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News Hotline

• JetBlue Plane Wears Red Sox Colors
  by Tanya Irwin Yesterday, 11:50 PM

  JetBlue has been the official airline of the Boston Red Sox since 2008. Last year, the airline announced an eight-year extension as the team's official airline and the official airline of Fenway Park. ...

• Boomers Shop Online To Save Money
  by Aaron Baar Yesterday, 8:42 AM

  According to Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research, 52% of shoppers ages 50-54 are purchasing health and beauty products online, while 29% have bought food and beverage products online -- more than any other age group. ...

• CPG Marketers Need Better Shopper Strategies
  by Steve McClellan Yesterday, 8:30 PM

  A new study from Booz & Company indicates that many consumer goods companies are struggling to use shopper marketing practices to maximum advantage. The big challenge is for manufacturers to "better engage retail partners in the development and execution of shopper solutions that deliver added value beyond price ...

• Online Video Drives Higher Returns On Top 10 Super Bowl Ads
  by Wayne Friedman Yesterday, 8:26 PM

  Top original Super Bowl TV commercials saw an 113% average return of their media investment because of additional online video viewership.Within the first three days, the top ten Super Bowl commercials generated an average of $862,000 in earned video impressions, according to media research company Kantar Video. ...

• Socal Commerce Grows, Consumers Still Wary
  by Mark Walsh Feb 10, 2012, 5:29 PM

  According to a Booz & Co. estimate, social commerce will grow to $30 billion globally in the next five years. But consumers still have security concerns about making purchases via social networks. ...

• TV Loses $8B By Not Utilizing HD Ads
  by David Goetzl Feb 10, 2012, 5:25 PM

  For several years, industry analysts have suggested that marketers eschewing ads in HD are missing an opportunity, since more programming is carried in the format. The gap between the amount of HD programming and HD advertising may be closing -- but according to new research that employs set-top ...

• Chicago Auto Show Has Performance Focus
  by Karl Greenberg Feb 10, 2012, 4:56 PM

  Jeremy Anwyl, president of Edmunds.com, says that while Chicago is not one of the top global shows for media and buzz like Detroit or the Geneva show, it's critical for what really matters: getting consumers in front of vehicles. ...

• Initiative Wins Sonos Media Business
  by Steve McClellan Feb 10, 2012, 4:55 PM

  Sonos, the maker of wireless music systems, has selected Initiative, a unit of IPG Mediabrands, to handle media chores. The client's annual spending on ads is estimated at $20 million. The new appointment places responsibility for all media planning, buying and digital marketing efforts with Initiative. ...

• Smart TV Uses Metrics To Refine Advertising
  by David Goetzl Feb 10, 2012, 4:33 PM

  TargetCast tcm says the path to smart TVs playing a game-changing role in TV advertising is uncertain, but the potential for data collection could help bring that into focus. ...

• SI's Swimsuit Empire Provides 'Convenient Excuse' For Bikini Photos
  by Phyllis Fine Feb 10, 2012, 3:34 PM

  With Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue hitting newsstands today, Business Insider’s Sports Page reports that the special issue has “turned into its own business and tech empire that, on its own, rivals the magazine that gave birth to it.”  In fact, the swimsuit issue is SI’s biggest single “cash cow” ...

• 'WSJ' Adding Social Networks To Fashion Coverage

  Wall Street Journal reporters covering Fashion Week are posting on two new-to-the-WSJ social networks: Pineterest and Instagram. "Pinterest offers the chance to reach massive, sharing-oriented new audiences — but also requires a different, more visual kind of editorial thinking," writes Andrew Phelps. He analyzes WSJ's social network strategy ...

• TV Execs Protest Political Ad Disclosures

  Executives from the likes of News Corp. and the National Association of Broadcasters met with the Federal Communications Commission to protest proposed rules that would require publicizing details of TV networks' political ad deals.  Having to disclose such details would mean that “[C]ompetitors in the market and commercial ...

• Universal Breaks With Tradition To Announce $40M VOD Revenue From 'Bridesmaids'

  Universal Pictures just announced its movie "Bridesmaids" has tracked $40 million through cable and internet VOD platforms -- big numbers that also represent one of the first time a studio has released VOD figures to the press. Daniel Frankel discusses the reasons for studios' lack of transparency -- ...

• Luxury New York Design Mag Launching In March

  Next month high-end publisher Cottages & Gardens will debut New York Cottages & Gardens, to be published five times yearly and targeted to "upper-income areas of the city, Westchester Country, Long Island and Hudson Valley," writes Steve Smith. With a focus on design, real estate and gardening, the ...

• Gannett Offers Buyouts To Community Newspaper Staffers

  Facing continuing revenue declines, newspaper publishers are tightening their belts again. Gannett Co.'s community publishing division is offering early retirement to 665 employees, in what could be the largest reduction in the company's workforce in several years. ...

• Ford Rolls Out ST In Chicago

  The program has an auto show focus that gives people a chance to test drive the hatchback virtually, before it goes on sale, and also dangles the winning driver of a virtual time trial to the ESPN summer X Games. ...

• 'Chicago Tribune' Erects Pay Wall

  The list of major newspapers erecting online pay walls is about to expand as the Chicago Tribune formulates a strategy to charge readers for access to its online content. Editor Gerould Kern said the newspaper will begin "to charge in a selective way." ...

• Close Rivalry As 'Idol' Battles 'Bang'

  The "American Idol" watch continues -- somewhat predictably -- with still-decent numbers and a neck-to-neck battle with CBS' "Big Bang Theory." "Idol" has stabilized its week-to-week numbers. ...

• VEVO Caught In Piracy Act

  Crying hypocrisy, TechCrunch claims that VEVO -- the record label-owned video hub -- showed a pirated stream of an ESPN football game at a recent PowerStation event. As we’re reminded, VEVO’s owners -- Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Abu Dhabi Media Group -- represent the core ...

• 'Do Not Track' Tools Get Better, Faster, Easier

  To the chagrin of data-hungry marketers, “Do Not Track” technologies continue to improve and evolve. A free tool released this week was designed specifically to address many of the concerns raised by a recent study, which found that anti-tracking technology was too confusing and difficult to use. “It's ...

• SapientNitro's Israel: Understanding Mobile Interaction

  The mobile challenge is to understand how people want to interact with the information on a particular device. Then determine the best way to present an experience that is easy to use and understand. ...

• ChaCha Apologizes For Offensive Voice Search Results

  Human answer engine ChaCha issued an apology after discovering that some answers in its database to sensitive questions were offensive and partisan. ...

• How To Launch A Paid Social Campaign

  Similar to search, every campaign in social needs special attention. Stephen Anderson provides eight recommendations that marketers should consider before launching a Facebook campaign. In one of the more important tips, he suggests taking advantage of segmentation features without limiting the audience, building a library of creative assets, ...

• Googler Finds Himself In Middle Of Controversy

  The Google employee Jon Rockway, caught leaving a comment on Hacker News that SEO is bad for the Internet, started a chain of blog posts from Aaron Wall and Graham Charlton analyzing what he really meant. Charlton called it "a surprising statement" by a Google employee. Folks like ...

• How To Set Up A YouTube Channel

  Marketers can choose to host videos on their own server, but setting up a channel on YouTube pretty much guarantees getting the content indexed into two of the biggest search engines in the world. There were 140 online video views for every person on the planet, according to Joel ...

• Personalizing Yahoo With C.O.R.E.

  Yahoo provides a visualization of the way it creates content through technology called Content Optimization and Relevance Engine, or C.O.R.E. The tool, populated in near real-time, allows people to identify the most popular story at any given moment. The technology measures how often users click on stories, and ...

• The Future Of The NFL's Big Game

  The NFL came out of Super Bowl XLVI with positive reactions to host city Indianapolis and host venue Lucas Oil Stadium, so much so that Commissioner Roger Goodell strongly implied that the league would return. But as the NFL sets its sites on an historic Super Bowl L ...

• Changes Afoot At Ford

  Two of the most senior and respected members of the Ford Motor Co. management team will retire, the maker announced this morning, but CEO Alan Mulally stressed that he himself has "no plans to retire," and insisted the executive shake-up will have no measurable impact on the way ...

• Yum Brands To Grow In China

  With more than half of Yum! Brands' profits now derived from stores in 73 emerging countries outside the U.S., Yum CEO David Novak said the company sees global growth as one of its biggest opportunities in 2012. Novak said that China in particular is "the best restaurant growth ...

• Cross-Platform Campaigns Boost Recall

  Advertising is becoming increasingly interconnected, and more marketers are pushing out innovative cross-platform campaigns. How does each medium perform? They're not all created equally. Mobile phones generate a much higher click-through (or "interaction") rate - 4.5 times as high as people's response to online video. At the link ...

• Chrysler CMO Says Ad Wasn't Political

  Chrysler CMO Olivier Franois said the "Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad was not designed to send any kind of political message nor was it a statement of support for President Barack Obama's re-election. ...

• Continental Pushes Past Southwest In Customer Loyalty

  This week, "Marketing Daily" brings you exclusive coverage of the Brand Keys 2012 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Each day, you received a full report on key product/services categories from among the 83 surveyed for this year's study. This fifth and final installment focuses on highlights from the airlines ...

• PepsiCo: Marketing Spend Up; Job, Agency Cuts

  In moves described as designed to redirect spending to "consumer-facing" investments and increase marketing ROI and accountability, PepsiCo will reduce its current approximately 300-agency roster by 50%. ...

• Magazines Sued For Violating Calif. Privacy Law

  Nearly a dozen publishers including Rodale, Conde Nast, Time, Inc. and Hearst Communications have recently been hit with potential class-action lawsuits for allegedly violating a California privacy law. ...

• Retailers' Apps Must Decide Strategy: Enrich Or Engage

  Most retailers have stumbled out of the gate when it comes to mobile strategy, creating weak, fragmented apps and mobile properties in their haste to gain a foothold in the mobile space. The problem is that companies have focused on the means -- mobile -- at the expense ...

• Brands Must Craft Specific Messages To 'Empowered' Consumers

  In a new "Rise of the Empowered Consumer" report, WPP's MediaCom advises using authenticity in messaging and employing a "device-neutral" strategy when trying to reach consumers who have more control than ever, thanks to technology. ...

• Adults Report Positive Social Network Experiences

  Separate and apart from teens, most adults view the overall social and emotional climate of social networks in a positive light. In fact, 85% of social networking adults say that their experience on such sites is that people are mostly kind, according to new findings from The Pew ...

• A&E Turns To FreeWheel For Mobile Ads

  A&E Networks has tapped video technology company FreeWheel to power advertising on the cable network's mobile properties. The tools allow the cabler to more closely replicate TV commercial breaks in programming on mobile Web sites and apps. ...

• Gillette Goes To Fashion Week

  Procter & Gamble's Gillette brand is focusing on menswear during New York Fashion Week via a partnership with MADE, comprising 50 fashion shows and presentations, parties, concerts, panel discussions and Web elements at milkmade.com. ...

• Q&A: Men Warming Up To Skin Care

  It's been nearly a decade since the term "metrosexual" first popped into the cultural lexicon. New research from the NPD Group finds that while 9 out of 10 men use some type of grooming product, only 25% use facial skincare products. ...

• Sirius XM Hears Revenue, Subscriber Rise In 2011

  Total Sirius XM revenues rose 7% to $3.01 billion in 2011. That makes Sirius XM a rival to Clear Channel Entertainment and Media as the largest radio company in the country, in revenue terms. ...

• Puma Teams With Pandora's 'Workout' Stations

  Puma has brought its new Pumagility brand to Pandora through sponsorship of a dozen workout-oriented stations on the online radio service. The custom stations launched in September on Pandora. Different genres -- hip-hop, hard rock, country -- but are all geared to pump up listeners during sessions at ...

• Nissan Lets Fans Build Z-car

  Nissan has launched a social media campaign that lets consumers help design the Nissan 370Z sports car. The program, called "Project 370Z," is focused on the Chicago Auto Show. ...

• Behind The Scenes Of A Fateful Night In News Corp. History

  Last May, Rupert Murdoch held a fateful dinner party -- one where he discussed with News Corp. principals and "legal heavyweights" how to "handle the phone-hacking scandal that had been hanging over the company for months and was suddenly spinning out of control," writes Greg Farrell.  Murdoch was ...

• BBC, Sky News Change Twitter Rules

  How should TV reporters handle breaking news on social media? Cory Bergman poses this question in light of the recent restrictions Sky News and BBC both placed on their reporters.The new policies are meant to ensure that "reporters and editors alert the newsroom before breaking news on Twitter." ...

• States, Newspapers Battle Over Who Gets To Publish Legal Notices

  The war between the states and local newspapers over who will publish legal notices is heating up again, as cash-strapped municipalities look hungrily at the traditional, revenue-producing franchise of papers everywhere. "Proposals to loosen legal notice requirements pop up every year in various states" but have until now ...

• Sunday's Ratings Runner-Up Wasn't On ABC, CBS, Fox Or Cable

  Sure, the Super Bowl amassed record ratings -- but four million people snuck away from the festivities to catch "Downton Abbey" on PBS, making "Abbey" the second-most-watched show of the night. Its numbers are only expected to go up as DVR ratings come in from those who opted ...

• Flash! Kodak Exits The Camera Biz

  When it comes down to it, Kodak may become a case study of what happens when a company continues to innovate, but fails to recognize how those very innovations will change the industry. ...

• Google Studies Web Surfing, Ecommerce Via Chrome

  Google has commissioned Knowledge Networks to create a panel of Internet surfers that it can study through a downloadable app supported by its Web browser Chrome. Google likely can't capture the details of an ecommerce transaction, but can tell when someone buys a product and the length of ...

• Mag Bag: GfK MRI Launches Starch Digital

  Print is increasingly giving way to digital media consumed on PCs, laptops, and mobile devices, including tablets and e-readers. Beginning in March, Starch Digital will measure every ad in every issue of 40 top magazines on tablets, e-readers and in various digital reproductions, including Zinio and Coverleaf. ...

• Search Marketers' New Role

  Marketers do their companies an injustice by only supporting paid-search marketing. These days, SEMs need to know not only paid search, but optimization and social techniques. In fact, the more marketers know about other online marketing strategies, the more valuable they become. Usher in the new era of ...

• How To Merge AdWords And Analytics

  Not being able to see revenue data in Google AdWords has been Sarah's biggest challenge when it comes to managing ecommerce accounts. There are many useful tools in Analytics and AdWords, but not for paid-search experts supporting ecommerce clients. Having the ability to either see revenue data or ...

• Google Screenwise Pays Up To $25 To Track You

  Knowledge Networks is giving panelists up to $25 in gift cards to learn about their Internet behavior. The company is working with Google to build a new panel that will teach the search giant about how "everyday people" use the Internet. The project, Screenwise, requires panelists to use ...

• Wolfram Alpha Launches Pro

  Wolfram Alpha began rolling out Pro this week, which adds the ability to input and download raw data, upload files, import images, and more. Stephen Wolfram takes us through the platform's capabilities, highlighing the features with screen shots. The engine now responds to queries, but also takes inputs ...

• App Revenues To Top $51.7 Billion in 2016 Despite HTML5 Gains

  Juniper says worldwide app revenues in 2016 will be more than double the market size in 2011. HTML5 deployments, however, will help the market peak soon. ...