Archive for August, 2006
“The Internet buzz over “Snakes on a Plane” turned out to be nothing to hiss about. The high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $15.25 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Distributor New Line Cinema included $1.4 million that “Snakes on a Plane” raked in during 10 p.m. screenings Thursday to get a head start on the weekend. Without those revenues, the movie’s weekend total would be $13.85 million, putting it just behind “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” which took in $14.1 million in its third weekend. […] New Line’s Tuckerman said “Snakes on a Plane” would turn in a solid profit but that he did not know why the movie failed to live up to its Internet hype. ‘I think people were more excited about the marketing than the actual movie,’ said Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations. ‘New Line did not set out to create this Internet buzz. That’s actually a marketer’s dream, but when marketing translates into awareness but does not inspire people to get out from behind their computers and into the theater, that’s a problem.’” (CNN)
Another case of “Web Blew Point Oh?” This guy seems to think so, and the numbers back him up.
Email Article
Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 09:27pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Snakes On A Plane, box office
“Prime-time television and its mighty 30-second commercial were supposed to be in trouble when a new, cutting-edge technology arrived on the scene several years ago, giving viewers a tool to zip past the traditional, on-screen ads. […] In May, General Electric Co. began showing commercials touting the environmental benefits of some of its heavy industrial products, such as jet engines and diesel locomotives. One 30-second spot featured an elephant dancing in a jungle to “Singin’ in the Rain,” as other animals look on. Viewers with DVRs were shown how to pause the commercial at certain moments. When they did, up popped whimsical, fictional biographical information about the animals. Gamers call such hidden content “Easter eggs.” GE calls the project “One-Second Theater,” and it is designed to nudge DVR owners to spend more, rather than less, time with commercials. It worked, according to GE’s research. Viewers spent a little more than two minutes watching and reading the 30-second spots, said GE’s Jonathan Klein, marketing communications leader. So instead of DVR users never seeing the GE spot, as advertisers and networks have feared, “viewers ended up spending over two minutes with the GE brand in front of them,” Klein said.” (Washington Post)
Email Article
Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 01:46pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Commercial, TiVo, DVR, General Electric
“YouTube may be changing the political process in more profound ways, for good and perhaps not for the better, according to strategists in both parties. If campaigns resemble reality television, where any moment of a candidate’s life can be captured on film and posted on the Web, will the last shreds of authenticity be stripped from our public officials? Will candidates be pushed further into a scripted bubble? In short, will YouTube democratize politics, or destroy it?” (NYTimes)
Email Article
Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 10:05am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: No Really, A Life | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Politics, YouTube, Politicians
Taking inspiration from Scott, I’ll be tweaking Adverb’s CSS over the next few hours. Expect some visual wonkiness.
Email Article
Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 09:09am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Site News | add this post to del.icio.us
I know you’ve been asking yourself, “Self? I wonder how that Texas ad monkey’s prediction for how Microsoft’s Zune might take on Apple’s iPod is progressing? You know, the one that had the Zune targeting 18-24 year olds and music companies and content distributors ganging up and piling on the iPod, all for the sake of having a second distribution channel to prevent Apple from dictating cost and pricing structures.”
EMI to preload music videos on Microsoft’s Zune
EMI Group Plc, the world’s third-largest music company, said on Thursday it had signed a deal to provide preloaded music videos on Microsoft Corp.’s soon-to-launch Zune digital media player.
The London-based company said the deal would see artists, including American actor Jared Leto’s alternative rock band 30 Seconds To Mars and English electro-pop band Hot Chip, featured on the player when it goes to market later this year.
The news dispels speculation in media reports this month that Microsoft would have to delay the introduction of Zune’s video capability until after its launch, which is expected to be in time for the year-end holiday season.
Sources at record labels, who have seen the new player, say its wireless capability and a feature that allows some sharing of music between users are what differentiates Zune from Apple Computer Inc.’s market-leading iPod.
“Apple has been an important partner in building the digital music market but any well-funded serious entrant has got to be good news for the artists and industry,” Jeff Kempler, executive vice president of EMI unit Virgin Records America, told Reuters.
The iPod has more than half of the digital media player market, according to research company NPD, while Apple’s iTunes online music download service has a market share of more than 70 percent of U.S. digital music sales.
Microsoft, which was not immediately available for comment on Thursday, announced plans for Zune last month, in a move seen by industry analysts as a belated attempt to challenge Apple’s dominance in both digital audio and video downloads.
EMI said it believes its artists’ videos will be preloaded alongside those from other record companies, but declined to discuss the device in detail.
Universal Music, owned by France’s Vivendi, said it is in discussions with Microsoft on Zune but would not give any details. Warner Music Group Corp. and SonyBMG Music could not be immediately reached for comment. (Fidelity Market News)
Now aren’t you glad you asked? Prepare yourself for a marketing war, the likes of which will make the Cola Wars look like a big water balloon fight.
07/23/06: The original Zune prediction/marketing plan
08/18/06: Update #01
09/14/06: Update #02
09/28/06: Update #03
11/14/06: Update #04
Email Article
Friday, August 18th, 2006 at 08:19am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Microsoft, Apple, iPod, Zune, Marketing, EMI
Oh, it’s in me, all right.
We’re knee-deep in a river of Gatorade ideas at the moment. Fourteen pages of television ideas, in bullet point, ideas-only form (not scripts yet, mind you), to be precise. We’re at the point in the process where we take the ECD through everything in order to cull the list down to fifteen or so ideas (in total) which will then be blown out into scripts and frames for presentation to the client. In the end we’ll produce two, maybe three spots.
It’s August, and the spots will shoot in December, finish in January and February and air later in 2007. Considering we held a strategy session in early July, that makes it an eight-month process.
And this part of it really drags due to the trouble finding enough time on everyone’s calendars to go through so much work.
The meeting today was scheduled to start at 9:00am and, of course, began at 10:00 (not my fault). The delay caused a calendar logjam and resulted in our being able to only make it through about half of the spots before abandoning the meeting for other meetings. We were scheduled to get back together at 2:00pm and that meeting, of course, has been rescheduled for 10:00am tomorrow.
All the while, the clock counting down to the presentation with the client keeps ticking, despite the need for fifteen scripts and sets of boards. (To make no mention of the meetings that will fall in-between necessary for briefing the Account Service team and other interested parties.)
Good times.
At least I have a few spare hours to share with you my latest, greatest, most favorite-est website, “Engrish.com,” that’s just pure brilliance.
Engrish.com is a collection of poorly–very poorly– translated English copy as found (and photographed) in Japan.
No where else will you be able to find such jewels as the “Crap Your Hands Elmo.” No. Really. C-r-a-p Your Hands Elmo.
For the love of all that is good and holy, click on the Elmo link and then go visit the site. Me, I’m going to take a delayed lunch and then go hold a place in the queue for our next meeting… that will surely be delayed.
Email Article
Thursday, August 17th, 2006 at 03:33pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Gatorade, Meetings, Elmo
Here’s a nice piece of ambient media that’s being passed around the agency at the moment. (You can click on the image to see a larger version.)
It’s from Dentsu/Brazil for their client, “realhiphop.com.br,” and in case you were wondering, the headline reads “All about black music.” It’s probably not a line that would run without controversy here in the U.S., but we’re talking easygoing Brazil; they don’t have a lot of hang-ups when it comes to race (or sex or, well, you name it– with the exception of fútbol, of course).
I find myself loving quite a bit of the print that comes out of South America– Brazil and Argentina in particular. It always seems vibrant and youthful in spirit (even if the target isn’t so much). It’s work you can tell the creatives had fun with.
Of course, much of the South American work that crosses my desk is also awards show-caliber stuff worthy of being passed around. Like here in the U.S., you’ll still see a lot of pure crap when driving around Buenos Aires or São Paulo.
Email Article
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 at 10:58am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Ambient, Brazil, Dentsu
Find out now, in up-to-the-minute reporting, near the bottom of the right sidebar where you’ll see the latest temperatures in our Summer of Suffering.
Now, would someone kindly cover me in icecubes?
Email Article
Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 07:02pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Site News, Monkey Town | add this post to del.icio.us
Indra K. Nooyi becomes the most powerful woman in the Universe. (”PepsiCo’s Steve Reinemund to Retire as Chairman in May, 2007“)
Crazy Christians call out 7-Eleven, slam Islam, trample Constitution, hope to get sucked up to heaven. (”A Christian Site Grapples With Muslim Mysteries“)
Ad journalist wants to write off recent vacation on taxes; bland, already-been-done-a-thousand-times article ensues. (”On the Road, an Ad Landscape That Is Increasingly Familiar“)
Email Article
Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 07:31am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, News, PepsiCo, 7-Eleven, Stuart Elliott
I’ve removed my email address and phone number from the right sidebar and replaced it with a “contact” form that can be found in the top menu section, next to “About.”
One day all my tweaks to Adverb will be complete and I’ll be left with nothing to do except count blades of grass in the front yard on the weekends.
Email Article
Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 05:26pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Site News | add this post to del.icio.us
Full disclosure: I joined– and made donations to– MOVEON.org during the last general election. I haven’t sent them cash in over a year due to the organization’s increasingly radicalized leanings. I also have no strong opinion on the Lieberman/Lamont race, other than to say Lieberman shouldn’t make a gambit to desperately cling to power running as an Independent. I believe in straight talking, Left-leaning, fiscally conservative, Centrist politics and I support Kinky Friedman for Governor here in the state of Texas. May the God of Your Choice help us all if he wins… and even more if he loses.
I try not to go into politics very often here. Not that I’m not politically minded (or motivated), it’s simply that I try to keep the ad discussion centered on, well, ad discussion. Call me funny that way.
Once upon a time, I had a separate domain (BONGA.org, now the home of a small restaurant chain in Korea) for discussing such things. I let that domain go after the big blog crash of ‘04 so, now, any political commentary will have to take place here.
I promise to keep it to a minimum.
Today, TIME Magazine published a piece by Joe Klein (”Three Cheers for Triangulation“) in which he compares and contrasts the views of the “Wingnuts” (as exemplified by Dick Cheney) and the “Blognuts” (exemplified by MOVEON.org’s Eli Pariser) in the wake of the Lieberman’s primary defeat at the hands of Connecticut Democrat Ned Lamont last week that’s worth a read. Outside of wishing others would read it, I also drew out this quote of note:
[MOVEON.org’s] Pariser calls for an era of “bolder, principle-driven politics.” But we’ve suffered all the boldness we can handle these past six years. In the end, the real alternative to Bush’s Republican extremism isn’t Democratic extremism. It is bipartisan moderation—which has the additional advantage of being the highest form of patriotism and the only route to victory in a time of war.
Finally, a Sunday on which I can say “amen” without hesitation.
Email Article
Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 11:35am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: No Really, A Life | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Cheney, moveon.org, Pariser, Lieberman, Lamont, Time Magazine, Politics
I’ve found myself using Google Scholar to pull up academic papers relating to the field of advertising for use in selling-in a few new initiatives to clients, lately. It’s proven useful.
Is anyone else using it? There are certainly limits to what an ivory tower view of advertising can bring to the party, but research isn’t one of them (god bless those publicly-funded research budgets).
Like most University-sponsored research, the papers tend to be this close to being behind the times, but the ones I’ve found are useful enough to be of note.
(And, yes, I realize this is something planners would be more interested in but at my agency at least, most of us take an interest in cross-pollinating duties– resulting in prettier flowers.)
Email Article
Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 02:58pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Planning, Google, Scholar, Research
The “Adverbug” is a rotating set of banners calling out visitors to Adverb that I mentioned yesterday. It’s something I created for Adverb v1.0 and I’m glad to have it reinstalled here. I’ve learned a few new tricks since the original site sank beneath the waters, and Adverbug v2.0 is much more streamlined and should require a lot less of my time maintaining call lists. Look for it over in the right-hand column and, uh, here within this post. Hooray beer Adverbug!
Email Article
Friday, August 11th, 2006 at 10:59am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Site News | add this post to del.icio.us
I spent the better part of the day– roughly six hours– dealing with the management side of the ad jungle trying to get Jason set up with a record “of good standing” with Omnicom before he takes a position elsewhere.
Omnicom, being Omnicom, has a set policy of, oh, about a thousand steps necessary to get everything set up and going… for someone to leave. Throw in the added dimension of needing to discuss filling the position with my ECD and the agency’s CFO– the money available and the various permutations that could play out– and you’re in nitty-gritty management hell.
I don’t do well in hell; I find it tiresome. And hot. And not nearly as much fun as the Las Vegas tourism council advertises.
Consequently, I don’t think I’ll write about advertising today because I’m just tired of the crap and will, instead, spend my time making minor tweakage to Adverb (like simplifying many of my scripts and calls and other geekish things I had to learn back when I launched the site– and then had to re-learn when I, uh, re-launched it). I might even try to reactivate an Adverb throwback that, once upon a time, was called the “Adverbug,” a rotating set of banners that call out all the nice folks who visit here. We’ll have to see about that one. I might become too intoxicated.
Any-hoo.
The good news for Jason is we discovered he can 1) remain under our insurance for a short period of time– enough to keep him covered and not need to pay out big bucks for COBRA while his new agency gets their act together and, 2) he’ll get a little extra cash by way of accrued vacation time that he can use at the craps table once he lands safely in Nevada.
And it only took chasing down four different people to get those two answers.
That’s efficiency.
The next big headache on the list: getting him set up with an exit interview and putting the search for his replacement into high gear.
Really, Jason. It would have been easier if you’d simply not shown up for work without telling anyone.
Email Article
Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 07:58pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Site News, Ad Jungle, Ad Nauseam | add this post to del.icio.us
Next Posts
