Hasta La Creative!

From a branding perspective, click through rates are a poor metric, because one needn’t click a banner to be impacted by it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, ad-technology and Web-measurement companies (namely Microsoft) are trying to engineer a comeback for display ads, offering data that they say show display advertising is more effective than marketers think.

The debate revolves around what leads consumers to take actions on the Web: buying something, printing a coupon or visiting a Web site. Up to now, most advertisers judged the effectiveness of an ad campaign by what consumers did after they clicked on the ad. But some marketers say they are now using research not only from Microsoft, but also independent Web-measurement firms like comScore and Omniture, to figure out what happens before people click on ads — even in situations where they don’t end up actually clicking on the ads.

The major conclusion of this research: By the time consumers search for a product or service, they’ve often already made up their minds to buy it. And display ads are often an important factor in their reaching that conclusion.

My conclusion: buy all the search terms you want, but back them up with display ads.

The brag-gag-alific press release from Fletched Martin says:

QSR Publicity Stunt Gives Appearance that People on Billboards are “Thinking Arby’s”

ATLANTA (September 19, 2008) – Fletcher Martin, a fully integrated marketing communications agency, caught drivers’ attention during the evening rush hour in Atlanta Thursday with a unique publicity stunt.

The agency, which represents Arby’s, placed large helium balloons with the Arby’s logo near billboards that prominently featured people’s faces. The stunt gave the illusion the people on the billboard were “Thinking Arby’s” as seen in the popular television ads where the Arby’s hat appears above people’s heads.
[snip]

What a cheap way to get some attention, and Arby’s was behind that? Can’t buy your own media space guys? Wow, the US economy must be worse than I thought. Wonder what the people who paid to be on those billboards thought of the stunt, not to mention the billboard owners (in this case the owner looks to be CBS?). Don’t get me wrong, the idea is kind of cute, it would benefit from having a “thought bubble shaped” ballon but my guess is Arby’s could not afford even novelty shapes. Whenever I see big brands do cheap shit they strike me as stingy – I hope they aren’t cutting corners like that when they prepare food. “Arby’s, where the meat fell off the back of a truck yesterday.” or “Arby’s, where everyone is paid below minimum wage because we’re stingy bastards”, yeah that seems about right. Honestly, big brands can buy their own media and ad creep creeps people out.

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Advertising School: European School of Design, Frankfurt, Germany
Creative Director: Ralph Thamm
Art Director / Photographer / Concept: Pavel Bondarenko
Copywriter: Reinhard Obinger
Published: August 2008

Advertising Agency: 1861united, Milan, Italy
Creative Directors: Roberto Battaglia, Pino Rozzi
Art Director: Marrollo Alice
Copywriter: Serena Toppeta
Photographer: Joan Garrigosa
Published: January 2008

www.hackthiscode.com and you’re hired.

Advertising Agency: Publicis, Bucharest, Romania
Creative Director: Razvan Capanescu
Art Director / Photographer: Dragos Ometita
Copywriter: Cezar Panait
Published: September 2008

LONDON – Ford has kicked off a pan-European campaign to launch its – very pink – new Ford Fiesta model.

Business Week and Interbrand have released their annual list of the best global brands, except that it’s incredibly inaccurate. As the magazine notes, “Interbrand uses financial data for the 12 months ending June 30 for all the brands, we decided to keep the values the same.”

“In this challenging economy, it is important for BusinessWeek to offer
its audience insight into the best global practices for increasing brand value,” said Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek. Well, sorry pal, but this list is a bit wonky.
When you guys rank HP at number 12, you’re not including the 24,000 lay-offs worldwide into the equation? AIG at 54? Morgan Stanley at 42? Whatever. Just kick them from the list and re-sort.

Anyway, Coca-Cola is still No. 1 after eight years and IBM, is now
No. 2 pushing Microsoft down to No. 3. Google is No. 10, after ranking at No. 20 in 2007.

More: LL Cool J Does It Not So Well With Sears

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Coca-Cola design agency Turner Duckworth fashioned the cover of Metallica’s new album, Death Magnetic. Brandweek says David Turner, one of the company’s founders, is friends with drummer Lars Ulrich, and their children go to the same school. Such details make Metallica sound old and unhip. But what do I know? The disc shot to No. 1 and sold 500,000 copies in three days. The cover shows a magnetized coffin. I want to be buried in one of those, so anyone with a cellphone or change in their pockets or metal jewelry will be pulled toward my grave screaming, “Help! Dave’s pulling me into his grave!” Hey, at least I’ve got a plan for the afterlife, OK?

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Forget your concerns about the temporary bans on short-selling here in the US and in the UK, and the second shut-down of Russia’s trading floors. It’s Friday, the week endeth, and we’ve got some tidying up to do. Here’s your Odds & Ends:

&#151 We hear Y&R Irvine was cut in half on Thursday. Ouch.

&#151 Is PHD New York struggling without anyone at the helm? A source says yes, “It must be hard when there’s no president. Guess when they cat’s away, the mice really do play. Supposedly they just let go of another director.”

&#151 Layoffs at Ogilvy NY rumored…again.

&#151 Element 79, we’re told, laid off three creatives over the last week.

&#151 If you were hoping to boogie down with Saatchi & Saatchi NY over Halloween or Christmas, fugedaboudit. Well, that’s our spy’s advice, since he/she believes the shindigs are canceled. But not to worry, there’s always the AgencySpy party!

More: “Overheard in the Ad-World“

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

LONDON – Ford’s new Fiesta ad, which breaks tonight on Channel 4 during Ugly Betty, targets women. The ad created by Ogilvy features a pink Fiesta.