August 2009

 
Posted: August 28, 2009 | 11:54 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Creativity | Travel

Because it's Friday, something fun.

Inspired by the infamous Banff squirrel, American Airlines has decided to re-air its own tribute to furry-tailed rodents.



Source: AdFreak.

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Posted: August 28, 2009 | 10:00 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Globe and Mail

Simon Houpt examines the rise of cause marketing.

"Hardly a day goes by without a marketer announcing a new socially oriented initiative," he observes. "In the spring, the soup company Campbell gave away more than 20 million tomato plant seeds to consumers and students through an American gardening organization.

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Posted: August 28, 2009 | 7:35 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Beverages | Packaged Food Products

Most consumers come across a milk carton during the course of a day, whether on the breakfast table, in a grocery store aisle or in a school lunchroom. It's only natural then, for marketers to want to capitalize on this access to deliver a brand message.

While not new, the practice has been revived thanks in part to the rise of companies that specialize in milk carton advertising, according to the New York Times.

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Posted: August 28, 2009 | 7:34 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Retail | Travel | Agencies | Product Placement | Television | Restaurants/Fast Food

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DO WE FILE THIS ONE UNDER “JELLIES WITH GENITALIA”? Reports surfaced this week that a British man had complained that the packaging for Haribo brand's Maoam sour candies depicted fruits in a pornographic manner. According to the ever-reliable Daily Mail, Simon Simpkins of West Yorkshire complained to a local shopkeeper about the candy wrappers, in which, he said, "The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter." Now, though, it appears it was all a publicity stunt.

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Posted: August 27, 2009 | 13:29 ET to Everyone's a Guru
File Under: Career | Direct | Direct Mail



Laurene is a career direct marketer, with 20 years of hands-on experience helping marketers acquire and retain customers, build CRM methodologies and determine their channel choices. She has held executive roles in Canada’s best-in-class direct marketing advertising agencies Blitz Direct, Data & Promotion, MacLaren McCann Direct and Vickers & Benson Direct, where she developed industry-leading programs for marketers like Bell Canada, Bank of Montreal, General Motors of Canada, Rogers (Cantel) and Shoppers Drug Mart.

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Posted: August 27, 2009 | 12:28 ET to Beyond the Numbers
File Under: Magazine | Online

New York-based research firm Affinity has some good advice for magazine advertisers.

Including URLs in magazine ads significantly increases the likelihood that those ads' readers will visit the advertisers' websites.

Affinity's Vista Print Effectiveness Rating Service found that this is the case whether an advertiser's intention in running the ad was to drive traffic to its site or not.

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Posted: August 27, 2009 | 11:44 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Online | Video

Ad Age reports that YouTube has begun placing ads on its most-popular videos.

The publication writes that, until now, "YouTube has limited selling ads in videos to members of its 'partner program': prolific producers that meet certain criteria...; studios with which it has deals, such as Time Warner and CBS; or studios participating in its Content ID program, which identifies the owner of user-uploaded videos and places adjacent advertising.

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Posted: August 26, 2009 | 9:34 ET to Everyone's a Guru
File Under: Social Media

Mathew Ingram is The Globe and Mail’s Communities Editor and a leading expert on social media. His journalism career includes work with for the London Free Press, Alberta Report and the Financial Times and in his career with The Globe he has covered the stock market, business, and technology. He is a co-founder of mesh, the leading Canadian Web conference, which is holding its first meshmarketing event on October 22 in Toronto.

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Posted: August 24, 2009 | 18:26 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Mobile/Wireless | Technology & Communications

Well, that didn't take long.

Last quarter, the iPhone's share of the global smartphone market rose to 13%, up from 3% during same quarter in 2008. And, not surprisingly, adoption rates for Apple's innovative device are highest in companies that specialize in advertising, marketing or media.

Those marketshare figures are Gartner's, courtesy of a recent Ad Age article.

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Posted: August 24, 2009 | 17:09 ET to Beyond the Numbers
File Under: Television | Measurement



How many people watch a given show? For decades, advertisers have relied on Nielsen ratings for the answer. Today, however, several research firms--Nielsen among them--are eyeing the rich stores of data collected by digital set-top boxes.

STB measurement promises to reveal much more about the habits of TV audiences--and account for many more of their members.

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Posted: August 21, 2009 | 9:13 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Beverages | Out of Home | Restaurants/Fast Food | Television | Newspaper | Research | Automotive | Sports Marketing | Cause Marketing

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HOW THIN-SKINNED ARE TORONTONIANS? Three months ago, Molson Coors Brewing put up a billboard announcing that its Coors Light beer was "Colder than most people from Toronto." But after a Toronto newspaper ran a story on the ad this week, prompting a flurry of online carping, the brewer apologized and pledged to take down the offending creative.

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Posted: August 21, 2009 | 8:45 ET to The Sandbox
File Under: Globe and Mail

Simon Houpt looks at product placement and explains why Canada is behind the States when comes to adopting this growing practice.

"Marketers here note that deals securing placement of a major brand on a U.S.

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