Neuromarketing Hope and Hype: 5 Brands Conducting Brain Research

Fast Company, September 15, 2009 — Even before the age of Mad Men marketers have been trying to tap into the human subconsciousness to influence consumers to buy their products.

But over the last decade or so, as the fields of neuroscience and marketing science (as some like to call it) have evolved, the area of Neuromarketing has emerged. Today more companies are investing in the technology and studies. Neuromarketing blogs (Roger Dooley) and books (Buyology ) are being accorded more attention and legitimacy.

Microsoft And comScore Partner To Measure Brand Marketing

MediaPost Publications, July 31, 2009 — To help brand advertisers better measure and track their online ad campaigns, Microsoft on Thursday announced a collaboration with comScore to design a digital media-planning service. The Reach and Frequency Planner — or RF Planner, for short — was developed to help advertisers more easily determine and predict how consumers will respond to their digital ads.

Big Spenders Get the Most Buzz†

BrandIndex: LG, Ford Advertising Has Consumers Talking

Advertising Age, July 27, 2009 — Spend and you will get buzz.

That seems to be one takeaway from YouGov's BrandIndex, which compiled daily feedback from thousands of consumers for the first half of the year in order to find out which brands consumers are buzzing about and which brands they're not.

Foes No More, Ad Agencies Unite With Internet Firms

Analysts say Internet companies and ad agencies have no choice but to work together to develop ways to make money from digital media.

New York Times, June 30, 2009 — Advertising agencies and Internet companies once viewed each other as foes, but are now coming together to harness the potential for online advertising. Like many other segments, online ad spending has slowed from its previous breakneck pace during the deep recession, forcing companies to devise new ways to chase fewer dollars.

Bada-Bing: WPP Teams With Microsoft To Research How Search Builds Brands

MediaPost Publications, June 24, 2009 — WPP Group this morning unveiled plans for a research initiative with Microsoft to benchmark the "dynamics between search engine marketing and brand building." The effort, which is being spearheaded by WPP's Wunderman unit, will utilize proprietary research from Y&R's Brand Asset Valuator studies, as well as Wunderman's ZAAZ analytics and planning system.

"Marketers are spending billions on search engine marketing, primarily as a direct response mechanism," David Sable, vice chairman-COO of Wunderman, stated, adding, "We think it's time to better understand how search builds brands differently than traditional media.

Interpublic, Microsoft Team To 'Re-Invent' Media Planning, Buying: MOMS Is Not Your Father's Process

MediaPost Publications, June 23, 2009 — One of the hottest areas of the online advertising business - "ad ops," a short-hand for advertising operations, or the technology that is driving machine-based advertising and media-buying processing - could soon begin impacting the planning and buying process for all media. Interpublic, in partnership with Microsoft, this morning unveiled a new, tech-driven platform for managing the way media is planned, bought, measured and posted not just for online media, but for all forms of traditional and emerging media. The system, dubbed MOMS (Media Operations Management System), was unveiled this morning at the Cannes advertising festival in France, the companies boasted it would "re-invent" the way Interpublic agencies and clients plan and buy their media.

In Mac vs. PC Battle, Microsoft Winning in Value Perception†

View Has Shifted Dramatically Among Young Demo Since 'Laptop Hunters' Campaign

Advertising Age, May 18, 2009 — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Apple may have some of the most interesting online ads we've seen in a while, but Microsoft's recent push to paint the competitor as pricey is starting to work, according to data from BrandIndex.

How Microsoft Is Fighting Back (Finally)

It's counterpunching Apple and Linux with a new, audacious pricing strategy and a canny ad campaign

BusinessWeek, April 9, 2009 — For 25 years, Microsoft (MSFT) held unquestioned dominance in the personal computer business. But last year the maker of the Windows operating system started to look like a weary, vulnerable champ. Fueled by iPhone-mania and the iconic "I'm a Mac" TV ads, Apple (AAPL) was nearing a double-digit share of the PC market. At the same time, a new generation of sub-$500 "netbooks" that ran on the free Linux operating system was taking off.

The Napkin Sketch

How Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and others are using the power of images to digest complex ideas.

Fast Company, March 20, 2009 — You ought to be in pictures. No, really. Companies are increasingly using simple pictures to distill complicated concepts into easily shared, easily remembered nuggets. "Graphic expression and visual thinking are a central part of human cognition," says Neil Cohn, a researcher in cognitive psychology and linguistics at Tufts University. These ideas are spreading from how companies sell what they do — as in UPS's "Whiteboard" ad campaign, featuring its agency's creative director sketching out what brown can do for you — to plotting strategy. For example, Mark Zuckerberg has said that Facebook is based on the "social graph," a visual model of how people interact.

Coke Still No. 1, Starbucks Slips in Brand Index†

CoreBrand's Survey Also Finds Pepsi, Microsoft Sliding Down Standings While Apple Gains

Advertising Age, March 19, 2009 — Watch out, Starbucks, Pepsi and Microsoft: Your brand power is waning.

So concludes CoreBrand's Brand Power Index, which ranks 100 corporate brands in terms of market reputation and awareness. The annual ranking is conducted by surveying 400 corporate executives across 1,200 companies and 49 industries, with financial performance, perception of management and investment potential taken into account.