“Without promotion something terrible happens... Nothing!” -P.T, Barnum Office Max, via Chicago agency, The Escape Pod, is having fun with pennies again. This time, they placed the world's largest penny tray, loaded with $2 million pennies, inside Mall of America. They then opened the tray to the good people of Minnesota, who quickly gobbled up the pennies. "The tray was emptied in a little over three hours," says …
Opt Out Is Good But Opt In Is Better
Yahooligans will soon be able to opt out of "customized advertising" on Yahoo.com. Yahoo! announced the new opt-out capability as part of its response to a Congressional inquiry about customization sent to 33 companies from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Stephanie Clifford of The New York Times notes that Yahoo already allows users to opt out of customized ads that it serves on other companies’ pages. This …
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Gaining Online Cred Is the Real Contest
Brands want to play in the social media sandbox. That much has been established. But what games are they playing? That topic needs a bit more exploration. Spike Jones of Brains of Fire suggests the "go to" game is a social media contest. He says it's good in that contests promote interaction, participation and involvement. But they lack for equally important reasons. In the vast majority of cases, it’s the brand …
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Yes, Arabs Are Mad Because Of Better Fuel Economy
In Israel, the Nissan Tiida apparently gets really good gas mileage. Once you know that, you need not speak Arabic or Hebrew to figure out this spot: Here's the really big shocker: The Saudis aren't happy and are threatening a boycott of Nissan. …
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Beer Revenue A Must
College is beer—a fact that annoys some congressmen, college presidents, college coaches and athletic directors. While they can't stop students from drinking, they did ask the NCAA to further limit or ban alcohol ads from TV telecasts of NCAA events. This week in Indianapolis, NCAA's Division 1 executive committee said, "no." Brewers and ad groups have said that while youths play the games, NCAA events are viewed by …
Wer’e Not In Sao Paulo Anymore
According to The Wall Street Journal, officials in Dubai are negotiating with international and local companies over naming rights for two dozen mass transit stations. Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority is offering naming rights for 23 of the planned 47 metro stops, as well as for the two metro lines themselves. A rider on the new Dubai system might someday be getting off at, say, the Citibank stop on the Nike …
Ad People Are Creative People (mostly)
When presenting agency capabilities, how often do you stretch beyond the org chart? Sure, you determine some points of difference and place catchy epigrams on Power Point slides, but these steps, although necessary, don't properly capture your company. How could they? You need human beings for that job. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story, where Atlanta shop SuperGroup was pitching The Weather …
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Nike On A ?uest
There are trophies and then there are trophies. ?uestlove, of Philly rap group The Roots, prefers his in sneaker form. In ?uestlove's world, gold records are commonplace. But yor own kicks from Nike...now that's status. never let it be said that dreams don’t come true. 4 years ago i watched BAPE/reebok shower Pharrell with all these kicks on the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour in the summer of 2004. i said to my stylist …