• Doggy Style
    You know how you've dumped someone because she couldn't stand the coating of cat hair on your sofa? Or maybe you've realized you like his golden retriever more than you like him. Check this out: 4-year-old datemypet.com, an online dating service for the love-me, love-my-pet crowd, with advertisers including pet product companies as well as competitor eharmony.com.
  • All Together Now
    To introduce the F400 music phone, Samsung used a campaign that crossed social boundaries - in a good way. The premium music phone features outstanding audio quality and a music recognition app, so it was a natural for Samsung to help its target, the over-16 bunch, discover new music. Any unsigned band could compete for a Community Music Award by uploading a music clip to f400share.com. Every vote put them higher on the playlist, with the two top bands in each of two rounds getting play in the national advertising campaign.
  • They Got It!
    One of a media planner's greatest assets is knowing the competitor's strategy. Vishal Sharma and Devaraj Southworth, cofounders of Yureekah, have built a business on capturing this information for battling planners. They developed the first search engine for "real-time competitive analysis of online advertising," providing an easy-to-access, manageable overview of any brand's current display ads and where they're running. "Advertising, especially digital advertising, is moving more toward what I call 'the advertising of intentions,'" says Sharma. "The market is flooded with options. Today, there are hundreds of ad networks and thousands of local and national publishers from which agencies have …
  • Time Is on Your Side
    Digital is the fuel for the ad future. That's the conclusion of a GroupM study that found digital's share of global ad dollars will hit 15 percent in 2009, up from 11 percent last year. The boom comes from money pouring into Internet, mobile and gaming ads.
  • Gold Records
    For Atmosphere, a hip-hop duo that has written songs like "Mama Had a Baby and His Head Popped Off," a slick Web site with hi-res photos would not make the best promotional material. Working with Minneapolis creative agency Colle+McVoy, Rhymesayers and Atmosphere created the site PaintItGold.com, which lets users "tag" any Web page while listening to tracks from the album.
  • Oh, the Zumanity
    Céline Dion isn't the only one strangely enamored of the French-Canadian stylings of Cirque du Soleil. While the circus' fare usually falls in family-friendly "My Heart Will Go On" territory, its Zumanity show, dubbed the "sensual side of Cirque du Soleil," aims to appeal to adults and their, um, grown-up urges. And how: The show includes segments like "Midnight Bath," "Orgy" and "Straps." Oh, my.
  • They Don't Just Play Games In Real Life
    Historically, we have thought of the "gamer" as a male between the ages of 10 and 24. But industry experts know that this demo has been changing for quite some time, especially in the area of casual games, which are easily accessible, often free and not necessarily time-consuming. According to a report from the Casual Games Association, a significant portion of the 150 million users worldwide are women over 30.
  • From Plastic To Pixels
    Why would a lifelong New Yorker and CMO of the marquee credit card brand American Express suddenly head west and into the virtual world of online payments upstart PayPal? After years with Avon, then the Financial Times Group and finally AmEx, Barry Herstein became CMO of the eBay-owned brand, where he will help direct the company's next stage of growth. With revenues of $582 million in Q1 2008, PayPal was up 32% over last year and responsible for approximately 12% of U.S. e-commerce.
  • 5 questions for Elizabeth Izard Apelles
    Earlier this summer, messengers trumpeted the news far and wide that Elizabeth Izard Apelles had ascended to the throne (read: chairman and CEO) of independent digital agency Greater Than One. It was a move well-earned - Apelles, whose favorite Web site is, naturally, blog.greaterthanone.com (insiders only), cofounded the company eight years ago. Under her direction, GTO has grown to encompass 70 employees and a second office in Madrid. But in a true test of her leadership prowess, OMMA asked if Apelles can name each and every one of her employees, rapid-fire style. Well, sorta, she assures us: "Almost all - …
  • Creative Roundtable: No Laughing Matter
    Fun is contagious, therefore a disease. That's the credo of NOLAF, the National Organization for Legislation Against Fun, a group dedicated to putting the "FU" back in fun, its executive director declares on nolaf.org.
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