‘Blender’ Beats Competition in Number of Young Male Readers

Blender magazine has announced that, according to the spring 2006 MRI Audience study, it tops all music and men’s lifestyle magazines in its concentration of young male readers, with the median age of readers 26. Even with 85 percent of its readers aged 21+, Blender sports a higher targeted audience concentration of adult readers 18-34, male readers 18-34, adult readers 18-24, and male readers 18-24 than any other publication in its competition set, including Rolling Stone, Spin, Vibe, FHM, Maxim, Stuff, ESPN the Magazine, and GQ.

Shelmail Proposes Email to Snail Delivery

Inventerprise LLC has asked the U.S. Postal Service to conduct a trial run of its Shelmail e-mail-to-snail addressing system sometime in 2008, eweek reports. The Shelmail proposal suggests that e-mail addresses are a better means of delivering physical mail than what the postal service uses now.

Emails Promoting Single Service Outperform Choice of Services

Emails offering one service compared to emails offering a choice of services bring higher conversions according to a study from Marketing Experiments, iMedia reports.

AOL Ads Show up in Paying Customers’ Emails

AOL - for the first time - is serving up ads in its paying customers’ email messages, in an effort to increase online ad inventory, writes PC World (via MarketingVOX). AOL surveyed subscribers and ran a test, and concluded that the banner ads in AOL Mail messages would not unduly upset subscribers, according to an AOL spokesperson.

Pepsi Posters Play Music

Pepsi is deploying posters in Toronto and Vancouver subways that play music when you plug in your headphones, reports Make (via Adverlab). The campaign was created by BBDO Toronto.

Seagrams, Audible.com Pair Books & Booze

Seagram’s Cooler Escapes has partnered with Audible.com for a summer promotion of two new flavors from the Seagram’s Cooler Escapes line that offers downloadable audio books to pair with alcoholic beverages, Promo Magazine reports.

Ocean Spray Launches Sample Tour

Ocean Spray’s Take a Vacation from Ordinary Diet Drinks vehicle is moving across the country, touting the brand’s first-ever diet juice drinks, Cranberry Spray and Orange Citrus Spray, Promo Magazine reports.

‘BusRadio’ Brings Radio with Ads to School Buses; Commercial Alert Protests

A company called BusRadio is hoping to broadcast commercial radio programs complete with ads on school buses to more than 100,000 Massachusetts students in September in a deal that will give school districts a way to raise money and marketers a way to reach students, the Wall Street Journal reports. The free service, which the company hopes to roll out nationwide in 2007, would give 5 percent of the ad revenue back to schools.

Bid4Spots Partners with Voice123 to Provide Radio Ad Production

Bid4Spots, the online ad marketplace for unsold radio spots, has partnered with Voice123, a provider of online voice-over talent, according to SoCalTech.com. With the partnership, the companies can provide fully produced radio ads for Bid4Spots advertisers.

Voice123 will provide not only voice-overs but also scripts and the production of the ads.

MTV, OMD Sign First Major Cable Deal of Upfront

MTV Networks has closed a multi-network, multiplatform deal with agency giant OMD which involves a “significant increase in volume,” according to a source close to the two players, Mediaweek writes.