Ugh! Why Can't Democrats Make a Decent TV Ad?

Since I started voting Democratic in the year 2000, I have grumbled to myself and others that Democrats at the Presidential level do NOT know how to make a decent ad. I was fine with Dems sucking at TV ads when I was a Republican, delighted even. But I hate being on a losing team, and crapass TV ads are part of our problem as a party.

Now, the political consultants, if they cared about this post at all, would explain that as an ad guy I don’t understand the incredibly different realities of political advertising. And therein lies the problem. Democratic consultants don’t sell candidates like soap. Republicans do. But more on that later.

There are a couple of notable exceptions to the rule that Dem ads always suck, but not many. Here is, in my opinion, the only really good ad run by a Democratic Prez campaign in this cycle.

Hillary Clinton: 3AM



Don’t think all of Hillary’s were this good. Most were crap. But this one really struck a note.It had a simple singular point, with imagery that reinforced the stakes. You didn’t need any supers or sound for this one. It says Hillary is who we need to be safe.

I disagreed with the ad, but you can’t look at it and not see the power.

Ok. So that one was good. And here are some typical Democratic pieces of crap. By which I do not mean the message, but rather the ads themselves.

Obama: Superbowl



Obama: Quiet



Obama: Need



Why do I call these crap? Well, you have to understand how people view ads, and how they process information.

Now the second two might not have been total crap as they were run in a primary and were talking to the Dem base, that will listen and read all those things. We are a base of policy wonks.

But we are not typical, ESPECIALLY of people who haven't yet decided on whether Obama or McCain will get their vote. Two guys this different -- if you're at all engaged, you've probably made up that mind long ago. Undecideds tend to be less engaged. And that is a critical lesson for the consultants and candidates to understand.

But back to those three Obama ads. The first ad was a big pile of nuthin. What on earth was the message? And how could one possibly expect someone not deeply involved in the election to get a message (whatever it was) out of it? What the Hell did it mean?

What frustrates me about this is that the Dems have so many clear and simple issues to confront McCain with this year, but instead they do these weird passive confused muddled collections of 7 equally weighted messages, none of which is cast in terms that matter when people are at the kitchen table reviewing the bills or filling out Selective Service forms.

Hello! Health care. One guy wants to insure people. The other thinks it's fine that 50 million people can't get sick or they will lose their homes.

Hello! Economy. One guy thinks things is swell. The other knows they aren't.

Hello! Mortgage crisis. One wants to solve the problem, the other thinks the market will solve the problem. Despite the fact that the market CREATED the problem through greed and deception. Sounds like the people we should trust to fix it, no?

Etc.!

I made a post in the last week that showed a DNC ad that was pretty decent. I re-run it below.



With the sound on, sound off, if you're half paying attention, only mildly interested in issues and not at all in abstruse policy points, it still works. The pictures could have been more parallel, and the ad depended too much on supers, but it is pretty good.

But pretty good isn’t good enough. Look what the GOP produces:

McCain: Celebrity



(MESSAGE: You, voter, are above this sort of group think. On the issues that matter to you, Obama is wrong. And he’s a bit uppity too.)

Bush: Windsurf



(Kerry = elitist flipflopper)

Bush: Tank



(Dukakis is weak and a grandstander. A poseur too.)

Reagan: Bear


(Reagan = Strong. Democrats too risky to put in White House.)

Reagan: Morning Again


(Everything good in our lives is from Reagan.)

Gosh, I don’t even want to show you the Dem crap from these elections, but I feel compelled to:

Mondale: Teach Your Parents Well



(The point was that Reagan was dangerously bellicose. What I saw was no linkage of all that stuff to Reagan at all. It’s like Mondale Ferraro were happy to be linked to it all.

Mondale: Fighting



(They SAY Mondale and Ferraro are fighting for us. But they look like they’re partying to me.)

Gore: Beaches



(Oh my God, he’s putting himself to sleep!)

So what makes a decent ad anyway? I think it boils down to 5 things:

1. Focus. One point. One. Not seven. Go back to the ads we just saw.

Here's what I bet the focus group comments would sound like:
Bear: Only Reagan keeps us safe from Russia.
Mondale/Ferraro Fighting: I saw a parade. An old man talked about Medicare.

2. Pictures need to tell the story. That's why you are paying 20 times as much as you would for radio ads. Words reinforce what we see in TV ads. They are not the message delivery mechanism.

WindSurf: Kerry is an elitist flipflopper.
Beaches: A boring man talked about beaches.

3. Don’t be half pregnant. If you have an attack ad, attack. Connect the dots. Close the loop.

Windsurf: Kerry is an elitist flipflopper
Teach Your Parents: Is thirtysomething on now? Did they change the time? Something about NASA. I don’t remember.

4. Relate to people’s goals and needs.

3AM: Hillary is the one that will keep my kids safe.
Superbowl: I think I saw a crowd. Obama was talking.

Now, on this point, Obama SUPPORTERS have made fine vids that relate to people and their goals. Imagine if the campaign ran will i am’s vid on MTV:



It actually breaks the rule of telling a story with pictures, at least kind of, but it is shot, recorded and edited in a way that MAKES you watch.

Another example: Check out this ad that Jeb Bush ran in Florida on Spanish language TV:



What works? OK, so FIRST of all, a Norte Americano actually speaks Spanish well and with a decent accent. Not over the top accent, but making the effort. Then, if you understand Spanish, he equates all of our goals and dreams, and says Florida is our collective home. He's not a white pol trying to demonize us. Further, this is not someone who dubbed an English ad and threw in some brown kids for 1.5 seconds toward the end for "relevance." This guy actually made a big effort to seek the votes of every nationality. It’s not a 'you people' message, it’s an us message.

In reality of course it basically says nothing, but it SPEAKS VOLUMES, because of the flags and the way Bush showed respect for every major nationality. We’re all Floridians. We are all Americans. Nuestro estado...Florida.

5. Great ads demand attention.

I’m gonna show two ads running in North Carolina right now, for the Senate race. Now I ask you, which one will you remember?





Actually I would imagine both work pretty well. NC is a cheap media market and this is going to be a Helluva big spending race. We still live in a world where the first ad can get burned into people’s brains by running it in every ad pod for the next three weeks. I could do without the Star Wars sound effects in the Dole one, but ending with the line That Dog Don’t Hunt is just genius.

NC is famous for positively evil campaigns. And as vile and disgusting as the messages often are, you can’t deny that ads like the following demand attention:


Translation: White people shouldn’t vote for the Nigra. He sure as Hell wasn't saying African American.

And if you are a Dem that cannot imagine sinking this low in a campaign, I just remind you that there could be several Supreme Court appointments in the next four years. And playing nice lets pigs like Jesse Helms win.

To Hell with nice. We need to win.

Hope From the Hinterlands

The Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committee ads are pretty good at times. Not consistently so, but let’s give credit where it is due. Here are some goodies, and thanks to this post on Talking Points Memo for finding the first two:











Now, no one may care what I think. And that's OK. I feel better just for writing it. for attempting to be heard.

It's just that I've got $4600 invested in Obama. And that's A LOT of money to me. I am no millionaire. I have one house, mortgaged to the hilt, not 7, or 8, or 9, or 11. ;-)

The Dems better start making the TV work harder.

Ads Dem consultants have worked on have helped the party lose in 52, 56, 68, 72, 80, 84, 88, 2000, 04. I'm not sure I have the right answers, but you guys sure as heck don't. Don't do the same things expecting different results.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Wow! Deregulation Really Works, Huh?

9% of mortgage holders (4MM) were either behind in payments or in foreclosure proceedings as of 6/30/2008.

-AP

Vacation Photos - 1968

While you await photos of Sleepy's antics on my hols, I thought I would share these flashback vacation photos. Just cuz.


I think MarineLand had just opened.


A fashion plate even then.


The first of many amorous admirers.

Game Companies Take Note:Parents Fear You More Than Anything

Believe It Or Don't: Millions Still On Dial Up

A Pew Internet study provides some fascinating info about connection speeds in home Internet. Here's the most fascinating chart:



Yep, 10% of online households are still hearing that static sound every time they log on. Key reason? Cost.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Mobile Marketing: Text is Best

A recent study by the DMA showed that an impressive 24% of mobile phone users had responded to mobile marketing. Good news for that nascent industry. The study also revealed some interesting info related to what tactics appear to drive the best response rates.

In a word: TEXT

According to this piece on Media Post:

Categories of mobile offers were dominated by entertainment/music/video (44 percent), followed by:

Food/beverage (21 percent)
telecommunications/mobile (21 percent)
Beauty/personal care (15 percent)
Automotive/transportation, business services, consumer electronics, financial services, and vacation/travel (12 percent each)
Healthcare/pharmaceutical and real estate (7 percent each)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Google T&Cs Section 11Gate

Oh, those silly folks at Google. They made a boo boo in the T&Cs for Chrome that gave them, well, let's let the original text speak for itself:

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."

You can imagine that this set off a wee bit of a firestorm-let. So the text is being altered to read:

Content license from you

You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

And that’s all. Period. End of section.

Thanks to D'Technology blog for publicizing this.

But all that being said, I must admit that even for a nonGooglephile like me, Chrome represents a big step forward in the annals of browserdom. Licketysplit is not the word...

13 Web 2.0 Things That Have Changed My Life For The Better

I write about new companies constantly, and I genuinely do like virtually every company I feature here. But a subset of those sites really have changed my life for the better. Here’s my short list:

1. Drop.io, the easy way to share files without resorting to the dreaded FTP. Fast, free, and fabulous.
2. XOBNI, the Outlook add on that will improve your email productivity by at least a third if you are anything like me.
3. GotomyPC, the easy to use utility that brings your desktop to you on any computer anywhere.
4. YouTube Embeds: The player that is always the easiest to deploy, fastest to load, and actually fits utilities like blogger.
5. Toggl: The first good time tracking system I have ever used. And with its desktop widget, a way to passively input hours with virtually no effort whatsoever.
6. Mofuse, the mobile blog site in a box that mobilizes a blog in 10 minutes and requires zero maintenance.
7. imeem the music social network. THE place for music.
8. Feedburner: Offers a great way to deliver RSS, and really comprehensive analytics to understand how, where, and why people read my feed.
9. Buzz3r.com, the constantly updated compendium of all news and commentary on tech.
10. Confabb, the compendium of all conferences everywhere, with social networking tools built in.
11. Wufoo, the phenomenally easy to use web site form building tool.
12. LibraryThing, a great online reader community with tools to catalog and share the titles of your library.
13. i-caught, ABC’s UGC destination site. A great way to detox for ten minutes a day.

What’s on YOUR short list?

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.

I Can See the Creative Meeting: Big Idea. Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. In a Shoe Store!

I'm not sure I understand this. But it does say that Microsoft appears to be trying something new and different. Something it's never done before.

Branding.

This I think is clearly a "miss." Bill Gates: not funny. Watching his ass wiggle? Not something I care to have burned in my consciousness.

But I applaud the new direction. Better than having your brand represented by an overweight guy in a 60/40 cotton poly white shirt and a repp tie. In competitor ads.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

This Time It's the Bank Doing the Robbing! Are You Holding a CitiTheft Card?

This Tech Dirt story is so unbelievable. Apparently, Citibank, the company that gave me my first credit card in 1982, had a secret policy in which accounts that showed a positive balance -- like if you double paid a bill by accident, or make a check writing arror -- they just took the money and transferred it to the company.

So, for example. Let's say you owed $109 and accidently paid it twice. Well, the fine Citi people would actually steal the second $109 and stick it in their general fund.

Read the CA DOJ judgment here.

Did it happen once or twice? Nope. All the time. For ten years. And the money went to the executive bonus fund!

CA is now seeing to it that the money is given back, plus interest.

And who's doing the jail time? Some guy takes $109 from you, he goes to prison. A bank does it and they get a strongly worded judgment.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

NebuAd Mothballs Its ISP Targeting Platform

Question: If you are in the woods, and you shutter a platform that no one uses, does it make a sound?

OK, maybe that was a cheap shot. But it should come as no surprise to the world that NebuAd has "suspended" the use of its platform, which has been attacked across the media and indeed in

the halls of Congress. Read more at MediaPost, courtesy of writer Wendy Davis.

NebuAd claimed that they were covering 10% of ISP users earlier this year. Now, that's Internet math, so if we lop off a zero that's 1%. The Congressional inquiry revealed that six major ISPs had tested NebuAd -- and none were using it today, so the suspension had likely been achieved by the market long before NebuAd announced it.

What next for NebuAd? We'll be finding out in the next few weeks I am sure. Too many people have too much money in this baby to let it die without a fight.

Also, we all need to realize that this does NOT mean the end of ISP-based targeting products. The issues that were raised about NebuAd related to:

1. Insufficient consumer notice. Or indeed in some cases it is debatable whether there was any notice at all.

2. Data collection methods. Allegations of procedures that amounted to forgery and wiretapping.

3. Lack of consumer value exchange. What were consumers getting in return for their "participation."

But ISPs still want more ways to make more money for subscribers.

What this category REALLY needs is some genuine innovation to drive opt-in at strong levels coupled with real consumer value exchange.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Carat and THE MISTAKE

So I am a Carat alum, and have been watching closely the tempest surrounding the error of sending PowerPoint and Word files of their plans for a layoff.

I'll leave it to others to rehash the error, I just wanted to point out my personal belief in the rank and file Carat team, including those being laid off. Carat has had a challenging year as it adjusts to the realities of the new media world, and indeed decides whether it is to be a full service shop or a media agency. But there are good people there, make no mistake. The cause of layoffs at an agency is generally the result of unsuccessful biz dev developments, not the team itself. I have heard some strange stories about Carat new biz pitches of late, but the thing is, at least they were trying new things. In a world where you try new things, some don't work.

The Carat model in other countries was very focused on efficiency -- being a low cost media provider while still offering full client service. In the US the model was a bit different, as indeed the realities of the US are different. In the US, many companies preferred to get their creative and media in the same shop at least on the digital side, as indeed creative and media are intertwined in digital -- it can be impossible to separate the two. But we all know that.

Point is, it appears that Carat is now trying to adopt the Euro model in the US, which will require adjustments. I dunno if it will work, but then in digital one can only predict for about the next ten minutes into the future, and even then one has a 50% chance of being wrong.

Like all agencies, they have periods of ups and downs -- I know of no agency that doesn't have at least somewhat of a parabolic growth curve. They are currently in a down, and so it could come as a surprise to no one that layoffs were imminent. Your agency may be in an up, and jolly good for you. But it won't last forever. Nothing does.

Obviously this is a big cock up, but I think we should all be focusing on our friends at Carat that may have lost or be about to lose their jobs. This is not to say that we should forget the mistake but rather to say that there are excellent people at Carat being layed off who may be looking for work and we should help them find it.

I am sure that the CPO at Carat is tormented enough by others at the company and indeed herself about this mistake. All agencies go through this sort of thing, it is just that in this case the docs were released.

I have my own opinions about the directions that Carat has taken since I left, some good some not good. But that is to be expected. In the meantime, let's all help those affected by the layoff find new work in agencies that may be faring better at the moment.

Because what goes around comes around. Carat will be up again in the not too distant future, and your shop may be the one experiencing business softness. If that happens, I am sure you would rather have your industry colleagues helping you out than passing around typoey Power Points.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Thursdays: Viral Marketing

The people of Mindcomet have made a comprehensive intro to viral marketing here. It outlines the principles, dos, and don'ts of virality. No registration required, my friends, no reason or excuse not to benefit from their wisdom.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Rushmore Drive: Vertical Search and Community For African Americans

African Americans are definitely underserved online. With 15% of the US population, there should be at least a dozen large sites with content either tailored specifically to African Americans or where African Americans play a huge role in content and format. There aren't.

It's just bad business not to serve this large and growing audience. Businesses that serve African Americans well PROSPER. Ask Revlon, CoverGirl, Procter, Ford, State Farm, Unilever, Red Lobster, McDonalds, Coca cola, Zales, etc. When you ask them, they will tell you that African Americans are an amazing source of business, more brand loyal than the US average, and willing to spend for quality. Sounds good, yes?

One major initiative to increase the tailored content for African Americans is Rushmore Drive, a business that is part of the massive IAC portfolio. Having IAC involved is great news, I think, for several reasons:

1. It indicates the importance of the African American audience, so that other media majors get involved. And let's face it, having media majors involved is essential given the concentration of media power in only a few companies' hands.

2. It ensures that the project has the seed money necessary to create a truly powerful community.

3. It may help convince more advertisers to actively seek out African American consumers online. Which in turn leads to products and services especially geared to African American wants and needs.

The site itself is pretty fascinating, because it offers a blend of mainstream and African American content in a single venue, reflecting the needs of a variety of ages and lifestyles as well as the reality that no subculture is an island -- that some mainstream content is relevant to everyone. Duh.

This blended approach is valuable because it means that the typical online pattern of siloing minority oriented content into specialty sites and areas need not be the basis of future web development. Much minority media online -- be it for African Americans, Latinos, GLBT, Chinese Americans, etc. -- provides a service but ultimately appeals to a smaller range of advertisers that actively court that particular group. It says, well there are travelers, and gay travelers, for example. Even though a lot more gay people visit Yellowstone every year than take an RSVP cruise. Niched out minority media is fine, it's better than nothing, but it creates an advertising Balkans. Which is just dumb.

OK, so now the aging white male blogger will now get off his analytical soapbox and let Rushmore Drive explain itself.



I chunk their content into four categories: news, views, community, and jobs. The focus on news and jobs helps drive strong CPMs, while community and views help drive stickiness and revisit.

The site is still in early stages -- traffic has been wildly up and down and up again, as happens with many new web sites as particularly viral pieces of content drive temporary changes in the daily figures. Since mid July some of that noise seems to have abated and the site finds itself on a slow upward trajectory. It appears to be a soft launch as it is featuring mostly house ads rather than charter advertisers.

This is a site to watch. I really hope it works so that the web does a bit better job serving the large and important African American community. Because serving African Americans excellently online is a great business decision.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Evri: Delightful Entanglement...

OK, so I have to tell you I have not used Evri yet. They are in beta and I have applied but am not in. So my use of Delightful in the headline refers to the concept and (hopefully) the execution. They have quite an engineering team, so all signs point to that probability.

So what is this concept? Well, the idea is to fill a sort of space in between search engines and content. Here's what that means, using my work day as an example.

I get asked to research a topic. I go to Yahoo or Delicious and enter my keywords, then start going to the links. Right click a link, spawn new window, read the page, close the window, right click the next link. But inevitably I feel the need to adjust my search terms pretty quickly. Because one starts with a topic like BT, and then adjust to ISP targeting, and then Frontporch, then back to BT, all the while clicking back and forth between content and search engine.

So what if I could follow a research thread without going back to the search engine. What if I could follow the thread when I want based upon following up on the content in a page.

Evri holds the promise of changing that process using a widget or overlay that assesses the page content and delivers a menu of links by topic. They do this in what looks like a tab form or as a graphical wagon wheel connection thing that is really intriguing looking.





One thing it seems important to point out is that while semantics are the basis of this, it is NOT a semantic search engine. It is a semantic connection tool, and I find that a very tasty concept indeed. I'll keep you posted on what I find in the beta, but this sounds like a goodie to me.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Involver: Branded Video Campaigns For Social Media

Social media is hard to market in safely. Blah blah blah. You've heard it a bajillion times, and about 842 times on this blog. But we all know that somehow we have to get our brands there -- people are simply spending too much time there to ignore.

OK, then item number two. There are too damned many of these places! What are there, 60 social nets with >1Million members? Not the recipe for easy peasy.

Involver's not going to get you past all of the googlies of social media, nothing will. But it does offer a strong platform to get a branded video in front of lots of people. Here's their intro vid to give you a taste:

OK, OK, if you are thinking that this sounds like a video widget, I'm with ya. But that's OK. The fundamentals of widgetry are still true -- we need ways to put content out where people are instead of making them come to us.

And what this widget offering has that some others don't is a comprehensive distribution promotion plan. While that is not unique, it does put them miles ahead of widgeters who make it, hand it to you, and walk.

People who display your video get points for their distribution clout -- a sort of social compensation affiliate program that I would imagine could work well. People on soc nets always want to know how they stack up against others.

It's not the only way to get your video distributed, but their reporting and analytics look pretty strong. I think they're worth a look if you are considering a video marketing program online.

White Paper Thursdays: Hispanic Marketing

Hispanic agency Captura Group offers, for free, a series of great articles on marketing to Hispanics, both online and offline. Given the massive size of the market, you owe it to yourself to check them out. They are a scosh long in the tooth, but the info is still more than worth your time.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Thursdays Social Media Marketing in Pharma

Pharma is an extremely complicated category in which to market. Add to that challenege the UGC phenom and you got a helluva challenge. This Cymfony white paper expains the issues and offers insights into this fascinating and potentially lucrative market. Reg required (emarketingpapers)

White Paper Thursdays: Social Media Presentation

An Amazing Social Media Overview by Ian Farmer of Australia's Bullseye.

Social Media Action Plan Bullseye

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: word-of-mouth influence)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Making Your DR Site Work Harder

Why is it that so many companies are willing to blow millions of dollars in CPA programs but not spend a penny improving conversions on their own sites? I’ve worked on perhaps two dozen DR assignments, and each client has acknowledged significant problems in their site buying funnel. Stuff like extra pages to navigate, or inconsistency in where the proceed buttons fall, or offers below the fold, or whatnot. And in almost every case, there was a singular lack of willingness to pursue improvements because “that isn’t our area,” or “that’s IT turf” or whatnot.

The result is that the volume made possible by an ad campaign plateaus much lower than it needs to because the CPA is hindered by horrible conversion rates.

All the banner optimization in the world cannot make up for an unnavigable site.

Creative Inspiration: 202 Marketing Viral Links

This is by no means a complete listing of marketing viral, but it's pretty big. I get asked by clients a lot to show them examples of viral marketing. Well, I keep a list of viral ideas I see, and now you have it too.

Note, I assume that all these were intended primarily as viral marketing -- meaning that the majority of the distribution was expected to be through viral spread versus paid advertising. Some of these, especially the foreign ones, may actually have been plain old TV ads -- standards of proprietary are of course different in other places so some may indeed have been intended primarily for air.

Anyway, consider this creative inspiration. And hopefully this will be a living post - send me links to other viral content you think should be on this. The email address is to the right.

118118: FlashDance.
7 Up: Diner
Absolut: Absolut World
Altoids: Arcade
AOL News: 15 Mins
Apple: Vista
Aque Teen Hunger Force: Boston
Axe: Naughty to Nice
Axe: Naughty to Nice2
Axe: Feather
Axe: Boot Camp
Axe: Aerobics
Axe: Peeling
Axe: Eunuch
Axe: Chocolate Man
Bank West: Singing Kittens
Beer.com: Virtual Bartender
Bierbitzch: Bitch
Big Word Project: The Big Word Project
Blendtec: Will It Blend?
BMW: Fastest Saloon
Boost Mobile: Various
Budweiser: Stadium
Budweiser: Dude Online
Budweiser: Swear Jar
Budweiser: Nude Ferret
Budweiser: Zebra
Budweiser: Grannies
Burger King: Pet Moustache
Burger King: Dr Angus
Burger King: Like a Snake
Burger King: Various
Burger King: Ugoff
Burger King: Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
Burger King: Whopper FreakOut
Burger King: Subservient Chicken
Burger King: Sith Sense
Burger King: Coq Roq
Canon: Battle of the Viral Video Stars
Carlsberg: No Sweets in Carlsberg
Carlton: Big Ad
Carlton: FlashDance
Career Builder: MonkeyMail
Central Beheer: Eden
Charmin: Euphemisms
Chevy Tahoe: Make an Ad
Chevy Tahoe: Make an Ad2
Cloverfield: Slusho
Coke: GTA
Coke: Argentina
Coke: Red Dance
Coke: Soccer
Coke: Coke for Dinner
Coke Zero: Can We Sue Us
Colgate: Fresh Confidence (Phillipines)
Dark Knight: WhySoSerious
Dark Knight: Gotham Police
Dark Knight: Gotham National Bank
Dark Knight: St. Swithuns Catholic Church
Dark Knight: Gotham Times, The
Dark Knight: Pasquale's Bistro
Dark Knight: He is coming...
Dark Knight: Clown Travel Agency
Dark Knight: Dana Worthington for Gotham City D.A.
Dark Knight: Gotham Election Board
Dark Knight: Gotham Cable News
Dark Knight: Gotham Unified School District
Dark Knight: Remembering Gina
Dark Knight: Ha Ha Ha Times, The
Dark Knight: We Are the Answer
Dark Knight: Rent-A-Clown
Dark Knight: Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham
Dark Knight: I Believe in Harvey Dent
Dark Knight: Kinsly Travel
Diet Coke and Mentos: Fountain
Dodge: Toilet
Dove: Campaign for Real Beauty
Durex: Feelings
Durex: Bush
Durex: Osama
EA: Tiger WoodsFolgers: Tolerate Mornings (Archived Vid)
Ford: Hurra
Ford: SportKa SportKa2
Ford: American Idol Vids
Freestyle Interactive: My Black ValentineFunny or Die: The Green Team
Gatorade: Ball Girl
Gatorade: Nun
Gillette: Phenom
GHD: Some Day
Go Israel: No Cup
GQ: Ideal Man
GotVMail: White Hair Dye
GotVMail: Hybrid
GotVMail: Motivation
GotVMail: Thinking
GotVMail: Lemonade
GotVMail: Entrepreneur
GotVMail: Mullet
Gucci: Homme
Haagen Dasz: Bees
Heroes: Primatech Paper
Hitachi: Mr. T (Archived Vid)
Honda: Dominos
HTC: Girlfriend
Jack in the Box: 420
James Allen: Yellow Snow
Jeep: We Are The Mudds (Archived Vid)
Job Central: Osama
Levis: Backflip
Levis: Loo
Lipton: Are You Young Enough?
Long John Silvers: Shrimp Buddy
Lost: Find 815
Lost Boys: One
Lost Boys: Two
Lost Boys: Three
LG: Secret
Marmite: Breast Feed
Match.com: Symptoms
McCain: Potato Parade
McDonalds: Lincoln Fry
McDonalds Do You Speak Snack?
McDonalds: Chicken McNugget Rap
Mastercard: Doorstep
Mastercard: Minivan
Mastercard: Priceless.com
Mazda: Skateboard
Mazda: B Series
Mercury: Meet The Lucky Ones
Microsoft: Live Meeting
Microsoft: XP Experience
Miller Lite: Man Laws (Archive Video)
Million Dollar Homepage: Page
Mini: Ave A Word
Mini: Car Front Foot Print
Mitchum: Armpit Orchestra
Nike: Freestyle
Nike: Courage
Nissan: Bounce
Mountain Dew: Dewmocracy
Nikon: Ashton’s Cool Pix
Nokia: N 81
The Observer: Snatch
The Office (US): Dunder Mifflin
Office Max: Elf Yourself
Old Spice: Hair Metrics
Old Spice: When She’s Hot
One Red Paperclip: Barter
Orange: Playlist
Organic Trade Association: Store Wars
Panasonic: D Sound
Pepsi (UK): Tattoo
Pepsi: World Cup
Philips: Shave EveryWhere
Polk Audio: Best Rap Video
Procter: Men With Cramps (Archived Vids)
Pringles: Nevashut (Article Only)
Quiksilver: Quiksilver TV
R2: Get a War Job
R2: Project Abraham
R2: America First
RayBan: Catch
Schick Quattro Ad Contest
Schick: Shave Lab (Aust.)
Schick: Get Experimental
Sega: My Big Ball
Sesame Street: Feist
Simpsons Movie: Simpsonize Me
Smirnoff Ice: Tea Partay
Snickers: Get Some Nuts
Soesman: Language
Spore: Spore
Sprint: Crime Deterrent
Starburst: Berries and Creme
Star Trek: NCC 1701
Stride: Where The Hell is Matt?
Swift Boats: Ad
Tide: My Talking Stain
Tommy Hilfiger: TommyTV
Tooheys: Block Party
Trojan: Pigs
Trojan: Olympics
Trojan: Tranny
True Blood: Vampires
Tuborg: Beer Goggles
TurboTax: Billy
Think: Car Crash
Vigorsol: Nipples
Virgin Mobile: Secretary
VW Polo: Terrorist
VW Golf: Pull
Wall-E BuynLarge
Weight Watchers: See Your Rooster
Webcargo.com: Grateful Asses
Wendy’s: Meatatarian
Wendy’s: Spicy
Weezer: We Didn’t Start the Viral
XBOX: Real World
XTravel: 911
Yellow Pages Israel: Shower

Additions welcome - heck, additions wanted!

Donde Estan Sus Banners?

eMarketer recently featured some data from HispaniTelligence and TNS Media that indicates that marketing spending online for Hispanics is an underdeveloped market. Here are the numbers:



As a huge proponent of spending toward Hispanics and African Americans, I am disappointed that so few companies have recognized the need to connect with this market online. While Hispanic online penetration is still a scosh lower than Anglo, it is still high enough to support a heckuvalot larger share of total spend.

Why is it that so few people look at this market, which, just to remind us all:

1. Is the largest US minority group
2. Offers trillions in buying power
3. Is the fastest growing populaiton group online
4. Is by far the most brand loyal market segment in the US

and ignore it? I am reminded of a moment early in my career when the CEO of a client said, "We need to grow our business with regular people. Why do I want to spend money advertising to my gardener?"

I wanted to get him deposed. Happily the board took care of that less than a year later, though for a different reason.

Anyway. Get buying, people! I have worked on perhaps 25 Hispanic marketing programs in the last couple decades. EVERY ONE paid out. El Poder Latino. Wish I could say the same for campaigns to the "regular" people.

Auto Spend Online Flattening Out

Auto was one of the major categories that got us out of the dot bust. While its share of total spend has fallen as other categories have joined the party, auto often led the pack in terms of growth and total spend.



But eMarketer is reporting that auto spend seems to be on the wane, or at least flattening out.

While online's share of total auto spend continues to rise, the growth rates have certainly dropped. A sign of an industry with far too much capacity and three sick domestic automaker puppies that have always led the spend in the US.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Now Picasa Knows Your Face!

This post on TechCrunch heralds the launch of a new feature on google's Picasa: facial recognition. The improvement is aimed at easing the process of tagging photos with people's names.

For example, I could identify your stunning viage in a snap, and then Picasa would scan all my other pictures looking for your unforgettable punnum and offering to tag those photos with your name as well.

Well, as much as I hate to praise the beast, Hallelujah! Tagging is a pain in the neck if you are a shutterbug and have like 10,000 pictures to index and catalog. With this, assuming it works even fairly well, the process will be eased hugely.

Facial recognition is an important new development, and Picasa, while not the first, has the sort of footprint that can quickly make this feature a commonplace offering in the photos segment of digital.

Excellent news!

Twittad: Sell your Twits!

TechCrunch reported on Tuesday that a service called Twittads has debuted that helps people using Twitter and have followings monetize those Twit follwers with graphical ads.

It works like this: Twitterers publish info about their followings and content as well as how much they want to display an ad for a given duration of time. Advertisers peruse the openings and select Twits to stick ads on. The Twit reviews the ad, determines if she finds it acceptable, and then begins running the ad on their posts.

The ad duration is set by the Twit: 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, 30 days, or 90 days. They then receive the amount of money that the advertiser has agreed to pay. 5% of the take goes to Twittads.

There is no company info on the site so I did a WhoIs. It is registered to a fellow in Iowa who is listed on LinkedIn as a Commodity Trading Advisor. Well, viewed in that context it might be a money maker for him. I cannot imagine that 5% of the niche of a niche of an ad segment would support a team of 60 in the Valley, but in this case it doesn't have to, does it?

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Atlantic v. Howell: What Does It Mean, Lovey?

The RIAA and Atlantic Records have won a legal decision in a case entitled Atlantic v. Howell. The case was going to be about whether simply making a file available for P2P download was a copyright violation. At issue in part was whether Mr. Howell had actually been responsible for the transmission of copyrighted material.

But instead, the record boys asked for an expedited decision because Mr. Howell (not of Gilligan fame, BTW) had deliberately tried to eliminate electronic records of his P2P activities. Specifically, he reformatted his drive, used a file "shredding" program, deleted his Kazaa account, and eliminated all his Kazaa log files. Here's an excerpt from Ars Technica's story on the subject:

The order in Atlantic v. Howell was issued at the end of a pretrial conference held in an Arizona courtroom. Jeffery Howell, the defendant who represented himself throughout the case, was accused of copyright infringement for sharing music over the KaZaA P2P network. Howell denied the charges, saying that the music MediaSentry saw in his shared folder was for his own private use.

...

at the end of July, the record labels filed a motion seeking judgment in their favor due to what they characterized as Howell's attempts to cover his tracks. According to the RIAA's brief, Howell destroyed evidence on four separate occasions after first receiving the prelitigation settlement letter and later being served with the lawsuit. The RIAA's forensics experts found that Howell uninstalled KaZaA and deleted everything in the shared folder, reformatted his hard drive, downloaded and used a file-wiping program, and then nuked all the KaZaA logs on his PC. "Defendant's intentional spoliation of computer evidence significantly prejudices Plaintiffs because it puts the most relevant evidence of their claim permanently beyond their reach," argued the RIAA. "The deliberate destruction... by itself, compels the conclusion that such evidence supported Plaintiffs' case."

Score one for the record biz. Mr. Howell is being sent to the other side of the island.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Yank Goes the Plug at Eco Search Engine Forestle

Well, Forestle, the eco friendly search engine that donated revenue to save rainforests, was launched last week, and got some pretty good traffic. The site, which was using Google search results, was well on its way to saving some land when...pop when the plug from Google. Shutting the site down indefinitely.

Google's Rationale: It said Forestle incented people to click on sponsored links so as to raise more money and save more land. Forestle had an alternative interpretation:



Dear Forestle user,

We just received an email from Google in which they announced the end of the partnership with Forestle. They said that we offered "incentives to click artificially on sponsored links" and that this was not compliant with their policies..

Well, we don't agree with that!

We displayed a note at the top of the Forestle result page that says "only click on Google sponsored links if you are really interested in them". Also we saved 0.1 m² per search and not per click! So where did we offer incentives to click on ads?

In our opinion Google ended the partnership, because Forestle became too successful: Yesterday we earned almost 200 USD and saved more than 4,000 square meters of rainforest!

We will try to reactivate Forestle and clarify this issue. Meanwhile, we ask you to use our eco-friendly search engine www.Znout.com. Znout does not save rainforest, but it reduces your energy consumption thanks to black backgrounds and EcoServers considerably.

We will inform you with a message on www.Znout.com, when we are able to revive Forestle. So please make Znout your home page or install the Znout plugin for your browser.

Hmm. Lemme tell ya, if I were in charge of YAHOO search...

Baited Breath for iPOD Announcements - Coming 9.9.2008

Apple apparently sent out invites for the unveiling of new iPODs. The party is scheduled for 9/9 at Yerba Buena Center in SF. Given all the hubbub of the iPhone 3G, I would expect some pretty major announcements and new products. One item rumored to be in the offing - a solar iPOD.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Google Video for Enterprise: WIll THIS Be The Ticket to YouTube Monetization

ReadWriteWeb is reporting that Google is adding a video application to its fast growing Google Apps line. The application appears to borrow a great deal from the YouTube platform, which makes a lot of sense and may offer a great way to finally monetize that ginormous purchase.

What's most interesting here to me is that this is clearly aimed at the enterprise market. Google offerings have traditionally offered a good alternative for Mom and Pops and perhaps medium sized businesses, while Redmond continued to have a strong lock on enterprise. But those days may be numbered as this adds important functionality to its already popular apps suite.

So...you might ask, why would an enterprise need video for internal consumption? Well, need is a matter of interpretation, and ReadWriteWeb says this is intended for company presentations, team sharing, and the like.

Is there nothing that Google won't offer?

Perhaps not, but while I think this offering is a good idea, I have to think that at some point Google's priorities will be so broad that the company will lose focus and leadership in some sectors. Companies do not grow and win forever. Witness:

Swift meats was the largest company at the end of the 19th century. It is now a division of a Brazilian meatpacker.

ToysRUs was widely expected to have near monopoly on toys ad inifinitum. Now they struggle against WalMart and Target.

AOL...well you get the picture.

In a world as wild as the web, one cannot stay on top forever.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Raanker: Simple, Carefree Voting

People like being counted. They like to have their opinions matter. That is the spirit behind Raanker.com, a divertive little site that lets people submit voting contents, and be counted.



So what does that mean. Well, its an enormous polling place, where site visitors can vote on most anything. For example, here's a vote on the best pizza chain - in progress:



So, not complicated, and yes, addictive. They sell advertising, so that's where the money comes from.

I was reminded by the site Vote.com, which debuted a couple of years ago letting people voice their views in unscientific polls that get forwarded to Congress, etc. Where they are ignored, I would imagine, but I have no insider info on that score. Well, Raanker's mission is broader, so perhaps the traffic will come. There's a certain kind of person that votes and votes and votes, so they may end up with pretty solid traffic, indeed.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Bukisa: Get Paid For Your Content

As long as UGC has been a thing, there have been creators trying to make money off of their work. And that's just fine. Great in fact. People should get paid for their ideas if they so choose.

Various models have been tried, from subs to AdSense to pay per post. So I was intrigued by the site Bukisa, a community that pays per view of submitted content and rewards virality by offering you a cut of the the views that people you get to register and in turn submit content drive. Oh, that was a bad sentence. Think Amway. You make money on your sales, and a cut of the sales of the people you recruit.

Any kind of content can be submitted:

Text
Video
Audio
Slides
Photos

Once you have submitted your content, you can then invite friends to visit Bukisa and read your content. The more content you submit, the more potential earnings you can generate.



The system makes it easy to submit lists from a variety of social media web sites and email address books for maximum virality. As friends and acquaintances visit your content, and as web wanderers encounter it, you earn money on a CPM basis. Obviously THEY make money through ad impressions via banners, vids, and AdSense.

This is where the levels come in - when friends join and submit content you profit from that. This is how they do the math. You get all the revenue from your content, and part of the revenue for second and third levels.





What's more, you can push your content out across the web through RSS or embeds.

Now, their earn model assumes a lot of things, like A LOT of signups, levels that my personal network could not support. So you may not earn quite as much as in this example. And to be fair, they are very straightforward with their assumptions. But bloggers, for example, are working to make a lot less than $5K a year, so their model may indeed hold a lot of promise.

Bukisa is in beta, so there is not an enormous amount of content up yet. But that actually means opportunity -- you can be the first to post your kind of content. I wish you and your pocketbook all the best.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

eMarketer: Promising HUGE Mobile Ad Spend Growth

Check out these numbers from eMarketer, showing and expected EXPLOSION of growth in mobiel ad spend. The year of mobile as it were.

Now, where have I heard that before?



Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Game Biz Takes On P2P With Threatening Notes

Following in the footsteps of the RIAA’s efforts against music file sharing, several game companies are reportedly pursuing thousands of UK citizens who have downloaded game software without paying. This according to a recent ARS Technica article.

Atari, Code masters, Topware, Reality Pump, and Techland are all participating in this wave of enforcement and crackdown.They are reportedly sending letter to 25000 pirates, demanding 300 pounds or else they’ll take them to court.

As broadband pipes get larger and larger, the threat of piracy on the gaming industry will grow still stronger. Expect more of this sort of quasi legal activity in the near future.

Thing is, though, our industry again finds itself in a dilemma – is diminishing the audience size of a piece of content the best way to monetize it?

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.

Gotta Love Amber...

Warning: Some profanity. But check out vid three - interesting Vista Midroll

Is Your ISP Tracking Your Online Behavior? Check This List From SV Insider

Silicon Valley Insider has published a list of which ISPs were and are tracking consumers, whether they work(ed) with NebuAd, someone else, or are doing it through internal systems. Check out the list.

Thanks to SV Insider for compiling this list.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

OLDMTA IS MOVING. PLS CHANGE BOOKMARKS!

This blog is moving! The new url is www.oldestliving.com While legacy embedded links will forward to the new destination, please adjust your bookmarks. If not for me, then for Sleepy!



Thanks to the fine people at Blogger for making it possible to move a blog to a personal URL and providing FREE redirect services. All I had to do was buy the domain from them, at the highly advantageous price of $10 for the year. Such a deal!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.