Kolbrener Compiles Branding Elements in Periodic Table

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Hey, this is neat. In the style of the Periodic Table of Elements, Kolbrener put together a Table of Brand Evolution Terms. Each set is segmented by color under Advertising, Direct, Branding, Marketing Communications, M&A, and Misc.

We never thought we'd actually ever like playing with a table. If there were a way to incorporate it into an educational framework, that would be cooler still. (We remember learning a ton of these definitions in marketing class. There was no way to make that fun. Making it scientific, however, might add to the conceit that we're all going to go off and do something important with our lives.)

Play with your elements here. Thanks to Allie at PETA for pointing it out.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-15-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Tools



Nielsen Triples, Monster Consolidates, NBC Cheats, Slingbox Chats

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- In an effort to more accurately capture true television viewership, Nielsen has announced it will triple the size of its national people meter to 37,000 households and 100,000 people. 100,000 to 300 million? Well that's better than before.

- Monster.com has consolidated its $155 million North American media buying responsibilities with Mediaedge:cia.

- For Heroes, NBC is taking advantage of a Nielsen loophole which allows the network to add ratings from this Saturday's repeat of the premiere back into Monday's premiere. The loophole states re-airings with the exact same content and advertising can be counted together.

- The Slingbox Guy is back and this time he's doing what TiVo should have done when it first launched: tell people what the product does.

by Steve Hall    Sep-28-07    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Online, Research, Television, Tools



Adrants Unleashes AdGabber, A Social Network For the Ad Industry

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It's not easy to officially launch anything when you don't even have a logo. Now that we do, we are pleased to announce the official launch of AdGabber, a social network for individuals in advertising, marketing and media. AdGabber, which soft launched in May, has just over 1,600 members with about 40 new members joining each day. An offshoot of Adrants, we couldn't be happier with the growth and the activity we've seen to date on the network.

AdGabber offers all the usual social networking stuff like member profiles, forums, topical groups which member can create on their own, a video section that serves as the ad industry's YouTube, a photo section, a calendar section where industry events are listed, a music player, and chat feature, blogs for individual members and an RSS feed providing news from Adrants. In fact, the thing is so flexible, that anything at all can be added to the network such as daily or weekly survey, ad industry job listings and creative portfolios.

more »

by Steve Hall    Sep-19-07    
Topic: Announcements, Online, Social, Tools



Google Takes Gadget Ads Out of Beta, Brings Social Networking to Ads

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Extending the gadget technology currently available with Google Desktop, Google is has debuted its Gadget Ads, AdSense standard sized ads into which AdWords advertisers can embed video, games, flash animations, feeds and other elements. The units, in beta since last Spring, can also be placed on iGoogle homepages, Google Creator pages and inside Google Desktop.

There is a communal, social networking aspect to the ad units as well. People can take the Gadget ads and place them on their own iGoogle pages. Ad for everyone. How nice.

by Steve Hall    Sep-19-07    
Topic: Online, Tools



Idiotic Oracle Dispenses Pointless Rubbish, WhoDo Fixes

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From the company GotThingsDone, which provides productivity tools, comes Follow the Oracle, a site on which you can "0btain all the answers to the typical questions of people involved in Project Management." Trouble is, the Oracle's an idiot and can't help you at all. So after a few minutes of idiocy, you can click your way over to GotThingsDone's project management tool, WhoDo and leave the idiot behind.

by Steve Hall    Sep-14-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Tools



Marketing is an Investment; 200+ Pages Say Why (and Eventually, How)

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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.

by Angela Natividad    Sep- 6-07    
Topic: Publishing, Tools



Behold: The SEO World's Response to the Inexplicable Success of 'The Secret'

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Given: It's hard to make SEO interesting or even appealing to marketers who would rather be designing graphics for a direct mailer or fantasizing about making music videos.

MRP Web Media gives us The Lost Brad Tapes, a compilation of the world traveler's attempts to become a website success. Supposedly these tapes have just been liberated from a vault, where they were wrongfully hidden on account of their incendiary nature (you know, kind of like The Secret).

In the first installation we find our hero in the desert, talking to a disembodied voice who is supposed to represent a website sage. He reminded us of James Brown, which resulted in us looking up James Brown clips for half an hour in order to validate this resemblance. It turns out he doesn't sound much like James Brown at all.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Aug-29-07    
Topic: Online, Tools



So You Want to Work in Advertising? Read This First

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For those of you just getting into the ad biz, Advergirl has some important tips for you. You might already know this but, despite what you may have been told, you ain't getting any training. You've been hired to put out and avoid fires for your boss. And, contrary to what you might think, you've also been hired to take the heat when your boss screws up. Just avoid all that crap by reading Advergirl's list and you'll avoid most of the ad jungle animals' tricks.

by Steve Hall    Aug-16-07    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Tools



Simpson's Bazaar, Disco Dreams, Eyewonder Calls, Mops Orgasm

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- In the ever expanding quest to make sure every inch of media space contains some elements of its campaign, the Simpson's Movie campaign has hit the pages of Harpers' Bazaar.

- Grow Interactive has created Disco Dream Ride, a site which promotes Lance Armstrong's fan club and the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Visotors can webcam themselves and affix their heads to character on the site Trailer Crashers-style.

- Eyewonder has launched a Click-to-Call feature or its rich media ad units.

- Naked people, cock rings and orgasm mops get it on for Method cleaning products. These are the ComeClean people.

- The "world's most boring movie" is supposed to promote paint. We think not.

- Here's the full length Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl video we tipped last week.

- First there was Diet Coke and Mentos. Now, there's Carlsberg and Mentos. And it's bad. Really, really bad.

by Steve Hall    Jul-18-07    
Topic: Magazine, Online, Racy, Tools, Video



Sears' Die Hard Click-to-Call Doesn't

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We're thinking if Sears were to partner with eStara on a click-to-call, battery promotion project, the two might actually want the thing to work. Perhaps, we just caught them at a busy time. Although, we wonder how many people are really buying batteries at 12:30 AM. It's all working fine now but it's random glitches like this that insure POTS (plan old telephone service) will always have a place in this world.

by Steve Hall    Jul-10-07    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Online, Tools