Fun on a Friday -- You Dummy! (Sneak Preview Super Bowl ad)

My husband laughed so hard at this spot we had to rewind several times to catch some of the lines. He was particularly fond of "You Dummy!" shouted at the hapless cubicle dweller.

I'm one of those people who watch the Super Bowl for the ads (although now I just look them all up online the next day). CareerBuilder's taken it a step further -- and increased their buzz -- by releasing their ad ahead of time. Lots of web chatter, lots of YouTube views. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

YouTube - CareerBuilder.com Super Bowl 2009 commercial - 30 second sneak preview!

The New York Times and LinkedIn

So I was reading a business article in the New York Times the other day and noticed a column to the right that said "News for Marketing Professionals." My little marketing brain went "How'd they know what I do?" I'm registered with NYTimes.com, but I don't think they asked for my profession. So I clicked on the link that says "what's this?" and it turns out that they have partnered with Linked In to provide more relevant content to the user. I'm not sure how they figured out who I was on LinkedIn; I don't recall giving them that info, either, but it's possible I did.

Most people won't even think about the behind-the-scenes technology that makes this possible. Heck, most people won't even think it's unusual to have relevent content seamlessly woven into their online experience. But I think it's pretty cool. Incidentally, the New York Times does a lot of things right as far as online news goes. They do way more than just put up their print text. Lots of photo galleries, videos, and more that make it a much more interactive and informative experience.

The New York Times and LinkedIn

Susan Lucci Caught Up in Detroit Drama - Advertising Age

When the car industry suffers, the media suffer, too. Why? Because the auto industry is one of the largest advertisers on television and print. When I worked in television during a recession, our sales reps took a big hit when the local car dealers cut back on their ads.

But it's not just the advertising sales departments that are suffering. Apparently, all that declining revenue has hit the production budgets, too. Big name t.v. celebs like Susan Lucci are taking pay cuts and others are losing their jobs altogether. Even a fixture like Deidre Hall, who has been on "Days of Our Lives" for over 30 years are gone. (They didn't even bother to cut her salary, like Lucci; they just got rid of her altogether.)

Susan Lucci Caught Up in Detroit Drama - Advertising Age - Madison+Vine: News

PETA Wants to Put Vegan Ads on Border Fence

Again, from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up files: PETA wants to advertise on the border fences. They want to warn immigrants that crossing into the U.S. could be harmful to their health because we eat so poorly over here. "If the Border Patrol Doesn't Get You, the Chicken and Burgers Will — Go Vegan" is the message that would be printed in both Spanish and English on the fences.

This doesn't work at all. Seriously, PETA, that's your target market? Or maybe you're trying to get free press for the half-baked idea? You might get it, but I suspect it'll be of the mocking variety.

Read more here: PETA wants to put vegan ads on border fence | Pets Houston | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Eggs-cellent Timing!

If you can get by my awful egg pun, take a second to read this entry about a giant egg billboard for McDonald's. It's a giant egg that mechanically opens during breakfast hours to let people know that McDonald's is cooking up fresh eggs at that time. Once breakfast is over, the egg closes up, ready to hatch again the next morning.

If only Adam Sandler had one of these in "Big Daddy," he could have saved himself some heartache.

Reaed more here: The Arab Aquarius: Hatching Billboards: McD's Giant Egg

It's like a GPS for your shopping cart!

Imagine a shopping cart that tells you where to find the peanut butter -- or better yet -- that one, rare ingredient in that new recipe that you've never heard of before. A shopping cart that lets you digitally pre-load your shopping list and guides you around the store. Of course, this cart is going to show you ads (and maybe even give you coupons)
based on your shopping preferences. All in all, not a bad way to get useful information and hey, I'll take those relevant coupons anytime.

The one thing I don't get? How Microsoft got into this game. Does this mean my shopping cart will "crash"? Let's hope not!

Read more: Microsoft Takes Digital Ads to Grocery Aisles

Advertising Age - Digital - Google Print Ads Now Used by 225 Newspapers

The Googling of newspaper ads. The newspaper industry has seen its ad revenues spiral downward for sometime now. Google came along to help by setting up an auction of sorts to sell newspaper's excess ad inventory. It worked well enough that they've now made it official and are offering ads in most major U.S. markets. Even the New York Times is for sale through Google Print. For those of you who thought Google was a search engine, think again. They are an advertising machine.

Advertising Age - Digital - Google Print Ads Now Used by 225 Newspapers

User-Gen Space Poised for Growth

User generated content (UGC) is a big part of what is known as Web 2.0. It consists of sites where the content is provided by its users rather than by a staff of editors, writers, etc. The best-known UGC sites include MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Wikipedia. They are more popular with the young, but are gaining traction with the over 25 set. And advertisers are taking notice.

To quote this article in AdWeek:
"Ad spending on Web sites that have built their traffic on user-gen staples like social networking, photo sharing and amateur video is expected to soar to $4.3 billion in 2011, according to a new report issued by eMarketer. That's a whopping increase of 330 percent versus the $1 billion expected to be spent in the space this year—which is itself more than double the $450 million in ad revenue tracked by eMarketer in 2006."

I remember when I first started selling advertising on the web (back in 1997), the heavy majority of web users were male. That shifted quickly. Expect to see some form of UGC take off in the business world. Imagine using personalized "MySpace" technology to power your site's user groups, for example. (It already exists. Check out Atlanta-based ThePort.) Do you have any ideas on how UGC can be used in the business world? Post them in the Comments section.

User-Gen Space Poised for Growth

Fast Forwarding Through Commercials

Can you name five t.v. commercials off the top of your head? How about five newspaper ads? A few years ago, I used to ask this question whenever I gave a talk on advertising. Few people could recall print or radio ads, but almost everybody could remember some of that year's hottest t.v. commercials. But those days are long gone. Since we have become a TiVo-obsessed nation, a full 2/3 of us with digital video recording capabilities simply fast forward through the spots.

This is great for those of us who are impatient and prefer our programming commercial-free, but it presents obvious problems to the networks who are able to provide that programming by charging advertisers to put their messages in front of us consumers. Today, advertisers are demanding to know not just what the show's rating is, but how many people actually viewed their commercials. We are all waiting to see how this new ratings system will unfold.

In the meantime, some savvy advertisers have started putting secret messages in their spots encouraging viewers to pause their TiVos and get clues.