When it comes to understanding human behavior, the academic and marketing communities have a common interest: to figure out why people make the choices they make. Working together has increased success on both sides, as is the case with a recent ERATO (Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology) project.

Americans have avidly embraced the digital age, with one conspicuous hold-out: the kitchen telephone, where most families still communicate more like the Kramdens than the Jetsons. Delray Beach, Fla.-based ViseonMedia is betting it can change that with the multimedia VisiFone. The device comes in two color-screen versions (5.6 inches and 10.4 inches), and in addition to serving as a voice and video phone, will "push" content via tv video clips, music, and other online files. Content will be e-mailed on demand to consumers based on their preferences. The phone will be sold for $99 exclusively …

While NBC's "The Apprentice" only gave babe-hound Raj Bhakta a fleeting five minutes of TV exposure, other reality TV show castoffs hope to stay in the fame game with a little help from Branded Media Corp. The New York-based agency's CEO, 30-year TV veteran and former "Martha Stewart Living" producer Eve Krzyzanowski, is working to extend the shelf life of reality TV show refugees. One of the agency's clients is former bridal salon owner Sandy Ferreira, whom Trump fired from season two of "The Apprentice." Krzyzanowsk is busy marketing Ferreira as a "wedding experience" expert to TV executives, book publishers, …

ABC's Emmy-winning drama about a diverse group of airplane crash survivors remains a ratings hit this fall; it also hit the sweet spot with judges of Media magazine's Creative Media Awards competition. The media plan for the first season of "Lost," executed by Omnicom Group's OMD, earned top honors as Best in Show at the CMAs. OMD won Best in Show for a series of enigmatic 15-second radio spots, in which a static-distorted man's voice called out, "Hello? Hello?" during a local sportscaster's rundown of upcoming games. OMD promoted "Lost" by distributing missing-persons fliers with grainy black-and-white photos of …

Add Virginia Commonwealth University's mass communications master's program to the list of things you didn't have when you were growing up. The 10-year-old VCU Adcenter, located in Richmond, Va., began a two-year creative media planning track in the fall of 2004. There are also tracks for art direction, strategic planning, and creative brand management. With agency veteran Rick Boyko acting as managing director since 2003, the Adcenter is on a mission to become the "Harvard of Advertising," aiming to provide a real-world, agency-like environment for students. Michael Karnjanaprakorn, one of six second-year students on the media planning …

White chinese take-out boxes will be a thing of the past if Mangia Media has a say in the matter. The company, known for advertising on pizza boxes, has launched its first-ever campaign on Chinese take-out boxes, with Verizon as the premiere client. Verizon is touting its Fiber Optic Internet Service (FIOS) via hundreds of thousands of multicolored take-out boxes, distributed to independent Chinese restaurants in dozens of u.s. markets. Dubbed "Moo Shu Media," the campaign hopes to capture the attention of 18- to 34-year-olds, the core consumer of Chinese food.

Step on the scale at your health club, and chances are the only thing you'll be reading is the scary three-digit number underneath you, not the blank wall in front of you. Yet nearly 1,800 health clubs in 70 markets are filling those blank walls with advertising through an exclusive partnership with California-based Health Club Panel Network (HCPN). Besides traditional ad panels, California-based HCPN has now brought advertising to exercise balls, floor mats, and yoga cushions in u.s. health clubs. The company is even branding the weight stacks. "Companies want to reach consumers in venues that are …

A new exhibit at the new york public library celebrates the history and future of advertising. "Opt In: To Advertising's New Age" features examples from some of the best print, radio, tv, and online advertising campaigns of the last century and beyond. The show, sponsored by The Online Publishers Association and The One Club, offers 3D interactive sculptures that visitors can engage with to view advertising highlights from each medium. Starting with print ads from the 18th century and radio ads in the 1920s, the exhibit also allows visitors to turn the knob on a giant tv and revisit …

It's a place to congregate while quenching one's thirst. Why not create some advertising buzz at the watercooler, too? AquaCell Media Inc., a subsidiary of AquaCell Technologies, has tapped into a relatively new out-of-home segment by putting a "message on the bottle" of its self-filling watercoolers. The company launched its "watercooler billboards" in more than 100 Duane Reade stores throughout the New York metro area and Rite Aid drugstores nationwide. Unilever's Dove brand saw in-store sales rise more than 34 percent. And CBS signed on to promote the show "Out of Practice." "There is no doubt that …

Another link has been added in the single-view-of-the-customer chain. Marketing Management Analytics, Inc. (MMA) has integrated trade promotional spending with media and marketing in a single marketing mix model that optimizes spending across both categories and "shows the roi of trade promotion alongside the roi of other media," says Vinit M. Doshi, senior vice president of mma's Analytical Solutions Group. Busting the myth that sales would increase proportionally to promotional spending increases, the new model provides a more accurate picture of trade's value by studying forward buying (consumers stocking up on sale items) and within-week saturation (losing customers to …