To promote their new reality show "Bad Girls," the Oxygen network has setup its own social network. The network, titled BadGirlsClubonOxygen, will let people weigh in on the show as well as share their own "bad girl" stories. Cast members (single women who are put under one roof to, you know, behave badly) will also be creating content for the site in the form of blogs about their experiences. Oxygen has also setup a MySpace page and YouTube branded channel to highlight clips from the show and other information.
TV, print, radio and outdoor ads will support the effort.
For the second straight year, Chrysler will be the sole sponsor of CNN/Time magazine's "Person of the Year" feature across any and all media platforms. That means print, TV, online, outdoor and more. Apparently last year's sponsorship of the annual naming of the high and mighty was such a success, meaning it generated greater awareness of the Chrysler name among consumers, that the car company decided it was worth a return this year.
Honda is using sponsorship of podcasts from The Weather Channel to promote their line of hybrid and other environmentally friendly cars and vehicles. The sponsorship will take the form of 15-second insertions in the podcasts, which deliver weather reports to 25 U.S. markets and will also be available at select ski resorts beginning later this month.
Starbucks is launching a new push to remind consumers how much it knows about coffee. As competitors like Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's and others increasingly take market share away from Starbucks it wants to play up the fact that coffee is more or less all it does and that it does it well. The company will be holding coffee tastings at their stores and producing a podcast online all playing up their expertise in the coffee market. This renewed emphasis on coffee comes after a series of brand extensions Starbucks has engaged in, including helping to promote the movie Akeelah and the Bee, which it also helped produce. Those extension efforts have, to some extent, caused some problems for the company as they've posted weak year-to-year sales increases, with some analysts saying they've lost their focus on selling coffee.
Last week I kind of tore into an AdAge story that made old-media thinking marketers feel warm and comfortable by basically saying it was too early to invest any serious time investigating new media strategies and spending. Now the reading public has spoken and have said emphatically that media planners and buyers need to look at blogs, podcasts and RSS now. While there are still some who disagree, the vast majority think now is the time to be investing in those new media, even if adoption and use of those technologies hasn't yet reached critical mass. The focus, as always, needs to be on striking the right balance. That comes with hard work and investigation as to how each specific segment of the audience is using media and can't rely on over-generalized surveys.
Mike Roberts has suddenly and unexpectedly resigned from the post of chief operating officer at McDonald's. It's just the latest in a series of management shifts at the company, some from deaths and some from resignations. The COO slot will now be filled by Ralph Alvarez, who had been president of McDonald's North America.
Industry watchdog group the Children's Advertising Review Board has taken Warner Bros. to task for advertising the PG-13 rated Superman Returns on Cartoon Network. The group said the movie's themes were a bit much to advertise to the channel's audience. Warner Bros, which also owns Cartoon Network, disagreed with the ruling but will not formally appeal it.
Fashion title Vogue is launching a new podcast series that seems solely focused on providing long-form outlets for its advertisers. The first installment will feature an interview with Jeremy Piven of "Entourage" as well a new series of Gap ads. Future shows will likewise feature famous people who are appearing in advertisements. This isn't co-branding so much as it is just fluffing the ad buyers.
More and more big advertisers are being lured by the attractive audience reach podcasts have. I'm not completely comfortable with the notion that mainstream advertisers are "flocking" to podcasts but more are experimenting with this relatively new medium. And they're doing so in ways that mirror to some extent their previous efforts in radio, by either having the host comment on the advertiser or embedding the spot within the podcast. That's because people are fast-forwarding ads that are placed at the beginning of the show. Hey, anything that's going to get some actual creativity flowing is a good thing.
Rocketboom got a lot of press when it put advertising time within the super popular video podcast up for auction on eBay. Eventually the first spot went for $40,000, quite a total for the producers of the show. Since then host Amanda Congdon has had a very public and not altogether civil exit from the show and her co-producer Andrew Baron. But the MIT Advertising Lab finds the show still has its rate card up. Kind of begs us to ask the question as to whether those prices are still the ones being asked for or if there's been some sort of...I don't know...post-Congdon discounting going on. After all, the show under new - and interim - host Joanne Colan has only been up for two or three days now.
Ingenio will begin serving pay-per-call ads in podcasts distributed through Podbridge's network. Podbridge lets advertisers track how many downloads there have been of a podcast and allow for ad insertion by demographic and geographic data. The ads will begin appearing later this month and mostly be from the financial and travel sectors.
While ad spending on new media technologies such as blogs, podcasts and RSS is still relatively small in
absolute dollars, the
growth in those areas over the next few years is expected to be huge. The three sectors combined only brought
in about $20 million in ad revenue in 2004 but then grew by close to 200 percent in 2005 and is expected to leap
another 144 percent in 2006. Podcast advertising is seen as taking up a good chunk of that growth, growing from $3
million in 2005 to a projected $300 million in 2010. The most attractive aspect of all this user-generated content is
the demographic that consumes it. The audience for blogs, podcasts and RSS is seen as being relatively well off, young
and mobile. Engaging and reaching that group is increasingly important for advertisers who are seeing traditional
outlets like newspapers and TV be less attractive options for that audience.
IT
Conversations has launched
an eBay auction
for advertising space within the popular TechNation podcast. You've got nine days or so to put in a bid, the starting
price of which is $12,000. That - or whatever the winning bid winds up being - gets you the right to be one of three
sponsors of at least ten episodes of the show. The spots, which must not exceed 15 seconds in length, will be read by
host Dr. Moira Gunn at the beginning and end of each show. Tech Nation's talent is willing to help the winning
advertiser refine the copy so that it achieves the goals of both parties. The winner will also get clickable banner-ad
placement on the show notes page.
This follows Rocketboom's foray into auctioning off ad space on the popular
video podcast, a move that was successful both for the Rocketboom team's bank account but also in terms of creating a
unique and engaging ad.
Internet domain registrar GoDaddy is opening
up its advertising to the audience, specifically a group of podcast creators in an attempt to create not only some
interesting ads but also some buzz. GoDaddy didn't provide a specific script to the participants but did give them a
series of suggested talking points to use. They also gave them a promotional code that listeners to the show could use
for discounts. The company isn't exercising any sort of final veto prior to broadcast but is keeping an ear out for
anything that "crosses the line." Considering the attitude GoDaddy has toward their TV spots it would be
interesting to hear where exactly that line is.
This is one of those stories where there's so much more to
say but in this case Mark Glaser has said it so well I really can't improve on it. Read his whole
article for a lot of good insight and points.
Okay, it's shameless promotion time. Over the
weekend, I was privileged enough to participate in Joe Jaffe's Across the Sound podcast, which covers all kinds of
things from television ads to podcasting bits. We talked a bit about product placement on the Sopranos premiere last
week, how Sportsline fared with its March Madness On Demand product this past week, and a number of other topics.
Thought this might be up the alley of a bunch of AJ readers, so head on over and check it out when you have a
free moment. The specific post and show notes are available here, and iTunes users can snag it through this link.
NBC executive Alan Wurtzel has told a group of ad
agency representatives that his research shows ad effectiveness has dropped more in houses without DVRs than in those
with the machines. His logic seems kind of flawed to me and is fueled more wanting to underplay the impact DVRs are
having on ad watching.
Disney will begin offering podcasts through its Radio
Disney website aimed at kids using their MP3 players. The ad-supported downloads will be original content created to
target the kindergarten to junior-high set.
More kids targeting this morning. Microsoft will be marketing their new XBOX 360 game "Viva Pinata", which
hits stores in the winter, with an original cartoon series airing this fall on Fox. In what has to be the greatest
stretch of the word ever, those involved in the two properties call the timing of the show and the game
"coincidental."
Yet
another service has launched to connect podcasters and advertisers to each other. Podbridge bills itself as being able to provide up to ten metrics to
help advertisers know who listened to what when. They emphasize that it's not just downloads - the usual measure of
podcast reach - that they're offering. Instead they promise to provide information on actual impressions.
Advertisers are told they can select podcasts that reach the specific demographic group they're looking for by
age, income and a variety of other factors. That information is offered to the podcast producers as well since that's
data they can use to measure how popular their show is with certain audiences.
To promote their new reality show "Bad Girls," the Oxygen network has setup its own social network. The network, titled BadGirlsClubonOxygen, will let people weigh in on the show as well as share their own "bad girl" stories. Cast members (single women who are put under one roof to, you know, behave badly) will also be creating content for the site in the form of blogs about their experiences. Oxygen has also setup a MySpace page and YouTube branded channel to highlight clips from the show and other information.
For the second straight year, Chrysler will be the 
Honda is using sponsorship of podcasts from The Weather Channel to promote their line of hybrid and other environmentally friendly cars and vehicles. The sponsorship will take the form of 15-second insertions in the podcasts, which deliver weather reports to 25 U.S. markets and will also be available at select ski resorts beginning later this month.
Starbucks is 
Last week I kind of 
Mike Roberts has suddenly and unexpectedly 
More and more big advertisers are 
Rocketboom got a lot of press when it put advertising time within the super popular video podcast up for auction on eBay. Eventually the first spot 
Ingenio will begin 
While ad spending on new media technologies such as blogs, podcasts and RSS is still relatively small in
absolute dollars, 
IT
Conversations has 
Internet domain registrar 
NBC executive Alan Wurtzel 
Yet
another service has launched to connect podcasters and advertisers to each other. 
