Google CEO Foresees Advertising, Technology Cozying Up

Marketing Daily, April 30, 2008 — Look for the advertising and the technology industries to grow cozier in a move similar to one experienced by the financial industry during the 1970s. That's when a set of scientists and mathematicians developed new metrics, and suddenly a generation of employees focused on analytics joined financial firms to maximize efficiencies and profits, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt told attendees at the 90th annual American Association of Advertising Agencies Leadership Conference on Tuesday in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Kraft, Kellogg Beat Analyst Expectations†

Despite Quarterly Earnings Tumble, Marketers Stick With Upping Ad Spending

Advertising Age, April 30, 2008 — In the face of rising commodity costs and cautious consumers, most brand-name food manufacturers are continuing to increase marketing investment. Kraft and Kellogg, which both reported earnings this morning, credited advertising and marketing with the strength of the companies' respective brand portfolios. Both marketers saw profits drop and simultaneously beat analyst expectations.

Another Piece That Aims to Solve ROI Puzzle†

MediaVest Partners With TRA to Connect Dots Between TV Ads and Shopping Habits

Advertising Age, April 23, 2008 — Publicis Groupe's MediaVest is partnering with a market-research company to answer advertising's million-dollar question: Do TV ads make consumers go out and buy products?

TRA, a media market research company, has developed a new technology that matches the advertising households receive with the products those households actually buy.

The partnership comes as the precise measurability of online advertising is putting TV under increasing pressure to show marketers a return on their investment, and as marketers are demanding more metrics to justify spending on TV.

Amazing Ad Recall Rates from Podcasts, Online Video Shows

Marketing Charts, April 21, 2008 — Ads in podcasts are three times as effective as “traditional” online video ads and seven times more so than television ads, according to four campaign studies conducted by Podtrac and TNS. Compared with industry benchmarks of 21% for streaming video and 10% for television, unaided ad awareness for podcasts was an impressive 68% on average; aided recall was even higher, at 89% on average. Embedded ads in online video shows are also highly effective, the study found.

Starcom's Ad Deal for Kellogg's Hinges on Engagement†

Banner-Ad Campaign Based on Cost per Interaction

Advertising Age, April 21, 2008 — At a time when marketers are increasingly relying on engagement as a key metric of the success of an online ad campaign, Publicis Groupe media agency Starcom has brokered an online display-media deal based on cost per interaction rather than the more traditional metric of cost per exposure.

MindShare Moves Beyond Buying, Planning†

Restructures to Build IP, Create Branded Content and Take On McKinsey

Advertising Age, April 17, 2008 — WPP's MindShare has launched a wholesale restructuring of its business — effectively splitting the agency into four distinct units — designed to move the shop beyond planning and buying, and create new revenue streams from content and intellectual property creation and McKinsey-style business consulting.

The global reorganization, the first in MindShare's 11-year history, comes as at a time when commoditization of media buying is a real threat, as procurement executives and the requirement for transparency in terms of costs have enabled clients to squeeze media agencies' margins to such an extent that many are often left making only a couple of percentage points on marketers' media expenditures — media expenditures that are themselves often flat, or... continue reading

Nielsen to Buy IAG Research for $225 Million†

Adds Qualitative Measurement to Quantitative Expertise

Advertising Age, April 7, 2008 — If Nielsen can't measure its way to continued dominance of an ever-shifting advertising world, perhaps it can buy its way into it. The media-measurement company today said it had agreed to purchase IAG Research, a company that measures viewer response to ads, TV shows and product placements, for $225 million.

TV Learning Importance of Targeting†

Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2008 — The advertising industry has long had a hunch that consumers are more apt to watch a television commercial if they actually are in the market for the product or service being pitched. Now, they have some evidence.

A 16-month study by cable company Comcast and Starcom MediaVest, a media firm owned by Publicis Groupe, found that households that had ads targeted to them were about a third less likely to change the channel than those that were shown traditional ads.

Is the Ad a Success? The Brain Waves Tell All

New York Times, March 31, 2008 — NEVER mind brainstorms. These days, Madison Avenue is all about brain waves.

That may be overstated, but it is no exaggeration that agencies and advertisers are growing more interested in neuroscience in their never-ending efforts to improve effectiveness.

The ardor of the ad business to adopt the technical tools of biometrics — measuring brain waves, galvanic skin response, eye movements, pulse rates and the like — is increasing as consumer spending, the engine of the American economy, slows.