Crystal Shines At Oscars, But How Did Madison Avenue Do? by David Goetzl

Billy Crystal proved to be a superb host in his return to the Oscar-cast, mostly through his jokes tapping into the zeitgeist from iPads to Occupy Wall Street. Madison Avenue also deserves some kudos for spots for the likes of JCPenney, American Express and Diet Coke. Some advertisers, however, seemed to feel so many females would be watching -- the Oscars are annoying referred to as the "Super Bowl for women" -- they could just toss up some banal narrowly targeted creative. Maybe the most surprising advertiser of the night? Oprah. In some markets, including New York, she showed up ...Read the whole story

  • And The Winner Is.. Cinema Ads: Brain Research Shows They're More Emotionally Engaging Than TV Spots by Joe Mandese

    If you're one of the billion-plus people who watched the Oscars last night, you probably already know how emotionally engaging cinema is. Now there's some scientific proof. In the first research of its kind, cinema advertising network NCM utilized some state-of-the-art technology that measured the unconscious responses of moviegoers to ads shown to them in movie theaters -- and not surprisingly, they were considerably more engaged than the same type of ads shown on other media such as TV or the Internet. ...Read the whole story

  • automotive Mercedes-Benz Focuses On Icons by Karl Greenberg

    Mercedes-Benz USA is using the national broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony as a springboard for its new marketing campaign, "State of the Art." The campaign throws the limelight upon the sixth-generation 2013 SL 550 Roadster. ...Read the whole story

  • retail Will JCPenney's 'Ellen' Ads Backfire? by Sarah Mahoney

    Some critics say the ads, from San Francisco-based Brandadvisors, are premature -- and may even drive business to competitors like Kohl's and Macy's before earning it any new fans. ...Read the whole story

If TV Shows Can Hide Behind Walls, Why Not The Social Media Buzz Around Them? by Wayne Friedman

Walls are going up all around the media, particularly at newspapers and on social media. Will the construction of TV walls keep pace? ...More

  • Canoe Ventures, Linsanity & TV ROI by Mark Lieberman

    You know what they say about the best-laid plans: more often than not, they don't really get you anywhere. That was the lesson of last week's top media news. On the one hand, you had the demise of Canoe Ventures, whose plans couldn't have been better laid by its big corporate sponsors. And on the other, the totally unanticipated, stunningly meteoric rise to NBA stardom of an undrafted Harvard grad named Jeremy Lin. How's that for a contrast? ...More

  • Social Media Drives TV Watching by Erik Sass

    Everyone knows that the "screens" (TV, laptop, mobile device, another mobile device) are colliding and overlapping, but how exactly do online behaviors and TV viewing interact? TV Guide took a whack at understanding the relationship between social media buzz and TV watching with a new survey of 3,041 U.S. adults, and found that social media buzz does indeed help drive TV watching. ...More