Facing increased competition from MySpace and YouTube for the hearts and minds of young people, MTV will launch an ambitious and risky Web strategy, according to Reuters. MTV's web presence is already 150 sites strong, but the new plan is to build literally thousands more. [MTV] aims to build Web sites related to every personality and aspect of its shows, hoping to catch viewers wherever they happen to be on the …
Microsoft Will Shift $1 Billion To Digital
By 2010, Microsoft will shift most of its $1 billion in U.S. ad spend to digital formats, according to senior VP Mich Mathews. Traditional media will play a role, but the goal will be to involve consumers in the brand. From MediaDailyNews: That [involvement] mantra has become so critical that it's taken into consideration when creating TV spots and other video ads. Providing content that consumers can take ownership …
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Podcasts Perfect For Novelists
In the New York Times today, a great example of how faith in your art can pay off, if you're smart, resourceful, and have something people want. Most first-time novelists only sell a few thousand copies, but Scott Sigler, a San Francisco-based sci-fi writer, has built a sizeable audience for his "steel-tipped boot on your throat, speed-metal fiction” by podcasting from a makeshift studio he set up in his walk-in …
Is Your Agency a Mac or a PC?
Forrester Research produces research not news flashes, so their latest study won't come as a big surprise. Nevertheless, it's interesting to hear the details of what most of us already know. Courtesy MediaPost: The study illustrates a major rift between marketers and agencies with some harsh survey results: On aggregate, agencies scored a dismal Net Promoter rating of 21%, showing just how few marketers in the fourth …
Super Bowl Losers Second Life in Sierra Leone
What happens to the t-shirts of the team who loses the game tonight? That's easy. They get shipped care package style to third world countries. The New York Times sheds light on this uniquely American brand of philanthropy: The other set of championship gear — the 288 T-shirts and caps made for the team that did not win — will be hidden behind a locked door at Dolphin Stadium. By order of the National Football …
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Wanted: Creatives Who Understand The Internet
If you're a big time TV creative at W&K and you make $500K directing Super Bowl spots, stay where you are. People like you may be working a dying business model, but you've got a long way to fall from your ivory tower-like perch. For the rest of us, "new" media, such as the Internet, continues to evolve and gain traction. Check out these stats from market research and advisory company Outsell (courtesy of …
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Are Attention Spans Increasing?
Consumers (i.e., us) are so good at multitasking that they now prefer to consume multiple media types simultaneously. The fact that we’re listening to NPR while shopping on Ebay while watching 24 is no newsflash. But the implications of this behavior are profound for marketers who now must reconsider fundamental measurements of time. To set up their handy little chart, eMarketer quotes a 2006 study by Yahoo and OMD …
Do Consumers Really Want To Converse With Your Brand?
The radical notion that marketers must cede control and enable consumers to create brand meaning for themselves is no longer radical, at least in theory. We talk about it all the time. And to a greater or lesser extent, many of us are making it happen. But have you ever wondered what to do with a brand that no one wants to talk to, co-create, or have a conversation with? It seems like the same ideas get tossed out at …
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