Archive for April 8th, 2008

VIDEO ADVERTISING IS NOT JUST about pricing pre-rolls or overlays, inventory accessibility, sales lead cycles or debate over when critical mass of advertiser uptake will occur. Video advertising is about performance, whether an advertiser measures it by awareness, traffic or converting site visitors to sales or leads. The emergence of elaborated companion banners, animated overlays, repurposed text or product feeds and the ability to run non-video creative are just a few of the more recent innovations that should convince any remaining skeptics about the benefits of video advertising online. Whatever the format, media placement or product features of a particular publisher or network, campaigns should always be supported by an intense focus on performance, which is driven by three key factors: campaign execution, traffic quality and technology.
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LOS ANGELES - Before each summer, Hollywood crows about how its terrific upcoming movies are sure to reach new heights at the box office.

This year, not so much. Sure, executives will talk a blue streak about individual films and slates, and as always there are some potential blockbusters set to unspool.

But this is the first summer in some time in which firm predictions of box office records are harder to find than pure motives in a mob movie. And a new high in admissions? Fuhgeddaboudit.

This time, the rhetoric is less Barnum & Bailey and more Alan Greenspan as major studio executives attempt to guard against any irrational exuberance over seasonal prospects.

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NEW YORK Last October, the National Football League inaugurated its international series in London’s Wembley Stadium to a sold-out crowd. For title sponsor Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, the game between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins was an introduction to global marketing.

In addition to the NFL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League all have stepped up their efforts to expand abroad. Their end game is to generate new revenue streams from foreign broadcast rights, licensing and sponsorships.

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Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) better look out. Red Bull GmbH, the Austrian company behind bestselling energy drink and household name Red Bull, wants to try its hand at selling cola. The new drink, shown at right, will launch in seven countries over the next several months, with the US launch slated for June, according [subscription required] to the Wall Street Journal.

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LONDON - Leading pan-Arab satcaster MBC has inked a deal with Paramount Pictures and Lucasfilm to air all the Indiana Jones features, including the forthcoming “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” in a deal thought to be one of the richest ever for the free-to-air Arab TV market.Deal is reputedly in the high six figures.

The original trilogy will be shown on the first three Saturdays in May on MBC’s movie channel MBC2 leading up to the international release of the latest Indy outing on May 22. It is the first time all three films will be shown on a free-to-air satcaster in the Arab world.

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TNS MEDIA ON MONDAY APPOINTED Scott Ernst as president of research company Compete, which it acquired last month. Ernst, who was previously Compete’s chief client officer, will now oversee its operations to help strengthen TNS’ global digital measurement and consumer behavior-analysis capabilities.

Ernst, an online marketing veteran with experience in advertising, digital media and Web technology, brings experience working with global brands such as Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Hyundai Motor America, Upromise, Chrysler and Verizon Wireless.

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YAHOO ON MONDAY FORMALLY ANNOUNCED its one-stop-shop advertising platform aimed at streamlining the process of buying and selling online ads across digital formats.

Called AMP from Yahoo, the system will give advertisers a single Web-based dashboard for placing ads across search, display, local, mobile and other categories. At the same time, Web publishers will be able to sell inventory not only on their own sites and on Yahoo, but also those of other sites in Yahoo’s content network.

AMP will also provide a set of tools allowing advertisers to target campaigns based on geography, demographic criteria and online behavior, Yahoo said.

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Mrs. Butterworth is serious about making a comeback with this week’s launch of its second TV ad campaign in a decade.

The marketing initiative for Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup includes TV spots, a Web site re-launch, an interactive game and an online contest. Pinnacle Foods, which acquired Mrs. Butterworth in 2004 (with its purchase of Aurora Foods), launched the brand’s first new ad campaign in April 2007, after a 10-year hibernation period. The goal is to get Mrs. Butterworth’s name back into the marketplace. Andy Reichgut, vp-marketing at Pinnacle, Mountain Lakes, N.J., said the ubiquity of the Mrs. Butterworth grandmother-shaped bottle crosses generations and the brand is so well known that “all we had to do was bring it back and sales have responded positively.”

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Kia Motors America, Pitney Bowes and IHOP Corp. have agreed to new marketing relationships with the Women’s National Basketball Association, that will include on-air presence in WNBA games telecast on ESPN2 and ABC this season, which begins on May 17.

IHOP will serve as a WNBA halftime presenter and will support the WNBA.com Pick One Fantasy Challenge, the league’s new daily pick fantasy game. As halftime presenter, IHOP will receive on-air exposure in the national game telecasts on ABC and ESPN2, including courtside signage and on screen presence during the halftime show.
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Incredibly, Internet ad spending is on pace to overtake television as the biggest advertising medium in the UK by the end of next year, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre. The report said that spending last year grew 38 percent to $5.6 billion, thanks to the introduction of cheap laptops, an increase in television content online and an overall increase in Web penetration.

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