Sales for Victoria’s Secret Direct, the catalog/web division of Limited Brands, increased 15 percent to $417.4 million for the 13 weeks ended Jan. 28, Multichannel Merchant reports. Total sales for fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 for Limited Brands were $3.54 billion, up 6 percent from the previous year, and net income rose 36 percent to $519.2 million.
The helpful butler Jeeves is now officially no more, and Ask.com is officially here - with a new main page, a new logo, a simplified interface (see adjacent pic) and new tools, including enhanced maps and driving directions, encyclopedia search and web-based desktop search - CNET reports (via MarketingVox). Ask.com offers a new customizable “toolbox” with shortcuts to 10 default search tools, including maps, images, weather, dictionary and local search.
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Newspapers that switch to tabloid format, something that 80-plus major newspapers around the world have done in the hopes of boosting reader appeal and halting circulation declines, have found that it is no cure-all, according to the World Association of Newspapers, Media Life reports. Though many papers that switched from broadsheet to tabloid format did see circulation spurts, those gains have been seen to evaporate over time.
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For the first time in December, the nation’s top internet radio networks’ total audience exceeded seven million weekly listeners, according to comscore Arbitron’s latest report, writes Mediaweek. Also a new high, the average midday audience for five of the top networks - including AOL Radio Network, Yahoo Music’s Launchcast and Clear Channel Online Music and Radio - surpassed 1.8 million listeners.
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Congelio Hoping to recover from an exodus of agencies and talent, Houston-based marketing and production communities are joining together in a push said to be the first of its kind, being conducted entirely pro bono, to boost awareness and business for the local industry, reports Adage. Though located in the fourth-largest U.S. city, Houston marketing executives feel overlooked by companies searching for advertising and production services.
A consortium of private equity firms plans to make a formal bid for Dutch media and information conglomerate VNU, offering around $34 per share, writes BtoB.
The consortium offered $8.9 billion for VNU, which runs the Nielsen television ratings service and many business-to-business magazines when VNU went into play after it failed to acquire the health care research company IMS for $7 billion in January.
Though the television viewership of the Winter Olympics was lower than years previous, NBC’s Winter Olympics website set online traffic records, representing another milestone in the evolving ways viewers get their information, writes The Chicago Tribune.
Though American Media - owner of gossip rags including the Star, Globe, National Enquirer and Weekly World News - continues to sell millions of copies, circulation is slipping, reports the Economist.
The National Enquirer lost over 20 percent of its circulation between 2003 and the middle of 2005. At least half of the group’s publications are expected to report lower sales in June because of stricter industry standards for measuring circulation numbers.
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Avenue A/Razorfish forecasts that search marketing’s share of online advertising spend will decrease in 2006 because brand marketers will boost their online budgets - some by 20-30 percent - writes ClickZ (via MarketingVox), citing the agency’s “2006 Digital Media Outlook” report. However, verticals such as travel and technology that tend to focus on direct marketing will likely be increasing offline spend instead, as in the case of Travelocity’s use of TV advertising.
The Home Depot is seeking a new agency to take over its direct marketing and interactive business, which are in review after the split with its agency of record since 2002, DDB Worldwide, Chicago, writes Adage. The companies mutually agreed not to renew a 2006 direct marketing agency of record agreement, according to Adweek.
GM Planworks’ Mike Rosen has been chosen by TelevisionWeek as Media Buyer of the Year, thanks to his effectiveness in changing the way the automaker sends marketing messages to potential customers. And, because GM has such pull in the industry, TV advertising in general is changing, as well, as Rosen shifts GM from simply buying 30-second spots to investing in branded entertainment, multimedia marketing platforms, and experiments in new video technology, TelevisionWeek writes.
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In 2006, publishers of b-to-b magazines will continue to face the challenge of losing ad dollars to the web, writes DM News in a look at the magazine landscape for 2006. While 2005 saw modest growth overall for magazine advertising, b-to-b struggled and will continue to struggle, though some growth can be expected. Publishers of b-to-b magazines are expected to continue to explore ways to create a meaningful presence on the web and to monetize it.
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Outdoor advertising firm Maiden said this morning, in a statement to the London Stock Exchange, that it has failed to find a buyer, as the offers it has received valued the company well below its current share price, Brand Republic reports. Bidders were believed to include Viacom, Clear Channel, and JCDecaux. After the announcement today, shares plummeted nearly 50 percent.
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Florida Commerce Credit Union is the first local business to utilize the moving-billboard idea when it debuted two Tallahassee buses wrapped with an advertising slick sporting the company’s new logo, slogan and advertising campaign, on Monday, reports the Tallahassee Democrat.
Harper’s Magazine filed a brief on behalf of a group of magazine publishers on Thursday that supported an appeal of a New York Supreme Court decision that forces newsstand vendors to use advertisements to replace display space previously used for newspapers and magazines, writes Mediaweek.
The insurance category grew the most in terms of ad spending in 2005, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, jumping 31.3 percent, Adweek reports. Ad spending overall rose 7.4 percent, to $125.5 billion, not including online ad revenue. Spending in 2004 rose only 6.3 percent from the previous year, and spending in 2003 rose only 5.1 percent.
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With eight nights to go, ABC had the lead over NBC in the February sweeps, writes Media Life. ABC averaged a 5.8 rating and 14 share among adults 18-49, while NBC reported a 5.0 rating and a 12 share.
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