http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbNyFRPZM_8
Nice concept and i imagine one hell of the struggle to get these giants cooperating
Monday, January 21, 2008
Mobile - 'Meet The Spartans' with Carmen Electra
While we've all seen this type of thing done before, this campaign using personalised video messaging really stands of with it's simplicity, great execution and nice mobile tie-in (US numbers only at this stage).
Subject choice and premise for the video also is also spot on.
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From branding unbound: 20th Century Fox Selects Celtra´s Mobile Marketing Platform for New Movie Promotional Campaign
Celtra's on-demand platform known as Fooch Campaign Manager (FCM) delivers personalized and video synchronized phone calls as part of an interactive campaign for "Meet the Spartans," starring Carmen Electra ( http://www.carmenhasacrushonyou.com/ ). Celtra offers an on-demand service for message-based mobile marketing. The Fooch Campaign Manager (FCM) platform provides Voice, SMS and WAP push connectivity through a powerful on-demand application for campaign management.
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Carmen Electra has a crush on you. And you. And you.
In an innovative new campaign from 20th Century Fox, the studio is teaming with Boston-based Celtra to bring personalizable, video synchronized promotional phone calls to mobile phones.
It all starts at Carmenhasacrushonyou.com, which features a viral video starring Carmen Electra, the star of the upcoming movie "Meet The Spartans."
Electra becomes side-tracked with talk about a new love interest during a faux interview where she originally intends to plug the film. Users have the ability to personalize Carmen's story, by changing the subject of her love interest to someone they know. Users can then enter the phone numbers of recipients they designate and thereby send the video interview URL link to their friends.
Carmen's calling act in front of the camera surprises viewers in the much the same way as the recent Peyton Manning "Pep Talk" and "Dexter" personalizable videos and the 30 Rock promotional calls. In addition, they receive a personalized call invitation to see the movie.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
A Social Net You Can Bring Out to the Bar
SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Want to know how long the line is outside your favorite club on a busy Saturday night? Or the guy-to-girl ratio at a bar before you pay the cover?
That's the promise of BuzzD, a new local-search/networking service from mobile pioneer Nihal Mehta. "It's the next generation of the mobile internet," said Mr. Mehta, who founded text-messaging company Ipsh and sold it in 2005 to Omnicom Group in one of the first holding-company mobile acquisitions.
The service is initiated through text messaging and gives users the lowdown on social venues in real time from their peers. Sending a message brings the user to a mobile website with friends' critiques, ratings of drinks and other information on social venues.
Partnerships
BuzzD launches this week in partnership with Flavorpill, a website that lists cultural events in major cities. Flavorpill Mobile initially will be available in six cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and London. BuzzD also has partnered with another guide publisher, Time Out.
Helio is expected to be the first carrier to offer BuzzD, but Mr. Mehta said he plans to make it available on all the nation's major carriers.
Nokia's Nseries is sponsoring the launch. "Nokia looks at the mobile device as more than a device to make phone calls," said Camilla Pagliarolia, communications manager, Nokia U.S. The Flavorpill and BuzzD combination "uses the phone as a creative platform. It's a good fit for us," she said.
Generating revenue
BuzzD works without information about a user's location but eventually will add a GPS, Mr. Mehta said. While there is evidence that popular location-based services, such as mapping applications, are generating good revenue for carriers, it's still unclear whether location-based mobile social networks will do the same.
The Walt Disney Co. shut down its branded phone that allowed parents to locate their children. Boost Mobile said 171,402 subscribers use its Loopt service, which allows young adults to locate friends. Sprint, provider of the network for the Disney and Boost Mobile phones, has a similar location service, but a spokesman said Sprint does not share information about the number of subscribers using that service.
Roger Entner, senior VP-communications sector, IAG Research, said he's not sure the idea will work. "If I'm having a bad time, I might take the time [to write a review or critique the scene], but if I'm having a good time, probably not. That sounds like serious work at a time when I'm having fun."
Mr. Mehta said the concept has proven itself with Dodgeball, another mobile social network. "If you're having a good time, you want to connect with your friends," he said.
That's the promise of BuzzD, a new local-search/networking service from mobile pioneer Nihal Mehta. "It's the next generation of the mobile internet," said Mr. Mehta, who founded text-messaging company Ipsh and sold it in 2005 to Omnicom Group in one of the first holding-company mobile acquisitions.
The service is initiated through text messaging and gives users the lowdown on social venues in real time from their peers. Sending a message brings the user to a mobile website with friends' critiques, ratings of drinks and other information on social venues.
Partnerships
BuzzD launches this week in partnership with Flavorpill, a website that lists cultural events in major cities. Flavorpill Mobile initially will be available in six cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and London. BuzzD also has partnered with another guide publisher, Time Out.
Helio is expected to be the first carrier to offer BuzzD, but Mr. Mehta said he plans to make it available on all the nation's major carriers.
Nokia's Nseries is sponsoring the launch. "Nokia looks at the mobile device as more than a device to make phone calls," said Camilla Pagliarolia, communications manager, Nokia U.S. The Flavorpill and BuzzD combination "uses the phone as a creative platform. It's a good fit for us," she said.
Generating revenue
BuzzD works without information about a user's location but eventually will add a GPS, Mr. Mehta said. While there is evidence that popular location-based services, such as mapping applications, are generating good revenue for carriers, it's still unclear whether location-based mobile social networks will do the same.
The Walt Disney Co. shut down its branded phone that allowed parents to locate their children. Boost Mobile said 171,402 subscribers use its Loopt service, which allows young adults to locate friends. Sprint, provider of the network for the Disney and Boost Mobile phones, has a similar location service, but a spokesman said Sprint does not share information about the number of subscribers using that service.
Roger Entner, senior VP-communications sector, IAG Research, said he's not sure the idea will work. "If I'm having a bad time, I might take the time [to write a review or critique the scene], but if I'm having a good time, probably not. That sounds like serious work at a time when I'm having fun."
Mr. Mehta said the concept has proven itself with Dodgeball, another mobile social network. "If you're having a good time, you want to connect with your friends," he said.
Digital M&A Trends for 2008
Published: December 17, 2007 - By Abbey Klaassen - AdAge
| SIZE MATTERS Especially as more marketers are looking for agencies that can handle their global marketing duties. Need proof? Look at the 1,000-person shop WPP is setting up for Dell. (And it's perhaps no coincidence WPP made several major purchases in 2007, including Schematic, Blast Radius and 24/7 Real Media.) Look for agencies and holding companies to continue to grow in 2008. |
| INTERNATIONAL INTEREST Thanks to the weak-dollar effect, several industry prognosticators suggest we'll see more international firms looking to snap up American companies. "On a per-employee basis, the U.S. is still a cheap market, as hot as it is," said Michael Seidler, CEO of Madison Alley Ventures. |
| NEXT-GENERATION AGENCIES Whether you want to call it an aQuantification of the business or an inevitable trend as more money moves to digital, a new crop of agencies rooted in search or digital creative are trying to expand into other areas and create a new breed of agency. AKQA, with private-equity investment, has been aggressive in this space. Also watch for the formerly search-centric iCrossing and 360i. |
| ANALYTICS WILL BE HOT -- AND EXPENSIVE As more marketers laser in on return on investment, expect the value of firms such as Web Trends, CoreMetrics and Omniture, which has been steadily gaining since its mid-2006 IPO, to rise. "It's driven by supply and demand and right now there's not enough really good companies across the sector," said Linda Gridley, president and CEO of Gridley & Co. |
| MIXED IPO PERFORMANCES Ms. Gridley's firm has tracked new IPOs for several years. She said there were five in the internet business in 2005 and four in 2006, and the share values of all but one have risen. In 2007, performance was mixed -- a trend she expects to continue. "You can get higher returns, but the risk is greater," she said. |
| THERE'S ALWAYS A BIGGER FISH If it seemed like all the big acquisitions already happened (Google-DoubleClick, Microsoft-aQuantive), think again. Likeliest candidates for giant acquisitions? Those with more than one technology or silo, said John Hawkins, partner at Generation, a coastal venture-capital firm. He said AOL is a great example of this philosophy -- even with all its 2007 acquisitions, people are already wondering where it will be when 2008 ends. |
| COMMERCE IS BIG If investments in commerce and transactional companies seem unfashionable, think again, advises Ms. Gridley. "They are at the heart of data centric and consumer-behavior-driven marketing." |
| STRANGE BEDFELLOWS At the onset of 2007, would you ever have guessed Microsoft would own an ad agency? "Ten years ago you had offline agencies buying online agencies," said Mr. Hawkins. "Now you have tech companies coming into the space. ... Tech companies, ad agencies and ad networks -- they're all coming together." |
| VERTICAL AD NETWORKS Expect media companies to continue to invest in this space, either acquiring or building out their own vertical ad networks. The idea behind the trend: While a magazine or TV net might have great reach in their specialized offline space, it's difficult to garner that scale online -- so they seek to aggregate and sell related sites. |
AD-NETWORK CONSOLIDATION
Then again, there are too many ad networks, said Mr. Seidler. This sector has seen astronomical premiums but having too many players negates the advantage of networks: scale. He suggests high-margin rich media networks and those with deep analytic backbones will grow more expensive while the price of commodity networks with lower margins will fall.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Retirees Surf and Respond
According to the Vertis Communications 2007 Customer Focus Tech Savvy study, twenty-one percent of total adults in 2007 have responded to direct mail advertising in the past month by visiting a sender's Web site. Findings also revealed that older men's responsiveness to direct mail advertising through the Internet has grown the most, with 28 percent of men ages 55-64 indicating this behavior and 15 percent of men 65 and older exhibiting the same pattern.
Jim Litwin, vice president of market insights for Vertis Communications, noted that "...targeting the older population may greatly increase the overall effectiveness of marketers' spending, particularly as men reach retirement and find more time to surf the Web."
The study further shows that women ages 35-44 have been the most likely to change their cell phone providers throughout the years, with 22 percent planning to switch providers in the next year, compared to 13 percent in 2005. And, women who earn more than $30,000 per year switch mobile phone providers more often, with 16 percent planning to change in 2007, compared to 6 percent in 2005. Older men ages 55-64 have remained the most satisfied with their cell phone companies over time, as only 13 percent of respondents indicated plans to switch service in the next year, no change from 2005.
The study, which surveyed 2,000 consumers via telephone, provided additional details:
When expressing interest in a product or company, 55 percent of total adults prefer some form of interactive follow-up communication from the company, which include e-mails personalized to their needs, generic e-mails or text messaging
Key observations, according to the Executive Summary:
Jim Litwin, vice president of market insights for Vertis Communications, noted that "...targeting the older population may greatly increase the overall effectiveness of marketers' spending, particularly as men reach retirement and find more time to surf the Web."
The study further shows that women ages 35-44 have been the most likely to change their cell phone providers throughout the years, with 22 percent planning to switch providers in the next year, compared to 13 percent in 2005. And, women who earn more than $30,000 per year switch mobile phone providers more often, with 16 percent planning to change in 2007, compared to 6 percent in 2005. Older men ages 55-64 have remained the most satisfied with their cell phone companies over time, as only 13 percent of respondents indicated plans to switch service in the next year, no change from 2005.
The study, which surveyed 2,000 consumers via telephone, provided additional details:
When expressing interest in a product or company, 55 percent of total adults prefer some form of interactive follow-up communication from the company, which include e-mails personalized to their needs, generic e-mails or text messaging
Key observations, according to the Executive Summary:
- Twenty-three percent of young men ages 18-24 are the most open to follow-up communication via text messaging,versus 5 percent of women their same age and 6 percent of total adults
- Women 65 and older are the least interested in personalized or generic follow-up e-mails.
- Forty percent of men 65 and older prefer an interactive e-mail from a company they have expressed interest in, compared to 23 percent of their female counterparts
- While 91 percent of men ages 25-34 have access to the Internet according to Vertis' study, 56 percent of these men do not read e-mail advertising
- For women earning more than $75,000 a year, overall e-mail readership has increased during the past two years to 50 percent in 2007
- While only 1 percent of total adults read all e-mail advertising available to them, 20 percent occasionally read e-mails personalized to them
- Twenty-eight percent of young men ages 18-24 would consider receiving investment advice through the Internet, compared to 13 percent of women their same age
- Twenty percent of men earning $75,000 or more each year would consider using financial products, services or receiving investment advice online, compared to 13 percent of total adults
- Women earning between $30,000 and $50,000 per year are least likely to consider receiving financial or investment advice online, at 8 percent, down from 11 percent in 2003
Store adds new dimension to online shopping
Consumers looking to avoid crowded malls and the tedium of online shopping can now shop in a virtual three-dimensional store.
Specialty retailer Brookstone opened the virtual doors to its 3D store, (http://kinset.com/brookstone.php) which combines a Second Life-like visual experience with real merchandise customers can buy.
The virtual store replicates the look and layout of a real store. Customers can move through the aisles and browse and zoom on products using a mouse and keyboard. Detailed information is available by stopping in front of an item.
"We think it really appeals to a younger audience for us, a demographic probably 25 to 40...because of the almost gaming nature of it," said Sweeney.
Certainly those adept at navigating through a virtual world will find the environment familiar. For new users, it will take some getting used to, Sweeney added.
Brookstone.com will still offer its wares in the conventional way, but offers the 3D store as an alternative.
"It really helps the evolution of the Internet shopping experience," Sweeney said.
By Reuters
Published: November 27, 2007, 12:16 PM PST
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