Instead of using incentive programs to sell cars in 2006, General Motors marketing will lean towards the idea of providing “the best product at the best price,” Adweek reports.
“We’re not going to market the deal, but our competitive MSRP advantage segment by segment,” said Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of North American sales, service and marketing. “Last year the product story got lost in the corporate story.”
Bid4Spots, the online remnant marketplace for radio ad inventory launched in September, seems to be a success, and has plans to expand the model to secondary radio stations, commercial, cable, and satellite television, online radio, streaming and podcasts, and more.
Bid4Spots has signed up 1,200+ radio stations, representing nearly all the top 300 U.S. DMAs, and nearly 200 advertisers and more than 40 agencies are participating. So far, the site has sold nearly $1 million worth of unsold radio spots for participating radio stations.
Covente, Inc., a provider of teleprospecting and sales lead generation services for B-to-B high-tech companies, has announced a Validated Prospect Lists Development service that builds a current list of contact names, titles, telephone numbers, addresses, and email information based on validation via a phone call on behalf of the Covente client.
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AquaCell Media, the company that brought water coolers complete with wrap-around ads to Rite Aid and Duane Reade drug stores, has announced that the “coolertising” program will be expanded. Now, visitors to hair salons will find water coolers with ads for CBS’s new comedy, Courting Alex. The program will also be found in law offices, with an ad for Esquire Deposition Service.
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Google is providing a Dell-Google co-branded personalized home page, which will be the default home page set for new Dell PCs and laptops, MediaPost reports.
The National Geographic Society and custom publisher The Magazine Group have formed a custom publishing alliance in order to create communications vehicles that emphasize and promote corporate social responsibility. The new alliance, GeoGroup Media, will target industries such as automotive, environment, pharmaceutical and packaged goods.
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Time Warner’s CNN and Time Inc. have re-launched CNNMoney.com with content from Time’s business and finance titles, abandoning subscriber-only models to instead rely on advertising, reports ClickZ (via MarketingVox). CNNMoney.com will now carry Fortune, Fortune Small Business, Business 2.0 and Money content. The combined non-duplicated audience of the various sites involved was 9 million unique visitors in November 2005, according to Nielsen NetRatings. The re-launch will be backed by an online and offline ad campaign, mostly on Time Warner properties.
Google is running classified-like ads in the pages of the Chicago Sun-Times, which so far is the only newspaper participating in Google’s print advertising tests, Crain’s reports (via I Want Media). The ads debuted on Dec. 9, and only 15 boxes have run so far.
The deal allows Google to fill remnant space in the Sun-Times. “Ads by Google” appears at the top of each box of ads which are being run near relevant content. Google ads for ticket brokers, White Sox apparel and Chicago Bears memorabilia have run in the Sports section.
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Rules amendments passed by BPA Worldwide’s Board of Directors in December include a revised digital products definition designed to make it clear that BPA is prepared to audit stand-alone digital magazines, as well as digital “versions” of print publications.
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Savvy media buyers have already begun planning their online buys for the 2006 holiday season, a long-term commitment that reflects the growing maturity of the channel, according to ClickZ.
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Buyers report that Sirius Satellite Radio is getting less than half the ad rate it originally asked for to advertise on Howard Stern’s show, Mediaweek reports (via Billboard Radio Monitor). And without a way to verify how many of Sirius’ 3.3 million subscribers tune-in to Stern, some feel that’s too much.
Just over a quarter, 26.8 percent, of media buyers and planners that responded to a recent Media Life survey think this year will be a strong one for ad spending. Nearly 22 percent think 2006 will be weak throughout, even with the Olympics and election spending.
But the majority of major ad forecasters do not share in that pessimism, Media Life reports. While many did in fact cut 2005 forecasts, and some trimmed 2006 estimates, they still remain hopeful for this new year.
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Outlook Group has signed a 10-year agreement with Madison Direct Marketing that includes all insertion and mail coordination for Madison Direct’s marketing programs as well as short-run printing and inventory management. Based on currently expected volume, sales under the contract are valued at an estimated $1.5 million per year.
TV Guide Channel is debuting a new, weekly one-hour series, TV Watercooler, on Monday, January 23 at 8 PM. The show co-hosted, by comedians John Fugelsang and Debra Wilson, will provide info on TV events and include celebrity interviews and fan feedback.
