Lionel Richie v Walkers (and Lineker)

I am pretty jaded about advertising, but AMV’s effort for Walkers – featuring Crooner Lionel Richie and former England Captain Gary Lineker – is actually funny and well done.

Unlike AMV to use celebrities, I know … (irony dear reader).

Related articles

• Walkers Pitch Man Tosses Lionel Richie Out the Window (adrants.com)
• Lionel Richie smashes glass window to snatch Gary Lineker’s crisps (telegraph.co.uk)
• Lionel Richie in new Walkers ad (mirror.co.uk)

Social Media: Facebook v Narcissists, Foursquare v Hyperactive/ Hyperpassive

Special Investigation: Is Facebook Festering with Miserable Narcissists?

A new study suggests that many Facebook users are narcissists with little to no self-confidence. York University researchers inspected the profiles of 100 students and concluded that those “with comparatively lower self-esteem scores and higher narcissism scores not only spent spent more time on Facebook, but also tended to ‘self-promote’ more than the students with higher self-esteem scores and lower narcissism scores,” reports the Huffington Post. It seems that a disproportionate amount of time spent uploading pictures, updating statuses, and appending information to one’s profile are all signifiers of insecurity and self-obsession. A more in-depth description of the study is available online—which is quite self-promoting of the researchers, isn’t it?

Two Types of Consumers Are Using Check-in Apps: Hyperactive and Hyperpassive
The two breeds are emerging and diverging, thanks to the onslaught of location-based services. What’s changing now is that mobile technologies are finally in place to meet both types of consumers. The hyperactive consumer is the one checking in everywhere on Foursquare, racking up badges and mayorships while leaving tips at every venue. The hyperpassive consumer is less of a known entity because there haven’t been as many options to serve him. The one with the most hype right now, if not the most promise, is Shopkick, an app that lets consumers earn kickbucks (all too reminiscent of Schrutebucks from “The Office“) just by walking into stores and potentially even walking into different departments and locations such as the dressing room.

Related articles

Two Types of Consumers Are Using Check-in Apps: Hyperactive and Hyper-Passive (adage.com)
Facebook users ‘more narcissistic’ (telegraph.co.uk)
Facebook lures narcissistic, insecure: study (untreatableonline.com)
Facebook finds fans among the narcissistic and self-loathing: study (techvibes.com)
Facebook draws the narcissistic, insecure: Study (calgaryherald.com)
As Suspected, Facebook Is Popular With Bad People [Antisocial Network] (jezebel.com)
Study: Use Facebook Heavily? Then You’re A Vainglorious Malcontent. (crunchgear.com)
Narcissists, insecure people flock to Facebook: study (ctv.ca)
Are Facebook users really more narcissistic? (salon.com)
New Study Says Facebook Users are Narcissistic, Insecure (shoppingblog.com)
Narcissistic College Students Spend More Time on Facebook (psychcentral.com)
Facebook Activity Correlate To Low Self-Esteem & Narcissism (webguild.org)
Frequent Facebook-er? You could be a narcissist. (holykaw.alltop.com)

Digital Ads: Clobbered, All-Pervasive

Marketing Data RoundUp: Digital advertising clobbered by traditional media

Traditional advertising is perceived by consumers as more informative, entertaining and necessary than online advertising, according to a survey of 1,200 people by the digital marketing show ad:tech London. The survey found that 69% believed traditional advertising was relevant to them, compared with 45% for online. Also, annoyance around advertising on the web is twice as high online as offline.

Picture: Matzkin
Online Ads Making Their Way into Xbox 360, Digital Books
Online ads are making their way onto unexpected digital platforms such as game consoles and digital books, with the possibility of changing the way these products are sponsored and consumed. One example is Microsoft, which is selling interactive ads on the home screen of its Xbox 360 gaming console for the first time (via the Australian). The ads, which can either open up to full-screen video or link to a destination page, are structured around a daily rate rather than on a cost-per-click basis, according to Microsoft advertising managing director Liam Walsh.

Related articles

• Online Ads Making Their Way into Xbox 360, Digital Books (marketingvox.com)
• Marketing Data RoundUp: Digital advertising clobbered by traditional media (marketingvox.com)
• A Look At Trends in Social Advertising (thenextweb.com)
• Ad spending moves in-game (cbc.ca)

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

Interesting piece of activism/ brandjacking …

Starbucks Free WiFi (Finally) Just as Broadband Demand Slows

Starbucks’ Ambitious Plans for Its Free Wi-Fi

Starbucks is not just offering its customers free wi-fi on the hazy notion that if they spend more time surfing the Web they will drink more coffee. No, the ubiquitous coffee shop retailer has plans to debut the second piece to its digital strategy this fall, which offers a more clear monetization path for it and its partners. Called the Digital Network, Starbucks intends to offer exclusive and premium content from such providers as Apple, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and health publisher Rodale.

Broadband Adoption Generally Slows
After several consecutive years of modest but consistent growth, broadband adoption slowed dramatically in 2010, according to [pdf] the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Two-thirds of American adults (66%) currently use a high-speed internet connection at home, a figure that is not statistically different from what the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found at a similar point in 2009, when 63% of Americans were broadband adopters.

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• Starbucks’s Free Wi-Fi Strategy Revealed (penn-olson.com)
• How Starbucks Plans to Capitalize on Free Wi-Fi (mashable.com)
• Starbucks partners with Yahoo for ‘Digital Network’ (seattlepi.com)
• Starbucks Wooes ‘Em Back With Free Wi-Fi (blogs.forbes.com)
• How Starbucks Plans to Capitalize on Free Wi-Fi (Jennifer Van Grove/Mashable!) (techmeme.com)
• Starbucks’ latest blend: Social and digital (msnbc.msn.com)
• Starbucks, Yahoo Partner Over Free WiFi (webpronews.com)
• Starbucks announces premium content for in-store Wi-Fi users (blogs.consumerreports.org)
• Free Wi-Fi at Harlem Starbucks (harlemworldblog.wordpress.com)
• Marketing Data RoundUp: More consumers to buy via phone this holiday season (marketingvox.com)

The Fascinating World of Digital Coupons

Study Says More Parents Embracing Mobile Coupons

A study conducted by Harris Interactive found adults with children at home are more likely to be interested in text alerts about sales and promotions than those with no kids at home. Of people with kids younger than 6 in their household, 35% are at least somewhat interested in getting opt-in text alerts from favorite businesses, compared to 32% of households with older kids and 25% of homes with no children. (The study, conducted in May with 2,000 adults, does not distinguish between childless adults and empty-nesters.)

The Growing Market for Mobile Coupons
According to this compelling infographic, mobile coupons appear to be what is driving the mobile advertising market’s growth – and are the most motivating to consumers. Mobile coupons were a $90 million market in the U.S. in 2009, but are expected to grow to $6.5 billion in 4 years. Particularly convincing is that coupons and purchase incentives drive people to spend far more than they would have without said coupon – on average, from $122 without a coupon to $216 with.

Kroger Boosts Loyalty with Downloadable Coupons

Kroger Co., looking to boost traffic and use of its loyalty program, is making it easier to download digital coupons and load them onto its loyalty cards. The grocery chain is offering more than 100 coupons on its website and allowing users to digitally “clip” them and load them onto their Kroger Plus loyalty cards – the first time Kroger has put together a digital clearinghouse in this way. At checkout, shoppers scan their Plus Card and the discounts are automatically deducted from their bill, the company explains. The Digital Coupon Center includes coupons for Kroger private label brands as well as for popular brands.

Digital Coupons Beamed to Shoppers’ Cells in the Mall

Simon Property Group has teamed up with a Silicon startup, Shopkick, to give its retailers a new option with digital couponing: an application that beams offers to shoppers as they walk by the stores. Simon Property Group is one of the largest retail real estate owners in the country, with some 370 shopping centers. It will be launching this program in 25 of its stores in New York, Chicago, southern California and San Francisco, with plans to introduce it in 100 centers over the next several months. (via the AP). This is how the application works: retailers install the Shopkick application on small speakers at the entrance to their stores. These emit an inaudible sound – which contains a code for the store – that is picked up by cellphones’ microphones. Consumers need to have the Shopkick app on their phones to receive any offers.

Related articles

Kroger Takes Online Coupons to Next Level (adweek.com)
Kroger Launches Online Coupon Center (webpronews.com)
Shopkick Prepares to Kick Off a Geo-Retailing Revolution (dailyfinance.com)
Best Buy Launches Shopkick Automatic Checkins and Rewards at 257 Stores (mashable.com)
Mall deal gives big boost to cell-phone coupons (sfgate.com)
shopkick and Simon Property Group to Bring Location-Based Shopping App to More Than 100 of the Nation’s Largest Malls (prnewswire.com)

Alex Bogusky Tells All (x2)

Alex Bogusky Tells All: He Left the World’s Hottest Agency to Find His Soul

“Alex Bogusky, the Elvis of advertising,” writes FastCompany ” has left the business. Is this a New Age midlife crisis or his greatest rebranding campaign? The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men — the man he is and the man he wants to be. -- William Feather”

Filling in the blanks. Part 1

Alex gives his version of events on his blog …

Two Ad Students Make Cross-Country Pilgrimage to CPB
Meantimes, “two Miami Ad School students, Santiago Cosme and Vicor Javier Blanco, on September 3, plan to travel from New York to Boulder without spending a dime. The pair hope the kindness of strangers will feed, clothe, house and transport them to advertising nirvana.. Why? We have no idea. They aren’t even seeking a job at the agency as far as we can tell.  They’ve got a website, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, a Twitter account and a Foursquare account. Whether or not the pair ever make it, we’ll know everything there is to know about their journey thanks to social media.”

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Alex Bogusky interview in Fast company: the narcissism, the rancor, the cruelty (adland.tv)
Is Alex Bogusky a Sociopath? [Redemption Song] (gawker.com)
Alex Bogusky’s whopper advertising freakout (blogs.ft.com)
Bogusky, Creative Ad Star, Is Leaving Advertising (mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com)
For Alex Bogusky, Money is Never an Issue (adrants.com)

iPad: Users Younger, Wealthier more Engaged

iPad Users Trend Younger, Wealthier

Users of the iPad and iPhone mobile devices, based on the iOS platform, tend to be younger and wealthier than typical mobile subscribers, according to a recent survey by The Nielsen Company. Only about 15% of iPad users are more than 56 years old compared to 33% of all mobile subscribers. However, while more than 10% of both iPad and iPhone users are 18-24, compared to less than 10% of all mobile subscribers, the most substantial difference occurs in the 25-36 age bracket. About 40% of iPad users and 30% of iPhone users fall into the 25-36 category, compared to about 20% of all mobile subscribers.

How Engaged? Tips to Up iPad Ad Interactivity Even More
Early advertisers on the iPad – Target, Dove and Ford Lincoln – all sounded the same trumpet call: their iPad campaigns had higher levels of user engagement than their online campaign counterparts. Since then research firms have been scrambling to quantify just how much more engaged iPad users are with advertisers. New figures come from Mobclix, which just launched the Mobclix Index, a new monthly series of infographics that aims to shed more light on the constantly shifting mobile ecosystem. Platforms including Apple‘s iPhone and iPad, Google Android, Research In Motion‘s BlackBerry and Windows Mobile 7 will be highlighted. Based on advertising data resulting from the total number of iPad ads served by Mobclix (300 million impressions per month on average), the Index finds that, yes, there is increased engagement on gaming apps played on the iPad versus the iPhone.

Mad Men shill for Unilever

Unilever Launches ‘Mad Men’ Blitz
Says a spokesman” “Unilever created the vignettes to showcase its iconic brands and celebrate their heritage on a hit show that is culturally relevant to consumers today. Consumers are craving nostalgia. The featured brands are prominent today and were popular in the 1960s, when ‘Mad Men’ is set.” Interestingly, the first reactions from viewers and bloggers haven’t been positive, with complaints about how the ads too closely mimic the show. On the “Mad Men” Facebook page: “Who is Dove soap trying to fool with that fake Mad Men commercial!? That is how I felt, like Dove was trying to steal Mad Men’s thunder!’.

And there’s more: “Despite hating the weak, we-suckered-you-into-watching-our commercial, Dove did generate some talk about … Still, subconsciously, I’m sure next time I buy soap I will see the Dove brand and automatically think SCAM ARTISTS and buy Ivory instead.” A blogger griped, “I usually love Dove commercials but I found this one to be way off-target from their ‘women loving themselves’ branding.

Related articles

Dove ‘Mad Men’ Commercial Causes Controversy; Unilever Says It’s Witty Parody (stylelist.com)
Dove make ads just for Mad Men, women have the ideas, get no credit (adland.tv)
More Fake ‘Mad Men’; More Real Ads (mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com)
Advertising: Commercials in ‘Mad Men’ Style, Created for the Series (nytimes.com)