Tameka Kee and I were taken aback by some panelists' pronunciation of the German sports clothing and shoe manufacturer Adidas. They were saying AH-dee-das so blithely and we were getting all worked up. What is this, some British pronunciation? So I Googled and found on inogolo.com a guide to brand pronunciations. Indeed, it says the phonetic and correct way to say Adidas is with the stress on the first syllable. But in the notes section, inogolo does say that it is common to hear the brand pronounced ah-DEE-das in the United States. We say, when in Rome …

Consumers' lives are filed with niche interests. To catch their attention, you need to build media plans that include widgets, mobile campaigns and USB flash drives inserted into magazines.

Hire the people you're marketing to.  Duh.

Alan Cohen showed a promo video about Initiative's campaign for the SAW III movie, which ran strictly on MobiTV (a mobile TV service, naturally). They programmed a SAW III channel, which ran movie clips and behind the scenes interviews 'round the clock.

Cory Treffiletti recapped yesterday's panels and track sessions this morning, describing them as: very informative, with lots of data, passionate speakers and less "pie-in-the-sky" ideas than real, applicable everyday strategies Whew! Cory noted that many panelists talked about the myriad opportunities for standardization in the industry, and the push to make these standards a reality. "We as an industry need to represent ourselves in a more mature fashion," Cory said. "So that we're able to do an apples to apples comparison of TV, the Web, etc. when it comes to things like reach, frequency, exposure and intention."

I just almost spit my coffee out because I just heard the phrase "Booyah! for Boolean".

Paddison was referring to cross-platform efforts by publishers, not agencies, as "overpriced garbage."

with some of the supposedly integrated cross-platform marketing programs that agencies have helped his company, New Line Cinema, execute. Without naming names, the evp of digital marketing for the movie company described at least of these de-siloed efforts as "over-priced garbage."  In a rambunctious mood, Paddison said marketers who can't keep up with new measurement techniques don't deserve their jobs (twice), dismissed a moderator question as stupid, and also said the title for the panel was stupid.  But at least he doesn't spare his company either: for example he just admitted that "some films just suck, and it's our job to …

Erin Esurance, the pink-haired heroine of the Esurance commercials gets multiple love letters each day, according to John Swigart, CMO of Esurance, sometimes even multiple times per hour. "The audience is dramatically engaged in Erin. Sometimes scarily so," Swigart said. He said that the audience engagement is part of the reason that the 40+ Esurance video ads starring Erin are storyline based, as while it's not terribly important to the average consumer--it's extremely important to the fan consumers. And those are the ones who will run around telling their friends about the brand.

"You can't do a viral marketing campaign," said Bill Stephenson of Nielsen Online, during the Online Brand Awareness Simplified panel. "It becomes viral out of your control."