Posted by truecreek on October 26, 2010 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 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 July 7, 2010 under The Work |
Posted by truecreek on April 26, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
We recently commissioned several of our very talented writers to concept some headlines for a organization that has dedicated itself to combating distracted driving. Here are just a few. If you have a favorite, please comment and let us know.
Posted by truecreek on April 8, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
So, if these stats are correct, one could assume that as much as 17% of the population that has not adopted broadband would do so if they understood the nuts and bolts of how it works?
By Susannah Fox
A new report released today by John B. Horrigan, formerly of Pew Internet and now at the Federal Communications Commission, finds that 78% of adults in the U.S. are Internet users and 65% of adults have home broadband access.
Adults who do not have broadband at home fall into four categories:
Digitally Distant: 10% of the general population. Median age is 63. Half say that the Internet is not relevant to their lives or they lack the digital literacy to adopt broadband.
Digital Hopefuls: 8% of the general population. Low-income, heavily Hispanic and African American. Likely to say they want to go online, but lack the resources.
Digitally Uncomfortable: 7% of the general population. Likely to own a computer, but lack skills and interest in taking advantage of all the Internet has to offer.
Near Converts: 10% of the general population. Median age is 45. Cost is the biggest barrier to having broadband at home.
Posted by truecreek on March 1, 2010 under More Dam News, Research |
Interesting Pew Study.
by Kristen Purcell, Lee Rainie, Amy Mitchell, Tom Rosenstiel, Kenny Olmstead.
The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get their daily news, according to a new survey conducted jointly by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The Internet is now the third most-popular news platform, behind local and national television news and ahead of national print newspapers, local print newspapers and radio. Getting news online fits into a broad pattern of news consumption by Americans; six in ten (59%) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day.
The internet and mobile technologies are at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. In today’s new multi-platform media environment, news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory:
* Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
* Personalized: 28% of Internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
* Participatory: 37% of Internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
In addition, people use their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess, and react to news. And they use traditional email and other tools to swap stories and comment on them. Among those who get news online, 75% get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites and 52% share links to news with others via those means.
Despite all of this online activity, the typical online news consumer routinely uses just a handful of news sites and does not have a particular favorite. And overall, Americans have mixed feelings about this “new” news environment. Over half (55%) say it is easier to keep up with news and information today than it was five years ago, but 70% feel the amount of news and information available from different sources is overwhelming.
Take a look at the study and download it here.
Posted by truecreek on February 24, 2010 under More Dam News |
By Patrick Lencioni.
New ads for Domino’s Pizza display unusual corporate vulnerability—and the surprising effectiveness of talking straight.
I recently saw a television commercial that made quite an impression on me, and I have a hunch that it might go down as one of the most effective advertisements of all time, assuming the company behind it is sincere. I’m talking about Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) and the recent ad in which the company concedes the shortcomings of its product and explains what has been done to improve it.
The spot opens with customers describing Domino’s pizza using words like ketchup and cardboard. Then, Domino’s President J. Patrick Doyle matter-of-factly explains the importance of acknowledging how customers see his pizza. Finally he outlines the company’s response: 40% more herbs in its sauce, better cheese, a special glaze on the crust. I have a hard time remembering the names of the U.S. Supreme Court justices and even what I had for breakfast. But I can remember all those details from the Domino’s ad, and that says a lot about its impact.
I’m willing to bet that Domino’s will sell a lot more pizzas in the months ahead. And the reason I believe that has less to do with the new ingredients than with Domino’s willingness to cross a line that most companies—and for that matter, most leaders—won’t even approach. Domino’s chose to make itself vulnerable.
Vulnerability isn’t a word that shows up on lists of ingredients for business success. Here’s why it should: Without the willingness and ability to be vulnerable, we simply can’t build deep and lasting relationships in business and, come to think of it, life.
Vulnerability is often seen as a weakness; it’s actually a sign of strength. People who are genuinely open and transparent prove that they have the confidence and self-esteem to allow others to see them as they really are, warts and all. There’s something undeniably magnetic about people who can do that.
When it comes to the workplace, vulnerability is critical in the building of teams. When teammates feel free to admit their mistakes, ask for help, and acknowledge their own weaknesses, they reduce divisive politics and build a bond of trust more valuable than almost any strategic advantage. Another great venue for vulnerability is the one I work in, the world of service. When consultants and advisers are willing to ask dumb questions, tell the unvarnished truth, or broach the painful, elephant-in-the-room topic, they engender loyalty and trust with clients.
More about The Power of Saying ‘We Blew It’ here.
Posted by truecreek on January 26, 2010 under More Dam News, Research |
These statistics are holding steady.
By Lee Rainie:
In a national survey between November 30 and December 27, 2009, we find:
74% of American adults (ages 18 and older) use the Internet, a slight drop from our survey in April 2009, which did not include Spanish interviews. At that time we found that 79% of English speaking adults use the Internet.
60% of American adults use broadband connections at home, a drop that is within the margin of error from 63% in April 2009.
55% of American adults connect to the Internet wirelessly, either through a WiFi or WiMax connection via their laptops or through their handheld device like a smart phone. This figure did not change in a statistically significant way during 2009.
These data come from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. The most recent survey was conducted from November 30 to December 27, 2009, using landline and cell phones and including interviews in Spanish. Some 2,258 adults were interviewed and the overall sample has a margin of error of ± 2 percentage points.
Download the entire Internet, broadband and cell phone statistics survey here.
Posted by truecreek on under Opinions. Everyone has them., Research |
Very interesting research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It’s a hot topic of discussion here at True Creek, for sure. The premise was also the theme for a recent episode of ‘Modern Family’ on ABC.
By Margaret Shapiro
We’ve heard about the gender divide in knowledge and use of technology. It seems the gap may start with the simplest of technologies — cellphones — and at a fairly young age — middle school.
For a study published in December in the journal New Media and Society, University of Alabama at Birmingham sociologist Shelia Cotten asked nearly 1,000 middle school students to rate the different ways they used their cellphones.
The results showed boys much more than girls used their phones to play games, share photos and videos, listen to music and send e-mails. Girls tended to use their phones primarily for talking and or text messaging.
To the researchers’ surprise, the boys used the phones for talking and texting just as much as the girls — in other words, they didn’t use the “complicated features” instead of socializing, but in addition to it. “We would’ve expected that girls would use cellphones for talking and texting because females are socialized to communicate more with others than males,” said Cotten in an online video presentation of her research, “but there were no differences.”
“By these study results, we aren’t saying that parents should buy phones with fewer features for girls,” she said. “But it does point out how much more needs to be done to teach girls” about technology. “Females traditionally have perceived themselves as less skilled in terms of technology, especially with regard to computers.”
Cotten said that 60 to 70 percent of middle school kids report owning a cellphone.
More about Boys vs. Girls on Cellphones here.
Posted by truecreek on January 20, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Darren Rovell
Every time a company buys naming rights to a stadium, their executives get challenged. Is this really a good deal? Why does it seem like companies who have put their name on stadiums face greater economic trouble than those who pass on the idea?
I think the latter might be more perception than reality –- that the percentage of companies that sign naming rights deals and then file for bankruptcy are somehow much greater than those that don’t sign deals and don’t file for bankruptcy.
Answering whether naming rights deals are good deals depend on two things: price and activation.
In order to sell these rights, teams show companies what the “impression value” of the stadium is. That is, how many times will the company’s name be mentioned in the media.
The numbers being shown to these companies — ranging from millions of impressions to hundreds of millions of impressions a year –- are real. But there’s a big difference between having a 30-second ad and having your company’s name mentioned 30 times. I’m just throwing it out there, but I think that tens of thousands of impressions can equal what one 30-second ad can do as far as driving business to a company.
We just had on Wes Thompson, CEO of Sun Life Financial, whose company reportedly paid an average of $4 million over five years to put its name on the stadium where the Miami Dolphins play.
Because this is the seventh name change the stadium has had, the impression value has already been severely compromised. Simply put, fewer people are willing to call it by its official name because they’ve been put through the ringer. So Sun Life’s first job is to find out exactly how much it has been devalued — even with the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl coming up.
But the next job is to convince fans why they should have their insurance through Sun Life. That is the essential leap that makes naming rights worth it or not.
Thompson mentioned that this was an opportunity to increase brand awareness and that the stadium was a great destination, but Thompson didn’t mention exactly what Sun Life was going to do with the rights.
Perhaps Thompson needs some time, but that’s not a great start. Because it’s an insurance product, it requires more of an effort than say a beer brand like Land Shark, which previously had the name to the stadium.
Is Sun Life going to offer some sort of deal where the longer you had Dolphins season tickets, the lower they are willing to go on your insurance as compared to the product offered by their competition?
We know Sun Life employees will be in their luxury box entertaining corporations, but how many Sun Life employees will be walking throughout the stadium talking to fans?
Perhaps I didn’t pry enough on specifics, but I’m skeptical of what Sun Life is going to do because I’ve found that most naming rights deals are ego buys with very little activation. Most naming rights deals aren’t worth it because the company itself doesn’t make it worth it.
Because of this deal, I now know the name Sun Life Financial. That’s the first step. Getting me to actually put my money with the product or service the company offers is the second step. And, at least for me, it’s a step that not a single company that has ever landed naming rights has ever accomplished.
Posted by truecreek on January 11, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Sarah McBride.
Last year was the first since 2002 that U.S. consumers spent more money buying movie tickets than buying movies to watch at home, underscoring the changing economics of Hollywood.
According to new data from Adams Media Research, Americans spent $9.87 billion at the box office in 2009, 10% more than in 2008, according to a report Adams plans to release Tuesday. At the same time, sales in the U.S. of feature films on DVD, long a cornerstone of movie studios’ business models, plunged 13% to $8.73 billion, including Blu-ray high-definition discs. (Other companies that track box-office receipts include Canada in their North American figures, adding about 7% to the total and pushing the year’s gross above $10 billion.)
The figures indicate that studios will likely have to continue looking for ways to survive in a marketplace where they can’t count on hefty home-entertainment revenue to offset giant production costs. Those costs often more than eat up the studios’ half of the box-office receipts, which are split with theaters.
The ongoing decline in home-entertainment revenue has already fundamentally altered the way studios do business, forcing them to place big financial bets on hoped-for mass-market blockbusters at the expense of features that cost less to make but that also have smaller earnings potential.
Hit titles such as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” and “Up” were among those that lured large numbers of Americans to the cinema last year.
“Consumers are still in love with movies,” said Tom Adams, president of Adams Media. “In this environment, however, they’re seeking the biggest bang for their bucks.”
For studios, which count on income from home entertainment to underwrite growing production costs, the trend represents a giant headache. In the early 2000s, studios began counting on the cash bonanza generated by consumers’ building up libraries of DVDs. Now, they will have to alter budgets to reflect the shrinking DVD income stream.
More about how Cinema Surpassed DVD Sales in 2009 here.
Posted by truecreek on January 5, 2010 under The Work |
I love headlines. We just completed a campaign for Comcast touting their new 50/10 Internet product. The campaign is to run in the Atlanta Journal Constitution for 11 consecutive weeks, starting next week.
You have to appreciate just how impactful these ads will be with their big and bold copy running across the bottom of the page. Simple and clean look, with essentially nothing but a great headline to drag you in.
To me, a print ad should entice and entertain, not educate. There will be more than enough time to do that later after I call you or hit your site.
Check ‘em out.
Posted by truecreek on January 4, 2010 under The Work |
The start of a new campaign for Fortress Technologies. Nice, clean look mated with a very strong visual. Definitely a bit more earthy in tone than what has been the norm, but I think it works well. Many other great headlines to work with in the future.
Posted by truecreek on December 14, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Emily Bryson York, AdAge
Not everyone wants a value meal. And not everyone is unemployed. These insights informed an impressive year at Panera Bread Co., in which the chain outperformed much of the fast-casual category. To do so, the chain focused on quality, innovation and marketing.
“A bunch of folks have been cutting quality to cut price to go after the marginal customer,” said Exec VP-Chief Operating Officer Rick Vanzura, who added that Panera donates about $100 million in bread each year. “We said a better strategy that addresses a bigger group of people is providing better value.”
More about Panera: an America’s Hottest Brands Case Study here.
Posted by truecreek on December 4, 2009 under The Work |
“Keep on Truckin’” was a one-page comic by Robert Crumb, published in the first issue of Zap Comix in 1968. We thought we’d have a little fun with it.
Posted by truecreek on November 30, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
By Bertha Coombs, CNBC
Retailers drew more shoppers to open their wallets this Black Friday weekend, but the steep discounts they used to get them in the door meant that on average, shoppers spent less.
The National Federation of Retailers says 195 million people shopped at stores and online over the weekend, up 13.3 percent from last year. Total spending was flat at $41.2 billion, but on average consumers spent 8.5 percent less, roughly $343 per person compared to $372 a year ago.
Department stores emerged the shopping destination of choice for nearly half of all shoppers polled in the NRF’s Black Friday survey, conducted by BIGresearch.
Discount stores came in second garnering a 43.2 percent share, and outlets picking up 7.8 percent of shoppers. Just over one in four surveys shopped at electronics stores (29 percent) or online (28.5 percent).
Two years into the deepest recession in a generation, consumers may be showing signs of what some have termed frugal fatigue, says the NRF’s Ellen Davis. “Retailers have to come away from this weekend encouraged,” she says, “that shoppers were willing to spend on some discretionary items.”
Capital Growth Partners president Craig Johnson says the consumer was back in force over Black Friday weekend. In a note to clients, he wrote, ‘These are not simply browsers, but buyers, with checkout lines of 30 or longer in some mall teen specialty stores, and checkout lines exceeding 350 in several Big Box stores.”
Just over half shoppers bought clothing, according to the survey, helping to boost department store sales. About forty percent bought books, DVDs and video games. Those numbers were about the same as last year.
Price wars on popular toys at Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us saw more shoppers buying toys as gifts. About a third of shoppers said they spent money on toys, a 12.9 percent increase from last year.
According to the survey, more shoppers bought sporting and leisure items this year — 12.6 percent, up a point from last year. Personal care and beauty items saw a bigger increase — 22.4 percent up from 19.0 percent — along with gift cards — 21.2 percent vs. 18.7 percent a year ago.
Did those early door busters in the wee hours of the morning pay off? Nearly one-third of shoppers (31.2 percent) were at the stores by 5 a.m. according to the NRF survey, that’s up from 23.3 percent last year. The majority of those early shoppers were men or younger shoppers.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
By Meg James
There’s finally some new life in old media.
After pummeling traditional media companies for nearly two years, the advertising recession is showing signs of a recovery. TV networks — including Fox, CBS and ABC and such leading cable channels as TNT, TBS, USA, Bravo and Fox News Channel — have benefited the most as advertisers have been snapping up available commercial spots and agreeing to pay significantly higher prices than they did just five months ago.
“In challenging times, people go back to what they know, and what they know best is television,” said David Levy, president of sales for Turner Entertainment, which includes TNT and TBS. “It is a little too early to declare victory, but the market is definitely improving.”
The welcome news is the result of stronger-than-expected demand for TV advertising in the “scatter” market, in which advertisers frequently have to pay premiums for scarce available commercial time. It also represents something of a win for the networks, which gambled this summer that demand would pick up later in the year and held back a larger percentage of their inventory than in previous years, hoping to capitalize on the improved economy.
Fourth-quarter commercial sales have been propelled by retail chains hoping to ignite their holiday sales; technology giants Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., which have new products to promote; cellphone carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, which are battling for customers; and even such financial firms as American Express, according to television executives and advertising buyers surveyed this week.
Such strong demand has made up for the weaker orders from other mainstay advertisers, including automakers, still reeling from weak sales, and Hollywood movie studios, which have fewer new movies to hype.
A fourth quarter described by one top network sales executive as “gangbusters” amazed even veterans who have lived through several economic cycles. Only five months ago, the industry was bracing for another dismal year as TV network sales teams were engaged in protracted negotiations with advertisers that were demanding that the networks roll back prices as much as 20%. Networks eventually agreed to trim rates about 5% to 8% to mollify advertisers and begin unloading their time.
But now, in some cases, advertisers have agreed to pay rates 10% to 35% higher than the prices established in June and July, when the networks sold the bulk of their time for the new TV season. In addition, advertisers that placed their orders in the summer are honoring their commitments. Network executives said that few advertisers have canceled their orders for commercial spots, in contrast with a year ago.
“We have all been surprised that the ad market has come back this soon,” said Gary Carr, executive director of national broadcast for the advertising firm TargetCast. The networks, he said, also face easier comparisons because last fall, with banks failing and the economy on the skids, companies were afraid to spend on advertising.
“A year ago, people thought the world was coming to an end, and the U.S. economy was falling apart,” Carr said. “But the world did not come to an end. Cars still have to be sold, and studios still need people to go see their movies. Advertisers have begun releasing the money that they have been holding onto all year.”
Even local TV stations — among the hardest hit by the slump in advertising spending — have received a lift, primarily fueled by stores that unleashed their holiday sales campaigns earlier in the season, according to television executives.
Not all media outlets have rebounded, however. Many small cable TV channels and Spanish-language television networks are still hurting, according to television executives. Newspapers, magazines and radio stations also continue to struggle.
“In many sectors, the news is still grim,” said Jon Swallen, senior vice president for research at TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks advertising spending. “And there is still a fairly large hole for these companies to dig out of before they get back to the levels they were a few years ago.”
Unexpectedly, online advertising also has taken it on the chin.
Many advertisers are no longer as eager to buy Internet display ads as they were two or three few years ago, when firms were steering millions of ad dollars to online sites.
“There is still a big push toward digital and online video, but the Internet display advertising market is challenged,” said Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic insights at advertising firm Optimedia. “There is so much clutter in the space, and advertisers have begun to question the effectiveness of those display ads.”
More here.
