Hasta La Creative!

Today, as I was feverishly submitting resumes and simultaneously reading about the economy (multi-tasking for all you would-be employers), I came across ”Ten Winners in the Recession” on Yahoo!, nestled nicely on the Personal Finance page.

Although there weren’t a whole lot of suprises, a few made me scratch my head. Some of the better listees included: Resume Writers & Editors, Condom Manufacturers (we’re poor, but safe!), At Home Coffee Brews, and…(drum roll, please) Career Development Websites! 

That just goes to show you that there is opportunity out there if you know where to look for it.

Surprisingly omitted from the Top Ten list was the single shining light emanating from the advertising sector: Online Ad expenditures. According to the IAB, 2008 saw Internet advertising revenues increase by 10.6 percent overall compared to 2007. Search advertising showed the highest percentage gain, increasing by 19.8 percent over 2007 and accounted for 45 percent of all Internet ad spending. Online display advertising increased by 8 percent while classified ad revenues fell 4 percent. The IAB study, completed with the aid of PricewaterhouseCoopers, can be downloaded here.

As if their initial round of job layoffs and cost cutting measures were not enough, Japan car manufacturer Toyota has even pushed itself more as far as its North America channel is concerned. The new actions are consistent with the company’s philosophy of making every effort to protect jobs during the sales downturn.

“We’ve taken responsible, step-by-step actions to address this issue in recent months, and we hope the new measures will help us adjust while protecting jobs,” said Jim Wiseman, vice president of external affairs for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (TEMA). “This philosophy of shared sacrifice is the best approach for us, and hopefully will make us a stronger company in the long term.”

The additional steps were the following:

(Source) Press

In a move to avoid being included in the list of potential products contaminated with the Salmonella issue, SuperValu has voluntarily recalled various ice cream flavors with peanut products which may potentially be contaminated with salmonella. While there was no supporting proof that these brands, Cub, Jewel, Flavorite, and Richfood, were positively contaminated with Salmonella, SuperValu did not wait for that to happen to avoid the embarrassment.

The products were sold at some SUPERVALU-owned stores including bigg’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Jewel-Osco, and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy in all of the states where they operate. The identified items have not been directly linked to the salmonella outbreak and there have been no reported cases of the illness.

(Source) Press

Another business bites the credit crunch bug and this time it is Macys. This popular department store announced the closing of 11 underperforming stores in nine states which means that over 900 employees stand losing their jobs. This came in the light of evaluating their holiday season’s sales, the weakest output in years.

This development is not surprising. Most businesses are assessing the performance of their stores and personnel and have to make some changes. Hard as it may, keeping a below par store up will only mean more expenses and unfortunately, heads have to roll as well.

Stores slated to close include locations in Los Angeles, West Palm Beach, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis, among others. Cincinnati-based Macy’s Inc. says the closures will cost about $65 million, most of which will be booked in the 2008 fourth quarter.

(Source) Yahoo Finance

Tesco Supermarket is in hot water for reportedly advertising bargain drink offers which it did not have. According to the reports, Tesco had announced a “cut-price” alcohol offering only to be found that the promotional gimmick was no more than a hoax to lure in customers to its fold.

And the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is understood to be pursuing a separate probe into reports Britain’s largest supermarket chain broke advertising by refusing to remove promotional banners in shop windows as supplies of the drinks ran dry.

The supermarket wars are reaching a boiling point and from the looks of it, Tesco may have gone in a wrong approach to up their standing.

(Source) Mail Online

There is another familiar name that has filed for bankruptcy. Hard Rock Park announced that it is closing down as well after failing a proper buyer to carry on its business. But rather than file for Chapter 11, Hard Rock Park has requested their situation to be classified as Chapter 7 where a trustee is appointed and the property and assets are sold to pay creditors.

“Because the bid and sale process has been unsuccessful thus far, there exists no reasonable prospect of success in the immediate future,” the filing stated. “Regrettably, conversion of [the park’s] Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases to cases under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code thus appears to be the only remaining means of allowing the debtors’ assets to be liquidated and potential causes of action to be pursued and monetized for the benefit of creditors.”

The businesses that were really in trouble are surfacing one by one. It looks like this trend will continue and more companies are bound to file for Chapter 11 soon although Chapter 7 seems to be a more sane declaration to really clean out their debts.

(Source) The Sun News

This is bound to be a wake up call for people who believe that Microsoft is the last company to be hit by the economic turmoil befalling us today. It has been announced that Bill Gates and company will be laying off a large chunk of their staff in various regions by 15,000 workers in light of the hard times we are in.

Now this may be a cause for alarm for most people today. Who would ever thought that Microsoft would join the fray of cutting cost by releasing most of their employees today.

According to Fudzilla, web chitter chatter to this affect is now “no longer a rumour but a fact” and it would see Microsoft’s 90,000 global workforce trimmed by approximately 15,000 jobs come 15 January. As to which countries or departments will be hit worst that remains up in the air but it is said EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and MSN could be hit hardest by the redundancies.

The economic problem is getting worse folks. Let us try to keep our heads in check and start thinking of ways to survive!

(Source) Fudzilla

If you happen to be wondering why some gift packs in Thailand do not contain any alcoholic beverages this coming New Year, don’t be surprised. Well it looks like Thais are trying to look over their people for the coming New Year by starting it right and keeping their alcohol reliance in check. You just never know when people may get more of a good thing and lead to possible intoxication and accidents if they are not careful.

All over the world we have read of bans on alcohol advertising but it seems that Thais are getting away with some. So to really show establishments and vendors they are dead serious, fines and penalties have been set out which should really shake them up and think twice about placing alcoholic items in New Year gift baskets.

“You will face a fine and imprisonment if the ministry finds you have put liquor products in gift baskets for sale during this New Year festivities,”

(Source) The Nation

Whenever we see corporate acquisitions or mergers today, seeing Microsoft Corporation’s name in the fold will surely make you read the article immediately. Microsoft has long been known for aggressively seeking out great companies to acquire and it has added another one today in the person of Rapt Inc, a company that provides tools to advertising publishers to manage inventory and pricing.

We are all aware today that apart from the various web programming techniques, online business entrepreneur know for a fact that online advertising is where they can get the money from. Apparently, this added mix in their fold not only provides another possible integration of tools to their current applications but also new sources of profitable income for the software giant.

“Online publishers have a complex array of needs, and they require more attentive and sophisticated partners to help them solve these challenges,” Brian McAndrews, Microsoft’s senior vice-president, advertiser and publisher solutions group said.

“With this acquisition, we are uniquely positioned to help publishers succeed on all fronts,” McAndrews said.

(Source) Half Life Source

Technorati Tags: advertising, online advertising, rapt inc., microsoft, software giant, income, profit

As well all try to bring hot ideas to our clients sometime we go too far and get a little thirsty and compromise authenticity for instant content.