Direct Marketing to Account

Expenditures on direct marketing media and processes will again outpace general advertising in 2008 and 2009, and - though they will grow slowly - are on track to capture 53% of total advertising expenditures next year, according to a yearly forecast report from The Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

Source: Marketing Charts

Is the End Near for Display Ads?

Digital media buyers have been trying to kill the banner ad for years. Now, it appears, the recession might just finish the job for them.

Web publishers and agency executives said they are under growing pressure to prove the value of online display advertising, as the deepening economic crisis forces CMOs to scrutinize every line of their marketing budgets.

Source: Brandweek

Direct Marketing to Account for 53% of US Ad Spend in 2009

Expenditures on direct marketing media and processes will again outpace general advertising in 2008 and 2009, and - though they will grow slowly - are on track to capture 53% of total advertising expenditures next year, according to a yearly forecast report from The Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

Source: Marketing Charts

Display Ads Aren’t Going Anywhere…

Mike Shields, a colleague of mine penned an article for Mediaweek entitled, Is the End Near for Display.  In this article, a few digital media directors and executives from advertising organizations talk about the death of display.

IMHO (these are my thoughts, not my employer), there are a few reasons why display ads aren’t going anywhere:

Source: Darren Herman

Don’t Advertise on Social Media

This is an odd title for an agency’s blog post but check out this study by Exact Target and Ball State University reported by eMarketer showing social media behind word-of-mouth and even old fashioned email, as a preferred form of advertising. I have a theory as to why that’s so. When college students think of social media advertising, they think about the interruptive banner ads that appear on social networking sites and these are notorious for their abysmal click-through rates. Hey, as soon as they hear the word “advertising”, they automatically associate the word with any content that interrupts what they’re already doing. Content passed along by friends through social media is probably thought of as word-of-mouth and if you must think of the medium as a channel, that’s probably the best fill-in-the-blank to the statement, “Social media marketing is like _____ channel”

Source: Capital

Blyk raises €40m to expand ad-funded mobile model

These days, €40m ($51m) is a big funding round for any company whose revenues are based entirely on advertising. Blyk provides free mobile calls to 200,000 British 16- to 24-year-olds in exchange for them receiving advertising messages, a membership it reached much faster than expected. Its response rates of 25 per cent have attracted 180 advertisers – but is even that enough to maintain revenues, with advertisers pulling budgets from even the most tried and tested of media?

Source: Tech Blog

How primitive email campaigns are holding you back

Available email marketing techniques have matured from simple to multivariable. Here's what you stand to lose if you're not keeping up with the times

Source: iMedia Connection

Blyk raises €40m to expand ad-funded mobile model

These days, €40m ($51m) is a big funding round for any company whose revenues are based entirely on advertising. Blyk provides free mobile calls to 200,000 British 16- to 24-year-olds in exchange for them receiving advertising messages, a membership it reached much faster than expected. Its response rates of 25 per cent have attracted 180 advertisers – but is even that enough to maintain revenues, with advertisers pulling budgets from even the most tried and tested of media?

Source: Tech Blog

The Japanese Way of Marketing

The marketing approach of Japanese companies contrasts starkly with the common practices in the US. We can learn a lot of valuable lessons from studying how the Japanese market their products, especially since companies like Toyota are crushing the competition. The last time I checked, the market cap of Toyota was around $600 billion while GM and Ford may not survive without government bailouts. The book Relentless describes some of the major differences in marketing strategy in Japan and how this approach can be extremely effective.

Source: CoolMarketingStuff

Quote of the Day: P&G's Ted McConnell on Facebook

"Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren't trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant... We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it."


Source: ClickZNews Blog

After Nearly 50 Years, BBDO Loses Brand Pepsi In U.S.

NEW YORK (Adage.com) -- After nearly 50 years, BBDO Worldwide has lost its longtime hold on the Pepsi-Cola brand in North America to two Omnicom Group siblings. The beverage giant today named TBWA/Chiat/Day, Playa Del Rey, Calif. communications agency for the Pepsi brand in the U.S.

Source: Advertising Age

Pepsi Upends Brands With $1.2 Billion Shake-Up

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It's hard to tell just when Pepsi blinked. For the past several years, its advertising has lacked its trademark sparkle, and its brands have lost their edge. As U.S. volume flagged, so did that signature spunk that marked Pepsi as an engaging upstart delightedly tweaking big, bad Coke.

Source: Advertising Age-Latest News

A Study in Hollow Brand Values

One would expect that an annual marketing budget of more than a billion dollars would buy you a very well-positioned corporate brand. But that has not been the case for Pfizer. This decade, the world's biggest pharmaceutical corporation launched some very successful drugs, including Lipitor and Viagra. But when it comes to its own corporate brand Pfizer is, like many multinationals, a mess of generic and insipid brand values. All the usual suspects are there: integrity, innovation, customer foc

Source: Technorati Search for nike marketing

The Demise of Direct Marketing?

It started seven-and-a-half years ago when a woman called Eliza Jones sent me an email enquiring whether I was comfortable with the size of my penis.

I remember reading her email in a state of absolute panic. I could not even recall meeting Ms Jones and, worse, it had never occurred to me before that there was anything wrong with the size of my penis. It was two days before one of my colleagues mentioned that he too had received a similar email and I finally relaxed.

Source: Branding Strategy Insider

Old Marketing in Jeans Links

* A Brief History on Modern Advertising. And if You Think Mass Advertising Builds Brands, Think Again
Advertising is not going away, but it has very different strategies and tactics, traditional  "push/pull" marketing no longer works, and so are highly-touted customer relationship initiatives.

* I Sure Hope This Isn't the Future Biz Model of Newspapers
Future of newspapers: 75-cent collectibles for historic events. Memo from your newspaper to you, courtesy Romenesko: 

* The Demise of Direct Marketing?
It started seven-and-a-half years ago when a woman called Eliza Jones sent me an email enquiring whether I was comfortable with the size of my.... 

* A Study in Hollow Brand Values
One would expect that an annual marketing budget of more than a billion dollars would buy you a very well-positioned corporate brand. But that has not been the case for Pfizer.


* In The Future, Advertising Will Be Awkward
As advertising continues to get more targeted and specific, it will soon be very scary and creepy to see ads. They will be a reflection of what marketers think of you.

* Microsoft Ad Business Strong, But Display Ads Threatened
Among Microsoft's diverse revenue streams, its display ad business is the most vulnerable to economic conditions.

* The sad truth about marketing shortcuts
Here's the thing: 4 ounces of plutonium are dangerous and expensive, but they won't build an atomic bomb. And even if you get 400 ounces, you can't build 100 bombs.

* The Cost of Spam
An employee wastes two working days per year dealing with spam, finds a new study.

* Christian Gulliksen: But That Wasn't Spam!
Our session on what customers really think about your email campaigns began with an interesting graph noting that 21 percent of people knowingly report permission-based email as spam.

* 12 Causes of Bad Brand Advertising
The following will likely result in bad brand advertising:

* The Broadcast Ad Model Is Broken. Now What?
Virtually all parties involved agree the current broadcast advertising model is broken, or at the very least inadequate.

* How Nike Is Destroying Your Marketing Campaigns
If your internet marketing initiatives are not generating the results you were hoping for, you can blame it all on Nike.

* Graham Brown on The Meatball Sundae and Youth Marketing
I’m a big fan of Seth Godin, you probably know already (I’ve already blogged down the line about The Dip).

* Great ideas matter more than fast ideas
There's a recent article in Ad Age that talks about the ANA meeting where CMOs vented their frustration with ad agencies over their responsiveness and the increasing opportunity they believe exists with media companies.

I Sure Hope This Isn't the Future Biz Model of Newspapers

Future of newspapers: 75-cent collectibles for historic events. Memo from your newspaper to you, courtesy Romenesko:

And then a few years ago you rewarded my loyalty by straying. You went elsewhere. You sought the company of others who, you thought, gave you something that I could not. Fickle and faithless, you went looking for something faster, newer and younger.

Source: JupiterResearch Analyst Weblogs

Is advertising a tax for having an unremarkable product?

Is advertising is a tax for having an unremarkable product? November 12, 2008 by Olivier Blanchard · greatdesign10. A quotation and some words of wisdom from one of my readers:. “Advertising is a tax for having an unremarkable product”

Source: Brand Builder

Too good to be true (the overnight millionaire scam)

You probably don't need to read this, but I bet you know people who do. Please feel free to repost or forward:

Times are tough, and many say they are going to be tougher. That makes some people more focused, it turns others desperate.

You may be tempted at some point to try to make a million dollars. To do it without a lot of effort or skill or risk. Using a system, some shortcut perhaps, or mortgaging something you already own.

Source: Seth's Blog

Strategy decay in the film industry

At the Library House Mediatech conference yesterday there was a presentation from a company called Slingshot Studios which could be described as a ‘Film2.0 business’.

They described how Hollywood has chased up film budgets to an average of $70m on production and a further $50m for distribution by focusing on the very limited strategy of having big stars and getting great reviews.  I’m sure these are drivers of film success, but to what extent I’m not sure - other harder to control variables like quality of plot and dialogue might turn out to be more important. 

Source: The Equity Kicker

A Brief History on Modern Advertising. And if You Think Mass Advertising Builds Brands, Think Again

Advertising is not going away, but it has very different strategies and tactics, traditional  "push/pull" marketing no longer works, and so are highly-touted customer relationship initiatives. Smart companies are those that are looking for marketing innovation as a new route to marketing performance. Many adv planners are using their antique toolkit that has long been outdated. Unlike advertising in the 70s, they attracted the best and brightest. Today they were the people who just want to hang on to the past. Marketing has moved on.

Source: Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

Consumers Opening Fewer E-Mails - eMarketer

Fewer consumers worldwide are opening marketing e-mails, according to a November 2008 study by MailerMailer. The company found that the average marketing e-mail open rate fell to 13.20% in the first

Source : eMarketer