Friday, February 23, 2007

image Optometry Launches New TV Creative - "Brands for Less"

Starting on Monday February 26th, image Optometry will be positioning themselves as the number one location in the Lower Mainland to buy the top name brands in eyewear.

Have a look at the new commercial, created by the Channel M production team.




Wednesday, February 21, 2007

NBC's Mun2 Asks: 'Are You Too Gringo?'


Hispanic Channel Launches Edgy Image Campaign From La Comunidad

By Laurel Wentz

Published: February 20, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- An image campaign breaking this week prescribes a daily dose of the NBC Universal-owned Hispanic cable channel Mun2 to prevent bilingual, bicultural young Latinos from becoming too much like gringos.

CLICK HERE to read the article from ADVERTISING AGE and view the commercials online.

Walmart drives online TV auction Ad Marketplace

On March 15th, Walmart and other national advertisers will be launching an eBay powered TV advertising auction site call Ad Marketplace.

Here's an article from 1995 when Walmart's media buyer and I started buying and selling TV advertising using the internet (what a concept).

How things have evolved since!

Mitch Drew

(please...no jokes about my hair)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Video Ads Account For 371 Million Dollars



Borrell Associates conducted a report showing all local online video advertising will account for 371 million dollars this year, totaling five percent of online ad spending. “The New Frontier: Local Online Video Advertising” report estimates in 2012 that amount will go up to 5 billion dollars and account for 35%. Competition among newspapers and TV stations encourage the growth.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

NASCAR Drives Marketing: Web Spots Run Before Daytona 500


NASCAR, THE SECOND-HIGHEST TV-RATED SPORT next to the NFL, is back this weekend. And it's showing off an unusual marketing stunt that it hopes will build even stronger allegiance to its already loyal fans and sponsors.

For its inaugural race, the big Daytona 500, NASCAR will run marketers' commercials on its Web site, www.nascar.com, before the spots have a TV airing on Fox. Turner Broadcasting operates the site with the ads being seen on Turner's www.veryfunnyads.com.

"We figured there is a lot of traffic on the morning of the race," says Andrew Giangola, director of business communications for NASCAR. "Our sponsors pushed for it. They see it as value-added. Viewers can download commercials."

Typically, with big Super Bowl-type events, networks like CBS--which recently aired the big game--put TV commercials on their Web sites after running on the television network.

Some Super Bowl marketers do release their commercials beforehand on their own Web sites and/or venues that create PR spin. But media executives do not recall sports advertisers running messages en masse on the sports leagues' Internet areas before a big sporting event.

This is not surprising. NASCAR executives have long talked about the loyalty its fans have for drivers and their sponsors--and NASCAR will be looking to cement tighter bonds with fans this season.

After six straight years of accelerating ratings, NASCAR hit a few potholes in 2006, as ratings dipped versus 2005. In the key last 10 races of the NASCAR season, called "Chase for the Cup," viewership dropped 10%.

"The ratings were bound to go down," says Larry Novenstern, executive vice president and director for national electronic media for Optimedia International.

Still, the sport is as healthy as it's ever been, says NASCAR's Giangola, with more NASCAR sponsors creating new and unusual promotions--especially from new consumer products advertisers.

For example, Kraft General Foods will, for the first time, change one of its products for a sport, imprinting the number 16--driver Greg Biffle's number--onto its Oreo cookies. That's something the company hasn't done for a sporting event.

After several years of team sponsors being reluctant to buy TV time, Giangola says the majority are now doing so. They are "activating" their team and sport sponsorship deals.

For this weekend's "Daytona 500," advertisers such as Sprint Nextel, Allstate, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Gillette, Office Depot, The Home Depot, Sunoco, Toyota, and UPS will premiere commercials at an estimated $500,000 for a 30-second announcement.

Giangola believes the new eight-year, $4.48 billion TV deal with ABC/ESPN will help drive business to new heights. For the first time, ESPN has given NASCAR its own daily show: "NASCAR Now."

NASCAR is also looking to develop new audiences--specifically growing Spanish-language audiences in markets such as Miami, Dallas, and Los Angeles. This effort is being rallied around a significant move this season--champion Formula One driver Juan Montoya, who is leaving that motor sport to try racing on the NASCAR circuit.

NASCAR remains one of the friendliest of sports for marketers--especially with the drivers themselves. For the Daytona 500 telecast, Giangola anticipates there will be 15 commercials that feature NASCAR drivers. He estimates this is much higher than for athletes of other sports, especially during big TV events like the Super Bowl or the World Series.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Marketers Leave Billions on Table; Affluent Ethnic Consumers Widely Overlooked


Diversity Affluence(TM), the consulting company founded by noted trend forecaster and marketing consultant Andrea Hoffman, announces that American affluent ethnic consumers are one of the most underserved sectors in our population when it comes to marketing and advertising campaigns and tactics. One of the reasons for this is that in the past, little to no information existed. At least not until now.

READ THE ARTICLE AT YAHOO.COM

comScore: Super Bowl Ads Drove One In Five Online


by Wendy Davis, Monday, Feb 12, 2007 6:00 AM ET

MARKETERS ARE INCREASINGLY INCORPORATING WEB sites into their TV ads and, when it comes to Super Bowl ads, viewers seem to be responding.

A recent comScore survey of Super Bowl viewers found that 19% went online to find out more information about last week's Super Bowl ads. Ten percent of respondents said they visited at least one marketer's site, while 7% said they went online to view video clips of the ads.

The move toward consumer-generated ads also proved popular with some consumers. While most respondents--63%--thought the professional ads were equally as entertaining as the consumer-created ones, a sizable 21% thought the user-created ads were better. Just 10% said the professional ads were more entertaining than the consumer-created spots. Doritos, Chevrolet and the NFL were among the advertisers that harnessed consumer-created spots.

When comScore asked respondents which Super Bowl ads they wanted to see again, the professionally created spots topped the list, but the consumer-generated ones trailed closely. The most popular choices were the professional Anheuser-Busch spots for Budweiser (selected by 35% of respondents), but 31% chose the consumer-created Doritos ad. The agency-created Bud Light ad was selected by 29%, followed by professional efforts for Coca-Cola (25%) and Blockbuster (17%). The consumer-created spot by Chevy was selected by 15% of respondents.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

The Nielsen Report on Super Bowl Advertising


Advertisers Run 101 Commercials with Average Viewer Rating of 32.1

The average commercial aired during Super Bowl XLI received a national television rating among persons older than age two of 32.1 and was viewed by 92.8 million people, according to The Nielsen Company, which today issued a summary of Super Bowl-related advertising measurement results from its media tracking businesses.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Local TV Online Revs Up 41%



Local TV's online revenue was up 41% in 2006 to $399 million, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising, with that figure expected to jump to $618 million by the end of 2007.

The second annual survey of broadcasters' Web efforts by TVB, which touts the advertising efficacy of local TV stations, also found that stations are taking on newspapers and yellow pages with online classified and directory advertising.

Online ad categories that dominated the increase were real estate, automotive and high-tech.

The study concluded that TV's share of online advertising was up a percentage point to 7% of the total pie, while newspaper Websites' share was down in 2006 by seven percentage points.

READ THE ARTICLE AT BROADCASTING & CABLE

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Amateurs’ Efforts Highlight Ad Bowl

Madison Avenue, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Well, maybe not that afraid. But some fear may well be warranted after watching the results of the Ad Bowl inside Super Bowl XLI, which for the first time featured commercials created by consumers alongside spots produced by the professionals.

Four of the 57 commercials that ran nationally during the game on CBS had their roots in what's called consumer-generated content or user-generated content. They were the winning entries in three contests, sponsored by the Chevrolet division of General Motors, the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo and the National Football League.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW YORK TIME ARTICLE

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Web 2.0 Companies Launch YouTube Channel


Web 2.0 Companies Launch YouTube Channel

Shankar Gupta, Thursday, Feb 1, 2007

AT THE TURN OF THE century, a handful of high-flying dot-coms announced their presence with flashy but break-the-bank Super Bowl ads. This year, the up-and-coming Web 2.0 companies are hoping to harness a more affordable ad channel: YouTube.

Six companies--avatar design firm Meez, instant messaging company Meebo, blog search engine Technorati, social network Multiply, address book site Plaxo and viral widget company RockYou--have banded together to create a slate of spots to run on YouTube on their own channel, "SuperDotComAdsXLI."

With Super Bowl ads going for as much as $2.6 million per 30-second spot, a TV campaign was out of the question for these companies. So they turned to the Web in hopes of capturing some of the attention surrounding the football game. "There are a bunch of us for whom doing a Super Bowl ad isn't even on the radar," said Michael Lehman, director of marketing for Meez. "We don't have those kinds of budgets. But we do think about how we can use the viral power to get new users."

Lehman added that the companies feel comfortable sharing an audience because none of them directly compete. "It's great, because we can work together to help each other get bigger," he said.

Aaron Kane, a spokesman for Technorati, said the companies hope the viral ads will provide more of an outreach than an offline Super Bowl ad. "None of us can afford to buy million-dollar spots on television, but this is Web 2.0 in all of its liberating, citizen's media splendor," he said. "Often times, our audience will do our advertising and distribution for us."

Some of the creatives ape other successful ad campaigns--Meebo's ad, for instance, closely mimics the popular 1998 Volkswagen "Sunday Afternoon" spot. At least two other spots incorporate movie scenes. Technorati uses a clip from "The Big Lebowski" to promote its upcoming feature, "WTF," which on Technorati stands for "where's the fire." Kane said that an online-only ad allowed the company more leeway when designing an ad. "The edginess is good for viral distribution," he said. "We gave it a lot more creative freedom." Plaxo's ad is a parody of a scene of a scene from the comedy "Old School."