VW Super Bowl Teaser Ad

Posted by on Jan 24, 2012 in Advertising, Blog, Video | No Comments

The German carmaker has just released a 60-second teaser for its 2012 Super Bowl ad that features a chorus of dogs barking out “The Imperial March” from Star Wars. VW used that song as the backdrop to its beloved ad from Super Bowl 2011 that featured a young boy in a Darth Vader helmet attempting to use The Force to influence household objects. He succeeds in starting up his dad’s 2012 Passat with a little help. The teaser, called “The Bark Side,” shows that the brand hasn’t abandoned its Star Wars motif. However, neither VW nor its ad agency, Deutsch, is offering any further clues about its ad in the big game on Feb. 4.

Mad Men Promotional Poster

Posted by on Jan 18, 2012 in Advertising, Blog, Culture | No Comments

Mad Men (Season 5) is back on AMC with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, March 25.

PLUS Model Magazine Self-promotion Ads

Posted by on Jan 16, 2012 in Advertising, Blog | No Comments

As a guy I have to admit I kind of like the female form. But I also have to admit when I see what passes for “attractive” on the cover of Vogue I often think to myself, “would somebody please buy that lady a meal!” So it is nice to see PLUS Model Magazine will these self-promotion ads. Good for them.

So This Happened In Japan

Posted by on Jan 12, 2012 in Advertising, Blog | No Comments

Oh to have been a fly on the wall when the marketing team came up with their “great idea” for their “Fuckin’ Sale.”

Twitter’s Self-Serve Ad Platform Launches

Posted by on Dec 2, 2011 in Advertising, Blog, Social Media | No Comments

We all knew this was coming, cause it was a long time in coming, but today it is here (at at for a limited number of firms):

Twitter’s long-awaited self-serve ad platform was quietly introduced in November with a “handful” of advertisers, according to the company.

The program, which Twitter announced in April 2010, is available to anyone with a credit card who wants to take advantage of Promoted Products. However, the option isn’t yet open to the public.

[....]

Twitter has indeed been taking its time with the initiative. A year ago, the company rolled out a turn-key advertising solution that lets marketers express their interest in advertising. However, such potential advertisers were not able to actually buy ads until last month. The timing of the self-serve ad platform was not a surprise. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has stated that the company planned to introduce such a program before year’s end.

At this point it is important to note that eMarketer estimates that Twitter generated $45 million from ad sales in 2010 and will earn around $139.5 million this year. So clearly with a few hundred million users there is a ton of upside here for Twitter if they can figure out a ad business model that just remotely works.

Is Google Going After TV Ads?

Posted by on Nov 4, 2011 in Advertising, Blog | No Comments

Now this is interesting. Multiple reports are surfacing indicating Google is thinking about leveraging their Internet advertising success to the television. Via Mashable:

Google, enormously successful in online advertising, might be casting an envious eye toward the $150 billion-per-year pay television market. Such a venture has the potential to turn today’s business of television advertising and distribution upside down.

The company’s already announced plans to build a fiber-optic high-speed Internet service in Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City, Kan., and according to The Wall Street Journal [subscription required], now Google might be thinking about ways to expand that into pay video and telephone services.

That would put Google in direct competition with cable companies and phone companies that have expanded into what’s called the “triple play” of communications: cable television, telephone and high-speed Internet.

In other related search engine news it seems nobody is running to buy Yahoo!.