MINE!

Mine.
The favorite word of two year olds everywhere is now the name of a new magazine and concept from Time Inc and American Express Publishing.
The concept is intriguing. Instead of paying for several magazine subscriptions, readers complete a detailed questionnaire about their likes, dislikes and interests. Content is then pulled from Time Inc.’s suite of [...]

RISK TAKING IN MARKETING

EXCERPTED FROM: PERSPECTIVES ON MARKETING
Is a risky concept worth trying if failure means potentially losing the account (or, for a marketing director, losing your job)?
Risk-taking is a major part of life and can bring tremendous rewards. It’s important to remember, however, that risk-taking can be extremely dangerous if the risk involves tampering with something that [...]

CREATIVITY AND THE CULT OF BLAME

Creativity.  Has the word or concept lost its meaning?
Recently, I’ve found myself scratching my head over this.  As more and more of my agency peers express frustration with their clients’ lack of appreciation for creativity in marketing – apparently, brand managers increasingly define “creative” as “not strategic” – I’ve started wondering if maybe they have [...]

MAKING MONEY BY NOT MAKING DECISIONS

I must admit, it has been painful for me to watch the Brett Favre story play out every August for the past few years.  The “will he retire or will he play” conversations dominated sports talk radio across the country and were covered across all sorts of national and local news programming for weeks.  As a passionate [...]

NOT AMUSED BY AMUSEMENT PARK ADS

By Michael Hand
As the long holiday weekend gets ready to hit us and I think about the possible outlets of activity for my kids, the use of advertising by theme parks has certainly come to mind.  Who are they trying to connect with??  What kind of message/image are they trying to convey??

Watching the late night [...]

TRIDENT: A LITTLE HAPPINESS GOES A LONG WAY

by Michael Hand
The most recent issue of Brandweek (6/13) reported on how the Trident brand was getting back into the TV advertising world with a new campaign.  The new tagline, “a Little Piece of Happy” , hits on the common human truth that the small things in life matter.  As we wait to read about [...]

THERE IS LIFE OUTSIDE THE BIG CITY

by Jason Miletsky
I recently read an article titled ‘Heineken to Agencies Outside NYC: You Need Not Apply‘ on AdAge. The report bascially said that Heineken won’t consider working with agencies outside New York City.  While I give them credit for not wasting other agencies’ time, the fact that they are so narrowly focused on Manhattan [...]

$100 MILLION MARKETING BLITZ PERCOLATING FOR McCAFE, BUT WILL IT WORK?

by Jason Miletsky
I’m not a coffee drinker.  In fact, I’ve never even tasted it, although I typically don’t tell people that because nobody believes me.  I’m not really sure what’s so hard to believe about it – I just can’t stand the way coffee smells, so why would I ever bother putting in my mouth?
But [...]

THE DIRTIEST FOUR-LETTER WORD: TIVO. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MARKETERS, AND HOW CAN YOU PLAN AROUND IT?

by Michael Hand
Marketers need to stop complaining about TiVo and the role it is playing in diluting media messages. Consumers will continue to time shift their favorite shows and fast forward through commercial interruptions. Can you blame them for loving the ability to watch a one-hour drama in 40- minutes? Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) were [...]

I’M NOT A PC, AND NO 4.5 YEAR OLD WILL CHANGE MY MIND

by Jason Miletsky
I don’t get it. I don’t get the campaign, and I don’t get the thinking behind it.
Why would Microsoft, which holds on to a crazy dominant share of the OS market, deliberately play into Apple’s hands – not only further legitimizing them, but in the process making Apple seem even cooler than [...]