• by November 9, 2004

BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD -- Who else was tickled by Advertising Age's announcement about the launch of Point, a new high-end ad industry magazine from the Crain Communications team that is aimed at C-level execs. No, it's not the concept that's making us chuckle. It sounds like a good idea and we have no doubt that the Ad Age team will execute it as well as the ad industry bible's other spin-offs: Business Marketing (now BtoB), Electronic Media (now TelevisionWeek, Creativity (still Creativity), and Ad Age International(now defunct). It was Ad Age's selection of Geoffrey Precourt as editor of the new title that's making us smirk.

It's not that Precourt isn't good. He's the best. And we certainly agree with the credentials Ad Age cited for Precourt in its announcement: "an accomplished writer and former editor with Fortune." The thing that's got us grinning is what Ad Age left out of Precourt's resume. Specifically, that Precourt was editor of archrival Adweek during that magazine's ascendancy during the 1980s, a period when it seriously challenged the sovereignty of Ad Age on Madison Avenue.

Ironic still was Precourt's choice for a cover story in Point's debut issue, available for download on AdAge.com. No it wasn't the choice of the cover subject, PepsiCo's marketing chief Dawn Hudson, but the story's author, Thom Forbes, who served as news editor of Adweek during Precourt's reign.

A RETURN ON INVESTMENT THAT PAYS FOR THE INVESTMENT -- Some important but unrelated developments were announced Tuesday that should help accelerate Madison Avenue's quest for greater accountability. In one of the initiatives, Marketing Management Analytics, a unit of Carat that is better known as MMA, launched "Marketing Effectiveness on Demand," a series of new products and analytic tools designed to mine even greater insights about what marketing, advertising and media strategies generate actual results. The tools are so effective that MMA President-COO Sunny Garga guarantees marketers will reap a minimum of "15 percent improvement in marketing ROI in the first year after adoption." In fact, he said the cost of the program would pay for itself in 18 months or less. Now that's a return on investment.

In another far different, but potentially equally significant development in the area of marketing ROI, Medialink Worldwide said it secured a $5 million investment to fund the rollout Teletrax, its global TV tracking system. Launched two years ago, Teletrax now counts ABC, NBC, Buena Vista Television, Reuters, and Universal Domestic Television as broadcasters using the digital content tracking system.