January 2008

 
Posted: January 31, 2008 | 00:44 ET to Beyond the Numbers
File Under: Online | Video

According to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project survey, nearly half of U.S. Internet users visited a video-sharing like YouTube in the past year. What's more, 15% of respondents--almost double the number of respondents to a similar survey conducted a year ago--said they had used a video-sharing site "yesterday."

It's easy enough to extrapolate from these findings-- while they tell us about the behaviour of Americans on the 'Net, I'm willing to bet the same is true of Canadians online.

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Posted: January 30, 2008 | 23:36 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Television

It's a copywriting tour de force.

DDB/Chicago--the agency that brought us the unforgettable "Dude, you're getting a Dell" catchphrase--has created a Bud Light campaign that uses a single word in all its executions. Fittingly, that word is "dude" (if you've been living under a rock and haven't seen it, click on the image to the left).

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Posted: January 28, 2008 | 14:19 ET to The Career Activist
File Under: Career | Mental Health

Your alarm clock rings at the usual time and it's Tuesday morning, a workday. Oh yeah, that update on Clairol's media spend is due. And at 11:00 a.m. you'll be in on the all-important MasterCard pitch.

Only you can't drag yourself out of bed.



It's like there's a thousand-kilogram weight on your chest.

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Posted: January 27, 2008 | 19:58 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Super Bowl | Television

Being an ad pro in Canada can be frustrating at this time of year. It's no fun being cut off from one of the most important annual events in our industry. I'm talking, of course, about the Super Bowl: the premier North American showcase for TV commercials.



Thanks to the CRTC's simultaneous substitution rule, Canucks get to grab more salsa while our American friends get to watch the world's biggest advertisers wielding the world's biggest budgets strut their stuff.

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Posted: January 26, 2008 | 23:23 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Advertising History

While this microsite was compiled at the turn of the century, it's still an interesting read today--if only because we're all free to find fault with its findings.

Ad Age's online version of its acclaimed print Advertising Century Report is a handy, bite-sized look at the history of our industry.

I find its advertising timeline enormously interesting. But I take issue with the top-10 jingles list. Why is Coke's/the New Seekers' legendary "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" left off?

What about you? Think they missed an essential entry, say to their top-10 slogan or top-100 campaign list?

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Posted: January 24, 2008 | 21:44 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Interactive | Mobile/Wireless | Online

On Tuesday, the CEOs of Google and Publicis Groupe announced that the two companies--each a behemoth in its respective industry--were collaborating on a number of initiatives.

While the head honchos released few specifics about their joint efforts, the Guardian reported yesterday that "the two companies have been collaborating behind the scenes for a year, but now hope to extend that relationship in a number of areas, including a 'talent exchange and training scheme'."

The article quotes a memo sent to Publicis Group staff: "The two of us share a vision that new and highly innovative advertising technologies--offering fast, reliable operations, economies of scale and significantly more precise metrics--will dramatically improve efficiency and efficacy of ad campaigns and media planning."

With few concrete details to go by, it's hard to say how exactly this will change the nature of digital advertising--but it's safe to say that it will, and significantly.

Any of you care to speculate?

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Posted: January 22, 2008 | 9:00 ET to The Interactive Strategist
File Under: Social Networking | Interactive | Online

Fall was a busy season for MySpace and Facebook, the leading social networks. Both rolled out new targeting capabilities that promise to make the properties even more appealing to interactive marketers.

For months there had been speculation that the rivals would be raising the proverbial advertising bar by making it easier for advertisers to connect with their target social network audiences. The structure of these sites is such that users volunteer a glut of non-personally identifiable information that goes far beyond age, gender, and geographic location. Through their customized profiles, they share everything from their relationship status to sexual orientation, and interests in anything and everything imaginable.

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Posted: January 21, 2008 | 22:59 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Neuromarketing

Last week, the Sandbox raised the new, and in some circles, controversial, issue of neuromarketing. This new union of selling and science seeks a better understanding of consumer behaviour by trying to find out what happens in our brains when we're exposed to advertising.

BusinessWeek wrote a good introduction to this topic last fall. In it, they note that new agencies specializing in neuromarketing are springing up all over Europe. While most of them use technologies like functional MRIs and EEGs to monitor brain activity during ad consumption, a number of other specialists are exploring techniques borrowed from related disciplines like cognitive science.

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Posted: January 21, 2008 | 21:44 ET to Beyond the Numbers
File Under: Social Networking | Demographics

Over at the Sandbox, we post fairly often about Facebook.

Despite what you may think, it's not because we're fanatics. In fact, your humble blogger freely confesses to not being a member. However, we just as freely confess that we believe social networking is here to stay: as a 'Net phenomenon, as a strategy co-opted by software developers and as a tool increasingly used by marketers to broaden reach and increase loyalty.

That's why, in this Behind the Numbers, we decided to take a closer look at those of the site most commonly associated with social networking.

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Posted: January 16, 2008 | 20:14 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Retail | Narrowcasting

A recent story by Globe reporter Marina Strauss documents Canadian retailers' recent adoption of narrowcasting.

In particular, Straus describes how Tim Hortons and Wal-Mart are using programmable screens to remind consumers of items they might want to buy and move inventory in a timely fashion.

The screens, in this instance developed by a London, Ont.-based company, are designed to boost revenues at check-out and, where appropriate, encourage impulse buys.

Today's question: Do you find this technology intrusive or helpful? Also: Does your answer depend on whether you're looking at the issue from a consumer or marketer point of view?

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Posted: January 15, 2008 | 00:35 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Pricing | Neuromarketing

Admit it: You knew it all along.

A new study by a California group of researchers suggests that consumers' brains are affected by price.

Agence France-Presse reports that wine aficiandos might enjoy a product more if they think it costs more.

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Posted: January 14, 2008 | 14:50 ET to The Career Activist
File Under: Career



So what do you need to get going? It's easy. Just relax, sit back and let the games begin.

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