Rosemarie Ryan outlines JWT's big Bing theory

By Andrew McMains

At an Advertising Week event on Wednesday morning, JWT North America president Rosemarie Ryan reflected on the challenges inherent in taking on the "700-pound bunny rabbit" known as Google.
  Speaking at an Advertising Women of New York function, Ryan said that Google, with 96 percent brand awareness and a dominant share of the Internet-search market, could be perceived as a gorilla whose sheer size might be an Achilles' heel. But when JWT researched this potential opening for Microsoft's Bing, the agency found no such negative sentiments. Rather, consumers love the Google brand, describing it as honest, reliable, friendly and trustworthy, Ryan said.
  So, instead of taking a David vs. Goliath approach in its successful pitch to handle creative duties for Bing, JWT focused on the information overload associated with online searches. Research showed that despite pages and pages of "hits," the majority of Web searches aren't successful, and a significant percentage require a second stab at search terms, Ryan said. Those insights became the foundation for Bing's eventual positioning as a "decision engine" that helps consumers find what they're looking for sooner.

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September 23, 2009 | Comments (5)

BBH New York wins top Jay Chiat prize

By Steve McClellan

Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York won the top prize at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Jay Chiat Awards on Tuesday night for its planning work on behalf of moisturizing product Vaseline Clinical Therapy. The awards, which honor strategic planning efforts, were held at the B.B. King music club as part of the Advertising Week festivities. Ten gold, 14 silver and 13 bronze awards were also doled out.
  Gold winners included BBH in New York (for the Commission on Presidential Debates Online); Collins and Civic Entertainment Group in New York (CNN); Euro RSCG in New York (The Atlantic); Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco (Häagen-Dazs); JWT in New York (separate awards for Schick and JetBlue); JWT in Mumbai (The Times of India); MotiveQuest in Evanston, Ill., (Toyota Prius); MRM Worldwide in New York (U.S. Army); and TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles (Pepsi).

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September 23, 2009 | Comments (0)

Social-media lessons from Ashton Kutcher

By Mike Shields

Facebook has its first hit series—courtesy of Ashton Kutcher.
  The short video series KatalystHQ has been viewed by 9 million unique users since its February debut. The first original series produced specifically for Facebook is the result of a partnership between Kutcher's production firm Katalyst Media and the app developer Slide. Speaking during a keynote interview on Tuesday at the MIXX conference in New York, part of Advertising Week, Kutcher compared the show's early success to that of a cable hit. "That's like Jon & Kate Plus 8, plus one."
  Besides garnering a sizable audience, KatalystHQ's impact can be gauged from the volume of sharing it brought to Facebook. According to Kutcher, the average person forwarded clips of the mockumentary-style show to 62 friends. "That's just a voluminous distribution strategy," he said.
  KatalystHQ is supposed to take place in the offices of Katalyst Media—not unlike NBC's The Office. The show, now in its second season, has featured product integration from brands such as Cheetos and Hot Pockets. Kutcher said that when brands are able to be showcased within Web video content in funny, nonintrusive ways, "people are happy to consume it."

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September 23, 2009 | Comments (4)

Is there light at the end of the tunnel for M&A activity in the media business?

By Georg Szalai

Select parts of the media and entertainment business will remain attractive investment targets despite economic and other challenges, private equity and venture capital executives said Tuesday at an Advertising Week panel. The discussion, titled "Show Me the Money," was held at the Paley Center, and concerned the role and influence of private equity and venture capital in the media business.
  Bain Capital managing director Ian Loring, whose private-equity firm has stakes in media giants such as Clear Channel and The Weather Channel, said he expects to remain interested in cable networks, radio and outdoor, even though momentum on deals has nearly come to a halt over the past year amid recession, financial crisis and secular challenges to traditional media.
  These factors have hurt cash flows and access to leverage, which are key to private-equity firms' returns. But some of the trends have improved, and the M&A market has shown signs of improvement. That, along with opportunities to cut costs further, are likely to bring back deals, the panelists suggested.
  Amid reduced growth rates in many parts of the sector, media companies need to continue to shrink and cut costs while investing in the future, Loring said. For example, The Weather Channel has seen lower advertising revenue and costs, but has approximately doubled its programming investment to ensure viewer stability or growth, he said.

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September 22, 2009 | Comments (0)

Booze 'n' cruise in style, courtesy of Barker/DZP

By Tim Nudd

SoHo ad agency Barker/DZP is buttering up Advertising Week attendees by offering free rides around town in its courtesy van, which is hanging around events through Thursday evening. For those not already sufficiently liquored up, the van is stocked with loads of Conjure Cognac, a new signature brand from rapper/actor Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and distiller Birkedal Hartmann (and, not coincidentally, a Barker/DZP client). Keep track of the van over on Twitter.

September 22, 2009 | Comments (1)

Magazines, newspapers and radio say reports of their demise are greatly exaggerated

By Lucia Moses

Traditional media are still valued for their quality content and ability to amass big audiences, but they're increasingly undermined by their limited ability to target their audience, negative perceptions among advertisers and uncertainty about technology's impact on their future.
  Those points got wide agreement at Advertising Week's three-part panel "Are Legacy Media Going the Way of the 8-Track?" The panel brought together advertising and media execs from magazines (above), newspapers and radio.
  For magazines, technology has been a foe as well as friend, panelists said.
  Advancements in printing have helped magazines get to newsstands faster, while e-reader devices stand to transform how publications reach audiences, said Mark Ford, president and group publisher at Time Inc., predicting that an e-reader that would be a "game-changer for the magazine industry" was only 18 months away.
  Yet in addition to expanding their workload, the Web also has forced magazine employees to adapt their culture and content to a new platform, others said.
  "It's a cultural change, and I'm not sure publishers have their hands around what that means," said David Steinhardt, president and CEO of Idealliance, a nonprofit alliance designed to promote best practices in media.

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September 22, 2009 | Comments (1)

Starbucks, Walmart talk up green initiatives

By Elaine Wong

Monday night's "Team Earth" panel at Advertising Week, held at The Times Center and consisting of top execs from Starbucks and Walmart, was positioned as a gathering of green minds.
  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, described how, on a recent trip to Rwanda, a female coffee farmer told him (through a translator) that all she wanted was a cow and some fresh milk for her children. Such insights, Schultz said, are helping the coffee giant sharpen its sustainability focus while improving how the company and its farmers cultivate and grow its coffee beans for consumers.
  Rob Walton, executive committee chairman and board member of Wal-Mart Stores, likewise spoke at length about reducing its environmental impact through recent measures like a "sustainability index" for packaged-goods consumers. (Similar to the nutritional labels, Walmart's new ratings system evaluates products based on their carbon footprint.) "When informed, customers will make good choices," Walton said.

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September 22, 2009 | Comments (0)