• 'Idol' Sponsorships Pay Big Dividends for Marketers
    Who will be the next winner in the great "American Idol" contest? No, we're not talking about amateur singers with dreams of glory--we're talking about marketers who want a piece of Fox TV's media and marketing juggernaut. Now that the current season is over, Fox and Fremantle Media North America, which sells the sponsorships with Fox, is talking to current sponsors about signing up for next season and is considering letting another sponsor into the mix that already includes advertisers like Coca-Cola, Cingular, and Ford Motor Co. On the list are fast-food, electronics, and health and beauty marketers. Each one …
  • Movie Marketers Seek New Promo Partners
    Movie makers are facing a dilemma. Their usual strategy for marketing big-budget summer movies calls for promotional tie-ins with fast food marketers. But the controversial issue of childhood obesity and its alleged connection to junk food is giving filmmakers pause. "All the studios are aware that childhood obesity is an issue," one studio promotions executive said. "They're slowly starting to figure out what they want to do but there hasn't been a shift yet. People are just more aware of it." One solution they are pursuing is new deals with unconventional brands and nontraditional partners. For example, for its …
  • Online Advertising Continues To Attract Marketers
    It's no surprise, but now it's official--marketers continue to spend more and more of their advertising dollars online. A new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that online advertising increased 38 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, rising to $3.9 billion from $2.8 billion. To put the amount in perspective, first quarter online spending represented 80 percent of the dollars spent online during all of 1999--the bubble years of the Internet era. "Consumer habits are continuing to change and mature," says David Silverman of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Companies are effectively …
  • Yankees' Cable Network Offers 90-Second Spots
    The Yes Network, a cable station that broadcasts New York Yankee games, is trying something new to lure marketers who need a little extra time to tell their story. The network is offering what it calls a "content break," which consists of a 90-second spot to be broadcast at the end of the fifth inning of a game. Yes executives believe the initiative can serve as a showcase for movie trailers or television specials while allowing them to maximize their advertising inventory. Besides theatricals, the content breaks have been bought by cable nets looking to juice new series or specials. …
  • Dodge Takes College Road Trip to Promote Caliber
    Dodge is turning the traditional college "road trip" into a promotional vehicle for its 2007 Caliber model. Next week, the automaker is sending nine college students from their collegiate towns to Miami to promote the brand and to earn money for charity. The students hail from Boston, Chicago, and Dallas and will take five days to make the trip, stopping along the way in cities like Atlanta, Houston and Philadelphia. Their mission is to drum up interest in the Caliber and attract crowds to the car in whatever way they can. "We're really leaving it into their hands," said Jodi …
  • AT&T Launches New Global Ad Effort
    The international element of a new print, television, online and out-of-home ad campaign for the recently formed AT&T Inc. is now running. The effort carries the theme, "Your world. Delivered," and is designed to publicize the global enterprise capabilities of the company, which was created last fall in the merger of AT&T Corp., and SBC Communications Inc. Ads are scheduled to appear for a year in more than 14 countries around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan and the Netherlands. Spots will focus on building the AT&T brand in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, …
  • Tips To Make Podcasts Work For Marketers
    As marketers continue to seek new ways to spread commercial messages about their products and services, the podcast is emerging as a popular form of the so-called "emerging media" that advertisers are experimenting with as ad vehicles. Podcast are basically audio programming that can be downloaded to an MP3 player like an iPod, and then listened to at any time. According to Arbitron, 27 million Americans have listened to podcasts, and their growing popularity is causing major marketers to consider using them as platforms for advertising. Gregory Galant, the CEO of RadioTail, a firm that facilitates advertising in podcasts, is …
  • Agency Compensation An Issue In Snickers Video Campaign
    The issue of how an advertising agency gets paid by the marketer that hires it is in the news again. This time, there's deal ad agency BBDO wants to cut with client Mars for a new online promotional effort for Snickers candy bars. The campaign consists of a series of video vignettes featuring the rock group Black Eyed Peas, whose members play the role of a group of superheroes in the videos. Snickers and the Black Eyed Peas hope to use the series to generate revenue on top of the promotional benefits--from the sale of music, clothing and possibly other …
  • Maytag Repairman May Get Even Lonelier
    Are the Maytag repairman's days numbered? The iconic figure at the heart of the appliance marketer's long-running advertising campaign may be headed for the scrap heap now that the account has been moved to a new agency. The character, dubbed "Old Lonely" because customers never call on him to fix their super-reliable machines, was created by the Leo Burnett agency. But now that Maytag has been acquired by the Whirlpool Corp., the company is moving the account to its own agency, Publicis Worldwide, which is actually owned by the same agency holding company as Burnett. Old Lonely was created in …
  • Motorola Launches Q Smart Phone To Compete with BlackBerry
    Motorola Corp., which made such a splash in 2004 with its Razr branded cell phones under the direction of the company's late marketing boss Geoffrey Frost, is now launching its first new product since his untimely death in November. The product is a smart phone called Q, and its launch is being supported with an irreverent campaign themed "Let there be Q." While its e-mail function makes the Q a competitor to Research in Motion's BlackBerry device, the device is being positioned as "truly an extension of your PC," said Leslie Dance, corporate vice president-global marketing communications at Motorola. Print …
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