Sonata is also the second beneficiary of Hyundai’s new vehicle-design philosophy, an effort to unify the portfolio under a stylish body design. Hyundai introduced the fluid, sleek look with the higher-end Genesis and Genesis Coupe in 2008 and 2009. Now, as then, the Super Bowl and the Oscars will be the big stages to show off the new car.

FULL STORY

Share This

The rising behavior of status updates on Twitter and Facebook is giving birth to a new way for advertisers to gauge the success of ads: whether they generate consumer buzz.

Ad measurement firm Millward Brown is moving to establish that metric with a new service that will place digital word-of-mouth measurements for online campaigns alongside ad effectiveness metrics like awareness, brand lift and intent to purchase.

Millward Brown has hooked up with buzz monitor firm Cymfony to analyze online sentiment expressed on social networks, blogs and message forums. The social media measurements include volume, sentiment and share of voice.

FULL STORY

Share This

Brands were the focus for several of the panels at the MIDEM music conference in Cannes, with executives from Converse, Nascar, Carhartt and PepsiCo revealing details of their music strategies.

Sonic branding agency Banshee Music, based in Wisconsin, has partnered songwriters and artists with sports clients such as Nascar and the Dallas Cowboys.

Artist and composer Edsel Dope said that he “believe[s] so much in the business model” that he has taken on a role at the company. “I’ve jumped in the deep end and I am now acting as executive producer as well as an artist on the roster,” he said, adding that the company works with 100 writers.

He added that it is about “capturing the essence of their [partner’s] sport or brand to the best of our ability,” stressing that full songs are created for the brands not jingles.

Banshee Music has released soundtracks “Party Up At The Downs” with the 2009 Kentucky Derby, and “Bristol Nights” on behalf of Nascar’s Bristol Motor Speedway.

Stephen Knill, president of Banshee Music, said the company previously worked with “unencumbered artists” but is now starting to work with acts affiliated to labels and artists. It also produces concerts for clients.

FULL STORY

Share This

There’s more than one way to leverage a brand during the Super Bowl aside from shelling out $2.8 million for a spot in the broadcast. Visa, an NFL sponsor, is attaching its logo to the stadium trays distributed at all concession stands in the Sun Life Stadium on Feb. 7, when the New Orleans Saints take on the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl LXIV in Miami.

It’s the fourth year Atlanta-based StadiumTray has made an appearance at the nation’s biggest sporting event.

Visa’s commemorative will hold up to four beverages surrounding a food area depicting the actual field.

FULL STORY

Share This

Rentrak’s “Stickiness Index” has been in operation for about six months, and the company says it continues to reveal value in TV shows not always pegged to traditional measures.</p><p>

“We think it’s a fair metric — and allows you to look at a show beyond just high ratings,” says Bruce Goerlich, chief research officer of Rentrak, who devised the measuring service last fall.<p>

“One of the things I saw on the agency side was that engagement has some value. That the longer a person watched a program, even when controlling for exposure, the more likely they would recall the commercials,” he said. “That’s what ‘stickiness’ is: It’s the percent of a program watched on an index basis.” <p>

Rentrak’s measures stickiness on a second-by-second basis. The index, which is part of its TV Essentials products, is the average percent of a program viewed, divided by the average percentage viewed for all programs of that duration: 30 minutes, 60 minutes or 120 minutes. “It down into a very granular level,” says Goerlich.

FULL STORY

Share This

With several opponents on the auto field injured and sending in the second string, Hyundai is dropping back to throw for a touchdown. The automaker is doing its biggest ad push ever for a single model this year, including a raft of ads on Super Bowl Sunday that tout the totally redesigned Sonata and Tucson vehicles, and broadcasting the message that Hyundai has taken a leadership position in the auto industry.

Sonata, Hyundai’s core vehicle, which competes in the brutal mid-size segment of the auto market, will get the most media largess this year, and it is the vehicle that gets the big spotlight during Bowl Day and a month later during the Oscars.

FULL STORY

Share This

Nissan Motor Co.’s Infiniti marque is launching a multiplatform campaign in support of its new line of luxury sedans, activating a full-court press that includes buys in ESPN’s college basketball telecasts and throughout CBS’ March Madness coverage.

Along with a pair of new 30-second spots for the 2010 Infiniti G sedan and coupe, the automaker is sponsoring a new pre-game feature on ESPN. The Infiniti College Basketball Tip-Off will run immediately before eight NCAA Division 1 men’s matchups, including seven Saturday prime-time games and a Tuesday night tilt.

Each Infiniti Tip-Off show features interviews with head coaches like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and UNC’s Roy Williams, with an eye toward giving fans a better sense of the role that inspiration plays in securing victory. The theme links to Infiniti’s established “Inspired performance” tagline.

FULL STORY

Share This

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — The most notable thing about Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl advertising lineup this year is what it doesn’t include: Clydesdales, “Drinkability” and Bud Light spots from DDB.

With a full five minutes of air time this year, A-B is once again the game’s biggest advertiser. But the spots previewed this afternoon for the media featured some surprises.

For one thing, A-B — now the U.S. unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev — appears to be moving on from the “Drinkability” platform it adopted for Bud Light in late 2008, opting instead for a new tagline, “Here we go,” that is less focused on product attributes and more aligned with the brand’s traditional good-times positioning, which held that people drink light beer to have fun, so light-beer commercials ought to be funny.

FULL STORY

Share This

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — We don’t know if media companies will succeed at everything they dream of doing on the anticipated Apple tablet, but we do know what Apple will almost certainly do for them: spend lots of money advertising the thing.

There’s no word yet, of course, from anyone at Apple or its agency, TBWA/Media Arts Lab. And all the tablet coverage in the press is delivering untold millions in free publicity for Apple. But if Apple’s history of introducing the iPod and the iPhone is any guide, tens of millions of dollars in ad spending is fast approaching.

FULL STORY

Share This

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Chrysler Group has launched the first leg of an ad push touting its muscle car, the Dodge Charger, with a trio of decidedly unfeminine 30-second spots from Dodge’s new agency, Wieden & Kennedy.

In each ad, a gleaming black Charger poses atop a parking deck, sun beating off the windows, while a familiar voice — Michael C. Hall, the star of Showtime’s hit series “Dexter” — waxes poetic about manly things. The funniest of the three ads, dubbed “Man Bag,” broke during the NFC Championship game broadcast this past weekend. In it, we hear Mr. Hall recounting all the things the Dodge Charger isn’t: “man sandals,” an “exfoliant with added moisturizer” or a “yoga class.”

FULL STORY

Share This