Category Archives: advertising

LImited Run Dumps Facebook

Facebook’s bad year just got worse

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LImited Run Dumps FacebookIt’s an interesting time to be Facebook. You know, as in the old Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times.”

They’ve been the target of freedom and privacy advocates for some time. All the way back in 2008 I was talking about the company’s anti-privacy tendencies and arguing that things were only going to get worse for the citizenry. More recently, I called them the most congenitally dishonest company in America, and I’m waiting for evidence that proves me wrong.

But these days, us privacy ankle-biters are the least of Mr. Zuckerberg’s concerns. Continue reading →

Gallup poll reveals that public questions PR industry credibility: are PR practitioners to blame?

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A Gallup poll released in August indicated that the advertising and PR industries aren’t viewed very favorably by the American public.

One-third of respondents voiced a positive view of the advertising/pr industry (6 percent “very,” 27 percent “somewhat”). Twenty-seven percent were “neutral.” Twenty-five percent expressed a “somewhat negative view,” while 11 percent were “very negative.” (The rest didn’t venture an opinion.)

You might argue that, on balance, the numbers are only slightly negative – total positives were 33% while total negatives were 36% – and the AdWeek story cited here certainly goes out of their way to put a chirpy spin on the results (no real surprise there, I suppose). Continue reading →

Double-reverse brand whiplash hits Arizona Iced Tea: a lesson in crisis

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Our consumer landscape is dotted by brands that invite us to immerse ourselves in the tastes, sights, sounds, smells and cultures of particular locations, which I suppose are deemed romantic or in some way aspirational. Like the exotic Australian adventure of Outback Steakhouse. A big favorite here in Colorado, of course, is Old Chicago. And a slew of Texas-themed restaurants, like Lone Star, suggests that consumers associate that state with an authentic steak experience.

As you probably know, though, Old Chicago isn’t from Chicago. Continue reading →

The smartest shopping cart that ever lived

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MediaPost reports this morning on an interesting new survey from TNS, which says that “sixty percent of shoppers across the globe believe that they will be able to pay for purchases using just their fingerprint by 2015, rated top by 25% of shoppers.” Never mind the chill that should send down the spine of anyone who values their privacy – we’ll deal with that another day. For the moment let’s have a look at what people expect from The Future®.

Continue reading →

Ad recall?

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Greg Stene, who’s an ad guy and a professor specializing in creativity (and one of the smartest people in general that I’ve ever met) has some interesting thoughts on advertising recall (or the lack thereof) in a new post over at Scholars & Rogues. A snippet:

Secondly, simply because one can recall an ad, doesn’t mean it has had a positive influence in brand preference. Certainly, there is the facile argument that you can’t choose a product if can’t you remember the ad – but that is so disingenuous in its suggestion that the rest of the world (friends’ recommendations, past experience, competing ads we may remember, etc.) has no greater profound effect on our product choice.

A good read from one of the brighter (if lesser known, so far) minds in the world of advertising.

Agencies “don’t get” social media: sad, but true…

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If you know anything at all about the agency world, this new report tells you a whole lot of what you already know.

‘Agencies Don’t Get It,’ Survey Says
Feb 28, 2008

Clients are placing more emphasis on mastering social media but find their agencies ill equipped to help them succeed in that space, according to a new survey.

TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony polled more than 60 marketers in North America, France and the U.K. to gauge how they are faring navigating the world of social media. It asked them for feedback on their agencies’ abilities to help. TNS found, in its words, “Agencies don’t get it.”

What’s the problem? Continue reading →

Quarterlife crashes and burns: what does it mean?

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Opening night for NBC’s new Millennial-targeted series, Quarterlife, was an unparalleled disaster.

The drama series which made headlines about its transition from internet to TV, “Quarterlife,” succeeded in being a flop in its NBC debut Tuesday night, having the worst ratings in at least 20 years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The brazilian-dollar question now becomes: what happened? Continue reading →

Social networking: the next generation

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Have you ever noticed how social networks don’t do a very good job of representing how our personal networks actually function? Sure, places like Facebook and MySpace and LinkedIn have their utility, but their flatness is a problem.

Think about your Facebook, for instance. If it’s like mine, you have friends there who run the gamut from “real life best friend” to “people I know” to “guy I couldn’t pick out of a lineup if my life depended on it.” You may have relatives, friends from school, co-workers and “assorted others.” And they’re all absolutely equal.

Our LinkedIn networks can be even less attuned to how our lives works. Continue reading →

New report says mobile use higher among older users than previously thought; yes, but…

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A new report from InsightExpress suggests that mobile penetration and use may be much higher than widely thought.

Key points:

  • …mobile penetration was high across all ages, at 85% and 82% for Gens Y and X, respectively–meanwhile, 80% of younger Boomers surveyed had a mobile phone, followed closely by older Boomers at 79%.
  • Boomers’ handsets were just as cutting edge as their younger counterparts, as 75% of younger Boomers and 68% of older Boomers had phones that supported text messaging–compared to 86% and 82% of Gens Y and X, respectively.
  • Gen Y led the pack in actual text-message usage with 43%, followed by Gen X with 22%–but some 16% of all younger Boomers and 10% of all older Boomers sent or received text messages daily. Continue reading →