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 [...]

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. (read more)

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. (read more)

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)

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 [...]

Tying Up Loose Ends With ‘Oprah,’ ‘Mad Men,’ Wine Clubs and More

It is time again to ask 20 questions about advertising, marketing, the media and popular culture.       Is there anything more annoying than commercials that pretend a made-up word or phrase — say, “holisaleabration,” heard in current spots for A.& P. and Waldbaum’s supermarkets — is so difficult to pronounce that the announcer [...]

8 Lessons From the Creativity and Technology Conference

LONDON (AdAge.com) — Some 300 attendees gathered at the Saatchi Gallery last week for Ad Age sibling Creativity’s technology conference, Creativity and Technology, were treated to musings on bleeding-edge digital communication from Europe’s top talent in advertising, technology and design. Speakers ranged from agency creatives and technologists to writers such as Adam Greenfield, author of [...]

Online Ads Are Booming, if They’re Attached to a Video

News Web sites are starting to look a lot less like newspapers and a lot more like television.com and ESPN.com are featuring video much more prominently on their home pages, often prompting visitors to press play before they begin to read.  Even The Wall Street Journal has moved its video player front and center with a [...]

Actions Speak Louder Than…

I’m a big believer in the power of words. But when words aren’t backed by corresponding actions, talk is cheap.  Have you ever felt a disconnection between what a company promised you in their ads and what they actually delivered?  I carry a list of companies in my head called the “Never Again As Long [...]