Jennifer Wells reports on a brilliant integrated campaign for Doritos that's soliciting user-generated content. In Created, she looks at an ad for the new Kia Soul that "capitalizes on the Strangers/Scream/Saw genre." And in Noted, Wells introduces us to Trident Xtra Care, a new chewing gum for the "older consumer."

Read More >> Because it's Friday the 13th, something about, uh, Friday the 13th.

A new Ad Age video from marketing guru Martin Lindstrom uses Friday the 13th superstition to illustrate the power of ritual in brand-building.



Read More >> HAD ENOUGH OF MICHAEL PHELPS? Just one more item, we promise. After the bong incident, the Dallas-based marketing firm Mill Sports re-evaluated the swimmer using its Davie-Brown Index, which measures athletes' brand-ability by surveying 1,000 consumers.

The good news, for him: He remains third in the ranking of sports figures, behind Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, respectively.

The bad: He took a dive in each of the index's eight measures, falling the furthest in trust and aspiration, both down 15 points on a scale of 1 to 100.

Read More >> Because it's Thursday, a think-piece.

Internet Advertising Bureau CEO Randall Rothenberg, who also pens columns for the New York Times and Ad Age, has just published a cri de coeur for agencies, publishers and media planners.

Read More >> Here's a handy list for the iPhone fanatics among us: 10 must-have apps for marketers compiled by One Degree's Bill Sweetman.

Among them: an application that can serve as a mini-whiteboard, and AirSharing, which "turns your iPhone into a wireless file server." Sweetman's top picks also include a "clever little add-on [that] allows you to use a wider horizontal keyboard to type...e-mail," and Twitterific, which, he claims, "will make you fall in love with Twitter all over again."

Read More >> Cold weather and an even-frostier economy didn't dampen enthusiasm for the country's first-ever Advertising Week.

While we covered the event in detail here in the Sandbox, we thought it would be fun to share some exclusive video footage, courtesy of our friends of the soon-to-launch Notable.tv.

In Notable's four vignettes, they:

• Report on opening night at Jamie Kennedy's restaurant at the Gardiner. As well, they interview Gillian Graham, CEO of Canada's Institute of Communication Agencies, and Claude Carrier of Montreal's Bos agency, who was Ad Week's chairman.
• Bring us highlights of Sir Richard Branson's presentation at the event.
• Interview students who participated in Branson's Canadian Advertising Week competition.
• Catch up with Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise and author of the new book Click, who explains his obsession with prom dresses and the relevance of cognitive dissonance.

Read More >> HUH? A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS that we enjoy television shows more when they are accompanied by commercials.

Most of us would say we prefer TV without ads, but in fact viewers tend to enjoy the experience more when ads are included, according to a study by New York University's Stern School of Business. The likely reason, researchers say, is that interruptions of a television show help freshen the novelty of the program. The study was not paid for by the ad industry.

Read More >> Jennifer Wells is among the many who wish Barbie well on her 50th birthday. In Created, she congratulates Toronto agency Juniper Park on the new ad they made for Frito-Lay. And in Noted, Grant Robertson reports on a new video campaign that's targeted to media buyers.

Read More >> Because it's Friday, some fun (and font-y) things.

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A new technology that lets retailers scan customers' faces and serve up ad messages based on their sex, age and, in some cases, ethnic origin, is meeting with resistance.

So says an Associated Press story that ran recently in The Globe.

Small cameras can now be embedded or hidden in the video screen of a mall, health club or grocery store, "tracking who looks at the screen and for how long," the article reports.

Read More >> An Associated Press story by David Bauder that ran in The Globe today took a look at this year's U.S. Super Bowl ads.

Although "most...struck their usual comedic tone," Bauder found that "the real world of a depressed economy slipped into the showcase."

Read More >> "Synergy." "Impactful." "Web 2.0." Plenty of buzzwords have worn out their welcome (and "impactful" isn't even a word). According to BusinessWeek's Bruce Nussbaum, "innovation" is also passe. The key concept for 2009, he says, is "transformation."



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