April 8, 2009
As traditional magazines and newspapers falter, a New York venture capitalist is telling marketing agencies and their clients to stop wasting money on paid media, and start earning it for free. Advertising Age’s Michael Learmonth writes about a presentation at the magazine’s Digital Age conference, in which Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures, urged marketers to implement social campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The trouble for agencies, he continued, will be to find ways of making money in this environment. Read More
April 7, 2009
A recent study by McPheters & Co. seems to rank television and magazine ads above online banner ads. The study measured recall techniques using complicated eye-tracking software to compare effectiveness among the three media.
The conclusion? In a half-hour period, magazines delivered more than twice as many ad impressions as TV, and more than six times those of online ads. Also, recall of TV ads was almost twice that of magazine ads; and magazine ad recall was almost three times that of Internet ads. No surprises there… except: The budget realities of today’s marketing world are totally absent within the study. Read More
April 6, 2009
According to a new report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, almost one-third of global marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets this year despite the recession. The CMO Council’s “Marketing Outlook 2009″ report was based on an online survey of more than 650 global marketing executives, conducted from January through mid-March. Read More
April 4, 2009
Music Review: The Omar Sosa Afreecanos Quartet performed this weekend at The Jazz Bakery in Culver City. The pianist explores Afro-Cuban jazz, but not in the traditional sense of Perez Prado and Hugo Santamaria (you know, ostinato beats and one- or two-chord vamps). Instead, Sosa and cohorts launch from Caribbean grooves into electronically tinged free-jazz. (Hence the name “Afreecanos.”) Colorful and exploratory, and never overly “outside,” the group structured its set within Read More
April 3, 2009
In a somewhat frightening announcement this week, celebrity website TMZ.com said it is expanding its coverage of Washington D.C. As if shaming and broadcasting the mundane daily activities of Hollywood’s social elite wasn’t enough, now the über muckraking site wants to shine its hot lights onto those who already have the weight of the world on their shoulders.
“These [politicians] are one dimensional stick-figure people to most of America, that everyone is so tightly managed, that there’s no personality that comes out,” TMZ founder Harvey Levin told Reuters. “I think that you can kind of flesh it out and show, hey these are fun people.” Only one big problem, Harvey: They’re politicians, not entertainers. They’re not supposed to be fun. Read More
April 2, 2009
The no. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives thinks so. Eric Cantor spoke to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Thursday morning. According to website Politico, he complained that Democrats are “doing too much” to solve the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Cantor praised Rush Limbaugh for his “ideas” and for Read More
