By Lisa Seward Look around our industry today and you'relikely to hear one word thrown around a lot: planning. Like a magic elixir, planning - whether called connection, context, contact, or strategic planning - is touted as the key behind many a winning media effort. Attend a media conference and sure enough, there's a panel of planners promoting consumer insight as a necessary ingredient in today's media work. (Well, not exactly. Each will boast of his or her own insight, no doubt the result of his particular agency's highly differentiated and trademarked Secret Consumer Insight …

BY Hank Kim & Richard Linnett "The consumer is in control." We heard these words roll effortlessly off the lips of no less a media maven than Anne Sweeney, Disney Media Networks co-chair, at ABC's upfront. This simple phrase is the prevailing platitude in the media marketplace today. Advertisers, media companies, and business journalists pay lip service to the notion that the consumers are running the asylum, but we all know that Big Media is still in control. Sure, consumers are surfing networks with remotes, zapping ads, and creating their own program schedules - essentially customized networks …

In the heady days of the dot-com boom, there was a time when publishers and advertisers frantically searched for a way to cram as many ads as they could onto the user's pc screen. Enter cursor ads. Sure, banner ads and rich media are great, but these ads follow the user's cursor around, making them inescapable; wherever the user wants to go, the ad follows. Cursor ads ranged from the fairly unusual - like a McDonald's ad with a Chinese Dragon dancing around the cursor that, when clicked on, changed into exploding firecrackers with a "Happy Chinese New Year" …

The next high-carb caramel nut bar you buy at 7-Eleven may have you enter a contest or open a dialogue with Hershey's while you wait on the checkout line. On-package calls to action via mobile texting codes are the next big (or short) thing in mobile marketing, says Jack Philbin, co-founder and president, Vibes Media. "It's huge. Anywhere, anytime, you can start a relationship with a brand." Package wrappers or boxes will carry short message service (SMS) codes and keywords that dial you into Vibes' own Instant Response Platform. The interactive script of up to 50 automated SMS exchanges …

By Daisy Whitney Who wouldn't rather watch an ad than stare at the back of someone's head? The answer is most people, and that's why elevator network Captivate has carved out this alternative niche, serving up business and consumer ads during trips in the lift. Consider this: the average aided recall for Captivate's ads is 45 percent, compared to industry norms in the 20- to mid-30 percent range, according to a Nielsen study conducted for Captivate. The elevator is almost a slam dunk for ads, with a classic captive audience looking for anything to avoid an uncomfortably …

As if malls aren't over-stimulating enough, food court tabletops are now plying us with ads during our shopping breaks. Judging by the number of top-tier brands signing on as advertisers with Creatable Media, an Australian company that recently launched in the U.S., it appears that beauty is truly in the eye of the almighty ad dollar.The company's first advertiser was NBC. Other behemoths, Televista and the WB, followed suit. The concept is simple: Creatable Media acquires the rights to mall food court tables, and installs poster ads that can include 3-D graphics and text. For example, Paramount placed …

Just hours after deploying a test in 5,000 homes of his innovative MediaCheck system for enhancing and monitoring TV ad effectiveness, The PreTesting Company's CEO Lee Weinblatt enjoyed one of those "Watson-come-here-I-need-you" moments. "[The engineers] sent along a big beautiful e-mail that read 'It works!'" he says. The MediaCheck gadgets register inaudible digital cues embedded in spots from 30 charter advertisers. The technology knows whether viewers fully view or zap each ad, and can even check whether viewers zip past ads on a personal video recorder. The device even bribes users to keep watching: A green light signals that …

Analog in a Digital World

By Daisy Whitney When Filene's Basement in New York wanted to promote a big sale last fall, one of the ad venues it chose was pedicabs. And that's not just because the drivers - cyclists pedaling with their own power - had nice legs. As use of pedicabs has increased in places like New York and Cape Cod, so has the profile of this unusual out-of-home advertising alternative, a natural for message-bearing. Massive Media in New York is currently touting its pedicabs for use in a summer ad program in New York, Houston, Key West, Fla., and other …

When I subscribed to Everyday Food, I was surprised to find myself paying attention to the ads. Take, for instance, a four-page spread in a recent issue, "Glad presents make-ahead meals." The advertorial's design, from the sans-serif font to the arrangement of the food on the page, mimics the look of the magazine itself. The ad features a tear-out recipe card for Savory Ribs. This got me thinking. What if all ads were this relevant? What if when you sat down to watch an episode of "Trading Spaces," instead of seeing the same …