Business Week Checks Marketers' Pulse

And finds there isn't any. Check this out:


That's an answer to the question Business Week asked ad agencies: "Appearing at the top of Google Search results is a more effective form of brand-building than a national TV campaign." True or false?

Ok, then. Next question. "Which medium will take the biggest hit in your planning in the next few years?"



Interesting. And "which medium will represent the largest percentage increase in spending this year for your brand (or your top client)?" (hint: see online and online search).



In the slideshow, you will also find that marketers are sick of hearing about buzz, buzz marketing and consumer-generated content.

Ian Bogost on Value of In-Game Ads

Ian Bogost (game designer and researcher, bio, blog) wrote a Gamasutra feature where he talks about the cultural meanings of the branded tokens in the latest Monopoly: Here & Now edition and what lessons can be extracted by video game designers:

"If we think of brands as markers for complex social behavior, we can also imagine recombining brands’ encapsulated social values in new contexts: the Yugo stagecoach; the Preparation H-needing blood elf. These are perhaps silly examples—and some developers might fear that they represent in-game advertising’s worst threat: advertising’s colonization of even the most incompatible games. But like the creators of Monopoly Here & Now, game designers should recognize that there might be times when advertising could actually enhance a design, not just take away from it.

You can use advertising to exploit cultural preconceptions about known items that then serve as a kind of shorthand for aspects of your game world. And that sort of attitude turns the tables on in-game advertisers, making advertising a tool in the hands of the designer, rather than one in the hands of the brand, agency, or network."

Earlier:
Monopoly Switches to Plastic
New Monopoly Edition Comes with Branded Tokens
Visa in "The Game of Life"

YuMe Inserts Ads into P2P Downloads

Not sure if the technology works with the official BitTorrent Entertainment only or all the pirated ones as well, but check this out:

"YuMe Networks today announced it will launch the first ad campaign ever that allows a marketer to insert dynamically served video advertising within downloadable content.

YuMe’s ability to insert advertising within downloaded content and track the reach and frequency of a campaign across any device is a groundbreaking development in online advertising. It adds another monetization avenue for peer–to–peer sites, opens up new advertising opportunities for marketers, and could bring to consumers content that previously hasn’t been distributed on the Web because it was difficult to monetize.

YuMe utilizes video sensor technology to scour online video content, and then categorizes the video into customizable channels like Auto, Finance, Entertainment and Family Friendly. Advertisers can select the customized video channels that most closely match the brands, products and messaging in their advertising creative. YuMe attaches advertising to the selected content for delivery to any device – whether downloaded or streamed."
-- press release

Earlier:
Exent's Tech Puts Ads in Old, Pirated Games
Advertising Decoys on P2P Networks

Widgets Come to iPod

Koloroo released first widgets for iPod. Branded to follow?

Update [Apr 3, 3007] Here's apparently how they did it, iPod being a closed system: "Ok, all this is, and it's not a "program" is about 100 or so photos that are placed into iphoto or what not, and then uploaded into your ipod and then played as slideshow... kinda lame...but oh, well." (thanks, Jeff)

Best Buy in Google Earth

See this model of a Colorado Best Buy in Google's 3D Warehouse and in Google Earth.
-- via Google Earth blog

Earlier:
Whirlpool Offers 3D Models of Appliances for Google Earth

The Economist on Future of Books

The Economist (via pasta and vinegar) muses about what will happen when books go digital:

"Most stories, however, will never find a better medium than the paper-bound novel. That is because readers immersed in a storyline want above all not to be interrupted, and all online media teem with distractions (even a hyperlink is an interruption). People do not read fiction in order to accomplish a specific task in a limited amount of time, as they read reference and schoolbooks. Random-access dictionaries and cookbooks may be useful; random-access novels less so."

A lot like TV then.

Personalize WIRED Cover in Xerox Promo

Speaking of "consumer-generated" ads and the recent rant about how they don't have to be all video: "Inspired by WIRED Magazine's July cover story on the future of personalization, WIRED Media is executing its first integrated marketing program by collaborating with long time advertising partner Xerox Corporation to offer subscribers the opportunity to put their own photo on the cover of WIRED.

The program will be announced in the April issue of WIRED and promoted on WIRED.com starting Friday, March 23. Magazine subscribers will be encouraged to go online and upload a 4x6 inch photo. The first 5,000 WIRED subscribers to participate will receive in the mail the July issue of the magazine with their image on the cover."
-- press release
-- thank you, Steph

Advertising and Predictive Markets

Brandweek ran a story about how agencies and advertisers are using predictive markets (wiki) to forecast campaign effectiveness. To see one such market in action, check out Hollywood Stock Exchange that investors are using to estimate ticket sales (a 2005 IHT article has more).

From the Brandweek piece:

"The mechanisms, called predictive markets, don't always exactly mirror the stock market, but they basically work like this: Employees and consultants bet money on possible outcomes. The outcome that most people bet on is considered the most accurate.

Consensus Point, a Nashville, Tenn., firm that works with Best Buy, General Electric, Nokia and Samsung, has been offering such predictive market software for about 13 years, but company president Dave Perry said there's been a big spike in demand over the past two.

Masterfoods, meanwhile, used a predictive market for a pet food launch last year, said Emile Servan-Schreiber, CEO of NewsFutures, a Baltimore predictive market software firm."

Consumer-Generated XLNT Ads

AdAge profiles another entrant in the already crowded consumer-generated ads space -- XLNTads -- that's launching in a few months. The scenario is familiar -- people go to the site, see the brief, use the assets provided by the advertiser, shoot a video, and compete for a $20K prize they get if the ad gets aired. I wonder how long it will take for an agency to use one of these sites for its spec and pitch work. Speaking of which, the rumor is that Get a Third Life piece for Kit-Kat was not an actual spot.

Earlier:
Social Ad Creation at Zooppa
Vitrue to Mediate Consumer-Generated Ads
The Flip Side of Consumer-Generated Advertising

Events: Word of Mouth

Two big events on word of mouth coming up:

In Europe, The Third International Word of Mouth Conference by Brand Science Institute and the same people who brought us the Second Life brand study. May 10-11, Amsterdam. They have a bunch of cool pre-conference downloadable goodies from MillwardBrown, Crispin, Fallon, MIT Media Lab, Microsoft Research Lab, but you'll need a validation code.

In the states, WOMMA is conducting WOMBAT, which stands for Word of Mouth Basic Training. A very cool line-up of speakers. New Orleans, April 17-18.