• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, April 30, 2003

The New York Times debuts a new campaign. Matt Damon does voiceover work for FleetBoston Financial. A Meatless Monday website? Those are just a few of the campaigns launched this week. Read on for more details.

The New York Times has unveiled a national education program, called The New York Times Knowledge Network, a resource to help parents and educators enhance student learning at all education levels, particularly in the areas of analytical reading, critical thinking, problem-solving, vocabulary and writing. To support the effort, The Times has launched a national branding campaign with the tagline "Inspiring Thought." Key elements that make up the program include: The Times College Program, an on and off-campus delivery of The New York Times, which allows professors to integrate The Times into their coursework and TimesTalks Speaker Series which provide educators and students access to Times reporters. The campaign will run through May 12 in education trade media and in on-campus newspapers at many colleges and universities, including Harvard University, University of Notre Dame, University of Kansas, Ohio State University, Dartmouth College, and The University of California. The campaign will then continue from September 8 through November 3 and will be accompanied by branded, on-campus posters available at campus bookstores and other campus locations. Bozell, New York created the ads, which include graphics of items that appeal to college students; a football, ramen noodles and textbooks.

Keeping with education, Nokia has created a North American initiative of its college advertising program, The New U, which began as a pilot program with the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Two of the student ads created in the pilot were made into national TV spots and began airing in April. The New U provides students an opportunity to develop TV commercials for real products. The Missouri advertising students designed 30-second TV commercials for the new Nokia 3650 phone which features a built-in camera. The two Missouri School of Journalism ads used by Nokia were produced by The Richards Group. The New U program launches in August at the University of Texas, University of Colorado, Southern Methodist University, Missouri School of Journalism and Georgian College in Ontario. One winning ad will be chosen each semester based on the number of votes received by online voters.

FleetBoston Financial launched a $70 million multimedia advertising campaign to support the company's business strategy and momentum in consumer and commercial banking. The campaign includes television, radio, and print spots, with two TV ads, featuring the tagline "Forward. Thinking," presently airing. Ads featuring real Fleet customers and employees will follow in the upcoming weeks. Actor Matt Damon will provide the voiceover. The campaign is scheduled to run through the remainder of 2003 in Fleet's footprint, which spans from Maine through Eastern Pennsylvania. The first of six television ads will appear during such shows as "West Wing," "ER," "The Practice," and "American Idol." Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos created the campaign.

The Business Marketing Association has launched an updated, sophisticated and hip brand image for their 2003 International conference on June 4-7.The ads were created by Mobium Creative Group with a series of ads debuting in the April issues of several business marketing trade publications, including b to b magazine and b to b marketer. All elements of the program use kissing lip images in bright colors with a single word in tiny type placed in between the lips (as if it were speaking). The words "hyperventilate," "Heimlich" and "suck up" were used to encourage business marketers to relearn, debate and network "with passion", coinciding with the event's theme of "Business Marketing With Passion."

Young & Rubicam San Francisco announced an integrated brand response advertising campaign for VeriSign, a first for the company. The creative theme is the same for both offline and online, and bears the tagline "The Value of Trust." Three print executions depict great engineering feats such as a massive bridge, a high domed ceiling and a long tunnel. The message communicates trust implicit in people using these structures, the same confidence that VeriSign helps engineer in the digital environment for secure and reliable communications and commerce. The campaign launched this week and will run through the end of the year. The campaign is directed toward CIO/Senior IT managers and executives and non-technical C-Level business managers. The ads will run in BusinessWeek, Fortune, Computerworld, CIO and Information Week.

Sprinks, a pay-per-click, content-targeted ad vehicle, has launched its first-ever advertising campaign, which began on April 28th. The first phase of the campaign features a mix of print ads and online sponsorships which are slated to appear in Adweek, Ad Age, Entrepreneur, Mediaweek, IQ Daily News, internet.com, MediaPost/Online Spin (OTL's sister publication) and iMedia Communications. J Walter Thompson Technology Communications Group created the ads which supports the launch of the Sprink's brand, and announces the company's new core offerings.

New York Times Digital has launched a new half-page advertising unit on NYTimes.com and Boston.com. The new ad unit is the equivalent of two columns on a web page and provides advertisers with a larger environment to get their message across. Verizon launched its half-page ad on NYTimes.com last week and will begin another geotargeted campaign on both NYTimes.com and Boston.com in May. The ads were designed by Circle, Boston. Boston.com launched a TNT Vacations ad last week and will feature a half-page ad from Audi starting next week. McKinney & Silver created the Audi ads. The 336x800 ad unit is geared to transfer print concepts to an online setting, creating interactive ads that are in alignment with the overall campaign

Carat Interactive has simultaneously launched Palm's two new handhelds, the Tungsten C and the Zire 71. The campaign includes online ads, a microsite and email marketing (directed toward Palm's existing consumer database). The Zire 71 offers customers an affordable handheld with music playback and basic desktop media management capabilities. The Tungsten C is more robust, containing 802.11b, a keyboard, and a six-hour battery life The ads ran on Yahoo!, CNET and PDA and Digital camera-specific websites.

This week's website launches include:

Food Network TV host Sara Moulton headlined the launch of The Meatless Monday Campaign. The site is a weekly resource for consumers to obtain healthy recipes, nutritional information, product coupons and even games and activities for kids. Moulton will be a regular contributor to the Meatless Monday site. Meatless Monday is a non-profit organization in association with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The campaign encourages Americans to take one day off from meat each week and increases public awareness of the health benefits of reducing saturated fat intake through the use of healthy dietary alternatives. Design for Social Impact created the website.

Agency.com has relaunched KeySpan'swebsite to help the company increase satisfaction levels and build brand loyalty. The site now gives customers access and control over their account by offering simple and secure online account set-ups and login screens for fluid payment processing, and tips for making homes more energy efficient. The site is also enhanced with a content management system that ensuring up-to-date content. Online brochures and product and service package descriptions are also available through the website, providing prospective consumers Keyspan's offerings.

Ooh. The bubbles tickle. Jacuzzi Whirlpool Bath, a provider of whirlpool baths and luxury shower systems has redesigned their website. Zentropy Partners, Los Angeles created the site redesign. The site offers easy access to key product information, a search area where products are filtered by category, price or size and a product comparisons section.