News Hotline

• Court Dismisses Defamation Suit Against WPP's Sorrell
  by Steve McClellan 41 minutes ago

  A New York court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought against WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell. Sorrell was slapped with the suit last August by the law firm then representing New Delhi Television, Sabharwal & Finkel, and its principals, Adam Finkel and Rohit Sabharwal. ...

• Tween Girls Susceptible To Mobile Advertising
  by Gavin O'Malley 49 minutes ago

  New research shows that female tweens are highly susceptible to mobile advertising. In fact, 65% of girls surveyed said they are likely to buy products and services straight from mobile ads if there is a means to do so. Of those, a whopping 80% of girls say they ...

• MediaCom Races To Win FIA E Championship's AOR
  by Steve McClellan 3 hours ago

  A start-up race car circuit, The FIA E Championship, has named WPP's MediaCom as its agency of record for its inaugural 2014 season, the companies have confirmed. The agency is tasked with identifying potential sponsorship partnerships for the new racing brand. ...

• Networks Tie For Last Month of the 2012-2013 Season, NBC Gains Ground
  by Wayne Friedman 5 hours ago

  The four major networks were in a virtual tie for the last month of the 2012-2013 TV season. CBS, Fox, and ABC all finished with a Nielsen live plus same day 1.8 rating/5 share among 18-49 viewers with NBC just a tick behind, at a 1.7/5. ...

• Five Companies Partner, Launch Open Source Video Viewability Tech
  by Tyler Loechner 7 hours ago

  TubeMogul, Brightroll, Innovid, LiveRail, and SpotXchange have partnered to launch Open Video View (OpenVV), a video viewability solution for in-stream ads. The open source tool, which can be played around with here, lets advertisers or companies see the view stats for specific impressions. It asks the most basic ...

• Fat Tire 'Pairs Well With People'
  by Tanya Irwin Today, 12:49 AM

  New Belgium Brewing, the nation's third-largest craft brewer, is launching a campaign including the company's second-ever TV effort, and the first in eight years. Its new tagline, "Pairs well with people," refers both to the employee-owned, environmentally proactive brewer and to its flagship brew, Fat Tire Ale. ...

• Aereo Is Not Just For Cord-Cutters
  by David Goetzl Yesterday, 6:34 PM

  Are cord-cutters most likely to subscribe to Aereo? Not necessarily, according to early returns. CEO Chet Kanojia told investors Thursday that 50% of its customers have a pay-TV subscription. He spoke at a Barclays conference, and his comments came via a report from analyst Anthony DiClemente. ...

• Yahoo Search Experiments With New Look
  by Laurie Sullivan Yesterday, 6:30 PM

  Yahoo Search has been experimenting with colors, features and layouts, as the company tries to determine the correct mix to boost clicks across properties and query traffic on its search engine, as well as increase revenue per thousand searches. ...

• Cars.com Drops Flag On NASCAR.com Sponsorship
  by David Goetzl Yesterday, 6:25 PM

  Cars.com has a need for speed. The site has a deal with Turner to sponsor a series of videos on NASCAR.com that continues a campaign it launched with a Super Bowl spot. The custom-produced shorts tabbed "Track Drama" feature NASCAR rivalries, intensity on Pit Road and energy as ...

• Mobile Important For Hispanic Shoppers
  by Aaron Baar Yesterday, 5:10 PM

  According to the survey, 16% of Hispanic consumers use their mobile devices for their purchases, compared with 12% of general market consumers. According to Armand Parra, director of insight and strategy at The Integer Group, age and early adoption of technology are the main drivers behind the tr ...

• Path Seeks Dismissal Of Wireless-Spam Case

  Mobile social network Path is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the company violated a federal consumer protection law by sending unsolicited text ads to people's cell phones. The lawsuit stems from Path's invite-a-friend feature, which allows users to invite their friends to join ...

• Amazon Appstore Goes Global

  Amazon may have been late to the app store game, but that hasn't stopped it from going global. The online retail giant on Thursday said the Amazon Appstore is now available in nearly 200 countries worldwide. ...

• Data Is Springboard For Product Development

  Several companies, from PepsiCo to 1-800-Flowers, tap data to drive new product and service innovations. At PepsiCo, data doesn't drive marketing; it acts as a strong enabler. 'The Financial Times' uses sign-up data to develop products, recommended reads, acquire new customers and sophisticated targeting for advertisers ...

• CoreBrand: Brand Favorability Low

  Brand consultancy CoreBrand says awareness isn't everything. Awareness is up across the board for the top 100 corporations it looks at for its BrandPower Series, but what people think about them? Not so nice. The CoreBrand Favorability Report, the latest in the series, follows trends in the favorability ...

• Worldwide Pay TV On The Rise, Big Growth In Asia

  North American pay TV subscribers may continue to show little or no growth for the first quarter, but worldwide pay-TV business continues to climb, especially in emerging markets. Worldwide pay TV subscribers -- business from cable, satellite and telco businesses -- grew by 8% in 2012 to 800 ...

• Activision Blizzard's Campaign Wins Grand Effie

  Video game marketer Activision Blizzards' ad campaign "The Vet and the nOOb" for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" has won the 2013 Grand Effie for North America. The effort was led by MDC Partners' 72and Sunny, with contributions from media shop OMD, digital agency SapientNitro and PR ...

• Mag Bag: Bonnier, Source Interlink Swap Mags

  Enthusiast publisher Bonnier Corp. continued wheeling and dealing this week with the purchase of a biker gang's worth of motorcycle titles from Source Interlink Media, including "Motorcyclist," "Sport Rider," "Dirt Rider," "Motorcycle Cruiser," "Hot Bike," "Baggers," "Super Streetbike," "Street Chopper," and "ATV Rider." Together with Bonnier's "Cycle World," ...

• Vice, Twitter Partner For Mobile Show

  Simultaneously expanding its video and social strategy, Vice on Thursday unveiled #dailyvice -- a daily show tailored for Twitter users and featuring short clips featuring the publisher's irreverent brand of news and cultural coverage. ...

• Ford Launches European Campaign

  The effort talks about specific Ford technology, while furthering the brand position evinced by its "Go Further" tag. Central to the effort are 15-, 20- and 30-second TV ads for the Euro market that will air during the final between FC Bayern Munich and BV Borussia Dortmund. ...

• Exchanges Continue To Outpace Overall Ad Marketplace, Expands 35% In April

  Exchange-based programmatic media-buying continued to outpace the overall growth in advertising spending during April, expanding 35% over the same month last year. During the same period, total ad spending expanded only 14%, according to data compiled from the actual media buys processed by a majority of Madison Avenue's ...

• MediaVest Database Charts Brand Experience, Social Media Impact

  Publicis Groupe's MediaVest has created a massive database designed to help clients better understand, communicate with and market to consumer communities. A key issue for marketers is how well communities can scale impressions by sharing information with other community members. The study found that blogger/social networks/message board communities ...

• Kuik Trades Omnicom's Accuen For VivaKi's AOD, Will Lead New Activation Center

  Publicis' VivaKi unit has named Anke Kuik director of audience activation for its Audience on Demand platform, a new position at the agency's trading desk. Based in Amsterdam, Kuik will head up operations for the unit's recently launched European Activation Center there. ...

• Study: Social Media Driving CSR

  With tax evasion and third-world factory collapses dominating headlines, a study on the role of corporate responsibility programs shows that consumers are more inclined than ever to expect their favorite brands to be on their best behavior. They are relying on social media to keep them informed. ...

• Discovery Launches TestTube.com, Ups Digital Video Involvement

  Discovery Communications is looking to get into digital video platforms in a big way -- launching a new online science network targeting young men, called TestTube.com. The new ad-supported network will start up with 15 short-form original series, launching with an expected 10 million video views monthly. ...

• Integrate Adds DSP To Beef Up AdHQ Platform

  Ad tech provider Integrate gave RTM Daily the inside scoop on the release of their new self-serve demand-side platform (DSP), which they announced today. The DSP will be added to Integrate's existing AdHQ platform. Bodhi Short, SVP operations & product development, Integrate, said that the new DSP is ...

• Mondelez Goes Social, AR In Band-Tour Sponsorship

  The "1D VIP Tour Correspondent" (Kylie Keene of Portland, Maine) was selected through a contest that generated big buzz across 1D fan sites and social media communities. Hundreds of One Direction and Nabisco snack brands fans submitted videos and resumes to vie for the job. ...

• Size Doesn't Matter: Sony Music Partners With 'Boutique' Trading Desk

  Huddled Masses, a "boutique" real-time trading desk, will today announce a partnership with Sony Music. Charles Cantu, CEO of Huddled Masses, spoke with RTM Daily about the deal, why record label companies are drawn to RTB in the first place, and why a smaller trading desk sometimes makes ...

• Madison Avenue Is Mad As Hell, March Mad: Takes More, Not Less Network TV

  Demand for network TV advertising, which had been lagging so far this year, surged in April thanks largely to March Madness. While much of the coveted NCAA basketball tournament coverage occurred in March, the big money and high rates of the Final Four and championship games occurred in ...

• Beer Category Grows Most In Brand Rankings

  Beer was the highest growth category in this year's BrandZ rankings -- up 36% year-over-year, according to the 2013 BrandZ Top 100 list of most valuable global brands, the 8th annual survey from WPP and Millward Brown. Leading the list of beer brands is Bud Light with a ...

• Network Advertising Initiative Proposes New Mobile Privacy Rules

  Moving forward with its plan to issue mobile privacy rules, the self-regulatory group Network Advertising Initiative this week provided members with a draft version of a code of conduct regarding information collected from apps. The proposed mobile rules, which were provided to Online Media Daily, require companies to ...

• NY1 Show Goes National

  Time Warner Cable (TWC) will begin distributing a show about Broadway and theater at large to subscribers in its various markets next month. "On Stage Across America" will be based on a local show airing over the past 15 years on TWC's Big Apple news station NY1. ...

• Saks Soars; Target Misses

  Minneapolis-based Target says its first-quarter earnings came in at a disappointing $498 million, "below expectations as a result of softer-than-expected sales, particularly in apparel and other seasonal and weather-sensitive categories," says Gregg Steinhafel, its CEO, in a release. ...

• TV Model: Nets, Stations Split Retrans 50/50

  Gray Television CFO Jim Ryan suggested that networks may capture more than half of an affiliate's retrans consent dollars over time. Right now, he said, a 50/50 split is emerging as the model. ...

• Newspaper, Magazine Ad Fortunes Continue To Decline

  In 2012, total newspaper print ad revenues dipped 8.5% to $18.9 billion, according to the Newspaper Association of America. That compares with a peak value of $47.4 billion in 2005, meaning that print advertising has suffered a precipitous 60% drop over just seven years, with 27 straight quarters ...

• Equifax Taps Dentsu's 360i As Lead Agency

  Data collection company Equifax has selected Dentsu shop 360i to be its lead agency for both traditional and digital channels. Equifax spent the bulk of its measured media budget -- more than $31 million -- on digital display advertising in 2012. 360i is tasked with leading all direct-to-consumer ...