If you're an aging hippie with a bunch of money, Bank of America wants to hold your hand. According to The New York Times, B of A paid $3.3 billion for U.S. Trust, a storied institution whose clients have included Rockefellers, Astors and Vanderbilts. This new $25 million campaign by Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos is the bank's first effort to market their newly acquired wealth management capabilities. …
Tangerine Toad Teaches The Teachers
Our friend Tangerine Toad has kept his perch on The Toad Stool but has branched out to post on Marketing Profs Daily Fix, a site aimed at bringing together marketing professionals with college marketing and advertising professors. Toad's first post is a perfect summary of his argument that Your Brand Is Not My FriendTM: Now there are some brands—I call them Prom King Brands—that people don’t mind “conversing” with, …
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Pushing The Buttons Of A Fussy Child
I don't surf the mobile web, but Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 does. Thing is, he's not fond of the experience. I’ve had it with all the hype about mobile being the next big thing — more to the point, I’ve had it with the mobile web. Here are five reasons why the web on the go still has a long way to go. 1. Wireless carrier networks are SLOW 2. Public WiFi access is a SCAM 3. Sites aren’t formated for small screens 4. …
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Better Business Starts Here
Better Business Bureau is a 95-year-old nonprofit organization. It's brand image is entrenched; yet, the BBB will challenge consumers to wake up to its full identity with a $700,000 rebranding campaign that launches this week. Its rebranding campaign -- including a new Web site, logo, book series and commercials during shows such as "CSI" and "Grey's Anatomy" -- drives the point home with its slogan: Start with …
Diggin’ User Interaction
"Now that nontech stories have exceeded the tech stories," says Jay Adelson, co-counder of Digg, "The challenge is on us to provide what our community needs." What Digg's users need, says Adelson, are social-networking tools. On Sept. 19 the company is launched a host of new features that might seem more at home on Facebook or News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. The intent is to make it easier for users to find others who …
The Very Genius Of It All
Tucked into this Wall Street Journal article (paid sub. req.) on staving off ad fatigue, is a nugget about the popularity of Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" radio campaign. The ads combine a bombastic announcer, sappy 1980s rock music and outlandish tributes to trivial achievements, such as the invention of the foot-long hot dog. They leave male audiences giggling. And they have been a staple of sports-radio …
Buckmaster Bewilders Some, Inspires Others
Lucy Kellaway is Financial Times' management columnist. For the last ten years her weekly column has "poked fun at management fads and jargon and celebrated the ups and downs of office life." So it was fun to see how she did with Jim Buckmaster, the CEO of Craiglist. Ahead of our meeting I gave myself two modest challenges: to make Mr Buckmaster talk financial and to make him smile. After all, he has enough to smile …
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Make Grilled Cheese Not War
Stuart Elliott presents moves made by Kraft to inject some emotion into its typical product story. Kraft will devote a campaign that begins today to the glorification of the grilled cheese sandwich. The television, online, print and retail campaign carries the upbeat theme “Have a happy sandwich.” In campaigns from the longtime previous agency for Kraft Singles — the Chicago office of JWT, part of the WPP Group — …