Europe's online boom has advertisers rushing to follow

Online advertising expenditures in Britain skyrocketed by 60 percent last year, to about $1.2 billion. Online now accounts for 3.9 percent of total ad spending, squeaking past radio and outdoor advertising. Now, there are signs that the same trend is stirring in the United States.

Advertisers need to go where consumers are, and increasingly, consumers are in front of their computers

In a trend that may soon be replicated in the United States, studies in Britain show that people with Internet access now spend as much time online as listening to the radio, and twice as much time online as reading newspapers and magazines.

The shift is tied to the rapid adoption of high-speed connections, and advertisers are responding by making online video a major part of new campaigns.

"The Coca-Colas of the world are doing what they call branded entertainment," said Fiona McDonnell, a senior analyst at Forrester Research in Amsterdam. "They know that entertainment goes down better with people than advertising.

"This type of format, which often utilizes video, allows interaction with the consumer and doesn't annoy the consumer as much as something like a pop-up ad," she said.

And Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) MSN and Coca-Cola's Sprite brand joined together last month to launch a branded online entertainment experience dubbed "the Scenario" that allows teenagers to experience the hottest DJs in the country

Read the article: www.ecommercetimes.com

Ensuring product placement continuity of non-branded products

In the world of television, as in the real world, some products are unlabeled and exhibit more 'naturalness' simply because they lack a prominent brand mark. Far from being "Brand X" or "generic" products, however, these brands (such as electronics and furniture) tend towards subtlety in terms of on-product labeling. As a result, their distinctive functions or design features tend to differentiate and elevate them above simple set-dressing, without a highly visible brand name. In Monday's MediaPost, one of the Featured Product Placements of the Week was a placement for Thomasville Furniture.

What Research Tells Us From viewer research, we know that TV watching is not necessarily linear or continuous. Our lives are filled with distractions that tend to break our concentration and interrupt our awareness. In cases like Thomasville Furniture, where brands are not obviously identified during the continuity phase of the placement, there is a danger that viewers will miss the brand identification. Thus, the association of the product and the brand is weakened or destroyed. It would be like missing the opening act of a play or musical. While you could still understand (and perhaps even enjoy) the show to some degree, a large part of its impact and meaning would be lost.

Read the article: www.mediapost.com

Branded entertainment in focus

Recognising the growing significance of 'branded entertainment' concept in India, advertising majors are beefing up the operations of their respective entertainment wings. For starters, Leo Burnett India is planning to strengthen the operations of its specialist unit 'Leo Entertainment' while Group M, part of WPP Group Plc is planning to rebrand its non-traditional media wing 'Broadmind' as 'M Entertainment'. Meanwhile, Lintertainment, the entertainment wing of Lintas is planning to conduct market research projects at malls and movie houses to know how exactly consumers relate to entertainment products in India.

On the company's plans, Group M chief executive officer South Asia Ashutosh Srivastava said: "We will soon change the name of our entertainment wing as --M Entertainment--. As the concept of 'branded entertainment' is gaining momentum, we also plan to add capability and manpower to our entertainment division." According to Mr Srivastava, Group M's entertainment wing 'Broadmind' is already rebranded either as Mindshare Entertainment or M Entertainment in many countries across the globe. "Since Mindshare has a presence in India, Broadmind will be rebranded as M Entertainment," he added. On the other side of the spectrum, Leo Entertainment is planning to professionalise the 'branded entertainment' sector by bringing in fresh research on brands, movies and television programmes, according to Leo Burnett India chairman & managing director Arvind Sharma ."You can integrate the brand proposition of products to any entertainment content.In the BE sector, the challenge lies in reaching out to more production houses and clients.Which is why, we have recently extended the services of Leo Entertainment to Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad,"he said.

Read the article: www.financialexpress.com

Netscape pioneers launch free content network

Netscape pioneers Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen are back on the start-up scene, launching a TiVo-like online network for distributing and viewing public TV, radio and grassroots media.

The free service, called the Open Media Network, is aimed initially at letting traditional public broadcasters and independent filmmakers distribute their work on the Net. But it will also allow ordinary computer users to publish their files.

Part TiVo, part BitTorrent file swapping, the network puts publishers' content into a peer-to-peer distribution network that could help lower bandwidth costs substantially. The service then creates a TV-like program directory that potential viewers can use to find and subscribe to automatic downloads of individual shows.

In the process, it's also serving as an advertisement for Homer's main company, content distribution service Kontiki, which provides the network's technology.

"We're trying to create a free consumer service that would allow the viewing of public service content on the Internet," said Homer, who is chairman of the Open Media Foundation, which is backing the project, as well as Kontiki's chairman. "Right now there is no easy way for consumers to (publish and view) these things. It has not been a consumer phenomenon, it's been an early adopter phenomenon."

Read the article: www.news.com

Search battle heads to video

As millions of broadband subscribers who missed a wardrobe-malfunction moment on TV can attest, the internet can be a convenient resource for finding much-talked-about events on video.

Whether it's Janet Jackson's Super Bowl breast exposure or The Daily Show host Jon Stewart's explosive appearance on a political talk show, video clips of high-profile moments have sent millions of net users scrambling to search engines for footage.

But until recently, internet users who don't patronize peer-to-peer sites had few options for tracking down video content outside of entering a query in a standard search box.

Large net portals and a handful of smaller sites are looking to change that. In recent weeks, Yahoo, Google and MSN have each rolled out services designed to make it easier to upload or locate video online. The portals' rollouts come as a handful of startups and independent film sites are creating tools to make putting video online nearly as simple as publishing text.

Read the article: www.wired.com

Peer-to-peer users share more than stolen songs

College kids looking for free music may have popularized Internet file-trading software, but the technology is now used by everyone from penny-pinching phone callers to polar explorers.

Even the recording industry is changing its tune as labels that for years have waged a legal war against "peer-to-peer" companies are now allowing authorized uses of the technology.

"I never thought you'd hear this from me, but the record industry has, mostly, been fairly cooperative," said Wayne Rosso, who is launching an authorized service called Mashboxx (http://www.mashboxx.com) while the U.S. Supreme Court considers the entertainment industry's copyright suit against Grokster, his old peer-to-peer company.

Peer-to-peer, or P2P, software allows users to connect directly to each others' computers, bypassing the powerful servers that underpin much of the Internet. Web pages, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and other material usually stored on servers can thus be made public directly from a user's hard drive.

Read the article: www.reuters.com

On Broadway, ads now get to play cameo roles

In 1966, when the Neil Simon musical "Sweet Charity" opened on Broadway, a waiter in one scene asked a customer, "A double Scotch, again, sir?" In the revival, soon to open at the Al Hirschfeld Theater, the waiter asks, "Gran Centenario, the tequila?"

Madison Avenue has come to Broadway.

Product placement and endorsement deals have long been staples in television shows, movies and radio programs and even, more recently, on video games. But they have been rare on Broadway. Now, advertisers, casting about for new ways to attract increasingly distracted consumers, have turned their attention to the theater world. And producers, always looking for extra cash to offset rising costs, are receptive.

"Commerce and art always merge, unless it's some hermit who takes his creative ability into a cave," said Barry Weissler, who is producing the revival of "Sweet Charity" with his wife, Fran. "Picasso was a brilliant artist who was extremely commercial. He understood how to sell and market his work. And it kept his prices up."

"Are we so pure that we can't accept a commercial adjunct to what we create?" Mr. Weissler asked rhetorically. "I don't think so."

In addition to the deal that Gran Centenario has with "Sweet Charity," which is now in previews and is scheduled to open May 4, the Hormel Foods Corporation, which makes Spam canned meat, has endorsed the musical "Monty Python's Spamalot." "Spam hasn't gotten this much attention since World War II," said Nancy Coyne, chief executive at Serino Coyne, an ad agency in New York that worked on the "Spamalot" deals. Yahoo also has a deal with "Spamalot."

Read the article: www.nytimes.com

Podcasting:making waves

Just when we grasped what blogging was all about, along came podcasting, which in some ways is even more disruptive and exciting than blogging.

Being a podcaster myself, I've seen firsthand the business and legal chaos podcasts have created. As you'll see in this column, perhaps they might soon create some political chaos too.

Simply put, podcasting is the act of recording and transmitting digital audio over the Internet to one's computer or MP3 player.

Paris Hilton will podcast this month to promote her new movie House of Wax. Air America, National Public Radio and Clear Channel Communications all podcast their programs, or say they soon will.

A new SciFi Channel podcast featuring Battlestar Galactica Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore gives a running commentary on each episode. Viewers can download the audio and listen along while they watch. Forbes.com, too, podcasts.

Meanwhile, podcast entrepreneurs jockey to make money and consolidate power. Boku Communications co-founder Adam Curry, a former personality with Viacom's MTV, wants to coax podcasters into creating shows using Boku's professional-quality audio production tools, which they'll find at podshow.com.

To the extent he can empower podcasters, Curry hopes that advertisers will be inspired to shift advertising dollars toward Boku and its roster of audio talent. Says Curry, "Madison Avenue realizes there's an entire generation out there that doesn't listen to the radio."

Read the article: www.forbes.com

Studios back DVD release rethink

Hollywood executives think DVDs should be released quicker to combat the growing threat of piracy, according to the Hollywood Reporter. And they predict that the day may not be far off when some major films are available on DVD at the same time as their theatrical release.

"Your premiere may be at Wal-Mart," said Barry Meyer, chairman and chief executive of Warner Bros Entertainment. In some territories movies make more money on DVD than in cinemas, he added.

"Right now theatrical is the main way we set values in these movies, and video is the first aftermarket," Mr Meyer said during a discussion held as part of the Milken Institute Global Conference on Wednesday. "It might well be in certain territories it should be exactly the reverse - that theatrical is the added value."

Mr Meyer related how camcorder copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were being sold outside a multiplex in Shanghai on the same day the film opened there.

"The day you have a public performance of a movie anywhere in the world, you can count on the fact there will be a physical product on the streets of Asia, Eastern Europe (and) Russia within a few days," he continued.

Read the article: www.news.bbc.co.uk

Report: fans increasingly download pirated TV shows

Although the entertainment industry has attempted to crack down on downloads of pirated content, consumers continue to obtain music, movies and television shows from peer-to-peer networks. And, at least in the case of video content, consumers' use of peer-to-peer has recently increased, according to a report released Wednesday by media services firm Magna Global. "Video trading over peer-to-peer networks is today where the music industry was in 1999," said report author Brian Wieser, vice-president, director of industry analysis at Magna Global. "It's growing and should continue to grow at a fairly rapid clip."

For instance, downloads of the television show "24" on BitTorrent networks nearly tripled from an average of 35,000 per episode in the 2003-2004 season to 95,000 for the 2004-2005 season. The report attributes those figures to research from Envisional, a UK-based peer-to-peer traffic monitoring company.

The 10 most popular pirated TV downloads worldwide are: "24," "Stargate Atlantis," "The Simpsons," "Enterprise," "Stargate SG-1," "The O.C.," "Smallville," "Desperate Housewives," "Battlestar Galactica," and "Lost," according to a February survey by Envisional, cited in the report. Much of the downloading occurs overseas, especially in the English-language United Kingdom, where shows aren't usually broadcast until months after they've aired in the United States.

Often, television shows available on peer-to-peer networks are stripped of commercials. But, said Wieser, the growing popularity of peer-to-peer networks need not be completely bad news for marketers. Instead, he suggests, advertisers might be able to find ways to reach consumers who use file-sharing networks. One possibility, stated the report, is to spread branded entertainment, virally, throughout the networks. Marketers might also distribute individual songs or videos and, at the end, ask consumers to visit a Web site. Wieser also suggested that marketers consider releasing classic commercials in networks for free distribution.

Read the article: www.mediapost.com

Report warns of threat to traditional TV ads

The rising use of broadband, personal video recorders and mobile telephones to access television programming poses a serious threat to the business model of traditional network TV, as advertising breaks become redundant, according to a report out today.

Research from consultants at accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche shows that growth in on-demand TV, new TV services and broadband is putting mass audiences out of the broadcast industry's reach. This threatens the tried-and-trusted revenue model of showing adverts to a captive audience of millions, and forces networks to look at new ways of getting their product to viewers, the report says.

Jolyon Barker, head of the media practice at Deloitte, said that the growth of digital TV and accompanying deterioration in network audiences would force broadcasters to look at other platforms as they seek to lessen their reliance on advertising.

"If you look at the share shift between 1993 and 2005, you now have a share of about 28% for other channels outside of the core five and we see that growth continuing to increase. The need to be looking at your product in a far more multimedia way is essential today."

Read the article: www.media.guardian.co.uk

Search giants court TiVo

TiVo is in talks with Internet search giants Google and Yahoo over a possible deal aimed at bridging television and the Web.

The talks are still fluid and could result in a number of outcomes, two sources familiar with the negotiations said.

One scenario that's been discussed would see TiVo partner with Google or Yahoo on a new service that would let consumers search for videos on the Web and then watch them on their television sets, according to one person with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second person familiar with the talks said TiVo has held talks with both Google and Yahoo about a potential equity investment, including the possibility of an outright acquisition. Any deal would likely be exclusive, this source said, Nothing has been finalized, however, and the talks could yet fall apart.

"A deal to cooperate could happen quickly, but then the details would have to be worked out," the first source said. "The search companies need to work with companies like TiVo because they have access to the living room, and they own a television interface."

Read the article: www.news.com

NEW WAVE OF VIDEO CONTENT FOR CELL PHONES RELEASED - But Is Anyone Actually Watching?

Wireless providers have recently sent out a wave of new viewable content for mobile phones, but an early look at what customers are watching shows that it’s pretty much the same thing they’re viewing on their TV or PC screens. And then there's question of just how many are actually watching anything.

Carriers have yet to start providing Nielsen-like ratings on what types of video programming or clips are being downloaded the most on cell phones. But Verizon Wireless last month said that during the first six weeks of its new V Cast service, customers tuned into news, entertainment, sports and weather clips. For example, the most watched clip on CNNToGo was a roundup of news stories called Now in the News. The most watched video on NBC Mobile was a Will Smith interview about his role in the film Hitch.

Other popular programs included clips from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart, and a duet between Ray Charles and Elmo that appeared on Sesame Street.

On the sports front, ESPN's most-watched daily video program was Friday Playback, while the most-watched NBA game highlight video was the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers game that took place March 2 in Boston.

Read the article: www.madisonandvine.com

SPIKE TV'S 'SUPER AGENT' SHOW INTEGRATES FOUR BRANDS

Reebok, Pontiac, Boost Mobile and Bass Ale Appear in Series

Patterned on The Apprentice but infused with a strong twist of sports, Spike TV's new reality show, Super Agent, featuring All-American football star Shaun Cody, will integrate four major brands into the eight-episode series.

Mr. Cody is a defensive lineman at the University of Southern California, and a prime candidate in the upcoming professional football draft, and he is expected to easily nail a multimillion-dollar deal. The new show makes him a TV star as well.

Like Donald Trump Like Donald Trump, who challenges his minions on The Apprentice to design clothes for American Eagle Outfitters and create products for Domino’s and packaging for Pepsi, Mr. Cody will give orders on a Boost Mobile cell phone, sport Reebok clothes and sip Bass Ale.

Scheduled to launch this summer on the Viacom-owned channel, Super Agent is The Apprentice meets Jerry Maguire, with nine contestants trying to win over the future multimillion-dollar client, who, thankfully, never uses the overworked phrase "Show me the money."

Read the article: www.madisonandvine.com

SUMMERTIME MOVIE TIE-IN SCOREBOARD - Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's and Denny's Buy in Big

With the start of the summer movie season only weeks away, four fast-food chains are readying a slew of new promotions using familiar icons, including Darth Vader and Herbie the Love Bug, to front their entertainment marketing deals.

Burger King has bought into LucasFilms and 20th Century Fox’s Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith and 20th Century Fox’s superhero flick Fantastic Four; McDonald's has gone with Walt Disney Co.'s Herbie: Fully Loaded and Miramax’s The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl; Wendy's is aligned with Warner Bros.' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; and Denny's bought into DreamWork's Madagascar.

Doughnut chain Krispy Kreme has also come on board to push Madagascar at its retail outlets.

No-shows to summer tie-ins include CKE Restaurants’ Carl’s Jr. and Hardees, which last year promoted Universal Pictures’ monster fest Van Helsing. At the time, the company hadn’t backed a film since the first Spider-Man in 2002.

Also not taking part in movie-marketing deals are Subway, Arby’s, Baskin Robbins, Papa Johns, Dunkin Donuts, Del Taco and Yum Brands’ Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC.

Burger King Burger King had considered the animated Madagascar, about four Central Park Zoo animals that is opening in late May, but ultimately opted for the larger, more young-adult audience that Star Wars will provide, according to the company.

Read the article: www.madisonandvine.com

Advancing trend: Ads boost vidgame revs

eeky gamers converged with DKNY-clad ad execs Thursday for the Advertising in Games Forum, touted as the first-ever conference of its kind devoted to the placement of ads in videogames.

"This really is the next step in the evolution of advertising," said Jonathan Epstein, an agent in UTA's Games and Interactive Group, during the opening panel.

Speakers at the forum, held at Gotham's Metropolitan Pavilion, argued that the massive amount of ad revenue earned by newspapers and television is disproportionate to the amount of time people actually spend interacting with them, as many consumers -- especially young males -- have turned to videogames. Keynote speaker Mitchell Davis, CEO of Massive Incorporated, an ad agency that specializes in placing ads in videogames, said gamers racked up a whopping 30 billion hours of game play in 2004.

Advertising in games can include in-game produce placements, ads on Web sites where people play games over the Internet or advergaming -- in which the whole purpose of the game is to promote a product.

Read the article: www.variety.com

Microsoft launches branded game on AvantGo

Microsoft is expected to launch a branded video game on AvantGo's mobile platform tomorrow. The effort will promote the company's Office 2003 suite.

The trivia-based advergame is part of a year-long marketing relationship Microsoft struck with iAnywhere Solutions, which operates the AvantGo service.

"Microsoft Office Trivia Challenge," will mark the second phase of that partnership. The first, in November 2004, was a similar branded game that took the form of a memory challenge.

The new game will be made available to AvantGo users on their devices through the syncing mechanism that brings them the rest of their mobile content. It will be promoted through interstitial ads on the AvantGo device interface, a mention in its subscriber newsletter, and an banner on its Web site, which draws 20 million pageviews a month.

Read the article: www.clickz.com

TV ad-skipping losses to hit $27billion over the next five years

Ad skipping and on demand viewing could cost the TV industry $27 billion in lost ad revenue over the next five years, according to new research released today by Accenture.

The New York-headquartered management and technology consultancy reports that 70% of ads are already being skipped by viewers with digital video recorders; that trend will only get worse as DVR penetration grows from the current 8% of homes with DVRs to a projected 40% by 2009.

The report's release comes just a week after top broadcast network executives told the annual Cable & Telecommunications Association conference that DVRs pose a serious threat to their ad base. Previously, network executives publicly played down the potential impact of the ad-skipping technology.

Accenture's research suggests that the impact of DVRs, video on demand and interactive TV will have a much greater effect on the linear TV business than anyone previously thought. The report says such changes in viewing behavior will exert downward pressure on CPMs (or costs-per-thousand viewers, the metric by which agencies buy TV audiences).

At the same time advertisers will have a tougher time reaching a mass audience, though more and more marketers, such as McDonald's Corp., have multiple messages aimed at multiple niches.

Read the article: www.adage.com

Head to head with the zappers

News Corp president Peter Chernin told an industry conference in the US on Monday that his company had developed a grand plan to deal with the serious threat of ad zapping from digital video recorders.

More live sport, live news and live events were critical, he said, because viewers skipped ads less often during this sort of programming. The second tactic was to dish up more content that viewers had to pay to watch, such as video on demand and DVDs, thereby reducing the reliance on ad revenue. Finally, Chernin signalled that News would pursue more branded entertainment initiatives, whereby advertisers pay to blend in with programming.

"We have to rethink the way we sell advertising," Chernin told the Cable & Telecommunications Association conference in New York. "When we put six to eight 30-second commercials back to back, we put up a sign saying, 'Go away now'. We better figure out a way to grow the opportunities faster than the disruptions hurt us."

Well, if the new global head of Aegis, Robert Lerwill, comes good on his threat, more disruption is on its way.

Aegis controls $US7.2 billion ($9.3 billion) globally in media advertising placement for major clients through its two media buying and planning networks, Carat and Vizeum. Lerwill, who was in Australia last week, says by the end of next year, half of his company's media expenditure - in other words, more than $US3.5 billion - will be going to digital channels (online, mobile phones, digital TV, video games and the like). Last year, less than 10 per cent, or $US700 million, of global media buying from Aegis went to digital media.

Read the article: www.smh.com.au

Addressing product placement concerns: how important is resolution in product placement?

Anyone able to view the recent TBS series on 'Product Placement in the Movies' was most likely struck by one thing: How naturally and seamlessly the placements fit into the flow of the stories. These terrific slices of everyday life resonated with us because they involved the use of real products and brands, illuminated warm, funny, or emotional stories and experiences we could easily relate to, and they were memorable. The question is: How can we capture that satisfying purity in today's world, but still achieve the business goals and objectives we are after?

Read the article: www.mediapost.com

Schoolchildren learn facts of (media) life

Hasbro, the toy giant behind Monopoly and Star Wars toys, is directing its marketing effort at schools with a free board game about advertising backed by McDonald's among others.

The US firm will distribute 10,000 free copies of the game to primary school students, claiming it will help improve literacy among six- to 11-year-olds. Hasbro says Media Smart's Game of Life, in which students plan marketing campaigns, will teach them about "persuasive writing, jingles and puns".

The game is backed by Media Smart, the industry body that promotes advertising awareness and is funded by McDonald's, Masterfoods, Procter & Gamble and advertising agencies including Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and DDB London.

The game explains how to market everything from mobile phones to charities. Schoolchildren will earn points if their advertising campaign gets a positive review or if it is shortlisted for a reward, but suffer if the marketing budget is cut or the product packaging is bad.

Read the article: www.media.guardian.co.uk

Radio DJs launch podcast-only shows

Paul Gambaccini, Tony Blackburn and Wes Butters are among DJs backing a revolutionary new service bringing radio to the iPod generation. In a world first, they are to bypass conventional radio to reach listeners and record shows specially for download from the internet.

The brainchild of former Virgin Radio DJ Daryl Denham and former Radio 1 chart show host Butters, the shows will cost from 49p and will span music, speech, showbusiness and comedy with travel, sport, topical and specialist interest shows planned .

"You can build your own fantasy radio station with shows from legendary names," said Denham. "People don't watch the TV the way they used to. Sky Plus and Tivo allows them to record and watch when they like but radio has not been as flexible, until now. We are offering radio where you want it when you want it."

"And these are unique shows, created specially for iPods and MP3 players, not rehashes of something already broadcast on the radio" added Butters.

The company, a three-way venture between Butters, Denham and talent management agency MPC Entertainment, has deals in place with Warner Music and Universal.

Podcasts will play only 60% of a song to make sure the service is not used as a cheap method of downloading tracks - 99p will buy an hour-long music show. Every track played will be linked to a download service allowing listeners to buy it there and then.

Read the article: www.media.guardian.co.uk

Games overtake music' for US men

Men spend more on computer games than they do on music, reveals an entertainment report of US consumers.

The survey by Nielsen Entertainment shows that DVDs are the number one purchase for men each month. It also found that games are starting to attract significant numbers of players beyond the core target market of males aged eight to 34.

The report also revealed the fact that the look of a game is key to determining whether people will buy it. Almost a quarter of gamers, 24%, are over 40 years, said the report.

It found that 40% of US homes own a PC, game console or handheld gaming device. Almost a quarter of these, 23%, own all three types of gaming gadget and the vast majority of gamers, 89%, do their playing via a console.

Read the article: www.bbc.co.uk

TV commercials adjust to a shorter attention span

o what lengths will television advertisers go to be noticed amid a sea of 30-second commercials? How about 120 seconds, or 90, or perhaps 45 or 40. Maybe 10 seconds, or 15, or 10 - or even a "blink and you may miss it" 5.

Three decades after the 30-second spot became the standard way to sell products on television, marketers are increasingly willing to buy commercials in different lengths - and to run them in different configurations.

For instance, a campaign for Puma athletic wear scheduled to start Monday will feature buff athletes in 15-second spots to be paired, in mix-and-match fashion, in 30-second time slots. And to promote three cars that can go from zero to 60 miles an hour in under 5 seconds, the Cadillac division of General Motors recently ran 5-second commercials.

"People are trying anything they can to get the message across," said Aaron Cohen, executive vice president and director for broadcast at Horizon Media in New York, a media services agency that works for advertisers like Geico and Ikea North America.

When television began as an advertising medium, the standard commercial length was 60 seconds. Thirty-second spots began running not long after cigarette commercials left the airwaves in 1971, Mr. Cohen said.

The television networks, worried about the lost ad revenue from tobacco marketers, started offering 30-second spots at lower prices than their 60-second counterparts "to make it more financially attractive" for other advertisers to buy time, Mr. Cohen said.

The 15-second commercial began to appear in the late 1980's as a way to compensate for the rapidly rising cost of 30-second spots. (The cost of a 15-second spot generally is slightly more than half of a 30-second ad.) According to an analysis released this week by Media IQ, an auditing company in New York, 15-second spots account for more than 36 percent of all commercial time sold by the major broadcast networks.

"It's hard to keep consumers excited about your TV spots when everyone has a kajillion-dollar budget," said Antonio Bertone, global director for brand management at Puma in Boston.

Read the article: www.nytimes.com

MTV to launch internet 'channel'

MTV is launching a free "channel" on the internet that will show some of the station's TV programmes, including reality hit The Osbournes.

The MTV Overdrive website will let users with high-speed computer connections watch music videos and extended programmes on demand. The website is currently being tested and will launch fully on 25 April. Other companies, including Walt Disney and Microsoft, already provide content for online viewers.

Jason Hirschhorn, MTV's senior vice president of digital music and media, said the channel was being launched in response to the high number of young fans with broadband.

Read the article: www.bbc.co.uk

Advertisers predict a mobile future

Mobile phones will eclipse television to become the key route for advertisers to reach consumers, the head of an advertising network predicts.

Andrew Robertson, who was appointed chief executive of BBDO last year with a brief to shake up the network, said wireless devices such as mobile phones, laptops and BlackBerry email technology could help to ameliorate the problem of TV viewers fast-forwarding TV adverts.

"We are rapidly getting to the point where the single most important medium that people have is their wireless device," Mr Robertson said.

"It's with them every single moment of the day. It's genuinely the convergence box that everyone has been talking about for so many years," he told the Financial Times.

Read the article: www.media.guardian.co.uk

Extreme makeover: a product placement dream

ABC's Extreme Makeover sucked me in for two or three episodes. The drama of down and out or otherwise victimized families getting a real house to live in makes for good story telling. But beyond that, it's probably the best example of appropriate product placement on the air today.

Product placement will reach about $4.25 billion this year, according to PQ Media. That's a 23% surge from a year earlier. As more and more consumers, like me, skip more and and more ads via a DVR, the 30-second commercial is going the way of the nightly network newscast.

Many product placement deals are obnoxious and ham-fisted. The Apprentice comes to mind. Extreme Makeover has several sponsors with prominent placement deals: Sears, Ford and Pella Windows to name three. Seeing the designers go off to Sears every episode and deck out the house with Kenmore appliances, is not just a sponsorship, it's integral to the subject family getting their lives back. The best looking Sears products are featured, so the whole deal is far better than any 30-second ad the department store's ad agencies have created in 20 years. Pella windows, likewise, is nicely showcased in the show without being obnoxious about it. And, of course, Ford, is the one providing vehicles to the family. What's a new garage without new sheetmetal in it?

Read the article: www.businessweek.com

Nursing's image is given a dose of video reality

The stereotypical nurse is either a demure angel of mercy looking like Florence Nightingale or the kind of stern matron portrayed in Carry On films who dispense giant pills, rubber sheets and risible lines such as: "You fell on your coccyx."

An image makeover is required to rid the profession of such stereotypes, according to the branding consultancy Redspider. It found that young people were being deterred from a career in nursing because nobody told them about the emotional rewards of joining a profession based on compassion, teamwork, versatility and the opportunity to make a difference.

Charlie Robertson, a Redspider consultant, said: "The image of nursing is not even middle of the road. It's worse than that. It's the equivalent of an own-label food line and should be aiming much higher."

Ministers are concerned about the supply of nurses, which is threatened by the imminent retirement of about 20% of the workforce who are over 50, and efforts by the US to attract nurses from other parts of the world.

But it was left to the magazine Nursing Standard to organise a rebranding of the profession and pay a £100,000 bill for a five-minute film to try to change public perceptions.

Read the article: www.media.guardian.co.uk

Branded content generates buzz

Home Depot Inc. -- which has successfully embedded its brand into shows such as Trading Spaces, Survivor and The Apprentice -- says it takes a major investment in time and money to make branded entertainment work.

"What we're discovering is that it's a very, very complex type of marketing vehicle," Pat Wilkinson, director of marketing for Home Depot Canada, said yesterday at a conference of the Canadian Media Directors' Council in Toronto.

"What we've discovered is that for every dollar we spend on branded entertainment opportunities, the reality is we have to spend $3 to $5 to activate it -- to make it really deliver further results for us," Ms. Wilkinson said.

Branded content is one of the most talked about means for advertisers to get their brands noticed in an era where new technologies allow consumers to tune out traditional advertisements. It typically involves embedding a brand within a television program, video game or other entertainment medium.

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Product displacement: rival's ad ambushes 'Apprentice' deal

Ambush marketing strategies have always been a part of the media buying game. Witness Fox's decision to pull a Super Bowl campaign by Miller beer, which took a jab at Super Bowl ad giant Anheuser-Busch's new light beer. Undeterred, A-B instead bought local airtime in select markets. They reached their audience--just a lesser number. Now that practice is creeping into the field of branded entertainment, raising big questions for marketers who tie into product placement deals that are often known well in advance of when they air, giving competitors the opportunity to ambush their efforts. That was the case when pizza chain Papa John's broke an ad campaign ambushing rival Domino's Pizza's placement in last week's episode of NBC's "The Apprentice." In the episode, "Apprentice" teams were tasked with creating a new flavored pizza. Concurrently, Domino's launched spots for its new American Classic Cheeseburger Pizza during the show. A new pizza flavor was created by the marketer itself, not by any of the teams on "The Apprentice."

After investing plenty of dough on this placement (the ad featured the Donald himself), you'd think that Domino's came out the big winner by the time the show was over.

Enter Domino's competitor Papa John's.

The company one-upped Domino's by purchasing local ad time during "The Apprentice" touting a meatball pizza, which "coincidentally" was the flavor pizza made by both "Apprentice" teams. The spot showed Papa John's Founder John Schnatter in a boardroom encouraging people to tell the competition "they're fired." The best part of the ad was Schnatter saying: "Why get a pizza made by "The Apprentice" when you can get a pizza made by the pros at Papa John's." Oh, the irony.

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PSP is the new DVR

The new Sony PlayStation Portable handheld device is an extension of the same imperative on viewer choice that has led to the popularity of digital video recorders, according to Comcast Communications Chief Executive Brian Roberts.

"There's going to be a very huge proportion of viewers that isn't watching [TV programming] live, and the industry is going to have to work together to find ways to deal with that," said Roberts, speaking during a panel discussion at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association National Show Monday in San Francisco.

DVR technology allows viewers to pause, rewind, instantly replay or play back any live broadcast by recording it onto a hard drive. It also lets users easily fast-forward past commercials. Sony's PSP plays video games, music, and movies.

An increasing number of viewers, through the PSP and other devices, are going to live in a world in which ads will have to be much more relevant to consumers in the way that Internet ads have to be, Roberts added.

Roberts said this more voluntary ad environment is why a significant aspect of Comcast's recently announced deal with TiVo, the company that pioneered DVR technology, involves ways to deliver ads to the commercial-zapping consumer that will be more "useful."

Because ads will be more directly targeted, he added, "ultimately advertising will be a big winner. In the short term, there's going to be a disruption."

Roberts agreed with other panelists that the ability to make content available on a wide variety of portable devices is a key element to cable's viability in the years ahead.

However, Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation (DWA: news, chart, profile) , said that video piracy "is the dark cloud over the horizon" that worries content providers when they think of that kind of portability.

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Lions Gate hosts Foodfight!

Larry Kasanoff's animated project will be the first to come out of the nascent Lions Gate Family Entertainment banner.

Less than a month after its formation, Lions Gate Family Entertainment has announced its debut feature film project: Foodfight!, the 3-D animated film from Larry Kasanoff's (True Lies) Threshold Animation Studios. Foodfight! is slated for a nationwide fall 2006 release.

The creators acquired the rights to use nearly every consumer packaged goods company's characters in the film, including Mr. Clean, Charlie the Tuna, Twinkie the Kid and more as supporting background "actors." Two major brand name promotional partners will be announced soon, along with additional major talent.

Read the article: www.filmstew.com

Promote to entertain

Popular marketing strategy, advertisers and agencies are pondering how to handle problems that could potentially slow what, until now, has been robust growth.

Branded entertainment involves embedding advertising inside the content of television and radio programmes and movies by placing products in important scenes or making brands intrinsic elements of plot lines.

The goal of such ploys, on display in TV series like “American Idol” and “The Apprentice”, is to regain the attention of consumers who can avoid advertising by using digital video recorders, satellite radio and digital juke boxes.

In the last week alone, there was word of deals in branded entertainment from Energizer, Home Depot, McDonald’s and Volkswagen. Home Depot had one on NBC, and one on a Spanish network, Telemundo.

Read the article: www.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Nielsen lays out plan for local TV measurement, says DVRs are Madison Avenue's problem

Convenience and control mean everything to today's consumer and unless advertisers, agencies and broadcasters make that ethos part of everything they do to reach viewers, they'll be lost amid a growing sea of digital video recorders, and Nielsen will be there to count the diminishing eyeballs with greater accuracy, executives from the reporting company said Thursday. The remarks were made separately in a presentation entitled, "TV Research at the Crossroads," at the Television Bureau of Advertising's 2005 Marketing Conference, which was held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.

While it took years for technologies such as television, cable and satellite to gradually take hold, DVRs and DVD players have achieved enormous market penetration in the U.S. thanks to aggressive electronics manufacturers in China and South Korea, said Scott Brown, senior vice president-strategic relations, marketing and technology at Nielsen.

"DVR penetration is currently at 5 percent of U.S. households, but it will be at 25 percent by the end of 2006," Brown said. "In particular, there are 21 million video-on-demand households right now in the US, and they will number 30 million by the end of next year. Control and convenience are the watchwords of today. But those words mean nothing without content. And you are the ones who largely determine what the content is. So the future of this business is up to you to a certain extent and the decisions you make now about how to deal with consumers' demand for control and convenience."

Read the article: www.mediapost.com