Maurice Saatchi, who along with his brother, Charles, created an advertising agency empire in the 1970s and 80s, believes marketers should be succinct in their advertising messages. In fact, he believes commercial messages should be boiled down to a single word. Speaking at the current advertising film festival in Cannes, France, Saatchi told an assemblage of the world's leading ad executives that they and their clients need to reduce their strategies to finding just one word to characterize a brand. "What I am describing here is a new business model for marketing, appropriate to the digital age," he said. "In …

Marketers are beginning to pay more attention to what time of day their ads run on the Internet. The situation hasn't quite reached the level of traditional TV with its many dayparts (prime time, late night, etc.), but it's quickly changing from the days when advertisers viewed the Web as an "on demand" medium in which users looked at content and ads at their leisure and feared they would miss certain people by narrowing their time frames. Now, with competition for prime spots driving up prices, that viewpoint is starting to change. "We can't afford to go out and buy …

Not long ago, several news stories reported that marketers were thinking about experimenting with one-second ads--but new research by the Atlas Institute, a division of aQuantive, shows that they better think again. The new report turns conventional wisdom upside down by reporting that consumers actually prefer long video ads to shorter ones. The study, dubbed "Introduction to Brand Exposure Duration," suggests that advertisers have more to gain by producing longer-form creative executions. The study flies in the face of most of the industry's thinking, which has generally been summed up as "shorter is better" when it comes to new video …

Forget about the so-called power of advertising. The strongest brand in America spent a total of $7.5 million on media advertising last year. What is it? Why, Reynolds Wrap, of course. A new Harris Interactive survey has determined that Reynolds Wrap had the strongest brand equity of any product among American consumers. That's right. Not Coke, not Nike, not McDonald's--not any of those big-spending, ubiquitous money brands. They didn't even come close. Reynolds scored highest among more than 1,000 brands in a survey of 25,666 consumers by Harris in its 2006 EquiTrend survey. Three of the top-10 brands belong to …

In a marketing promotion that runs the risk of turning some people off, cosmetics retailer Sephora is offering New Yorkers coffee in a smudged cup to hype the opening of a new store in the city's financial district. The white cup is smeared with bright pink lipstick mark near the rim, and many experts view it as a relatively inexpensive way to gain attention in a market where it is particularly hard to cut through all the outdoor clutter. Critics claim the stunt is risky because some consumers might get grossed out, but so far it seems to be working …

A high-level marketing executive at software giant Microsoft Corp. resigned his post suddenly this week with no explanation, leaving a cloud of mystery and speculation. The executive, Martin Taylor, was a 13-year Microsoft veteran who most recently served as corporate vice president of marketing for Windows Live and MSN. "We have made the difficult decision to part ways with Martin, but we don't comment on personnel matters," the company said in a statement. "We appreciate Martin's contributions at Microsoft over the past 13 years." Taylor is credited with helping Microsoft beat back the threat posed by the free Linux operating …

Outdoor advertising in the form of posters and billboards--one of the oldest forms of advertising that exists--is enjoying something of a renaissance, thanks to the technological advancements of the so-called new media. Digital technology is allowing marketers and their ad agencies to create billboards that can change daily, hourly, or even by the minute--at little cost. The advancements are prompting some advertisers to spend $300,000 to $500,000 on new digital billboards that often are shared by companies who rotate their ads and divvy up the cost. Out-of-the box thinking also is taking billboards beyond two-dimensional displays. Bakery retailer Bloom combined …

Rather than targeting consumers with costly TV ads that run nationwide, some marketers are choosing a more localized approach. Why? Because as national advertising becomes more difficult, with the splintering of audiences among new-media options like the Internet, more narrowly targeted techniques offer a better chance at breaking through the clutter. For some advertisers, that means going town by town to spread the word about their products or services. Financial services marketer Wachovia has adopted the strategy in a big way in Sarasota, Florida, where the company is saturating the area with a series of ads in local publications, as …

Marketers who think they can cash in on the popularity of the World Cup without paying the proper sponsorship fees had better think again. That's because stadium officials are being more diligent about preventing ambush marketing than ever, so much so that just last week, about 1,000 Dutch soccer fans watched the game in their underpants after authorities made them remove trousers emblazoned with the name of a brewer that was not an official sponsor. "Anyone can wear whatever they want but, if a company tries to carry out ambush marketing, (tournament organizer) Fifa must prevent that happening," Fifa communications …

Market forces are leading giant beer marketer Anheuser-Busch to consider moving beyond its core product offerings and into other alcoholic beverages. Earlier this month, A-B president August Busch IV acknowledged beer's sliding market share and said, "If this trend continues, we at Anheuser-Busch will have to re-evaluate our business model going forward in terms of expanding beyond beer and broadening our position within the total alcohol industry." His words caught many experts off guard, even though the company has already taken several small steps and formed alliances geared toward expanding its product portfolio. "I think a lot of people were …