to be text on sheets between bound paper to all who encounter it is actually the elaborate first phase of a 10-year scheme to refurbish the ethos and image of the Publicis Groupe agency, according to Roberts.
The confession comes just in time for phase two of the zany scheme which also appears in chimerical book form: The Lovemarks Effect: Winning the Consumer Revolution. This too is part of the effort to change S and S "from an ad agency to an ideas company to become the Lovemarks company," explains Roberts.
Ironic how much changes from high school, when the last thing you want is to be known for your lovemarks. Clearly Saatchi and Saatchi is onto something we aren't.
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