So I just got back from Colorado Springs, where I was judging the AAAA Student Awards competition. Colleges of advertising and marketing compete against each other as they present for a significant piece of business. In this case a chunk of Coca Cola.
Lots of really good stuff from a lot of really smart young people. I'll write more about in later in the week when I've had some sleep. The thing I wonder about, is with the current state of the business, and the way it keeps shrinking, not to mention the way salaries keep going down, I wonder how few of these students will actually end up in the business?
Lots of really great country mountain country around Colorado Springs, which I didn't get to see. Just the inside of the Hilton Antlers where I was staying. Didn't even get to see Paris Hilton, but I heard she was looking for me.
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Yesterday’s New York Times had a good piece on Joost’s (From the guys who brought you Skype) move into Internet TV, and how it’s going to look very much like regular TV with the signing of some heavy advertisers.
The online TV startup has signed United Airlines, Microsoft, Sony and Unilever among others as "launch partners" for the service's planned debut this coming Tuesday. Each advertiser has committed to a three-month trial period which will see various different formats tested out to see which works best. Ad prices were reported to be between $50,000 for U.S. only spots and $100,000 for international broadcast.
Aiming at the sweet spot of the viewer who actually wants to see specific advertising, they will be trying a format with a so-called "hand-raiser" option, where a small box appears within the video. Clicking that box gives the viewer a list of advertiser-specific content. Joost is counting on mining the demographic data provided by users to better target ads. Early days yet… But interesting.
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You have to love this recent bit by Stanley Bing who writes a regular column for Fortune. It’s his take on the archetypal help wanted ad…
Advertising executive
Create perceived need/value for inherently generic or worthless products
$$: Ground-level workers with writing ability move quickly to the top, immediately snagging low to mid-six figures; those who can spin mythological concepts surrounding quotidian household objects can command up to seven figures.
The upside: Great expense account living, see your handiwork everywhere, the wonderful feeling of being creative and corporate at the same time.
The downside: Must take meetings with the AFLAC duck. (a long running talking duck campaign for an insurance company)
The dark side: You're considered a dinosaur at forty.
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Well, well, so Tesco has finally decided to dip its toe in the US pond, but not with mega-stores, going instead for the small-store concept under the “Fresh & Easy” banner. Right now the web site talks about future openings in Arizona, California and Nevada with the first 14 sites being in Las Vegas.
Which makes me wonder how much space they’ve allocated for the slot machines in their 10,000 square feet stores, ‘cos if you’ve ever been to Vegas, you’ll know that everything from 7/11’s to public toilets have rows and rows of one arm bandits to entice the punters to part with their money after they’ve bought their “Twinkies” and “Red Bull!” (Standard diet for all night gamblers.)
As part of their environmentally conscious persona, they’ve also promised to power their El Segundo distribution center by solar panels. And if you’ve ever been unfortunate to have spent time in El Segundo, you’ll know it’s right next to LA airport, and usually blanketed in smog and aviation fuel fumes. Maybe the solar panels could power windmills to blow all the crap away. Oh, but the panels would have to generate the power first… It’s kind of a catch 22 situation. Still, I’m sure Sir Terry has it all figured out.
Contenders for the $175 million Miller beer account are now down to three agencies. Both Miller Lite and High Life are up for grabs. Still in the running are Saatchi & Saatchi (the one without Morris and Charlie); Bartle Bogle Hegarty; and Young & Rubicam. Dropping out from contention were the New York offices of Mother and Nitro.
What strikes me is that Y&R is the only original American agency in the entire bunch… Yes these are the US offices pitching the business, but they all share a British heritage (OK, Chris Clarke’s Nitro came via Australia and China.) I do hope someone has informed the Queen of this happy situation. When I first came here, it was David Ogilvy and I carrying the flag… OK, there where a few other Brits before me, but they’re all dead now!
Let’s hope the winner can do better than Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s abysmal “Man Laws” campaign featuring Burt Reynolds and about a million dollars worth of plastic surgery.
Maybe it’s time to bring back O&M’s “Cat Fight” featuring semi-naked, big breasted women fighting in liquid concrete, which in the never aired version, ends with a kiss… You can find it on YouTube… Very tasty! I’m sure David would have been proud.
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Having worked on the Apple account several times over the years when Steve Jobs has been at the helm, not at the helm, and back at the helm, I’ve followed the fortunes of both the company and it’s somewhat volatile co-founder closely for some time.
Today’s news that, as expected, government regulators have charged Apple’s former top lawyer and CFO with violating United States securities laws came as no surprise. Lawyers for Nancy Heinin, the former legal eagle, vowed to fight the charges. Fred Anderson, the former CFO, announced a settlement – and, here’s the best bit… In a surprising twist issued a statement implicating Steve Jobs.
Up until now, the smart money has been on Jobs walking away from the stock option scandal everyone in Silicon Valley has been engrossed in for the last few weeks. Anderson said he warned Jobs about the accounting implications regarding one of two questionable stock option grants he received, potentially weakening one of Jobs' most powerful defenses.
A cloud of suspicion has hung over Wunderkind Stevorino since last year when the company acknowledged that it routinely backdated employee stock options. The key question is whether Jobs realized there were problems with the backdating process or if he relied on others to handle it properly. But that’s why those Zegna suited lawyers get those humungous fees!
If any of you out there are considering embarking on a career in journalism, you may want to take heed of these words of advice from Craig Newmark…. And who might that be? Only the guy that founded craigslist, which is causing newspaper publishers around the world to have increasingly bad nightmares.
"You guys are going to be graduating into an uncertain, kind of scary environment. The advantage you have is that you grew up with more technology and you may be more open to it. Right now your potential capabilities actually frighten veteran journalists. I've spoken with a lot of mid-career journalists, and they think you guys are instant messaging while having conversations. And that kind of scares them. Of course, just think that 5-year-olds can do it better than you. So be aware of that. Do what you can on the Net to build up some kind of online reputation. Who knows? You may be your own news provider. You may want to start working on your own personal brand. Maybe start a blog and see if people will pay attention. You may be your own network."
All sounds good stuff to me. You could even end up like “The Wizened of Oz!” (Rupert Murdoch) Nah… I wouldn’t wish that on anyone!
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One of the things you have to love about Microsoft is the sheer ruthlessness of it’s business model. Bigger and ever more bloated versions of its software are unloaded on the world at regular intervals, then agonizingly promoted through some of the most mediocre advertising around (Thank you, McCann Erickson, San Francisco)
But now, after a barrage of complaints, Dell is to once again offer Windows XP on new systems, responding to angry online customers. This reverses a Vista-only policy Dell moved to since the release of Microsoft's latest 800 pound gorilla of an operating system. Friends of mine have told me it’s a memory hog, needed at least 2 MB of memory to run at reasonable speeds.
The most popular Vista-phobic post and the one that got the company's attention is "Don’t eliminate XP just yet" which received lots of support through comment “points.” I don’t understand how that works, but it does mean a lot of people responded to this particular post, or some lunatic with nothing better to do, responded a lot.
Meanwhile, Microsoft in its usual fashion is saying nothing in the hope it will all just go away… Which it will in a few months, as manufacturers will only be able to pre-install XP on systems until Jan. 31, 2008 when Microsoft will force them to switch to Vista no matter what customers ask for. I believe that’s what Microsoft calls “Freedom of choice!”
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Now that the media frenzy over the Virginia Tech shootings is starting to abate… Only slightly… There will be many funerals and memoriam services destined to receive blanket non stop coverage on every TV channel… Apart from the insanity of US gun laws (or lack, thereof) has anyone learned a Godamn thing?
Obviously not. Watching CNN the day after, one of their star reporters (who looked more like a star of the silver screen than a “News” channel) repeatedly asked one of the survivors how he was feeling. The obviously distressed youth finally told her he was too shocked and didn’t want to talk about it any more. She nodded in sympathy, then carried on with a barrage of questions.
On the same day, 200 people died in a series of bomb blasts in Iraq. There was virtually no mention of it on any of the so-called news channels. From what I can gather, it got equally shrift thrift in the UK.
The purveyors of news will devote acres of coverage to the death of Anna Nichole Smith, or who is getting kicked off “Big Brother.” But, boring old Bagdad, or what the nut case in North Korea is up to… Nah… How big are the tits on page three today?
You just have to love the understated remarks from Google “Ober gruppenfuherer” CEO, Eric Schmidt today when announcing another robust earnings report, that Google's profit grew 69% during the first quarter of 2007, beating analyst expectations with a big shitty stick, when he told analysts he was "ecstatic" about the quarter and then warned them to keep in mind the seasonally slower summer growth period.. After Sergey and Larry, Eric is the third richest guy on the face of the planet (We don’t count Bill Gates, ‘co he’s the richest guy in the galaxy.) .As I have repeatedly said… These guys are on course to own everything. Sir Martin may have to go back to shopping trolleys, and Sir Frank may have to go back to playing cricket. Meantime, the “wunderkind” will just keep racking up billions.
You just have to love the understated remarks from Google “Ober gruppenfuherer” CEO, Eric Schmidt today when announcing another robust earnings report, that Google's profit grew 69% during the first quarter of 2007, beating analyst expectations with a big shitty stick, when he told analysts he was "ecstatic" about the quarter and then warned them to keep in mind the seasonally slower summer growth period.
After Sergey and Larry, Eric is the third richest guy on the face of the planet (We don’t count Bill Gates, ‘co he’s the richest guy in the galaxy.)
Just as you guys seem to be obsessed with “Big Brother,” America goes gaga over “American Idol.” Which is a hugely popular TV transplant from the UK. The big news over here is that the world’s worst singer, Sanjaya Malakar, who horrified and captivated millions in his improbable run on the show, was finally voted off it Wednesday night.
On Tuesday night's show, Simon Cowell had slammed his performance as "utterly horrendous." And for once, the notoriously mean English judge was vindicated.
Malakar, though lacking in the singing department, consistently delivered the season's most bizarre and talked-about performances, even daring to sport a huge ponytail mohawk hair style that added novelty to an otherwise excruciating rendition of "Bathwater."
I had to laugh when I read the news today that Chicago beat out San Francisco and L.A. for the privilege of being the US candidate for the 2016 Olympics when they will go head to head with Tokyo, Rome, Tel Aviv and others for the opportunity to land their citizens with enough debt to sink a battleship.
What is it with these people? Just reading the horror stories already coming out of London, where the bill for the 2012 carnival has gone from a few billion to a few trillion… And we’ve still got five years to go.
For those of you who have been living in a cave for the last month, you might have missed the fact that just over a month ago I hosted a panel at the PSFK Conference on Trends, Ideas and New Marketing Inspiration, which took place in New York in early March.
If you can drum up the fortitude to sit through it, here is a forty five minute tape of the panel. Actually, it’s not bad. So, pour yourself a drink and give it a whirl…
One of the cardinal rules of marketing I'm told, is to get the early adopters while they’re young. That used to mean young adults, then teenagers, then pre-teens, and now pre-pre-teens… Or whatever the “mot-du-jour” is they teach you on those outrageously expensive MBA courses “suits” love to go on.
Anyway, here in the US, social networking is taking on a decidedly sinister spin with a profusion of sites such as Webkinz.com and Clubpenguin.com aimed at kids between 6 and 12 who now spend up to $40 BILLION a year and influence their parents in spending $200 BILION annually!
The creators of these sites claim they are teaching kids computer, financial and social skills. Critics claim they are teaching consumerism and shopping. The fact that Webkinz’s on-line primer points out that “Everyone enjoys a little retail therapy,” might just indicate the critics have a point.
And what’s the business model for these sites? Some sell ad space, others charge monthly subscriptions, and nearly all of them sell plush animals, toys, backpacks, fashions (Yes, fashions for the six year old club-goer in your family.) What’s next… Sex, drugs, Rock & Roll? When I was that old, all I wanted was a second-hand bike. Oh, wait a minute; the bicycle hadn’t been invented yet!
As most of my loyal readers know, and if you don’t – you should, writer Kurt Vonnegut died last week. With all the bullshit regarding new media, Web 2.0, social networking etc, etc… I thought it might be worth revisiting an interview he gave in the November 1995 issue of “Inc. Technology,” when asked to discuss his feelings about living in an increasingly computerized world.
“I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in Woodstock and say, "Are you still doing typing?" Sure she is, and her husband is trying to track bluebirds out there and not having much luck, and so we chitchat back and forth, and I say, "Okay, I'll send you the pages." Then I go down the steps and my wife calls, "Where are you going?" "Well," I say, "I'm going to buy an envelope." And she says, "You're not a poor man. Why don't you buy a thousand envelopes? They'll deliver them, and you can put them in the closet." And I say "Hush."
So I go to this newsstand across the street where they sell magazines and lottery tickets and stationery. I have to get in line because there are people buying candy and all that sort of thing, and I talk to them. The woman behind the counter has a jewel between her eyes, and when it's my turn, I ask her if there have been any big winners lately. I get my envelope and seal it up and go to the postal convenience center down the block at the corner of Forty-seventh Street and Second Avenue, where I'm secretly in love with the woman behind the counter. I keep absolutely poker-faced; I never let her know how I feel about her. One time I had my pocket picked in there and got to meet a cop and tell him about it.
Anyway, I address the envelope to Carol in Woodstock. I stamp the envelope and mail it in a mailbox in front of the post office, and I go home. And I've had a hell of a good time. I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different.”
As another dead great man once said... "People don't read advertising, they read what they're interested in!"
George Parker
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