- Mark Levin Signs Multi-year Deal with ABC, Expands Show to 3 Hours
- Consumerist.com Adopted by Old-School Consumers Union, Stops Selling Ads
- For Auto Industry, 2009 Holds Even Tighter Ad Budgets
- User-Generated Magazine Publisher 8020 Media Shuts Doors
- Out-of-Home, Fueled by Digital, to Weather Recession Well
- Clear Channel Swaps Cincy Stations for Five in Green Bay
- Consumers Swarm to Discounters for Grocery Items, Don’t Switch Back
- Wikimedia Raises $6.2M to Keep Wikipedia Afloat
- Conde Nast’s Jan. Ad Pages Slip More than Most
- Aegis Faces Possible Sale or Spin-off of Non-core Businesses
- Top US Cities for Charitable Givers, by Category
- Online Fitness, Video Game Spending Outperforms Brick-And-Mortar
- RIM Must Fix Glitches, Boost Satisfaction To Hold Off iPhone
- LCD TV Revenue to Fall YoY for First Time Ever
- Top 10 Broadcast Media Websites - November 2008
- Top 10 Entertainment Online Advertisers by Image-Based Impressions - November 2008
- Top 10 Sports Websites - November 2008
- Eight in 10 Online Holiday Shoppers Read Web Reviews
- Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index: Merry Outlook for Some, but Not Others
- Firefox Share Tops 20% in November
Campaigns of Note
Target Challenging Wal-Mart with Low-Price Message
Target Inc. seems poised to ratchet up its pricing message to counter consumer perception that rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the place to shop for low prices, writes Dow Jones, citing industry analysts.
A frustrated Target, which has been eclipsed for 12 consecutive weeks by Wal-Mart in same-store sales, has already made changes in its messaging.
Its In-store signs, circulars, and TV campaign...
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Campbell’s Soup Partners with ‘Tale of Despereaux’
Campbell Soup Company has entered into its first-ever major movie partnership—with Universal Pictures’ animated adventure ”The Tale of Despereaux” for its condensed soup brands—including an on-pack promotion on 50 million labels of participating Campbell’s Chicken Noodle and Tomato soup cans.
Based on the award-winning book by Philadelphia-born author Kate DiCamillo, “The Tale of Despereaux”...
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Kmart Harnesses Power of Influential Bloggers
Kmart kick-started a social-networking campaign by giving six well-known bloggers $500 gift certificates to go on a shopping spree in a Kmart store—and then share their experience with their readers.
The bloggers could write anything at all, positive or negative, and all of them clearly disclosed the arrangement in their posts, writes MediaPost.
The purpose was to get people talking about Kmart...
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Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy Have ‘Best’ Holiday Ads; Emotional Ads Resonate
Asked which retailer has the best holiday TV commercial, consumers ranked Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Macy’s, and Kohl’s as favorites, according to a survey conducted for the NRF’s Retail Advertising and Marketing Association by BIGresearch.
Other retailers on the top 10 list include Sears, Kmart, JCPenney, Old Navy, and Toys “R” Us.
Well-known celebrities, “True Story” campaigns, children’s...
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Toys ‘R’ Us Flagship to Open 24 Hours a Day
The Toys “R” Us Times Square flagship store will be open 24 hours starting 6 AM, Dec. 19, to 8 PM, Dec. 24—or 134 consecutive hours—the company said Tuesday (via Crains New York).
The Toys “R” Us decision comes day after competitor KB Toys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and began prepping going-out-of-business sales.
“We want to be sure our customers have enough time to select the...
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Crown Royal Bows First National Ad Campaign in Five Years
In its first national brand-advertising campaign in more than five years, Diageo‘s Crown Royal Canadian Blended Whisky will debut television spots that show accomplished individuals who stay true to their values despite their success.
Reflecting regal acts in a contemporary world, each of the two 30-second “For Every King a Crown” spots, titled “Set” and “Billiards,” depicts casual settings...
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‘Google Holiday Shopping’ Leverages Top Product Searches
Google has launched Google Holiday Shopping, which aggregates top product searches for certain categories, MarketingVOX writes.
“To find the season’s most wanted gifts, Santa’s elves mined millions of recent Google Product Search queries to put together some of the most popular products people are searching for,” the site reads. Categories include Video Games & Toys, Cold Weather and Specialty...
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SanDisk Uses Social Channels to Push Cyber Monday Sale
Data storage firm SanDisk enlisted Cohn & Wolf to promote a three-day sale across social networks. Sale items include MP3 players, Flash memory cards and USB drives, for example.
Instead of advertising with ads and flyers, SanDisk hopes to “reach consumers in an engaging way,” reports ClickZ. Using social media instead of ad buys also made the effort a lot cheaper, a SanDisk spokesman...
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JCPenney, 7-Eleven Partner to Promote Each Other
Retailers are getting more creative in getting frugal consumers to part with money, and they are often enlisting each other’s assistance to generate customer traffic.
In a test across Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, 7-Eleven and JCPenney are cross-promoting each other to see whether they can generate incremental sales, reports the Dallas Morning News.
At JCPenney stores, sales...
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No Sign of Relief for Starbucks in ‘09
Starbucks is predicting that same-store sales will continue to fall off in fiscal 2009, BusinessWeek reports, citing an annual report released Monday.
The grim sales outlook is caused by the “very difficult environment” in Starbucks’s biggest markets, including the US, Canada, and the UK, the company said.
And though its store closures and staff cuts in the US and Australia are expected to...
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