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Mobile Time-Spent Equals That Of Newspapers & Magazines Combined by Mark Walsh, 

The average amount of time spent per day on mobile devices has grown faster in the last two years than time spent using any other medium, according to new research findings from eMarketer. The 32-minute average in 2008 has increased more than 50% to 50 minutes in 2010 -- equal the average time spent reading newspapers and magazines, combined.

That ranks mobile fourth behind TV and video, at 4.5 hours a day; the Internet, 2.5 hours; and radio, 98 minutes. If time spent on mobile continues to climb at least the 28% rate of 2010, it would surpass radio at its current average in a few years. Mobile vendors and publishers may be tempted to cite the growth in time spent to try to convince marketers to boost money spent on mobile as well.

Internet companies have long complained the Web doesn't receive a share of media dollars equivalent to the share of time people spend online. Now mobile companies may start doing the same, suggesting the medium deserves more dollars than newspapers or magazines based on people spending more time on mobile than with print media.

However, the eMarketer time-spent figure for mobile includes time spent talking as well as on mobile media -- everything from texting to Web browsing to watching video. That makes it harder to make an apples-to-apples comparison with other media. And just looking at one category within mobile, say, video, shows how wide the disparity is -- not just in time spent, but in audience.

In the U.S., the average time spent watching mobile video is about 3.5 hours a month among an audience of about 22 million -- a 44% increase in mobile viewership from a year ago, according to recent Nielsen data. Still, compare that to the monthly average of 143 hours per person for TV, with an audience of 287 million, as of mid-2010.

What's more, there's always the long lag in ad spending between new and old media as marketers catch up with changes in consumer habits and adapt to new ways of doing business. Consider the well-documented collapse of the traditional newspaper industry as more ad dollars have shifted to digital media in recent years. Even so, it will still be two more years before online ad spending overtakes newspaper ad spending -- which brought in $117 billion worldwide in 2013, according to a Magna Global forecast earlier this month.

The Magna report estimates mobile ad revenue globally at $2.7 billion in 2010, growing to $6.6 billion in five years. By then, with the proliferation of more sophisticated devices and upgraded wireless networks, people will be spending a good deal more time with mobile media. But don't count on anything like an equivalent share of ad dollars flowing to the segment anytime soon. 

check it out here:

[www.mediapost.com]

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Book of Tens: Campaigns Creativity Loved A Space Chimp, a Good-Smelling Man and a World Cup Anthem Are Among 2010's Memorable Efforts

Published: December 13, 2010

">[http%3A%2F%2Fadage.com%2Fu%2F5YHCSb">]

--> OLD SPICE: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like/Responses
It wasn't just "Hello, ladies!" but "Hello, everyone!" Wieden & Kennedy's pop-culture-infiltrating commercial and the "Responses" follow-up capitalized on the beloved Isaiah Mustafa's character and the immediacy of social-media channels, creating, over a period of three days, more than 150 tailor-made YouTube responses from the Man to fans. The latter drummed up tons of media attention for Old Spice and generated some impressive statistics: it increased Facebook interaction by 800% and Oldspice.com website traffic by 300%, OldSpice's YouTube page became the all-time most-viewed channel on the site. More impressive? Even actual sales were up.

PEPSI: Refresh Project
The social-media-driven campaign from TBWA/Chiat/Day, L.A., which saw the marketer divert its Super Bowl budget toward social causes, has been one of the most -- dare we say -- important brand efforts of the year. Demonstrating what a reallocation of a portion of a mega media budget could do, the campaign ended this year with nearly three billion media impressions, 51 million votes from a broad demographic sample and millions given to worthwhile grassroots causes. The campaign has been a massive success in terms of awareness and -- say Pepsi bottlers, no less -- palpable goodwill toward the brand.

ARCADE FIRE: Wilderness Downtown
Director Chris Milk, data viz artist Aaron Koblin, Google, B-Reel, @radical.media, mr. doob and others brought their combined tech wizardry and artistry to bear on this phenomenal interactive video for the Arcade Fire song, "We Used to Wait." Milk's motivation was to endow the music-video experience with the same emotional resonance as music itself. The video, which uses Google Earth to provide a powerfully personal angle on the song, succeeded as an HTML5 case study, a nifty calling card for Chrome, a giant PR boost for Arcade Fire's new album and, most importantly, a powerfully personal way to experience a great song.

DOMINO'S: Pizza Turnaround
With the help of Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Domino's bared its soul and turned to focus groups and social-media channels to find out what consumers really thought about its pizzas. After discovering that eaters were likening their pies to "cardboard and ketchup," the brand went on a quest to turn opinions around with a major recipe overhaul, documenting its efforts in a series of web films and spots and on the website PizzaTurnaround.com. The experiment in transparency was a success, and according to CMO Russell Weiner, resulted in plenty of media buzz, more satisfied customers and third-quarter same-store sales increase of 11.7%.

MITSUBISHI: Virtual Test Drive
Mitsubishi, its agency 180 L.A. and digital production maestros B-Reel made test- driving a car much more accessible to potential buyers (and, doubtless, much less nerve wracking, smelly and awkward for dealers) with what the marketer called an auto industry first -- the Live Drive. Part of an integrated campaign for the Outlander, Live Drive allowed 5,000 web viewers to drive an actual vehicle on an actual course, via a remote control software system. It's perhaps not the most enduring effort, but demonstrated how a big tech-enabled idea could come to life and create energy around a brand.

DARE LABS: Remote Palette
London agency Dare made an investment in creative technology in 2007, launching Dare Labs to foster new-product development. This year, the Labs bore fruit in the form of Remote Palette, a magical app that links iPad and iPhone, allowing users to paint on the iPad using their fingers as brushes and phone as palette. The app garnered huge online buzz, helped along by a web video featuring a man dressed as a certain artist, trying to shake ketchup onto his iPad -- a nod, of course, to the 1982 art clip, "Andy Warhol Eats a Hamburger."

NIKE: Write the Future
The cornerstone of this World Cup campaign, from Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, was a stellar anthem spot directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, starring an elite cast of athletes and celebs. Other components included a digital outdoor effort whereby users generated headlines that were projected onto a prominent Johannesburg building, and an online push that allowed visitors to see their own glorious rise from soccer unknown to all-star athlete in an interactive film and promo posters.

JAY-Z/BING: Decoded
Ubiquitous and massive -- two words that easily describe Droga5's campaign to promote Jay-Z's book, "Decoded." The multiplatform effort gave new meaning to "outdoor," and brought every page of the book to life on practically every surface imaginable -- from the rooftops of a building in New Orleans and the bottom of Miami's Delano Hotel pool, to the lining of suits -- giving fans a preview of the content at the locations that inspired them. For those who couldn't view the physical pages, a partnership with Microsoft Bing allowed Jay-Z followers around the globe to search for each page online via a scavenger hunt.

WWF: Space Chimp
The World Wildlife Fund Australia collaborated with musical artist Ben Lee and Leo Burnett, Sydney, on this gut-wrenching video. Serving as a music video for Lee's "Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe" and an environmental-awareness message, Space Chimp follows the titular astronaut returning home from a long voyage to find himself alone on a ruined planet. The visuals, orchestrated by director Steve Rogers, are superb and the effort is a great example of inter-brand collaboration.

CONAN O'BRIEN: Comeback Campaign
When it came time for Conan O'Brien to return to TV land with his new TBS talk show, he and the cable channel leveraged his legion of online supporters, aka Team Coco, and launched a slew of social media-minded pushes that included everything from a Foursquare-linked blimp, web films and a webcam showing live antics from his new office. The campaign also included hilarious TV promos, including a massive actioner starring the host in an explosive cliff dive. And, of course, there were the hilarious Twitter missives of O'Brien himself. All resulted in a successful opening night, with O'Brien surpassing both Jay Leno and David Letterman in the ratings.  

credit these guys for this:

[adage.com]

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This is ingenious - if your not scared of bees...By Tim Nudd on Sep 2 2010

Honey-bee populations are mysteriously dwindling worldwide. In England, the Banrock Station winery created the "world's first ad with live bees" to call attention to the problem. They used queen-bee pheromones to attract a giant swarm of bees (as many as 100,000, according to the BBC) from a nearby honey farm to spell out an "SOS" message on a billboard. No bees were harmed and no one was stung during the stunt. The winery is also donating 5p to the honey-bee cause for every bottle sold. Clare Griffiths from Banrock Station tells the BBC: "We thought there was no better way to raise awareness of the British bee decline than get the bees to tell their story themselves. We hope the billboard has created a bit of a buzz in Devon and beyond." Via Copyranter.

Original here:

[adweek.blogs.com]

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Beloit, Wis. – Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall’s entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow.

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually.

The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since "digital" has always been in the cultural DNA, they've never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who’s that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat.

Nonetheless, they plan to enjoy college. The males among them are likely to be a minority. They will be armed with iPhones and BlackBerries, on which making a phone call will be only one of many, many functions they will perform. They will now be awash with a computerized technology that will not distinguish information and knowledge. So it will be up to their professors to help them. A generation accustomed to instant access will need to acquire the patience of scholarship. They will discover how to research information in books and journals and not just on-line. Their professors, who might be tempted to think that they are hip enough and therefore ready and relevant to teach the new generation, might remember that Kurt Cobain is now on the classic oldies station. The college class of 2014 reminds us, once again, that a generation comes and goes in the blink of our eyes, which are, like the rest of us, getting older and older.

The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014

Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.
For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.

3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”

4. Al Gore has always been animated.

5. Los Angelinos have always been trying to get along.

6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.

7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.

8. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.

9. Had it remained operational, the villainous computer HAL could be their college classmate this fall, but they have a better chance of running into Miley Cyrus’s folks on Parents’ Weekend.

10. A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.

11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.

12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

13. Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.

14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

15. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.

16. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.

17. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection.

18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.

20. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.

21. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.

22. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.

23. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.

24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.

25. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.

26. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.

27. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.

28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.

30. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.

31. The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.

32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.

33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.

34. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always been an alternative to hospitals.

35. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.

36. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.

37. Whatever their parents may have thought about the year they were born, Queen Elizabeth declared it an “Annus Horribilis.”

38. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.

40. There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.

41. American companies have always done business in Vietnam.

42. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.

43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

44. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.

45. They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.

46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

47. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.

48. Someone has always gotten married in space.

49. While they were babbling in strollers, there was already a female Poet Laureate of the United States.

50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.

51. Food has always been irradiated.

52. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.

53. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?

54. The historic bridge at Mostar in Bosnia has always been a copy.

55. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.

56. They may have assumed that parents’ complaints about Black Monday had to do with punk rockers from L.A., not Wall Street.

57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.

58. Beethoven has always been a dog.

59. By the time their folks might have noticed Coca Cola’s new Tab Clear, it was gone.

60. Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.

61. Presidential appointees have always been required to be more precise about paying their nannies’ withholding tax, or else.

62. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

63. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.

64. The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely.

65. They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.

66. Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.

67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.

68. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.

69. The Post Office has always been going broke.

70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.

71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.

72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.

73. Silicone-gel breast implants have always been regulated.

74. They’ve always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi Channel.

75. Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.

Original:

[www.beloit.edu]

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Check out the interactive map here:

[londonist.com]

Our friends at UCL's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis never cease to amaze us. Today's dose of digital craftsmanship shows the peaks and troughs of London's Twitter traffic in the style of a contoured map.

In a cute touch, areas of the capital are renamed to fit this new topological visualisation. At London's heart is Soho Mountain, the towering peak of the local Twittersphere. We see the foothills of Peckham Crag, Gherkin Point, Battersea Hill and Hackney Downs Hill. The Lea Valley remains a valley, while the Wembley Plains look ripe for fertile growth.

This work of near-genius was crafted by CASA's Fabian Neuhaus for his Urban Tick blog. You can find high-resolution images of London and other cities treated in this way over on his Flickr pages.

The mashup comes hot on the heels of numerous other notable visualisations, including the real-time Tube map and an artful representation of where most photos in London are taken.

With thanks to Andy Hudson-Smith for the heads-up.

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Eric “The Incredimazing” Fischer used advanced geo-logic to filter tourists from locals in his Geotagger’s World Atlas.

Some people interpreted the Geotaggers’ World Atlas maps to be maps of tourism. This set is an attempt to figure out if that is really true. Some cities (for example Las Vegas and Venice) do seem to be photographed almost entirely by tourists. Others seem to have many pictures taken in places that tourists don’t visit.

Blue points on the map are pictures taken by locals (people who have taken pictures in this city dated over a range of a month or more).

Red points are pictures taken by tourists (people who seem to be a local of a different city and who took pictures in this city for less than a month).

Yellow points are pictures where it can’t be determined whether or not the photographer was a tourist (because they haven’t taken pictures anywhere for over a month). They are probably tourists but might just not post many pictures at all.

The maps are ordered by the number of pictures taken by locals.

Full set on Flickr, a few interesting ones below (click image to zoom)

NYC:

London:

Vancouver:

LA:

Rome:

Vegas:

Venice:

Detail of San Francisco:

Tourists are rare in the Mission, but they do seem to prefer the Castro, the southwest corner of Dolores Park and the murals on Balmy Alley.

I got the goods from here:

[burritojustice.com]

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Full scoop here:
[news.yahoo.com]

Now, as TechCrunch points out, the estimated 800,000 cord cutters represent less than 1 percent of the 100 million U.S. households (give or take) currently subscribing to a cable/satellite/telco TV carrier, so it's not like we're talking a mass exodus here. But by the end of 2011, the report guesstimates, the number of cord-cutting households in the U.S. will double to about 1.6 million, and if the trend continues, well...

Have you cut the cord? How much of your viewing entertainment is from the internet or via NetFlix?

While window shopping for an HD tv (yes I still have an SD tv) I have noticed that many of them come with CAT5 inputs and have these widget things and stuff - are cable and satellite providers doomed?

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Behaviorally Targeted Ads Yield Twice The Revenue and Twice the Converts
According to The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), behaviorally-targeted advertising in 2009 secured an average of 2.68 times as much revenue per ad as non-targeted "run of network" advertising. The study also found that behaviorally-targeted advertising is more than twice as effective at converting users who click on the ads into buyers (6.8% conversion vs. 2.8% for run-of-network ads), and that behavioral advertising accounted for approximately 18% of advertising revenue.

Economist Howard Beales, who conducted the study, notes that "... behaviorally targeted advertising is a critical component of ad network, publisher, and advertiser success... significantly enhancing the advertising revenue engine driving the growth of the Internet."

Charles Curran, Executive Director of the NAI, says "... This study demonstrates the increasing significance of behavioral advertising to the economic model supporting free online content and services for consumers... we will continue to work closely with policymakers... to give consumers better information, tools and choices, while making online advertising even more relevant to their needs."

Key findings of the study include the following: ·

• The average relative cost of behaviorally-targeted ads in 2009 was 2.68 greater than that of standard run-of-network advertising
• The weighted average cost per thousand ad impressions (CPM) for behaviorally targeted ads was $4.12, as opposed to $1.98 for run-of-network advertising
• Behaviorally-targeted ads accounted for 17.9% of respondents' advertising revenue, with revenue increasing from 16.2% in Q1 to 19.4% in Q4 2009
• 54.6% of the respondents' advertising revenue went towards the purchase of inventory and was therefore shared with publishers and content producers to support their businesses
• Data from a smaller subset of the survey respondents suggested that users who clicked on a behaviorally-targeted ad were more than twice as likely to complete a transaction or sale with that site than those who clicked a standard run-of-service ad (6.8% vs. 2.8%)
• Total online ad revenue for the twelve companies who participated in the study was $3.323 billion in 2009.

The study was conducted from January to March 2010 with the participation of twelve online advertising networks and marketing analytics companies that belong to the NAI. Study participants provided proprietary data on the revenue, composition and effectiveness of different types of online advertising on their networks.

The report includes a comprehensive chart that presents the weighted average CPM among participants for each of the three ad types, as well as conversion rates and revenues. The results show that BT provides significantly higher rates on an industry wide basis. For the full year 2009, BT CPMs were about double RON CPMs, while Retargeting rates were about 1.5 times as large as RON CPMs.

Key Survey Metrics

Q1 2009

Q2 2009

Q3 2009

Q4 2009

FULL YEAR 2009

Average CPM (Weighted By Behavioral Targeting Revenue)

Run of Network

$1.94

$1.98

$1.89

$2.06

$1.98

BT

$4.09

$4.22

$4.07

$4.11

$4.12

Retargeting

$3.00

$3.12

$3.13

$3.02

$3.07

BT Avg. Relative Price Over RON Ads (X Greater)

2.77

2.71

2.79

2.46

2.68

Retargeting Avg. Relative Price Over RON Ads (X Greater)

1.98

1.84

2.11

1.59

1.88

Average Conversion Rate

Run of Network

2.1%

3.6%

2.2%

3.1%

2.8%

BT

5.5%

8.8%

6.4%

6.6%

6.8%

Revenues

Total Ad Revenue ($ Millions)

$708

$780

$795

$1,040

$3,323

Percentage Attributable to BT (Aggregated Across Firms)

16.2%

17.2%

18.3%

19.4%

17.9%

Avg. % of Display Ad Revenue Used for Inventory Costs

54.7%

56.9%

53.0%

53.6%

54.6%

Avg. % of Display Ad Revenue Used for Data Costs

8.5%

8.8%

9.1%

9.4%

8.9%

Source: NAI, The Value of Behavioral Targeting, March 2010

The results lead to 3 major conclusions, says the report:

• Advertising rates are significantly higher for behaviorally targeted (BT) ads. The average CPM for BT advertising is just over twice the average CPM for run of network (RON) advertising. On average across participating networks, the price of BT advertising in 2009 was 2.68 times the price of run of network advertising
• Advertising using BT is more successful than standard run of network advertising, creating greater utility for consumers and clear appeal for advertisers. Conversion rates for BT advertising are more than twice the rate for RON advertising
• A majority of network advertising revenue is spent acquiring advertising inventory from Web content and services providers, making BT an important source of revenue for publishers as well as ad networks

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Steve French, Managing Partner, Natural Marketing Institute &
Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Consumer & Shopper Insights, The Nielsen Company

SUMMARY: Consumers recognize the connection between diet and health, and for the most part, act on that knowledge. Perhaps a by-product of their quest for wellness, health-aware consumers are careful with their bodies and their budgets, making fewer impulse buys, using shopping lists, savoring the shopping outing and efficiently walking the aisles with a connoisseurs’ knowledge of merchandising and planograms.

Americans have gotten the message loud and clear: a healthy diet is an essential element in any wellness program. Nielsen researchers found that people practice what they preach, with most shoppers buying foods that are good for the waistline and wallet.

Americans have gotten the message loud and clear: a healthy diet is an essential element in any wellness program. Nielsen researchers found that people practice what they preach, with most shoppers buying foods that are good for the waistline and wallet.

Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) conducts an annual health and wellness survey to determine what consumers consider healthy. Shopper insights showed consumer interest in minimally processed foods, a short list of recognizable label ingredients, less of the “bad stuff” like trans fats or MSG, and more of the “good stuff” like fiber, antioxidants, vitamins/minerals, calcium, Omega 3s, whole grains, heart-healthy ingredients and Vitamin D.

Healthy Segments
When it comes to health beliefs and practices, NMI found that people fit into one of five distinct segments that inform their shopping and buying decisions:

• “WELL BEINGS”® (19%)—the most health-proactive group; market leaders and influencers whose actions are driven by values. They eat more organics, consume modest amounts of supplements and pursue many different health modalities.
• “FOOD ACTIVES”® (18%)—more mainstream in their health pursuits, this group strives for moderation in their lifestyle and prefers food that is inherently healthy vs. organics or supplements. Seeking a life balance includes balancing the budget for this price-sensitive segment.
• “MAGIC BULLETS“® (24%)—consumers who hope supplements, Rx and pills will help them reach health goals. More into health management than prevention. Least likely to cook at home or exercise.
• “FENCE SITTERS”® (17%)—stressed out, but seeking control. They dabble in the latest exercise kick and actively pursue weight loss goals. Receptive to eco-friendly appeals and reliant on social media.
• “EAT, DRINK & BE MERRYS”® (22%)—younger shoppers who crave taste and pinch pennies. No concerns here about prevention, making them the least health-active group.

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March 31, 2010

Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Consumer & Shopper Insights &

Dan Brady, Director, Insights Consulting, The Nielsen Company

SUMMARY: A consistent pattern of reduced shopping trips continues to be a major element of consumer’s economic coping strategies. In the latest battle for share of wallet, those retailers who satisfy consumers through differentiation will gain more of less.

The recession continues its ravaging effect on retailers. According to Nielsen, the downward trend of consumers shopping less hit a new low in February 2010, reporting a 4% year-over-year decline in monthly all-outlet shopping trips. And while per trip shopping basket rings began to pick up during and after the holidays, February remained static with a 1% increase compared to last year. Retailers’ focus on store brands and retail price cuts helped keep spending levels in check driving more value for shoppers.

Full story here:

[blog.nielsen.com]

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March 22, 2010

Americans increased their overall media usage and media multitasking according to The Nielsen Company’s latest Three Screen Report, which tracks consumption across TV, Internet and mobile phones.  In the last quarter of 2009, simultaneous use of the Internet while watching TV reached three and a half hours a month, up 35% from the previous quarter. Nearly 60% of TV viewers now use the Internet once a month while also watching TV.

“The rise in simultaneous use of the web and TV gives the viewer a unique on-screen and off-screen relationship with TV programming,” said Nielsen Company media product leader Matt O’Grady. “The initial fear was that Internet and mobile video and entertainment would slowly cannibalize traditional TV viewing, but the steady trend of increased TV viewership alongside expanded simultaneous usage argues something quite different.”

Full story here:

[blog.nielsen.com]

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Today is St. Patrick's Day. In addition to wearing green, here at tbd, we celebrate the 13th anniversary of the genesis of an amazing working environment that just happens to produce great branding work for our clients. It has become the norm to expect the unexpected here, so when Paul announced we were going to have a special exercise on creativity, I made no effort to predict what was to be. With the rest of the team, I arrived at a blank canvas of sorts, a 4x4 foot piece of plywood with an assortment of paints, accompanied by Sarah from the tbd loft community of artists, the Poethouse. Sarah led us in an intentional exercise in creativity. Gasp! We were going to collectively create art.

It's worth noting, my last experience in creating art dates back to 1998 when I used oil pastels to create a piece for my then future wife. It entailed a nice mountain scene with tall timbers reflecting on a peaceful lake. It included a giant man and giant woman, disproportionate, but conveniently naked, lounging in the chaise that was the ridges of the mountains, all in the midst of a colorful sunrise, maybe, sunset, I don't know. It made no sense to anyone including me when completed. I poured my soul into the art for a weekend, and gave it to my future wife. I never painted again. So, you can imagine the trepidation for which I approached today's exercise.

Through the process, some interesting themes arose. First, when 10 or 12 people are painting at once, your bound to lose control of outcomes. How many times did I put a little dab of red over some yellow, only to find a giant swath of blue tracing behind a 2 inch brush overpower my red, leaving only a slight trail of purple? 

As we progressed, the decorations of dots and swirls became passionate fusions of color, texture and shapes. We were all getting into it, even me. What started as one layer, turned into five, and then was scraped off the canvas, leaving artifacts of shapes and colors only to be buried again with new colors, blends and imprints. 

As the painting transformed with each iteration, it became obvious our creation was unfolding collaboratively but without any linear intention or plan. And, it was beautiful to us as a symbol of the team and culture we've created over the years at tbd. It was exciting and refreshing to see each member of the team participate and add. The piece's true aesthetic is probably questionable, but as an account of the spirit of creativity and teamwork it's a bona-fide work of art. 

Come to the loft for art hop on april 2nd to view our piece and other collected works of the community. We are showing "Who are we?", a collection of work from the Central Oregon community expressing just that. We hope to see you there. Who knows, maybe I'll submit my untitled gigantic love piece. Not.
kevin smyth

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Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memoryAbout this talk

Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy -- and our own self-awareness.

Thanks Cass!

[www.ted.com]

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February 16, 2010

Jason Green, The Cambridge Group

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Professional artist teams up with his 5 year old brother to create...

AXE COP!

See it here:

[axecop.com]    

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By Jeffrey Kluger

If you're like most people, you're way too smart for advertising. You flip right past newspaper ads, never click on ads online and leave the room during TV commercials.

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Quality Design for the Poor

“Poor people can’t afford cheap things.”

When companies design products and services for the poor, they often think about making them as low-cost as possible. But whether you’re tapping a market opportunity or addressing a social need, it’s important to realize that people living in poverty value quality design. Quality design doesn’t mean that goods and services need to cost more. Quality experiences meet people where they are, acknowledging such important factors as status, aspiration, and dignity.

Designing for the poor is more important now than ever before. It is the future of business growth, as multinationals and local companies are increasingly developing products and experiences that serve not only the upper classes but also the “bottom of the pyramid” — the 4 billion people worldwide living on less than $2 per day.

How can companies serve the legitimate needs of the poor not just for price but also for status, aspiration, and dignity?

Link:
[patterns.ideo.com]
PDF:
[patterns.ideo.com]

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93 year-old agency giant, Grey, breaks down walls to create a more collaborative environment. The move creates enough shock amongst employees that they had to hire a business psychologist to help employees adjust. So glad to be small and nimble--- much less traumatizing.

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Innovation Theatre Works Opens Performance Facility in Bend       Monday, 08 February 2010 11:34 Mike Bookey

With the fate of 2nd Street Theater still up in the air (although there's rumors of a potential buyer for the location) there's some good news to be had in the local theater world today with the announcement just minutes ago that Innovation Theatre Works will be opening a theater facility. (Read more)

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Mine was the E*Trade Girlfriend ad.

Here they are for you to enjoy!

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This AdAge article quotes Patrick Collister, formerly of Ogilvy UK, who compiled the report that's the subject of this story: "This is THE big seismic shift in our business..." Sounds so ironic, doesn't it?

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With the wet and freezing weather outside, purchasing an iphone is even more compelling. This new Pocket Heat app turns your iPhone into a hand warmer. Now can a Droid do this? Think not.

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2010 will add fuel to the trends that have been in place for some time. Primarily via the heightened accountability and transparency provided through immediate access to online information for consumers. Brands need to become truly unique and exceptional.

See Trendwatching's 10 crucial consumer trends for 2010 

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Seth Godin spent months collecting some incredible wisdom from the likes of those included in the wordle below. It's published in a FREE ebook entitled What Matters Now. Reading this is a great way to start off 2010.

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Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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I saw Avatar in 3D so I hope 3D TV will be as good. Is this why they are trying to end free broadcast TV?

Click this link to read more [tech.yahoo.com]

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