Thursday, December 15, 2005

Scripps to Launch HGTVkitchendesign.com

Scripps to Launch HGTVkitchendesign.com

By Mike Shields

December 13, 2005

Mediaweek

 

Scripps Networks will launch HGTVkitchendesign.com, the first of six planned broadband channels featuring niche video content, on Dec. 15.

 

The new Web-only video network, which will be programmed on a daily basis, will launch with a total of 200 videos. Six endemic advertisers have signed onto the new channel, including Kohler, Moen, Viking, Dupont, Whirlpool and Sherwin Williams.

 

Each advertiser is running a campaign which includes a variety of 15-and 30-second video ads and banners. Plus, these brands' images have been integrated within the site's "interactive kitchen planner," which allows users to virtual test various kitchen design schemes.

 

Scripps plans to promote HGTVkitchendesign.com through paid keyword ads on Google and Yahoo!, while also utilizing on-air mentions on various HGTV shows. Next year, the company says it will launch similar networks focused on Bath Design, Healthy Eating, and Gardening, among others.

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Interesting headlines this week

MultiVu launches video podcast service

Erica Iacono - 15 Dec 2005

NEW YORK: MultiVu has launched a video podcast service that will enable clients to repurpose broadcast PR content such as VNRs and b-roll, as well as format their own video content, to reach consumer audiences directly.

http://www.multivu.com/

 

 

CMS searching for agency to handle Hispanic outreach

Beth Herskovits - 14 Dec 2005

WASHINGTON: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) is looking for an agency to handle paid and earned media targeting Spanish-speaking, Hispanic audiences.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/

 

 

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WebMD Adds Broadband Video

WebMD Adds Broadband Video
Thursday, Dec 15, 2005 6:00 AM EST
WEBMD RECENTLY LAUNCHED A NEW broadband video section that offers visitors new streaming content daily, the company said Wednesday. Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is sponsoring some of the clips with a 60-second pre-roll ad directing visitors to a site that provides information about breast cancer. WebMD is producing the content itself, with its existing editorial staff--some of whom have backgrounds in broadcast journalism--said Wayne Gattinella, WebMD president and CEO.

The move to include streaming video is, in part, a response to marketers' increasing clamor for video inventory. "We have been asked by virtually every one of our clients and most of the major agencies for broadband inventory for promotional purposes," Gattinella said. "The fact is that the demand for broadband promotional inventory far exceeds the supply on the Internet right now."

-- Wendy Davis

 
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Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame...

http://www.impoy.com/

 

 

TIME Magazine launched its Red Border campaign in Times Square on Dec. 1, promoting its upcoming "Person of the Year" issue. Headshots of the nominees appear on the Reuters sign... and so can yours. The magazine's red border surrounds the billboard and copy states, "Person of the Year. Who would you choose?" Those looking for 15 seconds of fame can upload a picture online until Dec. 18, when TIME reveals its "Person of the Year." The winner's headshot will remain displayed through Dec. 19. In addition, a street team will take pictures of pedestrians traipsing through Times Square and transmit those photos onto the billboard within minutes. Once your picture has appeared on the billboard, you are e-mailed a URL to your picture, which can be printed out or sent to friends. I thought it'd be ideal to upload my own picture to use in this space... so here I am! But I wasn't the only one hatching this idea. Fallon created the site.

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Internet is first stop for consumers seeking health info

Internet is first stop for consumers seeking health info

 

The Internet is likely the first source of health information for U.S. consumers, which is a "tectonic shift" in the way patients consume health information, according to a new study. Although consumers report trusting information from their doctors most, they go online before visiting their doctor, according to the nationally representative study of 6,369 adults published in the December 26 Archives of Internal Medicine. Of the 63% of respondents saying they had used the Internet, 63.7% had gone online for health information. More than 62% of respondents said they trusted their doctors a lot for cancer information, compared to 23.9% for the Internet, and 49.5% said they'd want to go to their physician first for this information. However, only 10.9% who looked for cancer information said their physician was their first stop, compared to 48.6% who went online first, according to the study, which interviewed participants between October 2002 and April 2003. Go to Archives of Internal Medicine's Web site to read the study. 

 

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/165/22/2618

 

 

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EarthLink To Advertise On WaPo Vidcasts

EarthLink To Advertise On WaPo Vidcasts

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005 6:00 AM EST

WASHINGTONPOST.COM TUESDAY ANNOUNCED PLANS TO add video ads for EarthLink into its news video podcasts. This is a first for Washingtonpost.com, which began uploading its video podcasts to Apple's iTunes music store at the end of October. Before the end of this month, the 15-second EarthLink ads units will be inserted to run before WaPo's "vidcasts."

--Gavin O'Malley

 

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Marketer Asks Consumers To Create Ads

Marketer Asks Consumers To Create Ads

 

WSJ

 

If an agency can't deliver the kinds of commercials you want, just ask your customers to do the job. That's the approach being taken by Kao Corp., which markets Ban deodorant, in a contest designed to create ads that appeal to teenage girls. The contest was announced in magazines like CosmoGirl and Teen People and has already drawn about 4,000 entries from kids 12 to 20 who were asked to submit an image and fill in the blank in the company's "Ban It" slogan. Nine winners will be chosen and will run in an ad in March in US Weekly. The tactic is a smart one, especially when trying to reach teens and people in their 20s--a desirable demographic for advertisers that is particularly resistant to hard-sell advertising. "Younger audiences have become incredibly cynical about advertising,'' says Steve Thibodeau, an executive with Dotglu, a New York ad agency owned by MDC Partners, Toronto, which is creating the Ban campaign. P.J. Katien, Ban's assistant marketing director, adds that reaching young female consumers is especially challenging. In the past, he said, consumer-product companies followed a simple formula: "you explained the benefit and explained the product and they would buy it. Now it's about getting her to feel like she is involved. No more one-way messaging."

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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

The Importance Of Online Social Networking

Tuesday, December 13, 2005
The Importance Of Online Social Networking
By Tom Hespos

Traveling to and from the iMedia Summit in La Quinta, Calif. last week, I noticed something that my fellow attendees had in common. Whether on the plane, hanging out between sessions or riding in the van to the airport, many of them seemed to be reading the same BusinessWeek article with fascination. The article was called "The MySpace Generation" and it was the cover story of last week's edition.

In it, the authors described the throngs of teens who are plugged into social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Buzz-Oven.com and others. The article seemed like a wake-up call to anyone unaware of how online social networking sites serve as an amplifier for the activities and daily lives of teens. It shone the spotlight on the teen audience visiting social networking sites, but by and large the piece was about marketing and tapping into the teen audience. I finally got around to finding a copy of the magazine (my computer had crashed) and reading it on the flight home.

Of course the article described how companies were using social networks to reach their target audiences. Some approaches were considered successful, while others were completely lame. Scratch that. Let me rephrase. Some approaches were deemed successful when evaluated like a traditional promotion, while others were so lame that they made Carrot Top look cool by comparison.

When I finished the article, the first thing that went through my head was that my colleague Jim Meskaukas' notion of Flow Experience Marketing has never been more critical to understand than it is right now. It is no coincidence that the first comments on BusinessWeek's site in response to the eye-opening article were people lamenting corporate intrusion into social networks and the Internet in general. They're saying such things because corporate America still thinks, by and large, that ads need to be interruptive in order to be effective. How long will it be before these companies figure out that one doesn't need to plaster the Internet with pop-up ads to be perceived as interruptive?

If I had to identify an approach to social network marketing that managed to get a passing grade in the article, it would be Coca-Cola's. The dollars the company pumped into Buzz-Oven, were generally treated like sponsorship dollars in that they underwrote Buzz-Oven sampler CDs. At least Coke cares about what members of its target audience are into and they're willing to underwrite it. The most interruptive thing about the approach might have been the Coca-Cola logo on the CD itself, which, however, was not entirely objectionable.

Probably the worst approach I read about in the BusinessWeek article was Procter & Gamble's attempt to launch a social network of its own, using one of its products as a focal point. What led P& G executives to believe a body spray could be used as a foundation for a social network is anybody's guess, but I bet it elicited some giggles among the brand managers over at Axe. While the folks at Axe extended value to their customers by providing entertainment in the form of Web shorts, relying on social networks and IM to spread the word, P&G thought people would enjoy linking to "fake characters named for scents like Rose and Vanilla."

The difference, of course, is an understanding of flow experience marketing. Trying to get someone to link to a fake character in order to extend a marketing message is interruptive and contrary to what a social network is all about in the first place (cultivating relationships with real people). Providing people with material they can spread via social networks if they want to is consistent with the flow experience.

When we seek to leverage community in order to give our brands a boost, our brands must be respectful of the community, in part by avoiding the temptation to work against its purpose. Don't take my word for it. Read the comments at the end of the BusinessWeek article to see how people from social networking sites hate being conned by fake characters or otherwise having their online experience interrupted.

Tom Hespos is President, Underscore Marketing LLC.

 

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New Web site lets seniors compare Part D plans, save searches

New Web site lets seniors compare Part D plans, save searches

 

Yet another Web site appears on the scene to help seniors compare and choose a Part D prescription drug plan, this time from the nonprofit group the Coalition to Advance Prescription Drug Education (CARxE). According to the group, its site has exactly the same content as the comparison tool available on Medicare.gov, except for the added feature of being able to save a search. Seniors can enroll in a plan of their choice on the site's Part D Gateway that features an educational slide show presentation with audio to help users understand the benefit. There is also a downloadable guide to Part D and links to an application for and information about drug plan subsidies, brochures, and fact sheets from Medicare, as well as contact information for advocacy and other assistance organizations. Go to the Web site to learn more.

 

http://www.carxe.org/

 

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