Ads Give Moviegoers Chance to Interact†

How brands use games, polls and other social elements to engage passive audiences

Adweek, June 30, 2008 — NEW YORK Cinema is the oldest mass audio-visual medium. It is also as passive as media consumption gets. The imaginative application of — you guessed it — digital technology by marketers may change this. A deal struck earlier this month between Verizon Wireless and cinema-advertising network Screenvision combines mobile and social-networking applications to test an interactive polling program in American movie theaters.

Calling on NBA Fans†

How T-Mobile's user-gen contest took the brand's 60-second Super Bowl spot into overtime

Adweek, June 30, 2008 — It could have been the same old Super Bowl story. A creative team toils for months, and a client spends millions, on 30-seconds of big-game glory. Then, faster than the MVP can say "Disneyland," the applause fades, the spot is relegated to routine rotation and, ultimately, assumes its final resting place on the agency reel.

Cliche No More: CMO Club Gets Colorful New Member†

Unilever's Simon Clift on Stengel, Torture Tests and Marketing's Filet Mignon

Advertising Age, June 30, 2008 — Simon Clift has been Unilever's chief marketing officer for more than two years, but he freely admits he only really began doing the job a couple of months ago, thanks to a corporate restructuring that has had him drop his line-management duties as president of personal care.

As full-time CMO, Mr. Clift is getting in touch with his touch points, as some of his peers might say. But he just couldn't resist a mocking drift into CMO speak during an interview in the Carlton Hotel during the International Advertising Festival at Cannes last week as he bandied about terms like "challenges" and "new-media environment." He stopped, smirked and then added: "Oh my God! I've become a cliche."

MySpace Signs Up Glam New Member: Cartier†

Global Campaign Challenges Assumptions About Social Networking

Advertising Age, June 30, 2008 — The latest marketer to target the reaches of MySpace? Cartier. Cartier, a brand better known for diamond necklaces and $10,000 watches, will advertise its latest collection, Love by Cartier, in a deal which was done out of MySpace's office in France but will span multiple countries. It's yet another reminder that mainstream Web 2.0 sites have broader audiences than people often assume (last year Neiman Marcus chose YouTube as a place to publicize its 100-year anniversary).

Snack Mentality

New York Times, June 29, 2008 — The popularity of Pirate’s Booty and other snack foods made by Robert’s American Gourmet might be explained in a couple of ways. Maybe it’s the use of more natural and recognizable ingredients, mostly baked instead of fried, at a time when more of us are health-conscious. Maybe it’s the quirky-funny image, centered on cartoony packaging and offbeat names. Or it could be the combination of those qualities with a maverick entrepreneurial story behind the brand — a kind of Ben & Jerry’s appeal.

Brands Adjust to Media Fragmentation

One way media synergy might pay off

eMarketer, June 27, 2008 — Marketers have long focused on segmenting consumers, to approach them via the media channels and destinations they use most. But in many markets, media fragmentation has made reaching a large enough audience increasingly difficult.

Mobile Photos, SMS Used to Customize Nike Footwear

MarketingVox, June 27, 2008 — Nike has launched NIKE PHOTOiD, which enables European users to make customized shoes out of mobile photos. "Street Canvas," an AKQA ad promoting the campaign, depicts a user shooting graffiti, texting the image to Nike, and receiving a link to a customized pair of Air Force Ones, superimposed over the user's photo.

Sharper Image Lives -- as a Brand†

Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2008 — Retailer Sharper Image was left for dead in February. Now, four months later, the bankrupt purveyor of air purifiers and nose-hair clippers is coming back to life.

This time, though, it won't have stores with $5,000 massage chairs where customers can relax. Instead, Sharper Image will live on as a virtual brand name, its moniker rented to other retailers that want to spruce up the appeal of a vacuum cleaner, pet robot or pair of sunglasses.

Dispelling the Myths about Open Innovation

Prophet, June 24, 2008 — When it comes to seizing the power of innovation to drive business growth, one of the best routes to success — based on practices of leaders on this front — is through Open Innovation. But while the concept is increasingly familiar and many organizations are eager to position themselves to harness its potential, considerable confusion exists around what Open Innovation is and what it isn’t.

Google to Offer a Tool To Measure Web Hits†

Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2008 — As soon as Tuesday, Google plans to unveil a new service that measures Internet use, according to advertising executives who have been briefed on it. The tool is intended to help advertisers identify the best places to buy online ads by telling them which Web sites their target audiences visit.

Google's approach, aimed at bolstering its ad-sales business, could pose a major threat to the Web measurement services that are available now, ad executives say. The two main players in the business — comScore and Nielsen Online — gather data on Internet use largely by tracking what panels of people do online or by conducting surveys, and their results can be inconsistent and incomplete. Google's new offering will be based mostly on data from Web servers,... continue reading

Innovation Quest: Catalytic Leaders Set the Pace

Marketing News, June 24, 2008 — Innovation appears to be the holy grail of our times: Miraculous things will be wrought

when you find it, from an expanding cadre of continuously delighted loyal customers to a powerful, valuable brand, to sustained and healthy growth.

But the innovation quest is long, laborious andnot for the faint of heart. And success requires strong leadership setting the pace: a catalyst and change agent who has the vision, desire and ability to enlist and inspire others to the cause.

J.C. Penney Faults Fake Ad on YouTube†

Recent Branding Effort is Mimicked in Video; Saatchi Cites a Vendor

Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2008 — J.C. Penney Co. officials are upset about a racy, fake advertisement on YouTube in which the retailer appears to be endorsing teen sex, and they are blaming the company's ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.

The purported ad, which surfaced on the Internet after winning a prestigious international advertising award at Cannes this past weekend, shows two teenagers in their own bedrooms stripping down to their underwear and then timing themselves as they race to put on their clothes. All this is done in preparation for the boy and girl to hang out in her basement while her mother is upstairs.

Actor Sparks BK-Card Freakout†

Chain Gets Big-Time Buzz When 'House' Star Talks Up 'Ultimate Celebrity Perk'

Advertising Age, June 23, 2008 — Burger King got a deluge of publicity after the blogosphere picked up on a London Times interview with "House" star Hugh Laurie, who told the paper his celebrity perks include getting good tables and his "Burger King gold card."

Mr. Laurie was referring to the prepaid, lifetime "crown card" bestowed on a few carefully selected celebrities such as Jay Leno, Jennifer Hudson, George Lucas and Robert Downey Jr. There's one hitch, however: He doesn't actually have one. Some people will do anything to get a free lunch.

America Has Spoken: In Google We Trust†

Harris Poll Has Search Giant No. 1 in Reputation; J&J, General Mills and Berkshire Hathaway Make Top 10

Advertising Age, June 23, 2008 — The most reputable company in America: Google, which toppled Microsoft from the top perch in the 2007 Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient study released today — and sent it tumbling all the way down to No. 10.

But what should be even more eye-opening to the companies rounding out the top 10 — which include Johnson & Johnson and General Mills — and the rest of the list is that Google's victory shows that a company that spends nothing on advertising can still be the most positively perceived by consumers.

An Unlikely Promoter Drives Nokia’s Push in Hollywood

New York Times, June 23, 2008 — Tero Ojanpera is an unlikely media entrepreneur. Mr. Ojanpera, a veteran Nokia executive, is not a fan of “American Idol,” although he says he enjoys it from time to time. And when he tried to watch a recent episode of “Hannah Montana,” one of his sons switched the channel.

But four years ago, Mr. Ojanpera and his colleagues in the research center had an epiphany: that entertainment was crucial to the future of Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone maker.

Fox Creates Online Community For Viewers

MediaPost Publications, June 23, 2008 — Fox is pairing with social networking service Passenger to launch a private online community giving the network access to ongoing audience feedback on programming and marketing efforts. Made up of some 2,000 loyal Fox Network viewers invited to join, the community lets members preview new shows, interact with TV producers, post comments, engage in online discussions and participate in polls.

How Apple Is Blurring the Line Between Marketing and Service†

Pete Blackshaw Explains Why Consumer-Facing Brands Can Benefit From Better Customer Interaction

Advertising Age, June 23, 2008 — "How can I help you, and where would you like to go?"

In this simple greeting, there's a huge question: Are the greeting and the experience that follows marketing or service or both? In the last couple of months, Apple has boosted the number of "concierges" who greet and direct shoppers as soon as they walk in the door of its retail stores. Apple has always had employees at the front, ready to help, but this time it is positioning an eager-to-please offensive line a few steps from the doorway.

Modeling The Real Market Value Of Social Networks

Tech Crunch, June 23, 2008 — Is MySpace worth $3 billion, or $20 billion? It depends on how you value a user.

It’s time to start comparing the big global social networks on something other than unique visitors and page views. I believe an effective way to value a particular user is based on the average Internet advertising spend per person in the country they live in. The higher the spend, the more value the social network can get out of the user by serving them advertising and other products. That means that, for now, users in a handful of key countries are worth far more in terms of revenue potential than those in the rest of the world.

We’ve begun to build out a model that looks at social network usage by country/region and compares that to available data on total Internet... continue reading

The next step in open innovation

McKinsey Quarterly, June 23, 2008 — The Internet and new social-networking technologies are allowing companies and their customers to interact with unprecedented levels of richness. Some leading organizations are using this opportunity to draw customers into the heart of the product-development process.

The Post-Soccer Mom†

Brandweek, June 23, 2008 — Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce—and, while you're at it, hold the Dodge Caravan carting the cartel of kids to the soccer game. Hold the culinary classes, too, and those oboe lessons for junior. In case nobody noticed, that mythical '90s personage known as the Soccer Mom is no longer with us. The domestic superwoman who balanced family and checkbook, put Bill Clinton in the White House twice—and, lest we forget, was the demographic darling of brand marketers everywhere—is gone.

Nothing Sells Like Celebrity

Where stars end and products and pitches begin has grown less and less discernible in the era of the human billboard.

New York Times, June 22, 2008 — EARLY last year, marketing executives at Totes Isotoner, a Cincinnati company that had spent the previous 30 years churning out a reliable lineup of humble umbrellas, crowded around a computer and listened to a teenage singer from Barbados named Rihanna breeze through a tune titled, appropriately, “Umbrella.”

The song, not yet released, had commercial, jingle-ready lyrics and a stick-in-your-head hook: “You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh.” Totes, which hadn’t deployed celebrity endorsements since the former N.F.L. quarterback Dan Marino hawked its gloves more than a decade earlier, was smitten. “Umbrella” became a corporate rallying cry, with the song drifting through Totes’ offices at all hours.

BMW Ran Risk With Silent Role in Mockumentary†

Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2008 — Earlier this year, a half-hour mockumentary about a small Bavarian town's attempt to catapult a BMW car from Germany to the U.S. via a giant ramp garnered positive buzz from auto and pop-culture blogs. Yet rather than soak up the glory, BMW spent weeks refusing to claim the short film for what it was — a viral-marketing campaign created by the company's ad agency, GSD&M Idea City.

By keeping mum, the German auto maker was taking a risk. In recent years, the viral-marketing world has been littered with examples of companies that have pulled the wool over consumers' eyes, only to be blasted with criticism when the truth came out.

Rising Prices Cause 42% of Consumers to Give up Favorite Food Brands

Marketing Charts, June 19, 2008 — A sizeable 42% of consumers say they have given up favorite food brands because of rising prices and economic concerns, according to a study from Information Resources, Inc. that shows the lagging economy is driving a dramatic move back to basics and a reversal of decades-long trends for convenient and healthier foods.

Social Media Mistakes of Five Big Marketers†

Blogger Joseph Jaffe Lambasts Sprint, Sony, T-Mobile, Target and Starbucks

Advertising Age, June 19, 2008 — Nothing aggravates blogger Joseph Jaffe more than marketers that employ fakery, manipulation and heavy-handed lawyers in their social-media interactions with consumers. Author of the books "Life After the 30-Second Spot" and "Join the Conversation," Jaffe is the head of the marketing consulting company Crayon.

At Social Site, Only the Businesslike Need Apply

New York Times, June 18, 2008 — For a Web site, it could hardly look less exciting. Its pages are heavy with text, much of it a flat blue, and there are few photos and absolutely no videos.

But LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, is dull by design. Unlike Facebook and MySpace, the site is aimed at career-minded, white-collar workers, people who join more for the networking than the social.

Microsoft Acquires TV-Targeting Tech Firm†

Navic Networks Available on 35 Million Set-Top Boxes

Advertising Age, June 18, 2008 — The Microsoft-Google war has moved from the web to the TV. Microsoft today announced it will buy Navic Networks, an addressable advertising technology provider that enables marketers to dynamically target and measure audiences based on patented technology available in 35 million set-top boxes nationwide.

Seminoles strike up a deal with N.Y. Yankees for chain of steakhouses

Sun Sentinel, June 18, 2008 — Take me out to the ballgame. And pass the baked potato.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida and the New York Yankees are teaming up on a chain of high-end steakhouses, the first expected to open next spring at the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The Seminoles will also build a 7,000-square-foot Hard Rock Restaurant in the stadium, executives from the tribe and the team said Wednesday.

It may seem like the oddest New York pairing since Liza Minnelli and David Gest, but it underscores the increasing clout and world recognition of the Hollywood-based tribe. In 2006, the Seminoles used their casino fortune to purchase the Hard Rock Hotel and Restaurant chain for $965 million, and they have since expanded its global footprint.

Ways to Follow Your Friends on the Web†

Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2008 — Kevin Morgan was a typical overwhelmed Web user. A business-school student in Los Angeles, he found himself regularly logging in and out of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking sites. "It was a pain," says Mr. Morgan, 33 years old. "It's such an overload to go check everything, and then you get emails saying there is a new message and you just left." In February, he began to give up, deleting his MySpace account.

But then Mr. Morgan discovered a solution to his Web overload: Yoono, a site that installs a free sidebar that sits atop his Internet browser and can show pictures of his friends, their online status and any updates they have made to their profiles on various Internet sites.

Consumers to Watch 25% More Video a Day in Five Years†

Viewing on Computers, Mobile Phones Will Drive Increase

Advertising Age, June 17, 2008 — Consumption of video content is expected to rise 25% to five hours per day by 2013, compared with the four hours now watched in 2008, according to Forrester Research. The firm suggests the increase will be driven by consumers watching programming of all grades via computers, mobile phones, portable media players and even digital photo frames.

How to Win the Hearts and Minds of Hispanic Customers

Marketing Profs, June 17, 2008 — With the Hispanic population in the US expected to surpass white non-Hispanic inhabitants by2030, marketers are scrambling for ways to tap into growing spending power while generating oyalty to their brands.

The challenge they face is to move beyond simply pushing established products or services.

Success requires a consumer-centric approach that hinges on offerings that are relevant to the target population.

How Twitter, FriendFeed Can Goose Online 'Shelf Space'†

Digital Bloggers Debate the Far-Reaching Impact of Distributed Web Services

Advertising Age, June 17, 2008 — Widgets are nifty. But do they really need a two-day conference? That's what I was thinking Monday as I checked out the agenda on WidgetWebExpo, held in Brooklyn earlier this week. But two DigitalNext bloggers, David Armano and Ian Schafer, and Digital columnist Steve Rubel were participating on the same panel and since I was working from home (also in Brooklyn) I meandered on down.

The title was "Micro Interactions: Can portable experiences go mainstream?" It's certainly a timely topic, tying in to the idea that the web is increasingly becoming a series of small services and experiences that consumers stitch together at their own will. Given the personalities on the panel, it should have been no surprise the discussion soon turned to web services like... continue reading

The Issue: How P&G Brought Back Herbal Essences

It updated a stale mass-market shampoo to appeal to younger Gen Y and Millennial women

BusinessWeek, June 17, 2008 — When Procter & Gamble acquired hair-care company Clairol in 2001, it inherited a floundering shampoo brand. By 2004, Herbal Essences, at the time nearly 35 years old and a mass-market hair-care brand for women, was in a "long-term decline," reports Chairman and CEO A.G. Lafley. Marketed to all women (or at least those who wash their hair), the line had gone stale, with little distinction from the many competitors it shared on the drugstore shelf.

Measuring Up: Web Analytics Firm Monitors Engagement

MediaPost Publications, June 16, 2008 — Start-up Web video analytics firm Visible Measures today is expected to announce the availability of a service for advertisers and agencies to measure the "true" viral reach and audience engagement of their video ad campaigns.

Visible Measures' technology, which monitors user engagement throughout the entire video stream, has so far focused on helping publisher customers get a better idea of what parts of their videos work, and what parts don't.

MySpace Might Have Friends, but It Wants Ad Money

Monetizing social networking Web sites is proving to be an arduous road and ad revenues have not come in as quickly as planned

New York Times, June 16, 2008 — When the News Corporation added MySpace to its portfolio nearly three years ago, it expected that if its base of 16 million users kept growing — and each user kept adding friends, sharing photos and swapping flirty messages — the advertising dollars would roll in.

The social networking site has grown — to 118 million worldwide users — and the flirtations have not stopped. But the cash is not coming in as quickly as the company had hoped.

Secrets Of The Always-On

Forbes, June 16, 2008 — It's 8 a.m.--and it's time to Tweet.

I reach across my bed for my cellphone--before coffee or even before sliding out of bed--and send my broadcast to the world. I type "Awake" or "Here I am!" and to an address: 40404. (This number is the equivalent of a phone number that everyone sends their messages to in order to submit to Twitter.)

Spam: The Ultimate Survivor†

Potted Meat Thrives for 71 Years -- During Both Boom and Bust

Advertising Age, June 16, 2008 — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — By all rights, something should have happened to Spam the brand that a dose of sodium nitrite prevents from happening to Spam the product: It should have gone bad. Yet after 71 years on supermarket shelves, the king of potted meats has not just survived; it's thrived. In recent quarters, Spam has sported double-digit sales increases that have made some big headlines.

Social Networking Takes Off

The Conference Board, June 13, 2008 — Social interaction platforms, including MySpace and Facebook, have grown dramatically in recent years, with more people joining every day. Once a niche activity, online social networking now engages millions of consumers and has become an integral part of many people's lives. Currently, one out of every four people online visits social networking sites, according to the Consumer Internet Barometer.

Apple Aims for the Masses With a Cheaper iPhone

New York Times, June 11, 2008 — Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, introduced a new cheaper iPhone model on Monday that navigates the Internet more quickly, expanded its distribution overseas and displayed a range of new applications and services in order to establish Apple as a major player in the cellphone industry.

Smartphones Now Ringing for Women

New York Times, June 11, 2008 — If recent history is any guide, roughly a third of the people snapping up Apple’s new iPhone are likely to tote it in a purse.

In a big shift for the phone industry, women have emerged as eager buyers of not just iPhones but of all so-called smartphones — BlackBerrys, Treos and other models

What Marketers Can Learn from the Tomato Scare†

Whole Foods, McDonald's Should Be Buying Keywords, Posting to Blogs

Advertising Age, June 10, 2008 — The businesses affected by the tomato scare are, yet again, missing out on a very big opportunity to address nervous consumers: search.

Despite being taught the importance of paid search either by action or, more often, inaction of other marketers during times of crisis — including the pet food scare, Jet Blue's runway woes or Mattel's toy manufacturing issues — grocery and other food marketers have not focused on search as a way to address the recent tomato scare.

Ciao Bella—in Your Grocer's Dairy Case

How friendly media attention helped a Little Italy gelato shop move from being a restaurant supplier to a premium supermarket brand

BusinessWeek, June 9, 2008 — Ciao Bella was once content to produce generic desserts. The maker of premium gelato and sorbet sold its wares mostly in bulk to restaurants that served them as unbranded "home-made" ice cream. Retail was just 10% of the company's business in 2000 and the least profitable part. The last thing Ciao Bella wanted to deal with was the logistics of shipping pints of frozen ice cream to far-flung stores. "We fought the growth of retail," says Deborah Holt, the company's vice-president for marketing.

But today Ciao Bella sells through 4,000 retailers accounting for half of its business.

Facebook Launches Ad Feedback; MySpace Ditched for Offensive Ads

MarketingVox, June 9, 2008 — Facebook has launched a feedback feature for ads on its site, reports robwebb2k. Each Facebook ad now comes with a pair of "StumbleUpon style thumbs," he writes. Rating a Facebook ad "thumbs down" results in the ad being changed. When users rate an ad, a pop-up feedback window asks why it was either liked ("interesting," "relevant to me," "good offer," "other") or disliked ("misleading," "offensive," "pornographic," "irrelevant," "repetitive," "other").

Hummer Bummer: GM Wants Out of Guzzler Game†

Auto Giant Finds Out There's Less Green in Truck Brand Today

Advertising Age, June 9, 2008 — DETROIT (AdAge.com) — Hummer's rapid descent from hot to not is an automotive tale for our times.

As recently as 2006 the truck was still seen by many consumers as a fun — even cool — ride, making regular appearances in Hollywood (notably on HBO's "Entourage") and at big sporting and red-carpet events. It was also a sales success story for owner General Motors. Today it has become an economic, environmental and brand liability for the company — a fact not lost on GM Chairman-CEO Rick Wagoner, who looks like he wants the off-roader off the books

Text Messaging Makes Magazine Ads Interactive†

Digital Technology May Be Poised to Support Traditional Ad Sales

Advertising Age, June 9, 2008 — The push to make magazine pages more interactive is building mass and, dare we say it, even real momentum as major publishers and advertisers adopt a pair of technologies centered on the cellphone.

The Card-Carrying Starbucks Fan

New York Times, June 7, 2008 — IN 1981, when American Airlines was struggling to differentiate itself in a newly deregulated industry, it invented the frequent flier mile. Ten years later, American Express responded to its own competitive crisis by introducing what we now know as Membership Rewards.

So it shouldn’t come as any big surprise that Starbucks, facing its own troubled times, would also turn to a loyalty program.

This week, the company flipped the switch on the latest piece of its new Starbucks Card Rewards program: two hours of free wireless Internet service a day. The other freebies include syrup and soy milk additions to its drinks, refills of drip coffee and a tall beverage of any sort for people who buy a pound of whole bean coffee.

Emerson Electric's Innovation Metrics

Large companies, where data-driven decision-making rules the roost, have long sought ways to measure innovation. Emerson Electric thinks it has the answer

BusinessWeek, June 5, 2008 — Emerson Electric (EMR) is a company that embraces numbers. If something can be measured, the fast-growing industrial conglomerate doesn't hesitate to do so. On a wall at its St. Louis headquarters, photos of 2,000 Emerson managers hang in ranked order—from Chief Executive David Farr on down.

So as the company has sought to improve its innovation efforts, it has turned to—what else?—a new metric. With 140,000 employees and 52% of its $22.5 billion in sales coming from outside the U.S., the company, like many others its size, had set an arbitrary goal for its 60 far-flung business units: make a third of sales from products released in the past five years. Now Emerson is taking a different approach to tracking new-product sales—one it considers... continue reading

Clinton's Road to Second Place†

Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2008 — Sen. Hillary Clinton, once positioned to be Democrats'"inevitable nominee," won't be. On Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama won enough delegates to claim the party's presidential nomination.

Inside the Clinton campaign and out, the finger-pointing has begun. The bottom line is this: She called the biggest plays, and she got them wrong.

Still, these people say, Sen. Clinton is responsible for what one confidant called "grievous mistakes." Those help explain why Sen. Clinton — the best brand name in Democratic politics, and an early favorite to be the first female nominee in U.S. history — lost to a relative newcomer who would be the first African-American major-party nominee.

Smucker Brews Up Deal to Buy Folgers†

Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2008 — J.M. Smucker Co. soon will be serving Folgers coffee along with its namesake jellies and Hungry Jack pancakes.

Smucker is expected this week to seal a deal to buy the Folgers coffee business from Procter & Gamble Co. in an all-stock deal, according to people familiar with the matter. Details aren't known but given Folgers's annual sales of $1.6 billion, the business could fetch a price tag of $2 billion or more.

Brazilian Takeover Bid Imperils Bud Brand†

Foreign Ownership Could Be Problem for Brewer's All-American Reputation

Advertising Age, June 2, 2008 — As Anheuser-Busch frets over how to ward off a takeover attempt from Brazilian-run InBev, the positioning of its flagship brand might just be the closest thing the No. 1 U.S. brewer has to a poison pill.

In fact, A-B distributors and agency executives who have worked on Bud and its sibling brands have grave doubts that a brand as overtly red, white and blue as Budweiser — and, by connection, its siblings — would remain credible with consumers under a Belgian owner operated by Brazilians.

Hilton to Tap Starwood Luxury Team†

Hotel Chain Aims to Bolster Presence In High-End Arena

Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2008 — As part of an ambitious plan to nearly double its luxury properties in the next year and create an upscale boutique hotel brand, Hilton Hotels Corp. has hired two luxury gurus away from competitor Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

Hilton is expected to announce Monday the appointment of Ross Klein as global head of luxury and lifestyle brands for Hilton and Amar Lalvani as global head of luxury and lifestyle brand development. The moves are geared toward vaulting Hilton ahead in the luxury category, where it has trailed competitors.

Marketers, Don't Just Blindly Follow Latest Media Trends†

Why 'Because All the Cool Kids Are Doing It' Isn't a Good Excuse for Running to Nontraditional Media

Advertising Age, June 2, 2008 — One of the first messages ever posted to my profile on Facebook was from my 16-year-old niece in Nebraska. It said: "What are you doing here?" Even though they were just words on a screen, I could hear the tone in it. What are you doing here? In her mind, her 40-year-old uncle was intruding on a space she thought of as reserved for people more like her. And the thing is, I think she believes I'm pretty cool for an uncle. I've got some credibility: I live in New York, I'm in the ad business and she knows I'm associated with some pretty good brands. But despite this, she still asked the question. It wasn't exactly the reception I had in mind. And my response was equally bad: "Um, because everyone else is?"

In a media environment that is increasingly... continue reading

NBCU, Nielsen Team on New Sales Measure†

Partnership Will Cull Data from TV Ratings, Online Video Streaming, Consumer Activity

Advertising Age, June 2, 2008 — NBC Universal and Nielsen have decided to collaborate on new sales measures using data from TV ratings, online video streaming and consumer activity based on specific industry categories. It's just the latest step by a TV network to cobble together information for advertisers that goes beyond the typical reach-and-frequency ratings that have been the benchmark of the business for decades.

The two companies said their alliance is designed to "move advertising sales beyond traditional demographic data" and promote the development of new sales and marketing measures.

New reloadable debit card from Edo targets teens

DMNews, June 2, 2008 — Edo Interactive has launched the Facecard Prepaid MasterCard, giving teenagers and young adults a new way to spend money and retailers a new way to market to this audience...Funds can be loaded onto the card via reoccurring direct payments from a bank — a parent, for example, could use this option for a child's allowance — or from other debit or credit cards and payroll direct deposit.

Sci Fi Channel is game to join the virtual world

The channel is teaming with a gaming company to create a TV series that also plays out on the Web. Fans would help shape the story arc.

Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2008 — Can two alien cultures coexist in one writers room? Sci Fi is entering a brave new world by teaming television writers with video-game designers to create a franchise that is both a television series and a massive multiplayer game on the Internet — more than that, the fans who play the game will actually help shape the show's story arc with their virtual exploits.

"This is the Holy Grail for us, without a doubt," said Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, which has teamed with Trion World Network, an on-the-rise gaming company based in Redwood City, Calif. "This is groundbreaking, and I don't say that lightly."

Design Thinking†

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes—and even strategy.

Harvard Business Review, June 1, 2008 — Thomas Edison created the electric lightbulb and then wrapped an entire industry around it. The lightbulb is most often thought of as his signature invention, but Edison understood that the bulb was little more than a parlor trick without a system of electric power generation and transmission to make it truly useful. So he created that, too.

Thus Edison’s genius lay in his ability to conceive of a fully developed marketplace, not simply a discrete device. He was able to envision how people would want to use what he made, and he engineered toward that insight. He wasn’t always prescient (he originally believed the phonograph would be used mainly as a business machine for recording and replaying dictation), but he invariably gave great consideration to... continue reading