CBS Sells Out of Online March Madness Inventory

CBS says it has sold out its ad inventory for March Madness On Demand, its upcoming live streaming of all 64 games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

“There is no inventory left,” said Jason Kint, CBSSports.com svp and general manager. “I will still take advertisers’ calls, but I’m not sure what else we could sell at this point.”
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Marketers Jump on Men’s Grooming Trend

(AdAge.com) — It’s a beautiful time to be a man — or at least to market to men — as personal-care marketers rev up for what looks to be the biggest array of product launches for men in nearly a decade and maybe ever.

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Study Profiles Habits, Preferences of Social Media Users

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a division of the National Retail Federation, released new research this week at the NRF’s Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference on the habits of social media users. Comparing social media users to the average U.S. adult, the survey looks at the differences in demographics for each group, including male and female usage as well as age differences in social media users compared to other adults. The survey was conducted by BIGresearch.

(download the report)

Mining the U.S. Generation Gaps

Understanding shopping and media habits at different ages can help marketers optimize critical assortment, pricing, promotion and advertising decisions by crafting targeted strategies and niche offers that reflect deal propensity, trip frequency, channel predilection, average spend and media usage.

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Dame In Flight…not

Certain alternative media campaigns just don’t fly with everyone, and that’s literally the case for a busty pin-up girl positioned prominently on the nose of a Boeing 737.

(read the Media Life story)

Ads Posted on Facebook Strike Some as Off-Key

Facebook,  the world’s biggest social network, is selling more ad spots to big companies like Wal-Mart Stores, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo. But the site’s pages are also home to countless ads from smaller companies that can be funny, weird or just plain creepy.

(read the New York Times Story)

Geotargeted banner ad growth attributed to lower priced leads

Geotargeted banner ad revenue is expected to grow 16.6% to $1.04 billion in 2009, according to BIA/Kelsey in its Interactive Local Media spending forecast. Double digit growth continues in 2010. Geotargeted display will increase 13.1% next year to a total of 1.18 billion. By 2013, it will swell to $1.9 billion, a compound annual growth rate of 16%.

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The Marketing Problem That Money Alone Can’t Cure

I think we’re all finding it more difficult than ever to be marketers these days – results expectations are high, budgets have shrunk, resources have been cut and consumer spending figures are slower than in the past.  In other words, delivering a stellar, or sometimes even acceptable, return on marketing investment (ROMI) is tougher than ever to achieve.  Of course, the fact that the environment is tough doesn’t mean no one is buying anything, it just means that each consumer purchase is more considered and the competition for each consumer dollar is more intense.

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The Future of TV

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In its heyday, “This is Your Life” was seen by a broad swath of viewers tuned into their Philcos all at once, never dreaming that someday it could be rebroadcast, paused live, accessed on another gadget, or that its entire run could be contained on a thin metal disc.

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More Black Friday Searches but Less Browsing Online

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — One of the more popular Google searches over Thanksgiving was “Walmart Black Friday store map,” which may go a long way in explaining some of the numbers being reported.

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