Clickable headlines from my sources:
by Erik Sass Southwest Targets Tomorrow's Professionals Via Games
by Laurie Sullivan
[Transportation] "The challenge is that many things will happen between now and the time when this generation reaches the age to frequently travel," says a marketing professor. "Their memory of this brand will erode throughout the years, so you continually have to remind them, but you can build loyalty if you start early because it becomes part of their natural choice set." - Read the whole story...
Aggressive Marketing Helps General Mills Beat Expectations
by Karlene Lukovitz
[Food] Chairman/CEO Ken Powell noted that the company's categories are staples with high percentages of household purchasing penetration, which bodes well even during recessionary economies. He described the company's strategy as a "virtuous cycle": Continuing operational cost savings enable greater resources for consumer marketing, which in turn drive top-line growth and operating profit. - Read the whole story...
New Toyota Campaign For Scion Is A Labor Of Lava
by Karl Greenberg
[Automotive] The microsite opens with an animation of lava erupting from a volcano in an urban landscape. The lava pours over a stock xD, the car melts, and reshapes into the Release Series vehicle. When site visitors click steaming manhole covers, they blow open to show vehicle features. The smoke-expelling billboards, which will roll through 12 cities, show the flaming xD RS 1.0 image. - Read the whole story...
Abbott Labs' Online Effort Addresses Teen Rx Abuse
by Aaron Baar
[Pharma] The effort is centered mostly on PR and education efforts through parenting media, web sites and blogs. While the Web site includes video of teens reaching into a medicine cabinet and emptying prescription bottles (with messages such as "Today, 2,500 teens will abuse these for the first time" and "Does your conversation about drugs include these?"), there are no current plans to turn the video into television advertising. - Read the whole story...
New-Car Shoppers Reconsidering In Light Of Gas Prices
by Karl Greenberg
[Research] Kbb.com's Jason Allan says SUV consideration between October 2007 and now has gone from 38% to 27%. The reason that drop isn't a lot bigger is that the SUV category represents traditional SUVs and crossovers, based on car platforms. "And there are still so many people who need three rows of seats." - Read the whole story...
As Slump Lingers, JCPenney Cuts Spending Plans
by Sarah Mahoney
[Retail] Still, some observers believe that sales are improving somewhat at department stores, and that JCPenney is particularly well positioned to gain when consumers do decide to return to the mall. Before the announcement of the revised expansion plans, for example, Deutsche Bank, citing slightly improved sales trends and its reliable earnings estimates, upgraded its recommendation from "hold" to "buy." - Read the whole story...
Calif. Newspaper Outsources Editing Tasks
CNBC
The Orange County Register in Southern California is trying a new way to cut costs: outsourcing to India. Mindworks Global Media in New Delhi will copy edit some of the paper's stories for a one-month trial starting next week. A smaller unnamed sister paper will outsource its page layout to Mindworks.
The company insists it's just a test, and it won't affect reporting or decision-making. The move is also not supposed to prompt more layoffs.
The Register has dropped from being California's third-largest paper to its fifth=largest and has sustained three rounds of layoffs in the past year. - Read the whole story...
Writers Ask FCC For Product Placement Rules
Variety
The Writers Guild of America West wants the FCC to make rules that mandate disclosure of product integration in TV shows.
In a letter, guild president Patric Verrone urges the agency "to require on-screen, real-time disclosure on TV programming where product integration occurs, in order to make viewers aware of the range of products they are overtly--and more often covertly--being sold."
FCC officials heard testimony about product integration last year and are expected to release proposed rules this year. Verrone wrote that embedding products "exploits the emotional connection viewers have with shows to sell a product and runs the risk of alienating an audience that expects compelling television, not commercials." - Read the whole story...
Old Media Is Watching Bloggers
BusinessWeek
Content recognition software is getting so sophisticated that traditional media companies can now track where and how their content is being used online. The dust-up between the AP and bloggers was just an early skirmish in what's likely to become a protracted war over media content that's published online.
Bloggers and Web sites are eager to ensure continued access to information, but media companies are intent on controlling or cashing in on the dissemination of their stories, videos and other content.
New systems automate the tracking job and do it less expensively than past systems. The new software can also automatically send out "takedown notices" that require sites to remove contested content, and the data generated by the software could be used to build a case against alleged copyright infringers. - Read the whole story...
Pirate Radio Gets a New (Digital) Life
The New York Times
In the old analog days, people who couldn't get on traditional radio turned to broadcasting illegally over unlicensed radio frequencies. But now pirate broadcasters can put their radio programs on the Web with a computer and a telephone.
BlogTalkRadio, which helps alternative broadcasters, just closed an initial $4.6 million round of funding led by The Kraft Group, the owners of the New England Patriots.
The service lets anyone host a live radio talk show over the telephone or Internet, complete with live guests and callers. Show creators get half the ad revenue. Recent participants include Brad Pitt and Senators John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. - Read the whole story...
MTV To Accept Political Ads
Advertising Age
ESPN Radio Will Go to Listener's Home
Mediaweek
In a bid to incorporate the audience into its programming under the guise of charity, an episode of ESPN Radio show "Mike & Mike in the Morning" is being auctioned off to listeners. Money from the auction will go to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. People bid online in early July and the winning bidder will have the show, hosted by Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, broadcast live from their home or property.
In all, 18 ESPN "fan experiences" will be auctioned off, ranging from tickets to sporting events to visits to ESPN headquarters. - Read the whole story...
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