Web Host Recommendations

I'll be moving Adrants to a new host soon and would love to hear people's recommendations and experiences with the hosts you have used. I'm looking for shared versus dedicated hosting at this point but need about 60-80GB transfer per month and the ability to host multiple domains. I've looked at ix Webhosting, Lunarpages and BlueDomino. All comments are welcome.

Personal Ad Requires No Reading Between Lines Rather Skipping Lines

Read this ad from the start. When you finish, follow the insructions on how to read what this ad really has to say.

Mercedes Launches 'Do-It-Yourself' Ad Campiagn

A recently launched ad campaign for Mercedes-Benz is employing the new trend of consumer created (or at least influenced by) ad campaigns. The campaign consists of "slice of life" pictures submitted by Mercedes owners which are then incorporated into commercials.

Simultaneous Media Usage Becoming the Norm

There been several studies showing the increase in media multi-tasking. Now, there's another out from BIGresearch claiming 70 percent of media users consume more than one medium at a time. Of those who listen to radio, 53.7 percent are online, 46.9 percent are reading a newspaper and 17.7 percent are watching TV. Of those watching TV, 66.2 percent are online and 74.2 percent are reading a newspaper. Aside from the fascinating fact that anyone is still reading a newspaper, these finding point to the increasingly difficult job media planners have in delivering the message to the consumer.

While it may become more difficult claim consumer's split attention span, many cross media promotional tie-ins present themselves as a result of this shift in media consumption. This shift, properly acted upon, might finally force true cross media integration. By that, I don't mean placing the same brand message across multiple media but rather messages in one medium that require interaction with another. Obviously. That's already being done to some extent with the simplest example being "go visit our website."

That's only a baby step though. Mitsubishi's "SeeWhatHappens" Super Bowl spot went a bit further asking consumers to visit a website to see the end of the commercial. Still a small step. A bigger step might be what could be called "time-based addressable advertising" where, when technologically possible, a similar or complementary message is delivered to the consumer via multiple media at the same time. Messages could require interaction with one another or one could provide a "key" to opening another.

Taking an even bigger step, advertisements could be "transported" from one medium to another. For example, in a previous post, I wrote, "It's not out of the technological realm of possibility for a marketing program to tie the two media (and others for that matter) so closely together so that "transportability" of message is ubiquitous. By that, I mean that the message follows you yet you are the one that controls how and where that message follows you. It might start with something you hear in your car on the radio that sparks an interest that you want to respond to but can't at the moment so you press a little button that sends this item to a central location that allows it to be retrievable latter from another "connected" device such as a screen on your fridge, your computer, your phone, or your handheld. " Of course, the technology is playing catch up to consumer behavior but none of this is out of the realm of possibility or likelihood in the very near future.

Trojan Condoms Launches 'Orgasm' Campaign

Trojan has launched a U.K website which, unless you are at home, you might consider turning down the volume down before visiting. The site is full of people, mostly women, at that certain point of pleasure where it can get quite audible. The site features a game called "Orgasm or Muscle Spasm" where you must choose the real deal of the fake. There's also a section called "The Sexual Organ" in which you can set to music, various orgasmic outbursts.

Along with the site is a country-wide 3,600 poster campaign showing a woman in "the height of sexual pleasure".

You can visit the site from work without risk. Just don't roll your mouse over anything until you have turned your volume down. Unless, of course, you want to get your co-workers wondering what you are doing in your office.