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Evil Genius: Big Bird Campaign Spoof Ad Gets Free Airplay
By Dave Armon, President, Critical Mention, for the Critical Now Channel
The Obama campaign didn’t need to place a media buy to see TV airings of its new Big Bird satire ad spike today. News coverage containing the spot began at 5:14 a.m. ET on CNN’s “Early Start.” By 7:09, ABC’s Good Morning America had aired the ad, followed by CBS and NBC. It wasn’t until 10:05 that the commercial appeared on Fox News. By the time this post was penned, shortly before 5:30 p.m. ET, there had been more than 60 airings of the spot during news programming – some of them full, 30-second runs and others edited portions.
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To Disclose or Not Disclose: FTC Disclosure Guidelines for Bloggers
By Victoria Harres, Director, Audience Development, PR Newswire for the Agile Engagement Channel
If you bring up Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations in front of writers, especially bloggers, a lot of ‘opinion’ and hearsay come up. I posted about a Social Media Club of Dallas blogger panel a couple of weeks ago. The panel covered tips and recommendations from bloggers for PR and communications professionals and received quite a bit of attention and lively conversation on the subject of FTC regulations around endorsement and disclosure.
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IABC/PRIME Measurement Best Practices: Cafe2Go — Mark Weiner on Communications Measurement
By Shel Holtz, ABC for the PR ROI Channel
Shel Holtz, ABC, interviews Mark Weiner, CEO of PRIME Research Americas, a research-based consulting firm combining talent in tools to serve clients through our network of analysis hubs in the USA, Brazil, Uruguay, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, India and China. In this roughly 30-minute conversation, Mark talks about the rise in executive acceptance of communications research, the real meaning of ROI and a variety of other topics.
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The China Connection: Overcoming the Complexities of the Chinese Media Environment to Achieve Communications Success
Media Relations…By Yujie Chen, Managing Director, PR Newswire China
As China’s economy continues to enjoy strong growth, increased spend by their middle class and expansion overseas to compete with western and fellow Asian counterparts, the opportunity for U.S. companies to do business there has never been greater. A market that is worth $200 billion to U.S. companies, it has become a key global economy, with many predicting it will overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest within the next 10 to 15 years.
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BDO Survey Reveals Things That Keep Directors Up At Night
Gene Marbach At Large
As we know serving as a director of a public company hasn’t been much fun over the recent years. Restive shareholders, new regulations, corporate reputation, and executive compensation number among the issues that board members confront these days. A new study by BDO USA, LLP, one of the nation’s leading accounting and consulting organizations, uncovers a number of concerns among directors.
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CommPRO Digital & Creative Functions Survey
Agency Management
Welcome. Like never before, agencies and in-house departments need to expand their capabilities to make effective use of today’s communications and marketing approaches. Many have added experts in social, digital and creative services. These additions are creating new personality dynamics and reporting relationships. How is this new structure working? We’d like to know.
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Armstrong’s Lawyer Calls Doping Case a ‘Publicity Stunt’
California Watch
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency case against cyclist Lance Armstrong is a mere publicity stunt that the anti-drugs regulator cannot back up with conclusive evidence, the seven-time Tour de France winner’s attorney wrote in a letter to the agency Tuesday. “USADA is still trying to create evidence and put it in the file,” attorney Tim Herman wrote. “Armstrong has been selectively singled out, prosecuted and treated differently than any other athlete, no doubt so that USADA can cash in on the publicity.” Agency spokeswoman Annie Skinner brushed aside the critique. “We are happy to let the evidence speak for itself,” she said in an email to California Watch.
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NHL Lockout: Why the Players Are Winning the PR Battle This Time
Bleacher Report
NHL owners needed the lockout in 2005 because teams were losing money and player salaries were out of control, so it was easy to sympathize with the league in its PR battle with the NHLPA. However, the PR battle in the current lockout is being dominated by the players, and it’s easy to understand why. The NHLPA has tried to convince fans that owners are to blame for the lockout because it was the owners’ decision to go down this road. This is a common strategy by players in lockouts, but in this case, with a league that’s stronger than ever, it’s an effective one. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr mentioned this on the NHLPA’s Facebook page last week: …
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Presidential Politics & the Media Narrative: How to Pick the Winner in a Tight Race
The Los Angeles Times
About a week before the first of the presidential debates, some of President Obama’s most ardent supporters seemed to already be making plans for a second inaugural. The “47%” video appeared to expose Mitt Romney for the plutocrat he was. Polls had him losing nationally and in most battleground states. Some Democrats already had begun shoveling dirt on the Republican’s grave. It was at about that time that Neal Gabler, the author and political commentator, made what proved to be a very astute prediction in a Los Angeles Times column: Romney’s resurrection was just around the corner. Gabler based this not on secret polling data or his unusual empathy with the American people (though he may possess that power too) but from a memory for campaigns past, which revealed, as he wrote, “an iron law of American presidential campaign coverage, that what goes up must come down and, conversely, what is down must go up.”
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Tinkoff: How to Build an Online Business in Russia
Tech Week Europe
Serial entrepreneur Oleg Tinkoff has made a name (and fortune) for himself by taking Western ideas and adapting them to the Russian market. So far, he has successfully accomplished it four times, with consumer electronics, restaurants, beer and frozen food. Now, the charismatic businessman wants to tap into the Russia’s growing online market, through an online-only bank and mobile display advertising venture. Both Tinkoff Credit Systems (TCS) and Tinkoff Digital (TD) are young companies, but the rapid growth they see serves as a testament to the power of this developing economy. What makes Tinkov’s latest projects different is the technology. Both businesses rely heavily on IT and liberally collect user data in a country where attitudes towards data protection are still apathetic.
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It’s Time to Refresh Your Facebook Marketing Strategy
Ad Age Digital Next
As Facebook marketing matures, so should strategies and best practices for plotting investment. Winning strategies will look very different in 2013 from previous years. Now that many brands have acquired sizable “fan” bases, the focus is on leveraging Facebook’s new ad products to grow loyalty and retention. Spending must start with a focus on your most valuable consumers, followed by the network they influence and finally your more broadly targeted consumer base. Until now marketers briefed agencies to buy Facebook fans with no understanding or measure of their value or effect. Many spent big dollars on campaigns without investing adequately to maintain everyday reach and frequency against their most valuable consumers. Different levels of reach and frequency should be delivered across each of the following targets:
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Retailers Can Do Better in Pleasing the Millions of Mobile Shoppers
Internet Retailer
Consumers are rapidly learning to use their smartphones and tablet computers to shop. But retailers’ mobile commerce sites and apps are not meeting consumer expectations, which means there are big opportunities to gain market share for merchants that do figure out how they’re falling short. Making those arguments Tuesday at Internet Retailer’s Mobile Marketing & Commerce Forum 2012 in San Diego were executives from two companies that collect consumer data: Eric Feinberg, senior director of mobile media and entertainment at ForeSee, which surveys consumers on their satisfaction with mobile and online sites; and Hans Fredericks, vice president of mobile business development at comScore Inc., a company that tracks online and mobile consumer behavior. As of June, 110.9 million mobile phone service subscribers were using smartphones, 47.4% of all mobile phone subscribers, and by the end of the year that should be more than half, Fredericks said. 25% of smartphone owners use their phones for shopping-related activities, and 9% of online sales now come from mobile devices, he added.
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Hard Times in FarmVille: Do Zynga’s Troubles Mark the End of the Latest Tech Bubble?
Slate
Nobody in Silicon Valley respects Zynga. Sure, the prolific developer of Facebook games has long been considered a “hot” startup, one that hit all the early markers of success. Zynga was founded in 2007, and within a couple years it was one of the world’s biggest game companies. Its titles-including FarmVille and CityVille and Words With Friends-have won hundreds of millions of players, a small number of whom spend vast sums to purchase virtual items that improve their standings in the games. These virtual items make for real money: Zynga’s 2011 revenue topped $1 billion, and its initial public offering last December was one of the most anticipated tech debuts of the past few years. Yet despite its blistering early fortunes, I’ve never spoken to anyone outside Zynga who considers the company’s rise a positive development for the tech or gaming industries. Instead, it’s more common to hear grousing about how the company treats its employees poorly; that it, ahem, draws inspiration from other game makers’ ideas; and that its ultimate prospects may not be that bright. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has defended the company’s game development strategy by arguing that the company’s versions of other people’s games are better: …
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SEC Watchdog Cites Report as Proof He’s Not a Security Threat
BusinessWeek
David Weber, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission internal watchdog who was put on leave after co-workers accused him of being a security threat, is asking to be reinstated after an independent review indicated the claims were unsubstantiated. “We call on the agency to publicly disavow the allegations and return David Weber to work,” his attorney Cary J. Hansel said today in a statement. Weber took over the job of chief investigator of the SEC’s inspector general’s office last year and was put on leave in May. Weber stepped into the fray in March when he reported to the SEC commissioners that H. David Kotz, the agency’s former inspector general, may have had a personal relationship that tainted reports on the agency’s failure to catch the Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford Ponzi schemes.
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Mixed Day on Wall Street: Stocks Retreat Ahead of Earnings, However, Dow and S&P 500 Continue to Hover Near Five-year Highs
CNN Money
U.S. stocks fell Tuesday as investors gear up for the unofficial start of the third-quarter earnings season but despite the day’s weakness, the Dow and S&P 500 continue to hover near five-year highs. In fact, the Dow is about 5% away from its all-time closing peak of 14,164.53, reached exactly five years ago today, while the S&P 500 is about 8% away from its record closing high of 1,565.15. The Nasdaq has been trading near its highest levels since November 2000, but has a way to go before it reaches its record high above 5,000 reached in March 2000.
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A Bigger Paycheck on Wall Street, Report Reveals
New York Times
It still pays to be on Wall Street. The financial industry in New York has slashed jobs by the thousands over the last two years. For those who remain, annual compensation in total is at near-record levels, according to a report released Tuesday by the New York State comptroller. Since the financial crisis, Wall Street firms have wrestled with two competing market forces. Faced with a heavier regulatory burden, a lethargic economic recovery and the loss of once-big moneymakers like complex derivatives tied to mortgages, the banks have instead tried to cut their biggest expense: people. Yet there persists a view on Wall Street that profits can’t come simply by holding the line on costs – big pay is still needed to lure talent from other firms.
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How I Went Green for Profit
Huffington Post
Corporate social responsibility, our society’s most common and popular method of trying to make our world a better place, has actually been a spectacular failure. It has spawned the creation of entire new professional fields; it has made many CEOs and many more brand managers feel uniquely proud; it has driven enormous sums into media buyers’ pockets and filled countless newspaper pages with beautiful advertisements about “giving back”; but it hasn’t made our world any better at all. How did this happen? About half a century ago, as the western world was enjoying the incredible post-war economic boom and as people everywhere had started to worry about the effects of unchecked capitalism on the health of humans and the health of our planet, there was a sudden proliferation of concerned movements and NGOs with a distinct mission to undo some of the damage. Environmental, health promotion, anti-poverty, social justice and all sorts of other organizations sprouted up and gradually assumed the role of the “antidote” to the bad and ugly corporations that only seemed to have a single mission.
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Social Media: The New Customer Care Centre, Global Analysis Reveals
BizTech2.com
As enterprises increasingly employ the social media to communicate with clients and potential customers, contact centres too are making an effort to harness this channel for customer engagement. Social media in customer care in the Asia Pacific has been growing quickly in recent years, driven by the greater emphasis on efficiency and higher productivity in the enterprise. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Social Media in Customer Care – Asia-Pacific View, finds that contact centres need to thoroughly assess the customer base, existing customer contact processes, and then analyse the need to build a new set of processes and programs to complement the existing ones. Social media enables enterprises to hear, engage, and participate in customer conversations not only during a call, but even when the customer discusses his or her product/service experience with friends or peers on social networks. Asia Pacific’s rising profile in the social media arena is evident from its occupying 7 positions in the list of top 30 countries with the most number of Facebook users. Therefore, having a social media customer engagement strategy will no longer be an option in 2012-2013.
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Feds Hit Wells Fargo With Mortgage-Fraud Suit
The Los Angeles Times
The U.S. attorney in Manhattan has accused Wells Fargo of defrauding a government-backed mortgage insurance program, in another major civil case brought in the wake of the housing bust and financial crisis. The mortgage-fraud suit, filed by U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, seeks “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages for claims the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has paid for defaulted loans “wrongfully certified” by Wells Fargo. The suit alleges the San Francisco banking giant falsely certified loans insured by the government’s Federal Housing Administration. “As the complaint alleges, yet another major bank has engaged in a longstanding and reckless trifecta of deficient training, deficient underwriting and deficient disclosure, all while relying on the convenient backstop of government insurance,” Bharara said in a statement.
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Online Ad Industry: Go Ahead and Ignore Microsoft’s ‘Do Not Track’ Browser
Ad Age Digital Next
A coalition of advertising trade associations gave publishers and advertisers license to ignore the “do not track” signal from Microsoft’s coming web browser and any other that ships with the option checked by default. The statement from the Digital Advertising Alliance marks the latest example of the online ad industry’s insistence that it will only get behind “do not track” settings that web users have turned on themselves. Microsoft has said that it’s new Internet Explorer 10 browser would set a “do not track” setting as a default setting. “The DAA does not require companies to honor DNT signals fixed by the browser manufacturers and set by them in browsers,” the statement said. “Specifically, it is not a DAA Principle or in any way a requirement under the DAA Program to honor a DNT signal that is automatically set in IE10 or any other browser.
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Forrester Lowers Digital Ad Spending Forecast
BtoB Magazine
U.S. digital interactive media spending will increase from $12.7 billion this year to $28.0 billion in 2017, growing at an annual average rate of 17%, according to a forecast from Forrester Research. Despite the double-digit growth, Forrester said it is cutting its U.S. display forecast by 13% from earlier forecasts, citing the shift to less-expensive social media impressions. Forrester said the earlier forecasts are available only to its clients. This year, marketers will spend the most on rich-media ads, excluding video ($5.2 billion), followed by text ads ($3.5 billion), video ($2.9 billion) and static image ads ($1.1 billion).
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China’s Mobile GRP Movement Initiated by Big Brands
Sacramento Bee
Mobile GRP (mGRP) systems are being built up in China by lots of big brands, which will ignite more and more advertisers to integrate their mobile advertising into online desktop campaigns, where internet GRP is the metric to measure online videos and banners, and will also be compared with traditional TV and other multi-screen media. Miaozhen Systems, China’s leading third-party technology company, announced China’s first third-party mobile advertising measurement software development kits (SDK) in the “Measurable Mobile World” Mobile Internet Advertising Forum at the end of September in Shanghai. The solution will help advertisers to build up their mobile advertising reach curve and help them to combine mGRP with iGRP (including online videos, online banners and other display ads) systems, finally, to help them integrate into multi-media strategies.
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