Want to Tweet? Do It From an Ad Unit Nearby

Thanks Adage for this post on twitter breeching the media divide

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Nestle's Juicy Juice isn't the first brand to try to integrate Twitter in to an ad campaign (see Skittles and TurboTax). But it may be the first to allow users to post tweets within an ad unit that can appear anywhere on the web.

Juicy Juice's Twitter display ad

Juicy Juice is testing the unit, from SocialMedia, for one month on mom-targeted sites BabyCenter and CafeMom. The units ask questions such as "How do you stimulate your child's mind?" or "How important are vitamin-enhanced foods to you?" and users can answer the queries as short messages, or tweets, directly in the ad.

If users are logged on to Twitter, the answers will be posted to the ad directly; otherwise users are first directed to Twitter.com to sign in. Posts, which also appear in users' Twitter feeds with a "hashtag" (the symbol #, used to group keywords or events for simpler searches on the site) are moderated by Nestle, but there's the option for that to be turned off.

Clicking on the ad unit, meanwhile, takes the user to Juicy Juice's YouTube site, which is chock-full of helpful videos, including a scary one about how many more germs per inch are on a water fountain than your average toilet seat.

The difference between this campaign, dubbed "Twitter Pulse" by SocialMedia, and other recent attempts is that it allows a conversation to be instigated by -- or occur within -- the ad unit, rather than just syndicating tweets already posted on Twitter.

"The ad unit is paid placement but the additional impressions are effectively earned media," said Seth Goldstein, CEO of SocialMedia, a technology company, noting that the hashtag then reaches the follower base of those who have entered tweets, and potentially sparks more attention and conversation.

SocialMedia is tracking a number of metrics for Juicy Juice, including traditional views and click-through rates but also number of tweets posted and the number of followers exposed to the hashtag on Twitter. Like other executions with Twitter, there is no revenue involved with the microblogging service, but, as Mr. Goldstein pointed out, it could be a potential source of new sign-ups and increased usage.

Men happiest online, women prefer family time: poll

Thanks Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) - For men, bliss is often just a mouse-click away while quality time with family is guaranteed to put a smile on women's faces, according to an Australian study of what makes people happy.

The "Happiness Index" study, which polled more than 8,500 Australians aged 18-64 years, showed rest and relaxation were the most enjoyable activities while physical exercise was least likely to make people happy.

"Australians are made happy on a week-to-week basis, not by possessions and achievements, but by entertaining experiences and by meaningful interactions with others," said Karen Phillips, managing director of The Leading Edge, the business consultancy that conducted the survey over a week in August.

"This index gives insight into the way we tick, with the results being useful to Australian businesses who want to better communicate with their customers," she added.

Both men and women -- or 63 percent of overall respondents -- picked relaxation as the activity that made them happiest, but that is where the similarity between the sexes ends.

Just over half of men said happiness meant surfing the Internet, playing online games or accessing social network sites such as Facebook, compared with only 39 percent of women.

Fifty-five percent of women said having meals and spending time together as a family made them happiest, compared to 45 percent of men. Women are also more likely than men to have been made happy by their pets.

More men than women, 48 percent versus 40 percent, found happiness being intimate with another person while 38 percent of men, and only 28 percent of women, said drinking with friends brought them joy.

More women than men said reading a good book, eating comfort food or buying gifts made them happy

But Phillips said the survey also debunked several gender stereotypes, finding that shopping for new clothes and shoes made only 30 percent of women happy and that more men and women with children cited sex and romance as making them happy than singles.

"It's important to not make assumptions but to do your research when utilizing happiness drivers to improve your brand's performance," she added.

Follow the path of the unsafe

Here's some inspiration and a relevant quote for our times, for those thinking about the future, about where to invest their energy and time in the coming months ahead:

"Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of crackpot than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost."

Thomas J Watson

Thanks FurtureLab. Original Post: http://scottgoodson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/follow-the-path-of-the-unsafe.html

Glamour.TV

Thanks to Adage for this post.

Glamour Rolls Out Web-Video Platform With Key Advertisers
Conde Nast Title Ventures Further Into Branded Content

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Three years after launching its groundbreaking "Reel Moments" short-film series, Glamour continues to branch out in the realm of branded entertainment.

Earlier this week, the Conde Nast fashion title introduced Glamour.TV, a new web-video platform aimed at expanding Glamour content into bite-sized video clips, customized to key advertisers.

Looks are everything
Dockers, for example, is the sponsor of "Moms Working It," a show that interviews celebrity mothers such as Jennie Garth, Solange Knowles and Nikki Taylor. Revlon is the presenting sponsor of "Beauty Wars," a makeover competition series, hosted by "Entourage" co-star Debi Mazar, in which makeup artists from around the world strive to create the consummate look for the American woman. There's also "The List," a fashion and entertainment news show, hosted by model Molly Sims and E!'s Giuliana Rancic, that is co-sponsored by Estee Lauder and Burberry.

Bill Wackermann, senior VP-publishing director of Glamour, said the model is reminiscent of the TV-sponsorship model of the 1950s. "It harkens back to when advertisers were in the business of promoting their own shows, promoting their brands and having more creative control of the process."

(To highlight the vintage ad model, Glamour this week literally trotted out the vintage by sending waiters to its top ad clients in New York with champagne and TV dinners prepared by Kurt Gutenbrunner, the Austrian chef of uber-trendy West Village bistro Wallse.)

Glamour.TV is the second video site of its kind to emerge from a Conde Nast fashion title in the past year, following last year's late-summer launch of ShopVogue.TV (now Vogue.TV). Both magazines have taken an aggressive stance on owning their own content online at a time when everyone from Elle to Marie Claire is partnering with TV networks for reality TV projects.

An image to maintain
"We've been approached on almost every one of those deals for a reality show. You pick the program -- magazine partners are always being asked to participate," Mr. Wackermann said. "But that becomes about their show and their brand vs. ours, and if you have a small brand you may benefit from being associated with that show. But Glamour reaches 12.8 million women; our brand is larger than the audience that watches those shows at any given time. For us, when we do something to extend our brand into different media, it has to be what is relevant to our consumer and our brand."

Glamour is also experiencing growth in year-over-year web traffic going into the launch of Glamour.TV, an encouraging sign that the site could find a sizeable audience early on. Since July 2007, Glamour.com's monthly traffic has increased 118% to 862,708 users, according to ComScore. Its Conde Nast sibling, Vogue.TV, also reached a viewership milestone earlier this week when "Model.Live," an original series co-distributed by social-networking site Bebo, passed the 1 million view, or video streams, mark after five episodes. In just two weeks "Model.Live" drew enough traffic to Vogue.TV to send its unique viewer stats past the 1 million mark as well, having accumulated 900,000 users since launching in August 2007.

Said Vogue Publisher Tom Florio of the site's economic model, "We want to make sure clients get the print, that we're not giving away the business like everyone else out there. [But if a client] moves 10% of their budget to the internet, we want to show them where the tonnage is coming from. ... You've got everyone in Hollywood trying to suck money out of this business, so we want to work together exclusively with advertisers online, or package together with pages."

Guest stars
Mr. Wackermann said Glamour.TV's first season will carry through October, when the latest installment of "Glamour Reel Moments" will also appear on Glamour.com. On tap for this year's short films are directors Demi Moore and Courteney Cox, featuring stars such as Rumer Willis (Ms. Moore's daughter), Anna Faris and Laura Dern.

Glamour is also actively in talks with the major video distributors to help syndicate Glamour.TV content online. Vogue.TV already has deals in place with Hulu, TiVo, Tidal TV, Veoh and JuiceCaster.

Click on this link for the original article: http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=130923

AdAge's Digital A list for 2008

Digital A-List 2008: No.1, Unilever

Digital Marketer of the Year Scores by Making Web Tactics Part of Its Mainstream Marketing Plans

Here's the funny thing about Unilever being Digital Marketer of the Year: It doesn't really do digital campaigns.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 2, AKQA

Ad Age's Digital Agency of the Year Is Actually in the Business of Product Innovation

Fourteen years after it started as a boutique in London, AKQA has become a global powerhouse. In 2007, the San Francisco-based agency reached nearly 700 employees; revenue was up about 40% to $99 million; and new-client wins included Kraft Foods, Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes and Motorola, adding to a roster that already included Nike, Visa, McDonald's Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Coca-Cola Co.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 3, Google

Search Giant Strikes Deal With Publicis, and Doesn't Lose Share Upgrading Rivals

Convincing ad agencies that it was friend, not foe, was imperative for Google if it wanted to start snagging the big-brand budgets major agencies control, and the barely 10-year-old company was effective enough in that campaign that it struck a deal with Publicis Groupe to share ideas, co-develop products and exchange employees.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 4, NYTimes.com

Ending an Unpopular Experiment to Capture Circ Revenue Has Paid Off

When The New York Times' website demolished the pay walls that had separated its columns and other premium content from the freeloading hoi polloi, it sealed a spot on the Digital A-List.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 5, Apple's iPhone

Changed Consumers' Perception of the Mobile Phone

No doubt Apple's sleek touch-screen iPhone is changing the look and feel of mobile phones. But more important, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has given mobile marketing a major boost with his iPhone.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 6, Digitas

Agency's Acquisition by Publicis Has Helped Shop Think Big Picture

Digitas continues to move beyond its roots as a direct-marketing agency to becoming a strong full-service digital partner that engages marketers building brands and businesses.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 7, J&J's BabyCenter

E-commerce Site Is Dominating Digital Mommyhood

Johnson & Johnson's BabyCenter is aiming for global domination and to follow moms beyond the confines of its website.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 8, Baidu

The 'Google of China' Is Moving Past Text-Based Search to Video, IM

Baidu.com is known as the "Google of China," the world's second-largest online market. Baidu has a dominant 62% share of China's search-engine market, according to China IntelliConsulting Corp. Google is the No. 2 player, with a 22.7% share, followed by Yahoo at 10.8%.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 9, ESPN

Its First-Round Knockdown at the Hands of Mobile Led to a Surprising Comeback

Keeping ahead of the game has been ESPN's signature play through the evolution of media, from its traditional TV base to print to its newer digital efforts.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 10, 'Cloverfield'

A Chancy Experiment Created an Immersive Online Marketing Experience

The J.J. Abrams-produced horror movie "Cloverfield" played hard to get through the late summer and fall of 2007. A mysterious online movement was a key ingredient in the run-up to the movie.

Digital A-List 2008: Next in Line

From Rising Star Tribal DDb to ... 'Whopper Freakout'?

In the end, we chose 10. But there was plenty of debate over who should make this year's A-List. Maybe it's no surprise that a burgeoning global power like Tribal DDB would come close, but a purveyor of flame-broiled burgers? These players' remarkable forays in the digital realm show new media's not just for tech companies.

Digital A-List 2008 Executive of the Year: Brian McAndrews

As Microsoft's Ad-Solutions VP, He Is Helping Map the Giant's Online Future

While many industry watchers have proclaimed the wisdom of Microsoft's Brian McAndrews, it's less his willingness to tackle the unproven path ahead and more the foresight in his past at aQuantive -- and that whopping exit strategy -- that makes him Ad Age's Digital Executive of the Year.

Til death do us part

One of the Best Free Dating Sites for Zombies:

http://www.zombieharmony.com/?speed=0&speed=0&limbs=0&speed=0&groaning=on#

Thanks to Aaron for inspiring my weekend...

Viral - some interesting observations

This is taken straight from Go Viral's newsletter - so big up to them!

Newsletter from GoViral
Cannes Lions 2008 and Females in viral campaigns

Dear Reader,
Welcome to our July newsletter. In this edition, we take a closer look at Cannes Lions 2008 winners Microsoft's "Halo 3" and Burger King's "The Whopper Freakout". This monthly insight tunes in on the lack of viral campaigns targeted against women.
In the last newsletter we introduced you to our new book "The Social Metropolis" – it is now available for free download here . You can also enjoy our seminar in Cannes here .
Enjoy!


Cannes Lions 2008 – Microsoft's Halo 3 and Burger King's "The Whopper Freakout"
We have again reached that time of the year, where advertisers from all over the world gather and celebrate the passing year and select their favorite commercials. This year's viral contestants included Burger King's "Whopper Freak out" and four spots from Halo 3.

Microsoft's Halo 3
T.A.G. and McCann made a homerun and won the Grand Prix prize in the Film category for the Halo 3 Believe campaign, which included 'Gravesite,' 'Enemy Weapon', 'John 117/monument' and 'Combat' for Microsoft's Xbox 360. The four spots are part of larger campaign, which initiated at the end of 2006. The campaign consisted of five major phases (that you can read about in our new book ) until its release on September 25th 2007. The overall theme of the campaign is rather untraditional for a computer game. Users are guided around in the remnants of a post-world war, taking place after the two first games. Real actors play the roles of surviving veterans guiding the users through a memorial walk of the wars. The four spots were a part of phase 5 and apart from them, it consisted of a Halo 3 website, serving as a virtual museum, providing an interactive fly through of the entire John 117 monument – allowing visitors to peek right into the fight. They could also learn more about our enemies and hear first hand stories from the men, who were there. The four spots consist of interviews with surviving veterans of the battle who served with Master Chief. They talk about their experiences and speak with reverence and awe about what it was like to serve with mankind's greatest hero.
Watch Enemy Weapon
Watch John 117/Monument
Watch Combat
Watch Gravesite

Burger King's "The Whopper Freakout"
This year, "Whopper Freakout" – created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami – stood out and won gold in the cyber category. Depriving Whopper fans of their favorite burger turns out to be a surefire way to get them to buy more. To coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Whopper, Burger King conducted a social experiment removing the Whopper from the menu. On December 2007, a variety of television, interactive, radio and print executions rolled out and whopperfreakout.com was introduced. Hidden cameras show what happens at two Burger King outlets, when a actual Burger King customer is being told that the chain no longer serves Whoppers. The campaign explores the emotional attachment that people hold towards products and in this case – the Whopper. The clips document the reactions from upset customers. One reaction was: "What are you going to put on the logo now -- home of the 'Whatever we got'?". The message was clear – people didn't like it. The campaign was a huge success and drove sales of the Whopper up by 29%. The website created for this campaign received 4 million views by mid-March, and had 250,000 unique visitors in the month of December alone. Spoofs of the TV ads were created and posted on the internet. Not only did the campaign help strengthen the sales at Burger Kings restaurants nation wide, but also, competitors showed signs of slower traffic.
Watch The Whopper Freakout here

Insight of the month: Lacking focus on females in viral marketing.
One of the seminars at Cannes Lions 2008 was held by Cheil Worldwide: A Day In The Life Of A Mobile Phone In Seoul. The seminar positioned delegates in the minds of YMCs (Young-Minded Consumer) living in the modern digital metropolis of Seoul. And through that experience, delegates saw how today's youth consumer is making the mobile device an extension of his/her existence. As Pernille Fruensgaard write on her blog , one of the interesting parts of the seminar was, that the mobile services discussed by Cheil were primarily targeted young females, and that these served as drivers of the services making them a natural part of their daily lives and social connections.
Right now, the nature of viral campaigns in Europe seems to be driven by and to masculine humor and the nature of females, linked up to networking and sharing of information/stories/gossip, is not addressed in viral campaigns. Interestingly, their nature would be a perfect catalyst for spreading a message, if it is possible to use in their social activities.
A study from Lucid Marketing concludes that women uses word of mouth more than men. Women are more likely than men to share a positive experience with a business (91% versus 83%), or a product (95% versus 89%). The same conclusion is found at Jackie Huba's blog , where she ask Michele Miller, co-author of the new book "The Soccer Mom Myth: Today's Female Consumer: How She Really Is, Why She Really Buys", to share five tips for understanding word of mouth and women. "Ask any woman how she found her hairdresser, doctor, or favorite wine, and she is likely to tell you that it was from a friend. Women are natural word of mouth spreaders. They are wired that way – with four times as many connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, women tap deeply into that area that is responsible for bonding and connecting with others".
So, brands for female segments should definitely not disregard word of mouth marketing, when planning future campaigns. In fact, it could prove a very profitable decision.

Subscribe to Go Viral's newsletter

Creating your own virtual space for your own virtual self

This is a site by Google called Lively, that allows you to create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms that you design yourself. You can then invite your friends into your room to chat or help you decorate it...

From initial browsing it seems like a bit more of a gimmick or a Habbo Hotel for grown ups, but perhaps it will catch on and allow groups of people to stylize cyberspace in an effortless and practical way???Thanks to Gareth for this post. The site can be found at: http://www.lively.com/html/landing.html

Does this economy make my butt look big?

Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig Suffer as Consumers Have Less Money to Spend on Losing Weight

Thanks to Emily Bryson York - CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- The economy is making you fat.
As gas and commodity prices rise, consumers are finding themselves with fewer spare dollars to reduce their spare tires. As a result, marketers of organized diet programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig are expected to feel the pinch.

No dearth of dieters: according to Marketdata Enterprises, 72 million Americans are or will be on a diet this year, up from 55 million a decade ago.

"It's definitely a discretionary dollar," said Michael Binetti, a UBS analyst who lowered earnings-per-share guidance for Weight Watchers last week. Even though the iconic diet program enjoys an advantageous position in that it has strong brand equity and low start-up costs, Mr. Binetti said the 20% of Americans who describe themselves as being on a weight-loss regimen have increasingly been reporting that they are "on their own diet."

Weight Watchers President David Kirchhoff told investors last month that he remains confident in his company's ability to deliver strong results despite "uncertainty in the economy."

What they cost
Other dieting programs such as Jenny Craig charge several hundred dollars in start-up costs, and then members must pay for their food. Weight Watchers charges monthly membership fees between $10 and $15 per week, and their dieters can choose to buy food from the company, products made by licensed vendors, eat out or cook at home.

Jenny Craig is a closely-held private company that declined to comment for this story. Weight Watchers did not respond to requests for comment.

John LaRosa, research director of Marketdata Enterprises in Tampa, Fla., said dieters don't "give up" on losing weight when they need to tighten their belts, "but they will shift toward less expensive do-it-yourself methods instead of doing a structured program like Jenny Craig that might cost $1,100 to $1,200 over three to four months." Mr. LaRosa said some penny-pinchers will go out and buy the hot new diet book, get supplements from GNC, diet pills from the drugstore or join one of the many free online programs.

There's certainly no dearth of dieters. Mr. La Rosa said 72 million Americans are or will be on a diet this year. That's up from 55 million a decade ago.

Success in past recessions
Recessions haven't always been bad for Weight Watchers. The company launched its highly successful "points" system in 1997, but the program was still popular in 2001. Under the system, every imaginable food from celery sticks to banana splits has been assigned a points value. Members are given a number of daily points to eat based on their height, weight and activity level. The system attracted members, Mr. Binetti said, but there just hasn't been much innovation since then.

Despite a flashy new campaign from agency McCann Erickson, New York, this year, Mr. Binetti said that Weight Watchers is still grasping for "new news." The company, which spent $127 on measured media in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence, has been outflanked by Jenny Craig in the past year.

Need to reconnect
"They've seen a multiyear slide," Mr. Binetti said of Weight Watchers. "What they need to do is reconnect with new dieters and make it more convenient for customers to embrace the weight-loss plans."

After controversial but highly publicized campaigns with Kirstie Alley and Valerie Bertinelli, Jenny Craig moved its $55 million account from JWT, New York, to Y&R, Irvine, last winter. The company, which still works with Ms. Bertinelli, has added Queen Latifah to its roster.

Jenny Craig has had its share of bad news lately. Unconfirmed reports have circulated that Ms. Alley, who lost 75 pounds on the program, has ballooned up to 240 pounds. Though she is no longer under contract to Jenny Craig, publicity about a weight gain is the last thing the company needs. "If she gains it back, [potential clients] say, 'I guess Jenny Craig wasn't that successful over the long term,'" Mr. La Rosa said.

From iPhone with Love

This technology could put a whole new spin on Emoticons - just image what you could draw and send! Thanks to Telecoms Korea and NGT for this post:

Send Mobile Messages in Your Own Handwriting

A new SMS allows users to send a handwritten message over mobile networks. KTF announced the launch of Font of Your Own service.

Unlike existing SMS giving a choice of ready-made fonts, Font of Your Own is the first service that allows users to create personalized fonts for message writing.

To use Font of Your Own service, users have to download necessary applications and set up the idle screen before opening the folder and generate the font by sending the mobile photograph of 33 handwritten letters.

Download of applications and registration of fonts is free of data use fee. Customers can create or change fonts on the PC, using a font editor program.

http://www.telecomskorea.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5832&Itemid=2

Women - Smarter than men?

I refer to an article I posted on Tuesday called "The new shake 'n' make" in which i challenged you to come up with a new iPhone application for your brand... well, seeing as though women are increasingly buying into the technology at a faster rate than men, lets target those applications at women and see if we can't help them find a new way to manage their weight, or chose what's for dinner tonight? Beef casserole anyone?

Thanks to the below blog from the NY Times:


Smartphones Now Ringing for Women

By LAURA M. HOLSON
Published: June 10, 2008

If recent history is any guide, roughly a third of the people snapping up Apple’s new iPhone are likely to tote it in a purse.

In the last year the number of American women using smartphones more than doubled to 10.4 million, growing at a faster pace than among men, according to Nielsen Mobile, which tracks wireless trends.

The trend is mirrored in sales of the iPhone. In October, nearly one out of four owners of the iPhone was a woman, according to Nielsen. By March that number rose to one in three. The iPhone model announced Monday, with faster Internet access and mapping features, may accelerate the shift.

Smartphones are cheaper now — as little as $99 for the petite BlackBerry Pearl — and are better designed. Women have been using them for years in business, of course, but many are finding that the phones can also help manage their families’ hectic schedules and keep them in touch with friends.

“You are not seen as a geek anymore if you have a smartphone,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner Group, a research firm. “Women, including wives and mothers, need to keep track of their busy lives, too.”

The phone makers and service providers increasingly see women as the path to the entire household. According to Verizon Wireless, 71 percent of women make the decision about their family’s wireless choices, including phones and service plans. (Smartphones require data plans that can cost $30 or more a month.)

As a result, smartphone makers are beginning to market specifically to women. Research in Motion, based in Waterloo, Ontario, has taken out ads for its BlackBerry phones in Elle, Martha Stewart Living and Oprah Winfrey’s magazine O.

For the full article visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/technology/10phone.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Targeting just got lethal

Cheers to AdAge for an interesting use of alternative reality gaming to target a very specific group of people:

Toyota: No One's Targeted Black Women Like This
Alternate-Reality Game Challenges Camry's Rep as 'Suburban,' 'Boring'

By Claude Brodesser-Akner
Published: June 09, 2008

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- With companywide sales down 8% this May compared with a year ago, every sale suddenly matters to Toyota Motor Corp. And so the carmaker is launching what it calls an "episodic interactive campaign" to connect with a car-buying audience it has never targeted: professional African-American women.

Toyota's 'If Looks Could Kill' interactive site will target African-American women.

The automaker's Camry has been the best-selling car in America for nine of the past 10 years, but it seems African-American consumers would rather hitch their wagons to just about any other brand.

"Here's this nameplate that's ubiquitous," said Monica Warden, account director for Burrell, Toyota's agency of record or African-American advertising. "But for an African-American woman, it's not even in her consideration set. Our preliminary testing found they think of it as suburban, not urban; as solid but boring. And for this woman, she doesn't see herself as boring."

To shift the car's perception and increase purchase consideration, Toyota and Burrell have turned to the Pasadena, Calif.-based 42 Entertainment, a company that specializes in creating alternate-reality games, including a recent innovative viral campaign for Warner Bros.' forthcoming "Batman: The Dark Knight."

In the game, which makes its debut today, Bianca, a good-looking assistant designer at an urban fashion house, finds herself -- and her new 2009 Camry -- enmeshed in a world of espionage. A $5 million print, radio and online campaign that will run in media primarily consumed by African-American women aims to drive the target demographic to iflookscouldkill.com, a site where "fashion and espionage collide," said Susan Bonds, president of 42 Entertainment.

Espionage, mystery

Naturally, Bianca's unwitting involvement in spy tradecraft will be assisted by Camry's onboard Bluetooth, navigation and push-button ignition system, all features that will be "seamlessly integrated" into the content, Ms. Bonds said.

Why Camry hasn't caught on with African-American women is something of a mystery.

If the demographic simply wasn't buying any midprice sedans, one could to point to U.S. Census Bureau statistics that show that black women are the least likely to marry (in 2001, according to the U.S. Census, 41.9% of black women in America had never been married, in contrast to 20.7% of white women) and also the most likely to divorce. Lacking a double income, they might opt for cheaper wheels.

Or one might look to a November 2007 study by New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy that found that black and Hispanic borrowers were more likely to be steered into subprime loans than others, even adjusting for income, loan size and property location -- indicating they don't have money to buy a car.

But U.S. Census data from 2005 show that black and Asian women with bachelor's degrees earn slightly more than similarly educated white women. And a recent study conducted by Burrell found that black women do buy midprice sedans; they just tend to buy Altimas, Accords and Avengers. Indeed, the Camry was being outsold almost 2-to-1 by Dodge's Avenger among black customers -- a car that suffered from less horsepower and lower fuel mileage than just about every six-cylinder competitor, including the Camry.

Disrupting perceptions

The game developed by 42 Entertainment is designed to target exactly those professional black women between 25 and 40 who earn at least $70,000 a year -- the same group that, Ms.Warden said, had previously written off the car as a suburban yawn.

"They think they know the car, but we're going to disrupt those perceptions," she said. "When you think that someone actually cares enough to make their product relevant to you, it can change your mind."

She added: "No one has ever targeted African-American women like this."

http://adage.com/article?article_id=127615

When magazines and the Internet collide

This is just a quick post thanks to The Centre for Media Research on the growing rate of visitors to consumer magazines online.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Web Magazine Reach, Users and Minutes Up in 2008

According to Magazine Publishers of America,  consumer magazine websites averaged 70.7 million unique monthly visitors during the first quarter of 2008, an 11.9% increase over the same period in 2007. This gain reflects more than three times the rate of growth for the overall U.S. Internet audience, which rose 3.7% in the first quarter.

The analysis also showed that:

The average first quarter monthly reach for magazine websites grew to 43.4% of the total U.S. Internet population, up from 40.2% in 2007
Magazine website users accounted for an average of more than 497.3 million total sessions per month during the first quarter, a 16.3% improvement over the same period last year
Visitors to magazine websites spent an average of 2.3 billion minutes per month during the first quarter, resulting in a 16.7% increase versus the same period in 2007


Nina Link, President and Chief Executive Officer, Magazine Publishers of America, concludes "Magazine brands online are getting ‘stickier' with web audiences... Publishers are increasingly employing the latest digital innovations to broaden their reach and appeal... "

For more about the MPA, please visit the PressRoom here.

Research Brief for Monday, June 2, 2008:

http://blogs.mediapost.com/research_brief/?p=1719

Land Grab for Women Online

Warner Bros and Lifetime launch female focused digital networks
By Andrew Hampp - Publich 13th November in Adage

Look out, iVillage. The women's digital-entertainment market officially got more crowded this week with the arrival of two female-targeted community sites with established brands and broad reach on their side.

First up is MyLifetime.com, the new online destination for Lifetime. The women's cable network is taking an ambitious stab at aggregating female entertainment online by partnering with the Glam Media network, along with RealArcade for games, Revolution Health for health content, About for how-to content and Hearst Digital for shared broadband-video and lifestyle channels.

Warner Bros. Television also is looking to expand its reach in the women's-entertainment category online. It launched MomLogic.com today to serve moms advice, short-form video and ads from charter sponsor Unilever.

Extending online reach
An increasing number of traditional players are eyeing digital networks as a smart way to extend their online reach. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia recently unveiled Martha's Circle, an ad-sales network composed of shelter- and lifestyle-related sites, such as Apartment Therapy, 101 Cookbooks and Style Me Pretty. MSLO estimates the network will generate almost 20 million ad views per month.

Like NBC's alliance with iVillage, Lifetime's partnership with Glam Media gives the cable channel something few TV brands can claim online: scale. Dan Suratt, Lifetime's exec VP-digital media, was hired by former Lifetime CEO Betty Cohen last year to expand the network's reach online, starting with a revamp of its old domain, LifetimeTV.com, in April.

The goal is to associate the Lifetime brand with lifestyle content online for the "woman who's dealing with the daily rigors of life in general and looking for an escape -- even if it's just for 20 minutes," Mr. Suratt said.

Women on the web
There's a land grab for the audience and market share NBC and iVillage have failed to dominate. The Glam portfolio of sites recently became the most trafficked women's network online (25.5 million visits in October 2007 vs. 18.5 million for iVillage), and Lifetime's site was head and shoulders above those of its cable competitors, Oxygen and We, in terms of traffic last month. With 2.3 million registered users on LifetimeTV.com (compared with 333,000 for Oxygen and 82,000 for We), MyLifetime.com has a good head start toward becoming a scaleable media community for women online.

Lifetime's online audience skews a good decade or so older than Glam's median age of 33. It's the boomer side of Lifetime's target demo that the two companies hope will drive the next wave of digital growth and social networking, according to Glam CEO Samir Arara. "They're extremely valuable. ... From a brand perspective, having a strong audience of 20s and 30s and adding to it 40s and 50s is a very normal continuation of the focus we've had."

To be successful, My Lifetime will need to build a robust ad network for the multitasking online woman. Glam has an extensive portfolio of fashion and beauty sites with advertisers such as P&G, Chevy Malibu and Neiman Marcus onboard, while Lifetime brings package-goods and food marketers Stouffer's, Dunkin' Donuts and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

My Lifetime plans to expand into social networking with profile pages and message boards in first-quarter 2008. This past summer, Lifetime scored a hit with "Army Wives," which had an even larger life online through its community of fans and real-life army wives. As a result, traffic to LifetimeTV.com in July surged to 3.7 million unique visits, nearly double the 1.97 million in January.

Strong TV brands
Like Lifetime, Warner Bros. has strong TV brands in its stable to lure its audience online: "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "The Tyra Banks Show." But syndicating content to other key mom blogs will play just as important a role in essentially building a new site from scratch, much in the same way the WB's TMZ.com was able to build buzz and scale before becoming a syndicated TV show this season.

Michael Teicher, exec VP-media sales for Warner Bros. Television Group, said the goal is for lightning to strike twice for the digital-to-TV model, with the help of daytime TV and the marketing team at Unilever to pitch in from the content side.

Unilever, the first sponsor of Warner Bros.' Mom Logic, knows a thing or two about the demo from its brands Dove and Suave, which launched its own branded web entertainment for the maternal set earlier this year with MSN and Sprint called In the Motherhood.

"There are sites out there that really serve the same target audience, whether it's selecting the best school for your children or finding the best coupons," Mr. Teicher said. "We will create affiliation agreements with them and that will allow us to cross-promote and drive our traffic."

Time will tell
While time will tell if the increased investment in women's digital entertainment will pay off in page views and digital dollars, buyers are still going to put their dollars where their worn-out marketing phrases are.

"It's kind of boring to say, but we really think content's king in this category," said Jeff Marshall, senior VP-digital managing director at Starcom/Pixel.

"It's a two-way street: You have a built-in understanding of the audience from the NBCs and Lifetimes of the world, but your audience are looking to them to produce that content as well. It makes sense, and with the tried-and-true women's-content creators, they don't necessarily have a firm understanding [of the ad component]," he said. "Creating ad space and filling that ad space more holistically by creating programs and ways to incorporate brands in more meaningful ways is where we need to go in the future."

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly noted that the Glam portfolio of sites received 25.5 million impressions in October 2007 vs. 18.5 million for iVillage. In fact, the 25.5 million represents visits. Also, the last name of Glam CEO Samir Arora was misspelled as Orara.