Posted by truecreek on December 8, 2010 under More Dam News, Opinions. Everyone has them. | 
It stands to reason. Might our entertainment industry be offering up the best form of propaganda? Desperate Housewives being used to ‘counter the extremists?’ Amazing. Wonder how Modern Family is going over?
By Devin Dwyer.
American television shows broadcast across the Middle East are proving to be effective “agents of influence” in the ongoing battle over hearts and minds of ordinary Muslims pondering jihad against the United States, a confidential government cable published by Wikileaks reveals.
ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and “World News with Diane Sawyer,” as well as CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” and NBC’s sitcom “Friends,” all carry more sway with viewers than a U.S. taxpayer-funded Middle East broadcast network, an unnamed Saudi source told U.S. embassy officials last year.
“It’s still all about the War of Ideas here, and the American programming on [privately-owned] MBC and Rotana is winning over ordinary Saudis in a way that ‘Al Hurra’ and other U.S. propaganda never could,” the source said.
“Saudis are now very interested in the outside world, and everybody wants to study in the U.S. if they can. They are fascinated by U.S. culture in a way they never were before.”
The Saudi government, which exerts tight control over media in the country, has permitted the satellite broadcasts of American programming uncensored with Arabic subtitles over the privately-owned Middle East Broadcasting group (MBC) as a “means of countering the extremists.”
More about American TV Shows “Agents of Influence” here.
Posted by truecreek on November 17, 2010 under More Dam News, Opinions. Everyone has them. |
Just yesterday, General Motors announced a 31 percent increase in the amount of shares the company is going to issue in common stock for their IPO tomorrow. It very possibly could become the largest IPO in history. This dramatic increase in issuance is due to the demand generated by the buzz associated with the offering. And it’s a buzz that is not all about just the financials. UPDATE FROM AP: GM’s landmark stock sale is now set to raise up to $22.7 billion, the biggest IPO in history.
I think it says a lot about the product offering. Dropping Saab, Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer has allowed the company to FOCUS their attention on their four remaining core brands: GMC, Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac. GMC trucks are some of the best in the world, the Chevrolet and Buick brands are on fire and Cadillac is staying strong.
According to the company, year-to-date, combined sales of the Chevrolet Equinox, Chevrolet Camaro, Buick LaCrosse and Regal, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX and CTS Wagon are up 323 percent.
And today, even more good things to say. The highly anticipated VOLT has been named Car of the Year by Motor Trend and Automobile. I’m sure Car and Driver won’t be far behind. Without a single car having been delivered. Now that’s confidence in a product. Add to that, GE’s decision to buy 25,000 Volts by 2015 and you have a winner here.
The quality of the GM build today is second to none. Factories are in the best shape ever, utilizing build and production techniques that will assure buyers of a high quality product with minimal defects. Reliability and quality engineering is now a part of the overall message for all the brands. Take a look at some of the new GM advertising. Best in a long time.
So, tomorrow will be a good day, maybe even a great day, for GM. And they deserve it.
(Chevrolet’s SS concept, from GM’s North Hollywood Design Center.)
Posted by truecreek on November 16, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
2011 is set up to be another exciting year at the movies. There’s guaranteed to be something for everyone with plenty of thrillers and comedies. Just throw in some romance, a little horror, lots of drama and exciting action and you have another great year in cinema.
It also looking to be the biggest year ever in 3-D.
Here are just some of the blockbusters you’ll see in 2011:
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The Hangover 2
Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom
The Dark Fields
The Green Hornet
The Rite
Scream 4
The Green Lantern
Cars 2
X-Men First Class
Transformers 3
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II
The Three Musketeers
Twilight Saga
Happy Feet 2
Mission Impossible 4
Sherlock Holmes 2
Posted by truecreek on November 3, 2010 under More Dam News, Research |
By John Consoli
NBC Universal wants advertisers to know that when it comes to consumer spending based on what they see in television ads, the 55-64 demo is the new 18-34—or it’s just as important as that younger demo.
NBCU on Tuesday (Nov. 2) gave the media a sneak peek at a major presentation it will make on Thursday to its advertisers, their media agencies and Nielsen officials. The presentation will offer data showing that the adult 55-64 demo is as vibrant as younger demos in ad spending, and should be targeted (and not ignored) when television marketing plans are created.
Allen Wurtzel, president of research and media development at NBCU, presented evidence from assorted sources—including one-on-one interviews with adults in the demo—that dispel myths about how adults 55-64 respond to advertising and spend as consumers.
Wurtzel said the demo, which he’s labeled “AlphaBoomers,” “has been largely ignored by advertisers and marketers.”
“Every seven seconds someone turns 55 and once they do, they are eliminated from the highest-end Nielsen demo measurement: 25-54,” Wurtzel said. “It is the fastest-growing demo group in the country and now numbers 35 million people that account for close to $2 trillion in annual spending.”
Wurtzel said NBC research and a survey it commissioned of people in the 55-64 demo counters common perceptions that they make less of an income and spend less on advertised products; are technophobic and brand loyal, and therefore, cannot be motivated to switch brands.
“Our goal is to raise a discussion among CMOs at the various companies and to get Nielsen to begin offering ratings data for the 55-64 demo,” Wurtzel said. “They have the data. It’s just a matter of creating the software and adding staff to distribute it.”
Other findings include:
* AphaBoomers spend more on home improvement products, home furnishing, large appliances, beauty and cosmetics and casual dining than adults 18-49.
* A similar percentage of AlphaBoomers have high-definition TVs, use DVRs and broadband as adults 18-34
* 70 percent of AlphaBoomers buy at least one product a month online
* 59 percent of AlphaBoomers send text messages via their cell phones
“This is not something that is just going to affect NBCU,” Wurtzel said. “Down the road as more people leave the 25-54 demo, it will affect every network.”
More here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
I am not surprised at all by the results of this research. Men really do care about a lot of things that matter to all.
By Stuart Elliott
For many years, the assumption on Madison Avenue has been that cause marketing — doing well (selling products) by doing good (helping causes that matter to consumers) — plays more strongly with women than men. That may not be the case, according to a new survey.
The 2010 edition of the PR Cause survey, co-sponsored by the trade publication PR Week and Barkley, an agency in Kansas City, Mo., found that men were nearly as supportive of cause marketing campaigns as women.
Eighty-eight percent of the men questioned for the survey said they believed it was important for companies to support causes. When the question was asked last year of women, 91 percent of respondents said they agreed.
“Men do have a heart,” said Mike Swenson, president at Barkley. The agency suggested to PR Week that part of the survey be devoted to men’s views of cause marketing, he added, and the publication agreed.+
The survey, as usual, also canvassed corporate marketing executives for their opinions about cause-related promotions and advertising. Two-thirds said their companies engaged in cause marketing, versus 58 percent in the survey last year.
However, 68 percent of the marketing executives who were questioned for the survey said they had no plans to aim cause marketing efforts at men.
“It’s certainly an open door for brands that cater to men,” Mr. Swenson said.
A cause marketing program centered on breast cancer, which Barkley created for Lee Jeans, part of the VF Corporation, also has a male target audience in addition to the obvious female audience. The idea is to generate men’s help to fight a disease that affects the women in their lives.
The results of the survey showed that the economy “hasn’t affected corporate support” of cause marketing, said Erica Iacono, executive editor of PR Week in New York, owned by the Haymarket Media Group. In fact, it may have increased that support because consumers are more interested in causes after going through tough times.
“Last year, we had two clients that, while making other budget cuts, each started a new cause program,” Mr. Swenson said.
Posted by truecreek on October 27, 2010 under More Dam News |
I wouldn’t want to piss these guys off.
By Don Jeffrey
The Hells Angels motorcycle group sued fashion design house Alexander McQueen and retail chain Saks Inc. for trademark infringement for selling handbags, jewelry and clothing using the club’s death-head design.
Hells Angels Motorcycle Corp. said McQueen’s company, New York-based Saks and retailer Zappos.com Inc. have been selling infringing products in stores in California and online, according to a complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
The motorcycle club said it has been using the death-head mark, a skull with wings, since at least 1948. The Hells Angels have authorized the use of the marks on jewelry, apparel and “promotional and entertainment services,” according to the complaint.
More on the story here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
By Emily Fredrix
And now, a word from our sponsors. A very brief word.
TV commercials are shrinking along with attention spans and advertising budgets. The 15-second ad is increasingly common, gradually supplanting the 30-second spot just as it knocked off the full-minute pitch decades ago.
For viewers, it means more commercials in a more rapid-fire format. For advertisers, shorter commercials are a way to save some money, and research shows they hold on to more eyeballs than the longer format.
“It used to be that the most valuable thing on the planet was time, and now the most valuable thing on the planet is attention,” says John Greening, associate professor at Northwestern University’s journalism school and a former executive vice president at ad agency DDB Chicago.
So instead of seeing a lengthier plot line, viewers are treated to the sight of, say, the popular “Old Spice man” riding backward on a horse through various scenes for just 15 seconds.
Or the “most interesting man in the world,” the suave, rugged, Spanish-accented character pitching Dos Equis beer, appearing just long enough to turn his head and weigh in on the topic of rollerblading. (Verdict? A deadpan “No.”)
The number of 15-second television commercials has jumped more than 70 percent in five years to nearly 5.5 million last year, according to Nielsen. They made up 34 percent of all national ads on the air last year, up from 29 percent in 2005.
Commercial-skipping digital video recorders and distractions such as laptops and phones have shortened viewers’ attention spans, says Deborah Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin. Viewers are also watching TV streamed on sites like Hulu, where advertisers have less of a presence.
Read the entire article here.
Posted by truecreek on October 26, 2010 under More Dam News |
For years, companies have had to make decisions regarding proper usage of their customer information. Kudos to Amazon for fighting this one. Why would the state need to know what we are reading, what we buy and what we listen to? You would think all they would care about is how much we spent with Amazon. That’s it.
Read the article here.
If this is appealed, I wonder if it might just make it to the Supreme Court?
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
Today’s zombie commute in NYC must have been really something to see. Hopefully, there were enough of them on the streets to really make a visual impact. Probably one of the more inventive uses of social media that I have heard about.
By Deepti Hajela
As if the morning commute wasn’t odd enough, intrepid New Yorkers trying to make their way to work on Tuesday had to battle past hordes of the walking dead.
Two dozen zombies, their clothes spattered with fake blood, were staggering up and down the block outside Madison Square Garden. Downtown, others shuffled across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Some pedestrians looked startled or amused by the ghost-white actors with bruised-looking eyes. Some people ignored them entirely. Others whipped out their cell phone cameras.
Horror movie fan Linda Emery was thrilled to see the creatures.
“I’m into zombies, anything with zombies,” said the 58-year-old home care provider from Brooklyn. It made a change from her usual commute.
“You see a lot of stuff, but not this stuff,” she said.
Erik Machado, an audio engineer heading to work in New Jersey, was unfazed and passed by the scene with nary a glance at the nightmares walking around.
“Gotta commute, gotta go where I gotta go,” the Queens resident said.
The stunt was part of a campaign in 26 cities worldwide promoting the Halloween premiere of the AMC television series “The Walking Dead.” The show is being broadcast outside of the United States on Fox International Channels.
Posted by truecreek on October 25, 2010 under More Dam News, Research |
Well, it was bound to happen. Someone was going to look at the relationship between a brand and a political party. Perfect study for this time of year, don’t you think?
This is only the top 10 for each and the only thing I don’t see is Apple on the list for the Dems. To me, that would be a no brainer, but I’m sure it’s on the big list somewhere.
I love Craftsman tools, but big with the liberals? Don’t know about that.
Fox New Channel the #1 brand with a bullet for the GOP. Who would have guessed?
Posted by truecreek on October 18, 2010 under More Dam News, Opinions. Everyone has them. |
Now, I’m no fan of the Jackass series of TV and films, but you just cannot argue the fact that they can get the eyeballs. And 3-D had to help.
Jackass 3-D grossed a whopping $50 million in its debut weekend, setting several records and setting punditry tongues wagging in the process. First of all, the film bested the $48.1 million opening weekend for Scary Movie 3 in 2003, taking the October opening weekend record. Second of all, the opening figure is far and away the best opening weekend for any kind of non-fiction/documentary film in history. If you count this series as a documentary franchise (which I do), then the third entry is now the fifth-highest grossing documentary in history in just three days. It stands behind Jackass: The Movie ($64 million), Jackass Number Two ($72 million), March of the Penguins ($77 million), and Fahrenheit 9/11 ($119 million).
While the franchise has mediocre legs (part one had a 2.9x weekend-to-total multiplier in 2002 and part two had a 2.4x multiplier in 2006), thus making $100 million+ not quite a sure thing yet, there is little doubt that the film will end its domestic run as the second-highest grossing documentary/non-fiction film of all time. Still, 3-D films seem to have better legs than average (witness the useless My Soul to Take dropping just 53% in weekend two, as well as the inexplicably strong holds of Legends of the Guardians, now at $46 million), partially because they keep the bigger auditoriums for longer periods of time. If it can manage a mere 2.4x multiplier, it will in fact surpass the Michael Moore anti-Bush epic.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
For the lovers of Kit Kat. Happy 75th Birthday!
From PopSop:
Kit Kat, one of the most successful brands produced by the Nestlé company, is celebrating its 75th birthday. The name of the iconic chocolate ‘fingers,’ approx. 540 of which are consumed every second around the globe (according to the Guinness Book of Records as of March 2010), dates back to the 17th century and originates from a London-based literary and political club called Kit Kat, the abbreviated name of pastry chef Christopher Catling, the owner of a pie shop where its meetings were held.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
By Julia Boorstin, CNBC
After years of moaning about the death of broadcast TV as viewers move online and to cable, the broadcast business is looking pretty healthy.
For one thing, advertising is back — CBS CEO Les Moonves said this week that ad rates are up 30 percent from Upfront Ad sales rates.
Considering that this year’s Upfront showed high single digit gains over last year, that’s significant progress. Second, networks have managed to secure that all important second revenue stream– retransmission fees from cable and satellite TV carriers.
More about Rumors of Broadcast’s Death Greatly Exaggerated here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Opinions. Everyone has them. |
Personally, I’m not a fan of Southwest. Just not my cup of tea. But obviously, they have done a wonderful job of positioning themselves as the champion for the little guy/gal. The bag cops campaign was a good one, hitting the major airlines hard with a message that highlighted their collective greed in such a humorous manner. But for a lot of people, this is no laughing matter. Fees are killin’ them.
From AP:
Southwest Airlines is giving its “bag cops” a break.
Southwest has been running a heavy dose of TV commercials boasting that unlike most other airlines it lets passengers check two bags for free.
But the airline said Friday it will launch a new TV commercial designed to boost sales on its website. The ad, featuring singing and dancing employees in Chicago, is important to Southwest because its flights don’t appear on online booking websites such as Orbitz and Travelocity.
Also, Southwest is seeking actors for commercials that will target airlines that charge customers up to $150 to change their itinerary. Southwest doesn’t charge a fee for changing flights on a ticket.
Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said the airline hasn’t decided when or how widely the new campaign will run.
Brett Snyder, who blogs about airlines as The Cranky Flier, said the change-fees ads will probably be less effective than Southwest’s long-running “bags fly free” campaign. He said travelers know that they will get charged for checking a bag on other airlines, but they don’t know if they’ll ever need to change their itinerary.
Posted by truecreek on under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
My father, Joseph E. Young Sr., died last month after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He had just turned 81.
To say we had a wonderful relationship is really an understatement. He was a great man, hard-working, loyal and dedicated. I learned so much from him. I will sorely miss our time together but know that some day, I will once again sit with him under a tree on beautiful summer day.
As you would expect, his death took my eye off the ball for a while. For some strange reason, I just didn’t see the need to post or update. I remember reading Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ “On Death and Dying” back in high school. If true, the five stages seemed to all happen at once. Part of me understood the situation and the rest of me didn’t.
Yes, you do feel numb.
What I didn’t expect was the impact small memories would have. Every day you see or hear something that stokes the fire within. Just writing this post and looking at this picture reminds me so much of the fun we used to have together.
But for me to get back in the swing of things, it’s vitally important that I get back to doing what I enjoy most and that’s working hard in the ad business. It’s time to scour the Internet for interesting articles, compelling research and great creative work.
So if it’s OK with you, here we go.
Posted by truecreek on August 25, 2010 under More Dam News |
By Beth Kowitt, FORTUNE.
Apple’s retail stores aren’t the only place where lines form these days. It’s 7:30 on a July morning, and already a crowd has gathered for the opening of Trader Joe’s newest outpost, in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The waiting shoppers chat about their favorite Trader Joe’s foods, and a woman in line launches into a monologue comparing the retailer’s West Coast and East Coast locations. Another customer suggests that the chain will be good for Chelsea, even though the area is already brimming with places to buy groceries, including Whole Foods and several upscale food boutiques.
But Trader Joe’s is no ordinary grocery chain. It’s an offbeat, fun discovery zone that elevates food shopping from a chore to a cultural experience. It stocks its shelves with a winning combination of low-cost, yuppie-friendly staples (cage-free eggs and organic blue agave sweetener) and exotic, affordable luxuries — Belgian butter waffle cookies or Thai lime-and-chili cashews — that you simply can’t find anyplace else.
Employees dress in goofy trademark Hawaiian shirts, hand stickers out to your squirming kids, and cheerfully refund your money if you’re unhappy with a purchase — no questions asked. At the Chelsea store opening, workers greeted customers with high-fives and free cookies. Try getting that kind of love at the Piggly Wiggly.
It’s little wonder that Trader Joe’s is one of the hottest retailers in the U.S. It now boasts 344 stores in 25 states and Washington, D.C., and strip-mall operators and consumers alike aggressively lobby the chain, based in Monrovia, Calif., to come to their towns. A Trader Joe’s brings with it good jobs, and its presence in your community is like an affirmation that you and your neighbors are worldly and smart.
The privately held company’s sales last year were roughly $8 billion, the same size as Whole Foods’ and bigger than those of Bed Bath & Beyond, No. 314 on the Fortune 500 list. Unlike those massive shopping emporiums, Trader Joe’s has a deliberately scaled-down strategy: It is opening just five more locations this year. The company selects relatively small stores with a carefully curated selection of items. (Typical grocery stores can carry 50,000 stock-keeping units, or SKUs; Trader Joe’s sells about 4,000 SKUs, and about 80% of the stock bears the Trader Joe’s brand.) The result: Its stores sell an estimated $1,750 in merchandise per square foot, more than double Whole Foods’. The company has no debt and funds all growth from its own coffers.
More about Inside the Secret World of Trader Joe’s here.
Posted by truecreek on August 18, 2010 under More Dam News |
What a brilliant way to market a bike store.
From Photoblog:
Co-owner Christian Petersen looks out of a window at his bicycle shop in Altlandsberg, north-east of Berlin August 17, 2010. The owners attached about 120 bicycles on the facade to advertise their shop.
Photo credit:
Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Posted by truecreek on under Research |
By Aaron Smith.
After several consecutive years of modest but consistent growth, broadband adoption slowed dramatically in 2010. Two-thirds of American adults (66%) currently use a high-speed Internet connection at home, a figure that is not statistically different from what The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found at a similar point in 2009, when 63% of Americans were broadband adopters.
The lack of growth in broadband adoption at the national level was mirrored across a range of demographic groups, with African-Americans being a major exception. Broadband adoption by African-Americans now stands at 56%, up from 46% at a similar point in 2009. That works out to a 22% year-over-year growth rate, well above the national average and by far the highest growth rate of any major demographic group.
Read more about Home Broadband 2010, a Pew Study, here.
Posted by truecreek on August 4, 2010 under The Work |
Posted by truecreek on July 30, 2010 under More Dam News |
Having been in the business for over 30 years, people send me work to review all the time. Just the other day I got this great email with some of the most interesting photography I have seen in years.
It’s a new campaign from AT&T, from BBDO Atlanta. Just won a Kelly Award, from what I understand. The campaign was voted #1 in the “America’s Favorite Magazine Ads” competition.
Some very nice work. AD was Rich Wakefield and the photographer was Andric. According to the AD, the hand painter was from Milan.
