- Twitter will launch its enhanced brand ads on February 1, according to Business Insider. The Facebook-like functionality has been available to a few select brands, including Coca-Cola, but now will be generally available—at a pricetag of $25,000.
- ESPN and Jeep caught heat from Digiday, which named the network and automaker in its Bad Ad of the Week.”ESPN covered the memorial service of former Penn State head football Joe Paterno. A rich-media ad for Jeep had a Jeep Wrangler “crash through” the computer screen, as well as Paterno’s casket, which sat dead center.
- The Sundance Film Festival and YouTube have cut a deal to rent out Sundance titles, reports Streaming Media. Most Sundance titles will rent for $2.99 to $3.99 for a 48-hour rental--$1 or more cheaper than from Comcast. The Sundance Film Festival wrapped over the weekend.
- Consumer-goods maker Procter & Gamble will “throw caution to the digital wind,” reports AdExchanger. Chairman and CEO Bob McDonald in an earnings conference call said the company would eliminate 1,600 non-manufacturing jobs, and invest heavily in its digital marketing. "In the digital space, with things like Facebook and Google and others, we find that return on investment of the advertising when properly designed, when the big idea is there, can be much more efficient."
- Angry consumers used Facebook to storm the gates of clothing retailer H&M last week. They accused the company of lifting a designer’s ad idea, reports Adweek. The company has begun marketing goods with the simple tagline “You look nice today,” with a red heart shape. Atlanta artist Tori LaConsay created the tagline—complete with red heart—for a sign in her neighborhood, in 2008. She was unpaid for the sign. Supporters have since deluged H&M’s Facebook site with hate messages. H&M at first attempted to dismiss the similarities as a “coincidence,” but is now seeking a resolution with LaConsay.
Harsh reality for “Reality Weekly,” “OK!”
No official numbers yet, but industry buzz is that Reality Weekly, the new American Media Inc. (AMI), is struggling. Sources have told WWD that the first issue, shipped the last week of December, sold just over 100,000 copies, despite delivering 500,000 copies to newsstands. Subsequent issues have sold less.
Reality Weekly has made both safe and risky decisions. It priced itself at a consumer-friendly $1.79, and its online ads in other AMI properties ask “Seriously, where else are you going to have this much fun for just $1.79?” But its first issue featured Kim Kardashian on the cover, in defiance of “Kardashian Krash,” an ennui towards the celebrity sisters that has killed newsstand sales. Secondly, it named Omarosa O. Manigault its West Coast editor, and declared her in a press release to be “The first star of reality TV.” Manigault’s credentials and work ethic have always been sketchy; she appeared on the first season of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice,” declaring herself a former Clinton White House appointee. In reality, she held a low-level job from which she was fired. Since then, she has appeared on more than 20 reality shows, including "Surreal Life,” "Fear Factor" and "Girls Behaving Badly," and invariably generating negative buzz from viewers.
Reality Weekly has a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) of $45, and Issue 1 had 14 pages of print ads. Its current issue featurs a "Biggest Loser" contestant sharing weight-loss tips and death threats toward "The Bachelor" contestant Ben Flajnik. Both "Loser" and "Bachelor" have seen declining ratings in their current seasons.
American Media owns both the Star and the National Enquirer tabloids, and another celebrity weekly magazine, OK!, which also appears to be struggling. WWD reports that OK! has averaged less than 200,000 in newsstand sales per week in January 2012, far down from its halcyon days of .5 million copies in newsstand sales.
Olbermann Not a “Given” at Current TV Election Coverage
Buyers planning on the Olbermann wit in Election 2012 coverage will have to settle for less-tested entities. Keith Olbermann is so far sitting out Current TV’s Election 2012 coverage—a disappointment for Current TV, which has counted upon Olbermann for a shot in the arm. Olbermann famously left MSNBC for Current TV in June 2011, largely to recreate his “Countdown” success anywhere but MSNBC. But along with bringing the “Countdown” format to Current, he appears to have brought his dislike of authority, suggests The New York Times. Thusfar, Olbermann is not scheduled to cover the January Iowa caucus or New Hampshire primary; and has sat out two special reports on the December Republican debates. Current is counting on the draw of its anchors Cenk Uygur and Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor, plus former VP Al Gore (chairman of Current TV).
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