Online marketer Bluestreak’s latest email report, published Monday, highlights the email marketing practices of leading practitioners who consistently achieve superior open and click-through rates, the Providence Journal reports (via MarketingVox). The email marketing leaders had open rates of more than 45 percent (10 percentage points more that the average) and click rates at almost three times the average - 20 percent.
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A new joint venture between AOL, XM Satellite Radio, and AEG will deliver entertainment - mainly live and on-demand concerts and comedy shows - via the internet, satellite, wireless, and other platforms, Business Week reports The company, called Network Live, follows the success of the Live 8 concerts, which AOL delivered in seven separate feeds without any meltdowns. Five million people viewed the shows online, and AOL peaked with 175,000 simultaneous users, a new record for AOL.
Children born after 2001 - the 9/11 generation - may grow up to be conformists, said Ann Fishman, president of Generational Targeted Marketing Corp. at yesterday’s National Center For Database Marketing conference, according to DM News. That’s because they’re being over-protected at school in light of Columbine-type incidents, at home because of kidnappings and Amber Alerts, and out in the world because of terrorism. Overprotection leads to an aversion of risk, Fishman predicts.
Northlich’s five-year, $50 million contract with the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation will expire at the end of this year, and the Foundation has placed the annual $10.5 million youth anti-smoking campaign in review, according to AdAge. A request for proposals sent to Ohio agencies last week covers a three-year integrated campaign at slightly increased funding levels, for a total of $31.5 million.
Forrester Research has launched a campaign geared specifically to former clients of META Group, a company that was acquired by Gartner in April, according to B to B. Forrester will run banner ads on CIO.com, TechRepublic.com, InformationWeek.com, InfoWorld.com and Computerworld, inviting former META clients to “Find Forrester. Miss META no more.” The campaign also includes email newsletter sponsorship and Google keyword sponsorships.
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Lance Armstrong will appear on posters in middle schools starting next month, as part of a new campaign from Coca-Cola called Live It, designed to encourage children to live an active lifestyle, The New York Times reports.
The $4 million program will hand out pedometers and prizes to participating schools. Students will watch a Lance Armstrong video and hear an announcement from Armstrong over the school’s PA. The program goal is 8,500 public middle schools - two million students - to participate in the weeklong program during the coming school year. Other featured athletes will include Nascar drivers Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty, and WNBA stars Diana Taurasi and Tamika Catchings.
The 150 members of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association are beginning to inject new terminology into their advertising products and strategies in the hopes of spawning a new set of standards for measuring and codifying the effects of word of mouth marketing, MediaPost reports.
Web advertising adspend - 3.7 percent of ad budgets last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau - remains small because unlike TV there is no generally accepted measurement system comparable to Nielsen ratings, says Ted McConnell, Procter & Gamble’s manager of interactive marketing and innovation. According to MediaPost (via MarketingVox) McConnell, speaking at Ad:Tech in Chicago on Monday, said what’s worse is that new online products come with their own sets of measurements - that’s like cars having non-uniform speedometers, he said.
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MasterCard, GEICO, Nokia and New York City Off Track Betting have signed up to advertise using Arena Media Network’s flat-panel displays installed in eight arenas including FleetCenter in Boston, MCI Center in Washington D.C., and The American Airlines Center in Dallas, Mediaweek reports. Other AMN advertisers include Just for Men, Blue Diamond Nuts, and Delta Dental Insurance.
The UK independant film EMR will be launched simultaneously in movie theaters, on the internet, and on DVD this week, according to Netimperative. The film, which won Best UK Feature at the 2004 Raindance Film Festival, will be shown in selected UK theaters, available for download on the Tiscali UK film club website for £2.50, and for sale on DVD for £12.99.
“This is the first time in the UK, in Europe, and, as far as we know, in the world that a film has been simultaneously released in this way,” EMR’s producer, John Lentaigne, told Netimperative.
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Another “educational” campaign, in which consumers are urged to talk to their doctors about a particular health problem, hits the airwaves as Cheryl Ladd, of Charlie’s Angels fame, promotes menopause awareness for Wyeth, Brandweek reports. The ads clearly target aging baby boomers, those who grew up familiar with Ladd’s legendary bone structure and are now facing menopause. Ladd also stars in a series of videos on the Wyeth site, TalkingtoYourDoctor.com.
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The Publishers Information Bureau’s numbers through June show revenue closed at $10.8 billion, up 9.5 percent from the same period last year, Mediaweek reports. Ad pages gained 1.8 percent for the first six months of the year. For the month of June, revenue increased 8.2 percent, to $1.9 billion, while pages gained 2.3 percent.
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National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern claims optimism about the league’s TV future in the face of the seven percent decline of regular-season ratings on ESPN and TNT and a four percent decline on ABC. But media buyers are disappointed with the lower ratings, Mediaweek reports. Stern points out that broadcast ratings in general are declining while cable ratings continue to grow. And, he adds, future rights deals with cable partners could extend beyond TV to include, possibly, media such as wireless, broadband, video on demand, radio, theatricals, AOL, HBO, book publishing, and/or print products for a broader reach for advertisers.
Keyword advertising prices stabilized in the second quarter, according to separate surveys by investment banks SG Cowen and Piper Jaffray, reports Adweek. SG Cowen said prices declined 1.7 percent compared to the first quarter; Piper Jaffray said pricing was mostly stable, but that Google saw some rises in search ads.
Google, the biggest beneficiary of search advertising popularity, saw its share of web ad spending rise from nine percent in Q1 2004 to 14 percent in Q1 2005, according to SG Cowen.
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The Mediaplex division of ValueClick added an ad planning and buying component called MediaDirector, according to ClickZ. The web-based application automates the generation of RFPs, organizes responses, facilitates negotiation and, of course, can help with the ad trafficking that has formed the base of the application for years.
Optimistically, Mediaplex put in capabilities for electronic insertion order signing. Publishers responding to RFPs do so through the system, able to attach documents and make revisions.
“The Princes of Malibu,” which premiered on Fox Sunday night, posted a 2.6 average rating among vieweres 18-49, down seven percent from “The Simpsons” in the previous timeslot, Media Life reports. The reality show, which follows the stepsons of music producer David Foster, didn’t generate the kind of excitement as a familiar rich-kid reality show - “The Simple Life” - did in its first or second season.
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