News Hotline

• Subway's Comedy Promotes Brand, Content Strategy
  by Gavin O'Malley 4 minutes ago

  Setting a new bar for brands and their programming aspirations, Subway's scripted comedy series, "The 4 to 9ers," appears to be performing better than anyone expected. The series is nearing 10 million views on Hulu. ...

• Microsoft Unveils Xbox One
  by Aaron Baar 13 minutes ago

  Via a live Webcast that featured Microsoft and gaming executives (with a cameo from Steven Spielberg), the company touted how the next-generation console will control not just gaming, but television programming, music, sports interaction and Skype calling. ...

• Real Media Group Cracks Down On Piracy, Partners With Microsoft
  by Tyler Loechner 13 minutes ago

  Online piracy has become a serious issue for advertisers, especially in the land of automation, where one robot has trouble detecting another. At the NAI's Annual Summit, 24/7 Media's Real Media Group announced that it has taken additional precautions against piracy. The release cites integration with an unnamed ...

• Subway Gives Original Programmers Some Competition
  by Gavin O'Malley 37 minutes ago

  Setting a new bar for brands and their programming aspirations, Subway's scripted comedy series "The 4 to 9ers" appears to be performing better than anyone expected. The series -- which follows a group of high school kids and their adventures in minimum-wage work -- is nearing 10 million ...

• Telematics Ecosystem Booming, But Caution Advised
  by Karl Greenberg 42 minutes ago

  Henry Bzeih, Kia Motors America's chief tech strategist, tells "Marketing Daily" that, while the smartphone and app technology exists for marketers to make offers based on driver location, loyalty data and preferences -- the big challenge is distraction. ...

• Study Raises Doubts About Future of Social, Digital Shops
  by Steve McClellan 59 minutes ago

  Amidst all the discussion of fully integrated marketing strategies, some are predicting the demise of stand-alone specialist shops such as social media and digital agencies. According to a new study from European business school Mediaschool Group, 80% of marketing students polled across Europe believe that stand-alone social media ...

• Sony Touts Ultra High-Definition TVs
  by Aaron Baar 2 hours ago

  "[Director Garth Davis] had a personal experience with the Sony 4K Ultra HD TV at the Sundance Film Festival, and a creative vision to bring the color and detail that 4K brings to life," a Sony rep tells Marketing Daily. "He truly was inspired by the mastery and ...

• Destination XL's Pixelated Privates Cause Controversy
  by Sarah Mahoney 3 hours ago

  "Once again, it's showing how this bigger man is just not treated equally," CEO David Levin tells Marketing Daily. "So he's not a hunky guy, and he gets dismissed-even though I see all kinds of pixelated private parts, even in primetime." ...

• Out-Of-Home Trading Platform Integrates With Mediaocean, Posterscope Backs Move
  by Joe Mandese 6 hours ago

  While it's not quite the out-of-home equivalent of the online industry's real-time trading systems, outdoor media just took another step in that direction. In a move that's starting to look like a horse race between two automated media planning and buying systems, one of the world's biggest buyers ...

• Networks Top Goal: Ad Dollars Trump Studio-Produced Shows
  by David Goetzl 6 hours ago

  With Netflix and Amazon writing hefty checks, it bears watching whether networks will increasingly pick up shows their affiliated studios produce. After all, that's the way for the parent company to monetize the shows across the spectrum, starting with ad dollars and moving toward a growing back end: ...

• Skyy Launches 'Be Part Of The Art'

  To support the debut of its new Skyy Infusions Moscato Grape variety, Skyy Vodka has launched a campaign that combines an art-gallery theme and a hip-hop sensibility. The "Be Part of the Art" campaign, developed with agency partner Lambesis (La Jolla, Calif.), launched May 20. ...

• Miller64 Partners With Former Pro Athletes

  Miller64 is launching "GO64," a summer-long initiative that will include local events, celebrity appearances, giveaways and social media. The program officially kicks off June 4, and consumers in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas and Tampa are invited to "GO64" celebrity-hosted events. ...

• Google+ Needs Android To Climb Out Of Experimental Phase

  Marketers continue to view Google+ as a fledgling network requiring experimentation, although the company released a revamped social application for Android that integrates with Google Play, along with features improving support for photos, location, and streams. ...

• Budweiser Bows New Campaign, Topped With Responsible-Drinking Blimp

  Summer is a time of concerts and festivals and beach-going, all of which carry the attendant risk of drinking and driving. To help people make the right decisions when imbibing, Budweiser is promoting responsible drinking with a new campaign that is hard to ignore, because the message is ...

• Clear Channel Outdoor Unveils Consumer Networks

  Clear Channel Outdoor is creating a new way for advertisers to buy out-of-home ad inventory with the unveiling of "consumer networks." They bundle out-of-home assets targeting specific audiences in order to streamline and simplify the media planning and purchasing process. The networks combine CCO ad inventory at national ...

• AOL, Support.Com Settle Scareware Lawsuit For $8.5 Million

  Web company AOL and software vendor Support.com will pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by consumers who say they were duped into purchasing software that promised to repair problems with their computers. ...

• Vespa Looks Back: 50 Years Of 50cc's

  The five-week effort -- a decade per week -- combines Vespa's own creative input around what was happening in the transportation, pop and cultural landscape over the decades with what Vespa owners have to contribute about their scooters and the brand's history. ...

• Digital TV Video Biz Is Booming

  As traditional TV platforms project small gains in their $70 billion business, new digital TV video businesses are looking at major hikes in the coming years to a smaller $4 billion business -- with cost per thousands seeing, at best, modest hikes. ...

• Industry Satisfaction Lagging, But Improving

  "Things are improving , but these are still industries that are not terribly satisfying to consumers, compared to other industries," ASCI managing director David VanAmburg tells "Marketing Daily." "These are still among the bottom of the industries." ...

• OMMA Social: Macy's Looks To Social For Connection

  The company also had success with its integrated "Bobbi Brown" content at eponymous retail spaces at Macy's stores. Jennifer Kasper, VP of digital media and multicultural marketing, says the videos are adjacent to the counter where consumer engagement with video took off. ...

• Gmail Hangouts Disable Google Voice

  Google's new version of Hangouts for Gmail eliminates Google Voice features. The move is frustrating heavy users, many of whom disconnected landline phones in exchange for Internet calling. The disconnect follows Google's recent rollout of Hangouts for mobile and Google+, although the change brings Google's video chat in ...

• Digital Boost: Ziff Davis Acquires NetShelter

  Ziff Davis on Monday announced the acquisition of content network NetShelter from ad platform inPowered. The NetShelter community includes more than 150 consumer and business tech sites, including AndroidCentral.com, MacRumors.com, Neoseeker.com, SlashGear.com and TechSpot.com. ...

• Initiative Wins Amazon's Global Media Account

  Interpublic Group's Initiative has won global media duties for e-Commerce giant Amazon.com after a review. The company's estimated global ad spending is close to $500 million. In the U.S., the online retailer spent nearly $300 million on ads in 2012, per Kantar. ...

• The Tweet Smell Of Success

  If Sidney Falco, the PR guy played by Tony Curtis in the 1957 classic "The Sweet Smell Of Success," wanted to get his story out today, he most likely wouldn't do it with a press release, or even a power lunch. He'd tweet it. That's essentially what Guy ...

• LikeableAds.com Launches, With Focus On Social Media Ads

  To keep up with growing demand from Madison Avenue, the social marketing consultants at Likeable Media have debuted a media and planning department. Dubbed LikeableAds.com. The unit will specialize in crafting, placing, optimizing, and analyzing social ads for clients. Tim Bosch, former strategy director at Likeable, was named ...

• Voltari Gears Up For Performance-Based Models, Releases SecondClick Tech

  While real-time in mobile hasn't seen the explosive growth online has, the technology is catching up. After officially announcing their mobile RTB platform last week, Voltari, a predictive analytics solutions provider for mobile, today launched SecondClick, which allows brands to target consumers beyond their initial click in real-time. ...

• Media Storm Inks Ad Buying Deal With Videology

  Media Storm, which specializes in representing entertainment entities, such as FX and Food Network, has signed a deal with online buying platform Videology that extends to mobile platforms. Under the arrangement, the agency gets exclusive access to a mobile addition to the TV Amplifier product. ...

• Yahoo To Ramp 'Native' Ads On Tumblr

  With its $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, Yahoo on Monday made clear that it plans to allow the blogging service to continue to operate as a separate business and brand. That includes no Yahoo branding on Tumblr. At the same time, the Web portal will look for ways ...

• Mars Contract Suit Against Y&R Continues

  A New York judge has denied a request by WPP's Y&R to toss out a breach of contract suit filed against it earlier this year by shopper marketing specialist Mars Advertising. But Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan did sharply narrow the scope of ...

• Sony Debuts Marketing Campaign For 4K TV Sets

  Although U.S. TV programming networks are not close to transitioning to the new 4K TV technology, Sony Electronics has started a marketing campaign for its new 4K Ultra HD TV sets. Sony profiled filmmaker Garth Davis, who made a 4K film shot on new Sony professional cameras. ...

• Dish TV Expands On-Demand

  Dish Network, which has allowed subscribers to watch live TV on mobile devices for some time, is expanding access to on-demand content from networks and its Blockbuster-branded offering. It will be available on certain Android and Apple devices. ...

• 4 Types Of Marketing Cultures: How Fast Is Yours?

  A new report from Forrester says the trait shared by companies that are either the most successful innovators, the fastest, or both is knowing exactly what kind of marketing culture they already have, and what kind they hope to build. ...

• Gigya Improves Marketing, Adds 21 Social, Tech Partners

  Social services startup Gigya on Monday is expected to announce the addition of 21 social and marketing tech partners to its NEXUS Partner Ecosystem. Gigya is hoping to give businesses more ways to market their products and services with social network data from Facebook, Google's G+ and Linke ...

• Health/Wellness Shop Diversifies Into Happiness, Launches Platform To Fuel It

  The CementBloc, a spunky New York-based agency specializing in health and wellness marketing, is diversifying into happiness. The spinoff, which will be unveiled Wednesday evening during the agency's Internet Week event in New York's Union Square, will launch a new platform for people to track, manage and boost ...

• Former IPG Exec Pahade Named Poptent CEO

  Nick Pahade, the former North American CEO of Interpublic Group's Initiative, has been appointed CEO of crowdsourced video advertising specialist Poptent effective June 3. Pahade will be based at Poptent's Philadelphia headquarters. ...