Digital OOH Forum-4/23/2008 NYC

Out-of-home digital advertising networks – which can deliver advertising in stores, movies theatres, office buildings, doctor's offices and malls – are powerful new marketing and advertising communications channels that are quickly being added to the media mix.

MediaPost's Digital Out-of-Home Forum is designed to help marketing executives understand the rapidly changing market dynamics and potential of out-of-home digital advertising. The program will focus on strategies and tactics marketers and agencies can use to deploy these channels in their upcoming plans, and identify the best sources of assistance so they can take action.

The Conference will examine and explore:

Out-of-Home Digital Advertising Networks

Consumer Exposure to Out-of-Home Venues

Acceptance of Out-of-Home Advertising

What to Consider When Planning, Buying, Measuring and Advertising On Out-of-Home Channels

Audience Metrics for Translating Out-of-Home Traffic and Viewer Impressions

And much more...

April 23, 2008
New York City

For details visit Mediapost.com

Apple and the "i" Generation of Marketing

With the iPod, iPhone, and now the "new look" and updates to the iMac; I could place a strong to very strong winning bet on Apple having a record year, in more than one category. Just think the iPod and iPhone have at the least, drawn out a valuable group of consumers whom are now looking and visiting the Apple stores, lurking on the (Apple) websites, reading the press, buying these "i" products and in general helping Apple gain market share in a disguse....it is perfect timing as several have said for the new school year and the holidays...in addition the new iMac cost less than the first one did.....how about that! Still a great company-however I feel something in the future (5-10 years) will have to change in the most unexpected manner...perhaps a market shift into a new technology or product line for Apple, a major purchase or sell....or thats it right now.....

Apple Unveils New iMac

CUPERTINO, California-Apple® has recently unveiled an all new all-in-one iMac® line featuring gorgeous 20- and 24-inch widescreen displays encased in elegant and professional aluminum and glass enclosures. The entire new iMac line features the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors and a new, ultra-thin aluminum Apple Keyboard, built-in iSight® video camera for video conferencing and iLife® ’08, making it the ultimate digital lifestyle desktop computer for both consumers and professionals. The 20-inch iMac now starts at just $1,199, $300 less than the previous 20-inch model, and the 24-inch iMac starts at just $1,799, $200 less than the previous 24-inch model.

Man, I really like this brand and would like to speak with the entire team of maketing and advertising personalities-sharp folks over there, if I could ever get the chance, even just one would be an educate. I agree, that yes Apple has the technology to make this market jump or push take place; however someone still has to package and market to the consumer; carefully.

“This new iMac is the most incredible desktop computer we’ve ever made,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Our new design features the innovative use of materials, including professional-grade aluminum and glass, that are highly recyclable."

Jobs, is no joke!

Press Contacts: (please contact for questions about Apple)

Teresa Brewer
Apple

(408) 974-6851

Lynn Fox
Apple
lfox@apple.com
(408) 974-4300

Full iMac Story

Apple Hot News

Are Cable Operators a Fair Match for Verizon's FiOS TV?

Verizon is becoming more and more aggressive from every angle. Just today I spoke with a bluetooth marketing firm and my IT Director mentions Verizon, Bluetooth and Spam all in 1/2 of a sentence. Okay-so adding or attempting to add 77k TV households is legal and for heavens sake they are providing a service that will soon either be adapted to or become the next wave of TV....here's the article...


Verizon Files Application to Add 77,000 TV Households In Competition with Local Cable
New State Franchise Law's Five-Day Provision Simplifies Expansion of Service to Hundreds of Thousands of Households in 2008

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -Verizon today applied to offer a real choice for TV services soon to 77,000 more households in the Tampa area. The application was filed under Florida's new cable TV franchise law and strengthens Verizon's coverage for its FiOS services to nearly 2 million households in the Tampa Bay region.

This initial application will add the cities of Tarpon Springs and Sarasota as well as portions of Pinellas County to Verizon's franchised municipalities and counties in Florida, which now numbers 16 communities. The law also features a unique provision for expanding into other calling areas, referred to as wire centers, in the future. As Verizon expands its fiber network and begins to provide service to customers, it can add these new areas to its franchise application simply by filing an amendment within five days of providing initial service in the area.

Full Story

Brandless Ads from Suncom

A follow up on my last few post about carriers.....Suncom managed to get press from the billboards mentioned in this article from last year. Not the best PR though...

SunCom pitches new call plan

Mystery ads after loss of customers

John Murawski, Staff Writer

March 6th, 2006

The wireless company that lost 60,000 customers in North Carolina last year introduced the new plan Tuesday with advertising that deliberately omitted the company's name. SunCom has been running 14 billboards in Raleigh and Durham since last week that pose the question: "Who will your 10 be?" Six area television stations have run similar ads.

"The rationale behind the brandless ads is to build curiosity and suspense. It's form of interactive advertising, to get the public engaged in a guessing game. But it's anyone's guess whether such ads succeed or get tuned out, said Bob Lauterborn, a professor of advertising at UNC-Chapel Hill. Lauterborn hasn't seen the SunCom ads, but he says their effectiveness is dubious.

"There's this dopey assumption that people are watching your campaign and eagerly awaiting your next ad in the series," Lauterborn said. "C'mon, people are too busy. In today's world, people are not breathlessly waiting for your bloody ad."

Full Story

Nielsen-Goes Live!

This should be interesting.


Agencies and Networks Ponder Nielsen Ad Ratings

By LOUISE STORY
Published: June 1, 2007
THE NIELSEN COMPANY, long the arbiter of television viewership, released standardized ratings of commercials yesterday, giving advertisers more information about how often viewers stay tuned during commercial breaks.
The ratings will trickle into computer systems at television networks and advertising agencies today while ad executives are negotiating billions of dollars of television sales for next year, and it is unclear how the new ratings will affect those deals. The commercial viewership data is not new — Nielsen has included it in one of its main data systems since the end of January — but now the data will be released every week in a standard, easy-to-read format.
“This is going to give everyone the ability, all parties involved, to start speaking the same language,” said Sam Armando, senior vice president and video research director at Starcom USA, an agency in the Publicis Groupe that purchases ads.
Consumer brand companies have traditionally decided how much to pay for television time based on Nielsen’s estimates of how many people watch certain programs. But as more people watch programs on digital video recorders through TiVo and other services, advertisers have become concerned that people might be zipping past their messages. The new ratings estimate the number of people, on average, watching ads over the course of a program.
•
Advertisers have been most concerned about whether people who own DVRs watch their ads, because those viewers can fast-forward through ads with the click of a remote.
But to the relief of networks, Nielsen data has shown that on average, people with DVRs still see about two-thirds of ads in their television viewing. That’s because about half of television viewing in households with DVRs is played back after the original broadcast of the program, and about 40 percent of the commercials in that time-shifted viewing are not fast-forwarded.
“The notion a year ago was that any commercial that was viewed on a time-shifted DVR had no value,” said Alan Wurtzel, president for research at NBC Universal. “All of that was wrong.”
Yesterday, Nielsen released similar data about viewing patterns. The data was based on viewership from the first week of May and showed that most DVR playback takes place within a day of the program’s broadcast. Broadcast television programs tend to be played back through DVRs more frequently than cable programs, and news and sports events are most often watched live.
•
In DVR households, viewers of broadcast television programs like “The Office” on NBC and “The Family Guy” on Fox are most likely to watch commercials. Thus, television networks with lots of time-delayed viewing on DVRs stand to gain the most from commercial ratings, if they can keep their fans from fast-forwarding through ads.

CTIA Conferance; Apple iPhone

In the Economist's wrap-up coverage of CTIA conference of Florida, the publication came out swinging against the much hyped Apple iPhone:

But though not available until June, the $500 iPhone is as mouth-watering today as yesterday’s cold pizza. The phone that stole the show at CTIA Wireless 2007 was the “Ocean” from Helio, a youth-oriented newcomer to the cellular business.

In addition to giving high praise for the Ocean's interface and design, as well as noting the disparity in price ($295 for the Helio vs. $500 for the iPhone) the article continued,

But it is the Helio Ocean’s EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimised) wireless technology that renders Apple’s iPhone an also-ran. Mobile experts have been mystified by Apple’s decision to use Cingular’s EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) network when far better wireless communications methods abound...Cingular’s version of it provides data speeds of between 75 kilobits per second (kbps) and 135 kbps—not that much better than a dial-up internet connection, and often much worse...

By contrast, the EV-DO networks used by Helio (as well as Verizon and Sprint in America and KDDI in Japan) offer 450 kbps to 800 kbps, rates similar to those of DSL broadband connections. EDGE’s slower data speeds mean that iPhone users must rely on Wi-Fi to do anything more than make phone calls or send the odd e-mail...

Full Story

Coca-Cola Goes...

The beverage industry has seen vast changes recently. With bottlers and distributors hooking up with one another in different markets and selling products other than thiers---there is no telling what is next.

The Story
Coca-Cola (KO) shares popped higher May 25 after the beverage giant announced it will acquire Energy Brands Inc., known as Glaceau, and its full range of enhanced water brands for $4.1 billion in cash. The company said the deal gives it "a strong platform to grow its active lifestyle beverages."

The deal is Coke's largest acquisition, and the company expects it to shave 1 or 2 cents from earnings per share this year. But it expects the deal will add to its earnings in the first full year following the completion of the deal.

The deal will also curb Atlanta-based Coke’s share-buyback plan. Coke said it now expects to buy back $1.75 billion to $2 billion worth of shares this year, down from its previous plan of $2.5 billion to $3 billion.




Full Story

Idol Fundraiser Drops in Ratings

As if this is a surprise.

'Idol' fundraiser hits a new season low Averages 9.6 in 18-49s, off 6 percent from last weekBy Toni FitzgeraldApril 25, 2007
“American Idol’s” first-ever “Idol Gives Back” fundraiser is a noble idea and may well raise millions for charity. But it apparently did not hold as much interest as the usual singing competition for “Idol” fans.
The reality singing show fell to its lowest Tuesday rating of the season last night, a 9.6 Nielsen overnight among adults 18-49, as the contestants and a huge array of celebrity guests appealed to viewers to pledge money for numerous American and African charities.
Of course, a season low for “Idol” is still way ahead of every other show on television, and even though it was off 6 percent from last week’s then-season-low 10.2, “Idol” still crushed the competition on a very slow night.

Full Story

Kraft Shifts From JWT......and more..

JWT and Kraft. Kraft very well may have invented the grilled cheese sandwich, I am sure they did from the archives I have researched. I had a discussion recently with a retired agency executive, followed by an hour talk about his career and work for JWT. I learned a lot about the history of Kraft advertising and media use, no secrets though-maybe next time.

Being Shifted From JWT
Kraft Foods is again demonstrating its unhappiness with its largest agency partner, JWT, by shifting the creative duties for six brands to other agencies. Kraft spent more than $160 million to advertise the brands in major media last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, a division of Taylor Nelson Sofres that tracks ad spending.
Full Story

MINI-Cooper Uses Daktronics Galaxy® and More on Daktronics

MINI Cooper seems to adore outdoor advertising. Who pitched whom here? I am hoping for the sake of my profession that Daktronics pitched MINI with this idea. An opt-in interactive digital billboard which may have received more press than the actual campaign on purpose. A hot idea in a sense, although if I was the driver of a MINI I would would not be so entertained rather want to show it off-I am a big deal to MINI. MINI has a creative manner of how to spend co-op dollars and I was asked did I think this was co-op money; no it is not, unless specific dealerships are involved and it is clearly corporate that has pulled the trigger on this one.......certainly the dealership in the markets may receive less from OOH Pitch who currently does thier co-op advertising-I beleive.

BROOKINGS, S.D. – Apr. 6, 2007-

Daktronics Inc. recently sold four 89-millimeter Galaxy® LED displays for MINI USA’s latest ground-breaking billboard advertising promotion aimed at American MINI Cooper owners. The new campaign, innovatively named, “MINI Motorby,” engages in a new wave of interactive billboard advertising. The unique billboards are visible in Chicago, New York, Miami and San Francisco.

The approximately 5-feet-high by 33-feet-wide interactive digital billboards feature personalized messages directed toward MINI Cooper owners as they drive near the billboard. MINI Cooper owners must go online to the MINI USA website and register for the personalized messages. Prospective participants register in the “MINI Owners Lounge” where they are asked to participate in answering some entertaining questions about themselves.

Full Story

Typically I do not include the about section of a press release however this is a company that has a large footprint and I feel that they are a resource for creatives, techies, and other network folks. Take a look at all of thier other projects; a great archive of pictures on thier site can be found here Daktronics Projects .

About MINI Cooper
The MINI Cooper is a small car that was produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 to 2000. When production of the classic Mini ceased in 2000, BMW (the new owner of the brand) announced the successor to the Mini – the New MINI Cooper.” The MINI is the most popular British-made car. There are currently 82 U.S. MINI dealers, which are located primarily in major metros and other selected cities. For more information, visit the company’s U.S. World Wide Web site at: http://www.miniusa.com/.

About Daktronics
Daktronics has strong leadership positions in, and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of, computer-programmable displays, digital billboards, large screen video displays, control systems and electronic scoreboards. The company excels in the control of large display systems, including those that require integration of multiple complex displays showing real-time information, graphics, animation and video. Daktronics designs, manufactures, markets and services display systems for customers around the world, in sport, business and transportation applications. For more information, visit the company’s World Wide Web site at: http://www.daktronics.com/, e-mail the company at sales@daktronics.com, call (605) 697-4300 or toll-free (800) 325-8766 in the United States or write to the company at 331 32nd Ave. P.O. Box 5128 Brookings, S.D. 57006-5128.

For more information contact:

MEDIA RELATIONS:
Julia Angerhofer
Video Marketing
tel (605) 697-4699
e-mail jangerh@daktronics.com
Daktronics Homepage