A relationship that rocked Madison Avenue when it was formed almost 15 years ago is showing major signs of strain. The revolutionary partnership between Coca-Cola Co., and talent agency Creative Artists Agency that led to the now-famous "Always" campaign is fading due to CAA's high price tag and its apparent inability to deliver substantive marketing results to the soft drink marketer. In addition, Coke, which has been reevaluating several vendor relationships in a bid to cut costs, is bringing more of its entertainment capabilities in-house as it continues to rebuild its once-vaunted marketing operations. Coke has "taken significant steps …

This week sponsored search text ads on Yahoo! begin getting smaller, going from 190 to 70 characters. And even though they will have less room to deliver their message, search marketers say they welcome the change as a positive sign of industry standardization. They agreed that the change, announced in December and implemented this week, will allow advertisers to manage their keyword buys more easily, compare results across engines, and create ads that are more in line with consumer behavior. "The shift to a shortened description reflects a growing trend toward alignment with consumer expectations and current market conditions," said …

The new year represents an opportunity for marketers to rethink their strategies, and one tactic that should be at the top of their list is guerrilla marketing. This article from CMO Magazine, which recently announced it is closing but is keeping its Web site going, offers five guerrilla marketing rules for marketers who want to start thinking out of the box. The rules include harnessing the power of your own practitioners to spread the gospel of your product or service. Another tip involves throwing away any and all marketing materials that focus on clever slogans but fail to address …

In what many observers view as a predictable inevitability, television ads are coming to some of the smallest screens possible: cell phones. This year, a handful of marketers are expected to begin delivering video, audio, banner displays and text clips to mobile devices that could even include information based on the users' location. With that information, marketers could, in theory, send pitches from retailers to cell phone users who might be in the vicinity of a store. Cell-phone-based marketing could be "the silver bullet we've been looking for in advertising for a long time," said Laura Marriott, executive director of …

Northwest Airlines, with a little help from media agency MindShare, has found a new way to reach a much-coveted target group--the traveling businessperson. The marketer placed ads to promote its new seats in World Business Class on the inside of window-cleaning scaffolds hanging on the sides of office buildings in Tokyo. The MindShare platforms were seen on buildings in the Otemachi and Akasaka areas of they city, where tenants included Cisco and NTT DoCoMo. The strategy was a first in Japan and enabled Northwest to surprise executives during their workday in an environment that's relatively ad-free, thus making the ad …

Miller Brewing Co. wants its struggling Genuine Draft brand to just grow up. In an unusual marketing twist, the giant brewer has decided to target consumers for people the company says have "come of age"?those in the 26- to 40-year-old age bracket. That's a radical departure for an industry that worships youth and traditionally focuses on people aged 21 to 24, a group that statistics show consume 30 percent of the nation's beer. Miller executives say the idea is to market Genuine Draft as a beer with "mainstream sophistication" that appeals to a somewhat older set. The goal, says Genuine …

Microsoft, in its ongoing battle with Yahoo! and Google over the hearts and minds of major marketers, is developing new technology that will help advertisers market their products to online audiences more effectively than ever before. One new project would allow viewers to click on cars, clothing or other products that appear in online movies or TV shows and be immediately transported to advertisements for those products. The technology was unveiled at the company's recent adCenter Demo. To further bolster research efforts in the online advertising space, Microsoft has formed a new unit called the adCenter Incubation Lab, a joint …

A former ad agency executive with experience in the soft drink and fast-food category has been named the new marketing chief for the Subway sandwich restaurant chain. The Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund, which creates advertising and marketing programs for the chain, announced that Tony Pace has been named senior vice president and chief CMO, succeeding Chris Carroll, who held the post for almost six years before leaving the company last fall. Pace joins the company from McCann Erickson, New York, where he worked for the last 15 years on brands including Coca-Cola, Burger King, and Capital One. He also helped …

Amusement park company Six Flags is wasting no time in shaking up its marketing operations. Earlier this week it named three executives to oversee a restructured marketing operation. Yesterday it took another giant step by putting its creative account into review and hiring WPP Group's OgilvyOne for its direct and interactive work. All this activity comes less than a month after naming a new CEO. The outgoing agency, Doner, created the popular but odd "Mr. Six" character. The new CEO, Mark Shapiro, was head of programming at the Walt Disney Co.-owned sports network. When his appointment was announced, he said …

New research shows that marketers have discovered the benefits of search marketing. The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, a trade group, said advertisers spent $5.75 billion on search marketing last year, a 44 percent increase over the previous year. The group also predicted spending to continue growing, reaching $11 billion in 2010. The survey of 553 respondents was conducted in November by Radar Research LLC and Intellisurvey. It revealed that the bulk of the spending was on paid placement, which accounted for 83 percent or $4.7 billion. Optimization of Web sites for better search rankings accounted for 11 percent of …