Hasta La Creative!

And now, from the lighter side of advertising…

Kush Support is a company that manufactures and markets what they call “breast supports.” These are not your surgically prepped and sterile packets of silicone or saline installed at the local cosmetic body shop. Nor are they fitted items of clothing meant to hold everything in place during duress.

No, the supports were developed to help women pregnant women, women with implants or large breasts, and women with wrinkles in the bust area get a full night’s rest. The inspiration behind the Kush came when founder, Cathinka Chandler,

“began to notice the appearance of wrinkles in my cleavage area. No matter how much I used creams or exercised, the creases didn’t go away.”

I think for most, that would be called “aging.”

Made out of lightweight plastic with a slip-resistant outer layer, Kush is inserted between the breasts to maintain a shape that is “more natural” for women that sleep on their side. Unfortunately for the Kush, the supports are fairly suggestive in appearance…and the ads depict smiling women with phallic shaped objects stuffed in their nightgowns, just smiling away. To make matters worse, a “small” Kush (only for nursing, pregnant, or women with implants) starts out at $55.00!

Of course, this story could not be totally complete without a goofy tagline: Kush Support – A Natural Rest for the Breast. At this point, it is up to the ladies suffering from this silent epidemic: Is the Kush a “bust-saver,” or just plain busty…busted?

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. Reach out and touch him: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

Microsoft launched two “Hulu-esque” online TV spots this week that star Dean Cain, the actor known as Superman from the TV series “Lois & Clark.” The spots are a bit surreal, much like the Hulu commercials that have were released earlier this year. The two spots, named F.O.M.S. (Fear Of Missing Something) and S.H.Y.N.E.S.S. (Sharing Heavily Yet Not Enough Sharing Still), are in support of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), released in its final version on March 19th of 2009.

It’s unclear if Microsoft is experiencing low download rates for IE8, or are simply running the spots to support the new software in a more competitive environment. The IE8 browser is chock-full-o-features that include new malware protection, a discrete browsing mode (for those that need to hide their searches) and greater tab control. One of the best features is that when the browser crashes, it only restarts that particular tab, leaving the rest of the tabs operating normally. However, there are problems with IE8, such as it has to run in “compatibility mode” to read a majority of websites, and it is not as fast as the sparsely-featured Google Chrome browser.

The ads do nothing to dispel these irregularities, and instead are somewhat humorous takes on personal browsing habits. Both of the spots are featured on YouTube, as well as below. F.O.M.S features a woman frantic over missing a bid on EBay, while S.H.Y.N.E.S.S. enables people that send crap over the internet to send it faster using one of IE8’s accelerators. (great…)

The campaign, if it can be called such, is masquerading as a set of PSAs that are promoting BrowserfortheBetter.com, which is a landing page devoted to the new browsers. What’s great about downloading IE8 from this page is that for every download, Microsoft will donate eight meals to Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.

Whether a humanitarian effort or a sales ploy to get the browsers downloaded, the result is the same: food for the hungry. And for this, Microsoft deserves recognition.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links:linkedin.com or twitter.com.

Is no news truly good news? A common phrase, it reportedly stems from King James I of England, according to Dictionary.com. The phrase, by definition, means, “Having no information means that bad developments are unlikely, as in I haven’t heard from them in a month, but no news is good news.” Or, it could mean they were eaten by lions.

Today, no news is better than most news, especially for the ad industry. The current trade news has been built on lay-offs, agency closings, and executive shake-ups. Unfortunately, there are not enough agencies deeply imbedded into the economic flow of the US Economy to warrant a government bail out…unless a catchy new “American”  jingle will help the United States re-brand; The National Anthem doesn’t seem to get much respect or on-air play these days, other than leading off sporting events.

Scanning from publication to publication, news of the economy is built on both optimistic and pessimistic outlooks, the simplest method for stating, “We really don’t have a clue at this time regarding the length, or lasting effect, of the current economic conditions.” If there is nothing to say, then quit writing about it.

Today, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that the economic freefall is far from over:

“…[PwC] not only don’t see a recovery soon but actually think ad spending will continue sinking, such that by 2013 it will be below where it was last year, at $174 billion versus $189 billion. That’s a decline of 1.7 percent per year. Global spending will sink even more.”

Foreboding news. Yet, it’s not the economy being singled out as the root cause; rather, the report states that the switch to digital, due to measurability and targetablity, will rise above media seen as ineffective and inneficient.The usual suspects, newspaper and magazines, are likely to  take the largest losses. However, the PwC report mentions television as a declining resource.

The internet will continue to grow as an ad medium, according to the report. “The internet’s share of

total U.S.ad revenue will rise to 19 percent in 2013 from 13 percent in 2008.” Which leads back to the original question: “Is no news good news?”

The answer? No news can be fantastic news for some mediums, while the same silence signals the death knell for others.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links: linkedin.com or twitter.com.

“Are you right or left ‘brained’?” (Not sure? Take a  test to find out.)

The right brain/left brain theory was pioneered by psychobiologist Roger Sperry in the 1960s. His research postulated that the right eye and right hand were connected to the left brain (actually, the left lobe), and vice versa. Each lobe interprets information in a different manner; the right lobe is visual, processing information intuitively, while the left lobe is an analytic, sequential processor. Although unproven, testing has shown that visually creative people tend to be “right-brainers.”

Right Brain Design, located in New York, is much like any other Madison Avenue ad shop, with one major exception: The agency does not physically exist. There is an agency website that seems authentic, and the client list includes work for actual companies, including; Estée Lauder, HSBC, JCS Tradecom, RPD Media, and HartLee Industries. However, there isn’t an employee profile page, nor is there a nifty contact page including directions from major airports.

So, what’s the deal?

Right Brain Design, founded in 2000, is an agency without walls. Although the agency technically “exists” in New York, it’s really a global web of advertising and marketing professionals. Yes, global. The innovative business model was implemented by Catherine Wachs, the agency’s Creative Director and Principal. Prior to Right Brain, Ms. Wachs spent her career creating and producing work to promote some of the nation’s best-known brands including: Ruby Tuesday Restaurants, Kraft Foods, Advil, Gold Bond, Dannon, Breyers Ice Cream, IBM, and many others. She has served agencies of various size, ranging from smaller, creative boutiques to WPP.

So, why Right Brain Design?

“[A]gencies are becoming giant dinosaurs that take up a lot of room and cannot adapt their business models quickly enough for this new economy. Whereas it took a large team to do a national advertising…it now takes only a few people narrowcasting…”

Narrowcasting is the process of sending information to a specific group of people, such as a fertilizer company targeting an online gardening community. The best examples of narrowcasting are electronic mailing lists, where messages are sent to individuals who subscribe to the list. Yet, this is but one of the agency’s unique traits.

Right Brain Design’s success partially stems from their unique ability to build customized, strategic teams equipped to meet diverse client challenges. The scope of work determines which creative disciplines are engaged, streamlining processes and eliminating waste. Thus, Right Brain Design maintains a high degree of flexibility over agencies that lack creative advertising services or are unable to compete on an economic level. Communicating mainly via Skype and IM, the agency’s overhead is minimal, increasing client ROI in comparison to agencies with real estate.

After nine years of operation, it seems that Right Brain Design’s right-lobed thinking was the right approach, putting them right on course for continued success.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

As Americans, there is a love/hate relationship that exists with the media due to one of two things: over portrayal (senseless beating to death of a subject) or non-portrayal (glossing over a story to move on) of news. Both tend to upset the news-hungry public, but over portrayal nears that point where news becomes culture for a short time. A couple of examples: Octo-Mom, Jon & Kate Gosselin, LiLo’s drug rehab, relapse, rehab, and relapse.

Yes, these are “celebrity” examples, but unfortunately, it happens with the “real” news as well. Take for instance the automotive and banking bailouts. The fall of Fannie May and Freddie Mac. Bernie Madhoff. How many times did news anchors need to go over the fact that the Chairmen for the Detroit automakers flew in private jets to the Senate Subcommittee hearings? Definitely not 10,000.

The same holds true for the advertising industry, and yes, the economy. Yesterday, June 8, 2009, AdWeek ran a story encompassing a RSW/US survey of 200 marketing and 100 ad agency execs. (RSW/US is a lead generation and business development firm.) The survey showed that agencies were more optimistic than prospective clients regarding the economy and the advertising business for the remainder of the year.

Agencies participating in the survey, released in mid-May, included Leo Burnett, Mindshare and Bailey Lauerman. Clients included Ford, GE, Kraft, Lego and Lenox. While 51 percent of each group said that the second half of the year would see at least some continued falls in ad spending, more agency respondents (42 percent) felt the economy had already hit rock bottom and would therefore start to improve over the rest of the year than clients (35 percent).

Seventy-six percent of agencies felt that the number of new business opportunities would rise in Q3 and Q4 of 2009.

Today, Media Life reports that Q1 2009 spending was beyond horrid. Like someone couldn’t have pulled their head out of their #$$ to figure that one out. At this juncture, it is safe to assume that corporations have cut back, or totally scrapped, their advertising spend for 2009. If this is not clear to everyone, please ask your neighbor to explain it to you. The point being? No one really knows what will happen yet, or how the economy is really doing. There are educated guesses on how far down the auto industry will take the nation, but it’s still just a guess. Is respite coming quickly? No one truly knows. Thus, the time for speculation is over, and if there is to be some haphazard guessing, please don’t print it in a magazine.

Today, Media Life reported the following:

Ad spending plummeted 12 percent during first quarter

Total first-quarter ad expenditures off $3.8 billion

Local Sunday supplements, biggest spending dip, off 37.7 percent

Thirteen of nineteen media tracked saw double-digit declines

Spot TV down 28.9 percent

National magazines dropped 20.6 percent

Local newspapers fell 14.3 percent; spot radio was off 9 percent

Online dropped 3.4 percent (not including search)

Network TV, the largest category, was off 4.8 percent

Automotive spend fell 27.7 percent, or $723 million

The single category that did do well? Quick-serve restaurants. Hey, depression causes the munchies!

Unless there’s an answer to this debacle forthcoming, there’s just no reason to report or talk about this subject anymore. Let it go and move on to something else.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links: linkedin.com or twitter.com.

Secretly, did America realize that there was a seedy underbelly flowing just below the surface of craigslist? Certainly, in major metropolitan areas, some of the advertising was suspect, especially in the “Erotic Services” section. Plus, there were the third-page stories of good folk getting ripped off by advertisers. But there was no real cause for major safety concern. That’s changed in the last couple of weeks as the online classified service has fallen under both public and judicial scrutiny.

Is this a case of karma finally catching up to the site, or is craigslist simply having a bad couple of weeks?

Not including the “first” craigslist killer, Philip Markoff, craigslist has been rocked by scandal, and the list is as diverse as it is unsettling:

Granted, blame cannot be attributed to the online classified service for these occurrences. (There is no implicit danger in searching for baby clothes.) However, be assured that the company’s ethical standards are under scrutiny as both a corporate and community citizen. Following the negative press and public concern, it is quite possible that craigslist will no longer be the hip, “freeconomy” advertising site it is today. On the other hand, it may take more than a couple of harmful stories to topple the internet classified giant; according to Alexa.com, craigslist.org ranks 24th globally, and falls into 8th place in the United States, behind Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, MSN, and Windows Live.

craigslist Founder, Craig Newmark

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links: linkedin.com or twitter.com.

I’ve written a couple times on Beyond Madison Avenue about the difference between agencies that talked about being creative, or social, or cutting edge, and then comparing them with those that actually were.
There are certain errors that will keep me from visiting your site, your blog, or your agency ever again.

• Number One: You state that you’re a large creative muckity-muck. I go to your site, and it is under construction. Nothing works.
• Number Two: Misspellings. One every once in a while is tolerable. One on your homepage, in an ad, or on your resume is where we part ways.
• Number Three: Professing your prowess in a certain medium, client category, or emerging media, and then not being able to back the statement up with verifiable proof. Don’t say that your agency excels in social media if you don’t have a blog, a Twitter account, or even a Facebook page.

One of the agencies I wrote about was Lisa P. Maxwell. They claim to know social media. Then they prove it by having live webcams showcasing all of their employees working. Check it out at lisapmaxwell.com.

This weeks award goes to Boone Oakley. Although they sound like a cheap wine, they have the creative juice that most marketing directors wish they could tap as their own. Boone Oakley has their entire agency, including creative, produced as a series of YouTube videos. The best thing about their YouTube “website?” Functionality. Click on the link for collateral work, you are whisked to another video showcasing their collateral work.

Thus, there are a series of several videos, and I watched every single one. In one fell stroke, they’ve not only debuted their agency (as well as taken some well-deserved shots at big agencies) but they have creatively shown their creativity. Don’t tell me how many awards you have or that your agency was voted “Most Creative” in 2006. Show me how that spirit is lives and works today. Below is the first video along with one of the the linked videos.

This is one of the videos that is available under “Work by Medium.”

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

The conflicting information that comes out of the ad industry is indicative of the great spinners that exist: one day a company is done, and the next it is top of the heap. And it’s not all the ‘media;’ a good portion of the chaos is simply due to the fact that all of the players are twirling from one extreme to another.

The clearest indicator? The daily newspaper. In one story, the industry is ensconced in secret meetings regarding the monetization of free information; the next story shows how out of the black they have fallen. Blood Red. After a week of flurried activity regarding the newspaper corps, silence. And perhaps that is the real news.

Moody’s debt analyst scrutinized the industry today and was able to supply a single fact: no business, as usual, for newspapers. Known as generators of content, it would be fitting for a large portion of operating expenditures to be allocated to reporters, editors, managing editors…anything or anyone that remotely touches the printed word. Pencils. Computers.
Nope. A mere 14% of the cash operating expenditures are levied against content creation, the SINGLE purpose for which a newspaper exists. Seventy percent supports distribution and corporate. The final 16% is spent on the sales and sales support side of the business. Talk about the inverted pyramid! It’s the 30/70 rule, where 30% are bread winners and the remaining 70% are dough boys.

“Ultimately, we expect the industry will need to reverse the vertical integration strategy through cross-industry collaboration and outsourcing print production and distribution processes,” said Puchalla. “Although newspapers may lose some of their in-house control over press time, they would also release resources to beef up investment in content and technology.”

Reverse vertical integration? NO. Newspapers need readers, ad sales, and a method to make money from online content. “Reverse vertical integration” sounds like something heard in Rocket Science Class. That, and the word ‘monetize’ must erased from the data banks.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links: linkedin.com or twitter.com.

Like or dislike President Obama, there is one thing certain: His plate is FULL. Dealing with two wars, Gitmo, health care reform, a recession, and the largest corporations in the US filing for bankruptcy on a weekly basis, it is doubtful that the President will notice another crisis until it hits him in the face.

The Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will launch a public service campaign this week comparing the extremely high rate of AIDS in Washington, DC, with the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The number of cases from last year to this have increased by 40%, a fact that has not been addressed by the media or the government. The AHF has used a series of print ads, a 30-second television spot, bus kiosk ads, and a website, ChangeAidsObama.org as part of the month-long campaign. Sixty bus shelters are slated for the new effort.

The campaign, “AIDS is DC’s Katrina,” points out the Bush administrations seeming indifference to Hurricane Katrina was detrimental to his Presidency. When the news broke that Washington, DC’s aids rate was higher than that of developing African nations, the AHS criticized President Obama for his silence. This campaign is meant to push him into action. The AHF is not placing the blame on the Obama administration, but rather the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for implementing a plan three years ago to prevent the spread of AIDS that has failed miserably as the epidemic has worsened.

The PR Newswire issued a release today from the AHS with the criticism;

To address the growing epidemic, the CDC issued revised guidelines for HIV testing in September of 2006. It its revised guidelines, the CDC recommended the testing of all people ages 13-64 in routine health care settings such as emergency units, community clinics, etc.; unfortunately, nearly three years later, these testing guidelines have not been widely implemented nationwide at the same time when our rate of new HIV infections has increased 40% from 40,000 new infections annually to 56,000.

The video, seen below, is already on YouTube and is going to be released on other online video channels before hitting the airwaves.

One thing is certain: Pleasing all the people all the time is impossible. For the President, pleasing anyone at this point seems like unlikely.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

A research study was sanctioned late last year regarding the “crisis” in advertising. With the invention of the DVR, were consumers still viewing television? Was word-of-mouth the only advertising that worked? What unforeseen problems would crop up when the newspapers went out of business? Were we, unknowingly, the last defenders of Babylon?

The Wharton School, in cooperation with the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), launched an exhaustive study that culminated in 21 papers that will be published in the ARF Journal in June 2009. The study, aptly named “The Future of Advertising Project,” was launched to refute what ARF Chief Research Officer called:

“a lot of mythology from an echo chamber I was hearing about how TV isn’t working because of DVRs and the Long Tail and declining audiences” when he assumed his post last year. “It just sounded like a lot of assumption without being factually informed,” he said.

The collected research does bear some bad news, one nugget being that “empirically.” TV advertising is a loss for most companies. In contradiction, the study also shows that TV performs at the same or higher levels, than it did ten years ago for the heavy TV spenders. Other learning’s include the fact that 22% of word-of-mouth marketing stems from traditional advertising, DVRs have little impact in regard to ad recall or brand favorability, and that magazines are more effective than TV commercials and online ads at creating “intent to purchase.”

The main item the initial studies uncovered is that more research is necessary, especially in the face of rapidly growing social networks. Yoram “Jerry” Wind, Lauder Professor of Marketing at Wharton, stated “The major concern about the decreased impact of TV advertising is not founded,” he said. “TV is still very effective. At the same time, there are a lot of things we don’t know.”

With that, it does not seem that we know significantly more today with research, than we did yesterday without research. Check back later, hopefully we’ll have something for you…

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.