rainy days ahead

Usually it's the advertiser or public relations employee that deals with their clients bad press. This time, the ad agencies themselves are getting a tough slap on the wrist by the Madison Avenue Project who claims that and overwhelming majority of the creative directors behind the Super Bowl ads this year were white. It looked at 58 spots, where 92% of the directors were white males, 7% were white females, and that 1%? The Latino that won the Doritos consumer contest to make a commercial!

Yikes!

I have faith that the advertising community will take this seriously and try to encourage diversity in top level positions. Conversations need to be had and top agencies need to take a hard look at who is being hired and promoted and why. It may take decades to resolve the issue of diversity in the workplace, but if anyone can hit the ground running on being different and stepping out of the box -- it's advertisers.

Let's go get em.

2 pills a day

(Red) has come out with this great ad which includes huge top celebrities to get people to see how little they need to donate to make a difference in one persons life. The ad directs you to a website, which includes a documentary of the transforming effect the pill has had on peoples lives in Zambia. The documentary premiered in MOMA in New York and the (Red) campaign will host a question and answer session that will stream live off their facebook site. That's terrific integration of different mediums to get the message out and engage your followers. Because (red) is always capable of delivering strong messages that are backed by great media plans, they have been a philanthropy project and product that has succeeded and has been around for over four years.

what's next for google

Google is trying something out in India right now that's working. They're streaming live coverage on YouTube of cricket matches and have garnered 50 million viewers. A little over than a handful of advertisers (including big names like Coca Cola and Hewlett Packard) signed on. Whereas Google focused on user created content, now it is looking into carrying not only other sports but concerts from all over the globe. This is huge for viewers and big for advertisers who are likely to get a ton of new impressions. You don't have to watch at a computer and you can comment on what is going on simultaneously as it is happening on your screen. Broadcasters can ignore this new upcoming trend, but I believe eventually television and internet viewing will be one in the same. Those who don't embrace the change could get left in the dust.

time after time

Time Warner (which owns HBO, Time Inc., and Warner Brothers and is one of the largest media companies) received a gain of 9.8% profits in the last quarter. How?

-They focused on traditional media (movies and cable)

-They signed a deal to carry more than half the NCAA basketball tournament

-They scored big in the box office with Sherlock Holmes and The Blind Side

We'll see if the changes continue throughout the year. For now, let's let the company celebrate.

be loud and everywhere

Domino's has a new pizza. I'd argue that most people know this by now. That's saying a lot since it can take years for people to learn of a product change or even a new product, but CP&B made sure that everyone knew of the recipe change. The company is advertising in print, big time on TV, and has taste tests being being performed on tv shows themselves. Their quirky OOH advertising is all about trying to get one person in the community (a huge critic of the pizza prior to the change) to call in and order. Commercials show the critic calling in Dominos, ordering the pizza, and truly enjoying the new flavors.

Funny thing is, some bloggers and taste testers preferred the old recipe or couldn't realize a big enough difference between the two pies. Consumer Reports reported that the pizzas have improved... slightly.

So what's actually happened to Dominos revenue for the first quarter of 2010? It increased 14% for same store sales!

Moral of the story: Throw out the recipe book. It's all about impressions... and lots of em.

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

This is currently the most watched video on YouTube. When I tuned in to watch it, Nightmare on Elm Street was being advertised and was getting thousands of impressions with no clutter when people watch this video. Best of all, it doesn't interrupt the content (it comes out before the video so viewers are excitingly waiting for the video to start and are likely to pay attention to the ad) and the ad is only 15 seconds.

'Jersey Shore' Meets 'Know or Go'