Posted by truecreek on February 1, 2011 under The Work | 
At True Creek, we are into big ideas. The Creekbed draws from the brightest, most creative minds in the industry today; people who have shaped brands like Intel, Apple, Nissan, Best Buy, Volkswagen, Cox, Comcast, NASA – and many local and regional names that are big fish in a smaller pond.
We offer our clients a wide variety of services: Media Planning, Placement and Reconciliation, Television and Radio Production, Newspaper, Four-Color Magazine, Collateral Materials, Direct Mail, Promotional Merchandise, Point-of-Purchase, Outdoor and Out-of-Home, Logo Design and Corporate Identity/Graphic Standards.
Our agency is based in Oakton, VA, which is just outside the Capital Beltway in Washington, D.C.
Please take a moment to tour the site. Afterwards, let’s talk about how we might be able to help you. 703-281-2165. Or send a note: joseph@truecreek.com.
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 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 7, 2009 under More Dam News |
Real moms still have unmet needs—as women and mothers. Boston Consulting Group estimates that women control $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion in U.S. consumer spending, or 73% of household spending.
To reach this demographic, marketers need not just to communicate that the goods and services they offer are practical and convenient; they also need to make real moms feel confident and in charge.
Marketers should empower these female consumers to delegate to others (spouses, children,brands) so they can have more time to be who they want to be—at home, at work and on their own.
And marketers have to use new ways to reach a population that rarely has time to sit down to read or watch or enjoy something without simultaneously doing something else.
Read the entire report about marketing to moms 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 December 2, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop:
Heinz is going to spend more money on its marketing campaigns over the next few months to attract new shoppers and please consumers loyal to its products. The giant food company’s profits rose to $2.67 billion (2.5%) in the last quarter, and the giant believes it’s high time to adopt new approaches for gaining more popularity among customers, looking for discounts and bargains.
The company is going to spend 25-30% more in the second half of the fiscal year, and in four years the expenditures set for these purposes will comprise $130 million. Over this period the marketing investments will be greatly increased particularly in North America and Europe.
“Even though the global recession appears to be abating, there’s no question that consumer and customers remain intensely focused on value which they are more often defining as price,” comments Bill Johnson, chairman/CEO of Heinz. The new approach is going to be based around the company’s Consumer Value Program scheme involving “selective price point adjustments that are more attractive to cost conscious consumers, targeted media, increased point of purchase, in store marketing and increased new product activity,” noted Johnson.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
From Popsop:
The Nike (RED) campaign was launched yesterday, December 1, in 13 countries around the world. Like Starbucks, another global brand, the sportswear maker joined the movements dedicated to fighting AIDS in Africa. All the revenues gathered from selling red football laces, with each pair costing $4.00, will be donated to the Global Fund.
Posted by truecreek on November 24, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
From Consumer Reports:
Bell ringers, perfume sprayers and the steady drumbeat of holiday music may be annoying to some shoppers. But what really brings out their grinchier instincts are stores that fail to open all the checkout lanes and then use pushy retail tactics when shoppers finally make it to the cash register.
Customers don’t like being pressured to open store credit cards or being asked for personal information. And they really object to being hounded to buy extended warranties, according to a nationally representative survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
The survey was conducted as part of Consumer Reports’ annual “Dear Shopper” campaign that highlights holiday gotchas and shopping traps. This year Consumer Reports had an assist from its sister Web site, Consumerist, which collected a list of annoyances from its readers.
When the list was taken to the public at large, those surveyed were in agreement. Here are the top gripes about retail practices:
* 72% Stores that don’t open all the checkout lanes;
* 68% Fake “sales”. If something is always 20% off, it’s not on sale;
* 67% Coupons that exclude almost everything in the store;
* 62% Being hounded with the extended warranty sales pitch;
* 58% Cashiers that ask for your phone number or other personal information;
* 56% In-store prices that do not match the same company’s on-line prices;
“Consumers have told us that they just want a hassle-free and convenient shopping experience,” said Jim Guest, president and CEO of Consumers Union. “We really hope this list of holiday annoyances is a wake-up call for the retail industry.”
When we asked shoppers about the number one non-retail practice that made them grumpy almost a third said the crowds (29%) followed by difficulty parking (28%), sales people spraying perfume (16%) and bell ringers outside stores (13%). Surprisingly, few folks are annoyed by that holiday music—only three percent said that was their top pet peeve. Fa-la-la-la-la indeed.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 19, 2009 under More Dam News |
We’re proud to announce the addition of a new client, Fortress Technologies. They design, develop and manufacture secure wireless networking products for a wide variety of government markets, civilian organizations and corporations.
Right now, on the media side, we’re working on the planning and placement for the first half of 2010, in conjunction with Timberlake Media Services in Chicago.
Creatively, we’re working on a new direction that will offer them the ability to communicate their message effectively, while standing out in a very crowded field.
We’re really looking forward to the opportunity and hope to be posting some great work in the coming weeks.
Posted by truecreek on November 13, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
By Keith Hampton, Lauren Sessions, Eun Ja Her, Lee Rainie
This report adds new insights to an ongoing debate about the extent of social isolation in America. A widely-reported 2006 study argued that since 1985 Americans have become more socially isolated, the size of their discussion networks has declined, and the diversity of those people with whom they discuss important matters has decreased.
In particular, the study found that Americans have fewer close ties to those from their neighborhoods and from voluntary associations. Sociologists Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin and Matthew Brashears suggest that new technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phone, may play a role in advancing this trend.
Specifically, they argue that the type of social ties supported by these technologies are relatively weak and geographically dispersed, not the strong, often locally-based ties that tend to be a part of peoples’ core discussion network.
They depicted the rise of Internet and mobile phones as one of the major trends that pulls people away from traditional social settings, neighborhoods, voluntary associations, and public spaces that have been associated with large and diverse core networks.
The survey results reported here were undertaken to explore issues that have not been probed directly in that study and other related research on social isolation: the role of the Internet and mobile phone in people’s core social networks.
This Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the Internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks. And, when we examine people’s full personal network – their strong and weak ties – Internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 12, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
Some 19% of Internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of Internet users said they use a status-update service.
Three groups of Internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the Internet via mobile devices, and younger Internet users – those under age 44.
In addition, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39% of Internet users with four or more Internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28% of Internet users with three devices, 19% of Internet users with two devices, and 10% of Internet users with one device.
The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.
It will probably become more difficult to track status updating as an independent activity as social network updates feed into Twitter and vice versa. For now, it is clear that a “social segment” of Internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more Internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
Ouch. And Architectural Digest is one of my favs.
By Stephanie Clifford
Condé Nast’s ad-page numbers are in, and they explain why the company has had such a rough 2009.
Ad pages fell by 49.9 percent at Architectural Digest, part of an estimated total loss of 8,359 ad pages at Condé Nast monthlies in 2009.
The company lost 8,359 ad pages at its monthly magazines, according to estimates it released Wednesday. That is a 31.6 percent drop from last year.
The worst hit were Architectural Digest, where ad pages fell 49.9 percent; W, where ad pages fell 46 percent; and Condé Nast Traveler, where pages fell 41.1 percent. Details and Wired both fell about 39 percent.
Some magazines showed improving numbers toward the end of the year. Traveler dropped only 5.4 percent from last year’s December issue, and Lucky 8.8 percent. Glamour actually rose 6.6 percent.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 3, 2009 under More Dam News |
In wake of recession, consumers look for value, focus on essentials.
By Allison Linn
The recession has dramatically changed many Americans’ shopaholic habits, at least temporarily and perhaps forever.
Now the question is whether the nation’s retailers have kept up.
“The answer is no,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with NPD Group.
He’s not alone in that assessment.
Although it’s still early days of the holiday shopping season, some analysts are already worried that too many merchants are taking a business-as-usual approach to an era that is anything but usual. Any miscalculation could be disastrous for retailers, who typically expect up to 20 percent of annual sales and a bigger share of annual profits during the critical holiday season.
“Retailers still don’t have a full grasp of reality,” said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a consulting firm.
Flickinger thinks many of the nation’s retail executives don’t completely understand how severely the Great Recession has affected the millions of Americans who have lost jobs, had their wages cut or are living in fear of a job loss.
That, he noted, is on top of other financial concerns many Americans are facing, including a steep drop in home and investment values.
Retailers have good reason to fear such financial jitters, having only last year endured a disastrous season in which holiday retail sales fell 3.4 percent as Americans, rattled by the financial crisis, held onto their pocketbooks.
This year, Flickinger said, consumers are facing the reality of a sky-high unemployment rate and growing concerns about credit card debt.
“Shoppers are more scared going into this holiday season than any time in the last 50 years,” he said.
In the new era of tight budgets, consumers are looking for good value on the items they want and need. But instead, many analysts say retailers seem to be taking a different approach: offering ever-more extreme discounts on items they want to get rid of.
The super-low price method of offloading excess inventory has become so commonplace, even among higher-end retailers, that shoppers are coming to the conclusion that many products are just worth less, said brand analyst Robert Passikoff.
“It isn’t just that you learned that there will be sales — there will always be sales — but what it’s done is it ultimately affects the value perception of the product,” said Passikoff, president of the customer loyalty research firm Brand Keys.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on October 28, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Joseph Young
Well, we’ve crossed the threshold. In my travels today, I had the chance to stop off at the local Wegman’s to take advantage of their snappy food bar. Lunchtime can be pretty busy in that place and today was no exception.
What was interesting was seeing what I will call “The New Sweatpants Society.”
Men and women, meeting, then having lunch with their significant others at the grocery store. That is no big deal.
What was interesting was that in almost every case, one of them was dressed in business attire. The other, in sweats.
It was striking.
Couples all over the place, dressed entirely differently. Someone obviously didn’t get the memo.
So, do you think it’s a statement of the times? The extremely casual nature of their dress could mean that one of the two is working from a home office, works in a very casual environment or perhaps they have a day off. But this is Tuesday, yes?
Unfortunately, I suspect it’s something a little more sinister. One of them is out of a job.
On the bright side, I’m sure most of these couples are relishing the chance to break some lunchtime bread together.
But on the other, perhaps it’s a sad commentary on the current employment situation in our country.
I plan on checking in again in a month or so to see if the things have changed any. Let’s all hope I see a few more shirts and ties!
Posted by truecreek on October 27, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Christina Cheddar Berk
Most of the early reads on how retail sales will shape up for the Christmas holiday period haven’t been all that jolly. At best, they have painted a picture of a shopping season that will be better than last year’s dismal turnout. But, according to some industry analysts, there are several reasons to believe that Santa might bring retailers a little joy this season.
1. Frugal Fatigue
Speaking on a conference call hosted by Dow Jones analyst Indexes and STOXX, Marshall Cohen, chief industry of market researcher NPD Group said consumers are getting tired of watching their pennies.
“Consumers are clearly telling us they are beginning to get tired of saving money,” Cohen said.
It has been more than a year since the economy started putting the pinch on consumer pocketbooks. Consumers have been trying to get their debt under control, and have pushed up the savings rate to decade-high levels. The holidays may finally give consumers a reason to start spending again.
2. Store Traffic Is Increasing
Have you noticed more folks at the store lately? ShopperTrack has, according to data analyzed by Richard Hastings, a consumer strategist for Global Hunter Securities. Hastings said he has seen signs of both year-over-year and month-to-month gains in the numbers of shoppers at the stores.
The increased store traffic is one signal that has prompted Hastings to boost his forecast for holiday sales. Although he previously expected sales to fall, he now anticipates retail sales for the November through January time period will rise 2.5 percent from last year.
3. Improved Guidance from Smaller Retailers
Another sign that things are starting to turn for retailers is the improved forecasts issued by even smaller retailers such as Bon-Ton Stores, Tuesday Morning and Pier 1 Imports.
Hastings said these comments are a sign that a new tide is coming in and “the smaller boats are being lifted up by a bigger wave.”
4. The New Normal
It just may be that consumers are finally comfortable with the new landscape. They have been spending carefully and planning for the holidays.
Retailers also have had time to plan, and with advancements in the way retailers track their inventory, are more capable to reacting quickly to chances in demand.
5. Weather
Weather may also play a role. Trends are aligning right now for better weather than last year, according to Paul Walsh, of Atmospheric and Environmental Research. For example, AER ,a Boston-based firm that analyzes the impact of climate change on business operations, expects, colder temperatures in December for the eastern part of the country, which could put consumers there in the holiday mood.
Weather has already played a key role in helping to boost retail sales in September by driving more sales of warm weather apparel before retailers marked down the cost of those items.
Posted by truecreek on October 14, 2009 under The Work |
Some new work for Comcast. Full pager for Encore Atlanta and the Fox Theater.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
By eMarketer.
College students are the most connected demographic group in the US. They own multiple electronic devices and are a prime audience for online video.
eMarketer estimates 18.2 million college students, 95.7% of the total, will go online at least once a month in 2009. As Internet usage becomes ubiquitous, the percentage of students online is growing more slowly, rising to an estimated 96.8% in 2013.
“Not only is Internet access widely prevalent, but so is technology ownership in general,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “College Students: Connecting with the Connected Crowd.” “Since students own multiple devices, they want to use those devices to interact with friends and information in multiple ways. They care less about what method they use for their interactions and more about how easy and seamless those interactions are.”
Students are heavy consumers of online video—but also regular TV. They use social networking Websites to stay in touch with their friends—but rely on text messaging as well. And smartphones, which are becoming more and more common on campus, give students the ability to do many activities without touching a computer at all.
Despite the fears of some industry-watchers, college students are not abandoning social networks now that the sites have caught on among their elders.
“So far, that is not happening,” said Ms. Williamson. “In fact, the opposite is true. Students are more likely than ever to use social network sites.”
EDUCAUSE, which has tracked social network usage on campus for the past several years, found that the percentage of students visiting sites such as Facebook or MySpace on a daily basis has more than doubled in the past three years, from 32.9% in 2006 to 66.2% in 2009.
“But other indicators bear watching,” cautions Ms. Williamson. “One is how often students visit social networks and how much time they spend there.”
Still, in May 2009 Youth Trends found that Facebook was the No. 3 source among college students for learning about new products and services, after word-of-mouth and television commercials. Social networks remain a viable venue for marketing to the college crowd.
Posted by truecreek on October 9, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Katy Bachman
Following five years of double-digit growth, local online advertising will moderate next year, growing only 5 percent to $14.9 billion, according to a new forecast from Borrell Associates released Thursday (Oct. 8).
In contrast, this year local online advertising is expected to grow 12 percent to $14.2 billion, with most of the growth coming in the second half of the year.
Over the past five years, local online advertising grew at a compound annual growth rate of 46.5 percent. For the next five years, Borrell is expecting local online advertising to grow at a rate of 2.9 percent. Local online advertising will peak in 2013 at $16.4 billion.
“The local media advertising category is approaching what we believe is saturation,” the Borrell report said. “The game in 2010 will center more around stealing market share than growing the market.”
Next year’s market will be driven by demand for paid search and online directory advertising, while banner sales will decline 10 percent. Both streaming video and audio advertising and email will grow, but still make up a smaller segment of total adspend.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
My wife has been complaining about this for years. Do you know a production house that does it?
By John Eggerton.
The House Communications Subcommittee has approved a bill that would require the broadcast and cable industries, which includes satellite and other multichannel video providers, to regularize the volume of advertisements and the programming surrounding them.
By a voice vote, the committee passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, backed by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), and referred it to the full Energy & Commerce Committee.
Eshoo said the bill premise was simple: “To make the volume of commercials and programming uniform so that spikes in volume do not affect the consumer’s ability to control sound.” Eshoo said that ad volume spikes had “endangered hearing for decades.” She also said legislative spouses had been urging their husbands or wives to sign on as co-sponsors. “I think they are all tired of getting blasted out of their easy chairs or off their exercise equipment due to these ridiculously loud commercials.”
Posted by truecreek on October 8, 2009 under More Dam News |
An earlier post spoke to the great numbers being delivered by sports programming. Looks like it might just lead the way coming out of this thing….
By Brian Steinberg
CBS is close to selling out approximately 80% of its ad inventory for Super Bowl XLIV, according to a person familiar with the situation, a sign that the sports-advertising marketplace may be recovering more quickly than other TV venues.
CBS is still hesitant to force a price point into its discussions but has sought between $2.5 million and $3 million for a 30-second spot in the game, according to this person. As usual, the price hinges on the position of the ad within the telecast as well as whether advertisers want to get more involved with the event by buying up pre-game time or other CBS sports inventory. CBS is expected to broadcast the game from Miami on Feb. 7, 2010.
The pace of sales emphasizes marketer interest in big-audience sporting events. Already, sales for NFL and college-football games at many networks have garnered better-than-expected interest, particularly as cash-strapped consumers stay at home and rely more heavily on televised entertainment.
NBC’s first several “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts of the season, for example, have been ratings bonanzas, and CBS has seen substantial advertiser interest in its college football games. ESPN scored the highest-rated cable event in history for its “Monday Night Football” game between the Vikings and the Packers this week, thanks to widespread interest in the return of Brett Favre. Marketer interest in the events has also been fueled by the fact that viewers often watch them live, rather than fast-forwarding through content — and past ads — with digital video recorders.
