links for 2009-07-16

• Microsoft to Build Retail Stores Right Next to Apple's?
  Last winter, Microsoft announced that they'll be opening retail stores; today, they confirmed that the first ones will be opening this fall. Some of them–get this–will be located right next to Apple stores. The designs of the store aren't public yet–but their recent "concept" store on the Redmond campus manages to look exactly like the love child of a Circuit City and a Walgreens.
  (tags: apple microsoft)

Kindle’s A Class Act(ion)

Is Your Kindle Cracking Up? Amazon Sued in $5 Million Class Action
Amazon’s Kindle may be selling incredibly well and transforming the publishing world, but it looks like some users are finding its build quality lacking. A $5 million class action has just been targeted at Amazon, in fact.

Google v Microsoft

Google To Launch Windows Competitor

Google is launching a new operating system for the PC which it hopes will release Microsoft’s near monopoly of the market. Google already has been creating competitive software products with Google Docs that offer web-based alternatives to Microsoft’s Word and Excel. Now they will launch Chrome Operating System that will go up against Windows.

Microsoft to launch web based Word and free streaming music service

Microsoft has upped the stakes in its competition with Google as it unveils a free web-based version of its Office software due next year, and hints of a wildcard in the works — a free streaming music service for UK users to be released by the end of the month. Office 2010 will include very basic versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote when it rolls off the production line early 2010.

Economy: Easing, Slowing, Losing, Climbing

When it comes to predictions as to the advertising recession, its a far from clear picture and predictions vary depending on who you are talking to …

Cuts in marketing spend easing
The latest Bellwether survey published this week (13th July 2009) has found that for the second quarter in a row the rate of decline in marketing spend has eased, linked to an improvement in business confidence; with companies surveyed reporting that their financial prospects have improved for the first time since the first quarter of last year.

Ad outlook: Longer, slower recovery

The only good news is that we may finally have hit bottom during second quarter, with the media economy expected to rebound slightly during the second half of the year. But generally Magna’s mid-year 2009 U.S. forecast, released today, gives no hope of a full rebound for the media economy anytime soon.

Traditional Marketing Budgets Lose to Interactive

According to Forrester Research, reported by Richard H. Levey at Directmag.com, 60% of marketers surveyed will increase their interactive marketing budgets by shifting funds from traditional media. Direct mail was cited by 40% of marketers as being one being cut, outranking newspapers (35%), magazines (28%) and television (12%).

Worldwide Social Network Spending Climbs…Less Quickly

Growth in social network advertising spending worldwide will take a hit in 2009, but not as severely as in the US. eMarketer projects 9% growth in worldwide spending in 2009, to $2.2 billion. That is down from the 17% growth eMarketer forecast in March 2009.

New Consumer Journey, Heineken Mixtapes, Live Ads, Brands v British Films

The new consumer decision journey

Marketing has always sought those moments, or touch points, when consumers are open to influence. For years, touch points have been understood through the metaphor of a “funnel”—consumers start with a number of potential brands in mind (the wide end of the funnel), marketing is then directed at them as they methodically reduce that number and move through the funnel, and at the end they emerge with the one brand they chose to purchase (Exhibit 1). But today, the funnel concept fails to capture all the touch points and key buying factors resulting from the explosion of product choices and digital channels, coupled with the emergence of an increasingly discerning, well-informed consumer.

Heineken Mixtapes

This summer, every 6-pack of Heineken comes with a USB stick designed to look like an old school music cassette. These USBs give access to three free song downloads, and five different music styles are reflected in the USB designs

Scripted Comedy Central Series to Feature Live Commercials

Says the show’s writer and star: “In this new world we live in, it’s not enough just to be funny or talented, but you also have to understand the business side of it,” he said. “I’m all for Comedy Central making tons of money off of advertisers doing our show. I want to make it as easy for them as I can. But if it ever seems weird on our show, that we’re holding product X in our right arm and it takes you out of the show, that makes it not good.”

Augmented Reality

Maybe it’s because marketers, just like the rest of us, are looking for an escape these days, that Augmented Reality (or AR) has exploded onto the marketing scene in recent weeks. In the simplest terms, AR combines real time images with virtual ones, to create entirely new 3D computer-generated graphics, often with parts that the consumer can control.

UK Film Council looks to brands to help fund British films
Although box-office takings reached a record £850m last year, British filmmakers are struggling to secure funding from broadcasters and traditional City backers. The Council is seeking to establish a third-party venture to facilitate relationships between brand owners and filmmakers. Any such tie-ups would be likely to give some creative control to the brands concerned, as well as ownership rights. John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, said a sponsoring brand would be able to speak directly to filmmakers about projects that fit with its values.

Razorfish: The Players, The Package, The Deal

The Players:

As WPP and Publicis Circle Razorfish, the Sorrell v. Levy Rivalry Could Make It Personal

WPP and Publicis are competing to acquire Razorfish, reports PaidContent. That means two things: One of them will be forced to pay more than Razorfish is worth in order to get it; and it will be personal. WPP chief Martin Sorrell and Publicis boss Maurice Levy have a longstanding — and highly entertaining — personal rivalry.

Dentsu also joins Razorfish fray

Dentsu, the largest advertising group in Japan, has jumped into the fray as Microsoft opened the books to bidders for its Razorfish agency this week. WPP and Publicis, the rival communications groups, had already been considering an offer for Razorfish, a digital marketing specialist which could fetch around $600m to $700m.

A Digital Agency … But That’s Not All…

Microsoft Razorfish Buyer May Have to Commit to Ad Schedules

There are a lot of players talking to Microsoft about Razorfish, among them Publicis, Dentsu, WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic and AKQA’s private-equity investor, General Atlantic. But to best the field, the winning suitor will likely have to fork over more than money to the agency’s owner, which is looking for “strategic assets,” such as a commitment to buy its advertising offerings or use its technologies.

Microsoft includes ad commitments with Razorfish deal

Microsoft is offering hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ad space to the potential buyer of its digital agency Razorfish as its pitches the deal to the likes of WPP, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Dentsu and Interpublic Group, which are all said to have expressed interest.

But Will It Happen?

Why Microsoft Isn’t Likely to Sell Razorfish

Yet the chances of a deal being struck in the near term remain remote, according to analysts. For one, the acquisitions market is moribund, with credit still hard to come by for an acquisition that would cost between $600 million and $800 million. Razorfish generated revenue of $408 million last year. WPP, in particular, would seem unlikely to have the financial wherewithal to make an acquisition, after shelling out nearly $1 billion on digital acquisitions over the past few years. It is still in the throes of integrating TNS, too. Even as Sorrell expressed interest, he said WPP earmarked about $160 million for acquisitions, a fraction of what it would take to get Razorfish. That leaves Publicis as the only likely candidate to take on Razorfish.

links for 2009-07-13

Old Media Still Powerful: Blogs Follow News Outlets 2.5 Hours Later

A new study by Cornell researchers shows that traditional (old-media) news outlets lead the blogosphere by 2.5 hours when it comes to breaking news. It’s a sign that the old guard should chill out about blogs and how they’re destroying the news world.

Dumb-dumb bullets

Fascinating. I always think of Powerpoint as a business tool, but of course other sectors – in this case the military – also use it. Many in the Army don’t like the shift to 20-slide powerpoint away from the earlier 2-3 page written summaries.

Global Advertising: Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most

Recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising, according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries.
Ninety percent or consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online.
“The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly,” says Jonathan Carson, President of Online, International, for the Nielsen Company.”

A Really GRiPping Debate

Want to start a brawl in online advertising circles? Just announce that online advertising should adopt the traditional media measurement metrics of reach, frequency and GRPs (gross rating points). This debate, in fact, has been raging for years, practically a lifetime in the Web world. But the tide seems to be turning—in favor of GRP adoption.

Bellwether report shows decline in marketing budgets slowing
The latest quarterly Bellwether report says business confidence is improving, with marketing budgets falling at a slower pace than the previous quarter. The Bellwether statistics for the second quarter show that the rate of downward revisions to marketing budgets has slowed for the second quarter in a row since the record amount of revisions in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Pin Up Drinks

Pin Up Drinks

Loving the mashup. Someone took a cocktail picture from my blog and incorporated it in to a collage…

Image Credit: huto

Inspiration: Cool Japanese Tin Toys

Art Cart Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys

Cool tin cars from Japan. This selection from the Tanaka collection features 70 cars, airplanes, buses, spaceships, speedboats, and helicopters that provide a fascinating overview of the postwar Japanese tin-toy industry—a symbol of Japan’s startlingly rapid postwar rebirth—and of the Golden Age of automobile styling in the United States.

Cardon Copy

Cardon Copy Gives Bland Neighborhood Fliers a Professional Redesign
Cardon Webb – responsible for the Cardon Copy project – identifies the most banal of fliers, removes them, and then replaces them with an expertly designed replacement. In some cases the new design is visually compelling in a way that is certainly to the original printer’s advantage, while in other more ethically-gray remakes, the message seems drowned out entirely by arresting design elements. Webb himself admits that part of the project’s mission is to “over power” the flier’s message with “a new visual language.” In one clever redesign, Webb replaces a rain-smeared flier with a pixelated rendition that is just as illegible as the original.