Sprint Flirts with Mind Trips in 'Sprint Ahead' Rebrand

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In the race to stay salient in the We-Can-Be-Phones-AND-Radios! pissing contest, Sprint drives right to the point with its new "Sprint Ahead" campaign, which boasts psychedelic graphics to highlight the tagline, "Music so fast it's trippy."

We hate to get our metaphors mixed but trippy music brings the one-time hazard of CD-skipping to mind, something that, before iPod, drove us crazy. And anyway, do we really want to use the word "trippy" in any context shared with sprinting?

Sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

The campaign was orchestrated by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-12-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless, Poster



In Argentina, Cell Phones Trump Credit Cards

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With 380 million mobile user in Latin America and just 3 major carriers, monopoly-related problems are the norm to say the least. During the ad:tech Miami panel Mobile Advertising in Latin America: When Will it Be a Reality, the lack of a common platform, as is the case in other markets, is always a hurdle that must be jumped during mobile campaign creation.

On the panel were Moderator, Fernando Pafumi, director of business development for Pyramid Research, Victor Kong, VP of Strategy and New Media for MTVNetworks Latin America, Jorge Oartides, CEO of LatCel and Juan Saldivar.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jun-26-07    
Topic: Industry Events, Mobile/Wireless



Content Widget Brings Sexy Back to Mobile

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Those Start Mobile guys have just launched a mobile content widget that helps deliver mobile content from any website to mobile phones anywhere in the world.

Existing content includes stuff from Shepard Fairey, The London Police and Patrick Nagel, which we think is pretty nifty. Swarovski crystals and Tila Tequila wallpapers are not every man's flavor of mobile differentiation.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-13-07    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless



Shocker: Monetizing WAP Sites More Important Than Cannes

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You learn something new everyday writing about the ad business. Did you know the biggest thing on the minds of ad agencies and brands is these days is...wait for it...how to monetize WAP site. Yes, we kid you not. This, according to a recent press release from iLoop which has partnered with Third Screen Media to "enable mobile web sites to have Internet ads." Stellar!

According to the release, the partnership "eliminates the 'how do I create the ad and make it mobile' question and Third Screen eliminates the 'how do I offer automated, relevant and targeted advertising optimized for each individual campaign' question."

Hmm, and we thought the biggest question from agencies and brands today was "Who's paying for my trip to Cannes?"

by Steve Hall    Jun- 5-07    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless



Texting Makes Good if You're Scantily Clad

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Shake Well Before Use points us to a campaign for plus-sized lingerie shop Bravissimo.

The firm, which specializes in unmentionables in D-JJ cups, conducted a traditional media campaign with multiple calls to action, including television, web and text-based ones. Wouldn't you know it, texting accounted for a whopping 45 percent of responses.

As the Silly Girl points out, we can't help but wonder how much of that figure was comprised of men expecting some raunchy text action. Because come on, look at the ad. It just reeks of 1-(900).

by Angela Natividad    May-22-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless



Vodafone Manual is Lacking, Kind of Like their Brand Equity

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Draft New Zealand justifies this Vodafone campaign like so: "Installing [Vodafone's vodem] is simplicity itself."

Because installation of said product (their wireless broadband modem, tinnily dubbed vodem) is so self-explanatory, the agency deluged potential clients with manuals whose 8 pages are blank except for the front covers.

We love how it takes 8 pages to demonstrate the absence of information.

by Angela Natividad    May-11-07    
Topic: Direct, Mobile/Wireless



Tootsie Pop Redo, Ageism Wrong, Verizon Tickets, MySpace Photobuckets

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- Classic "How many licks does it take?" Tootsie Pop commercial gets a makeover. not sure we like.

- With rampant ageism in this industry, here's a few reasons why it isn't always such a great idea to cast out over 40s.

- Cynopsis reports, "MySpace agreed to acquire PhotoBucket for a reported $250 million in cash and bonuses. Photobucket, one of the darlings of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, is the web's dominant photo sharing site with 41 million registered users."

- ABC will air Lost three more seasons ending in 2010. That's two seasons too many.

- Do you design movie posters? Do you think they are stupid/ Think you can do better? now you can design your own with Movie Poster Toolbox.

- Verizon and Fergie have teamed to offer mobile phone-based wireless tickets to her upcoming tour.

- MySpace is said to be purchasing Photobucket for $250 million.

- Fewer and fewer people may not be watching your TV ads but if your target audience is kids under 2, you're in luck. Ninety percent watch.



Chivalry's Not Dead, Cosmo to the Rescue

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Most of us have done that (transparent) thing where we text a friend and beg them to call with a life-altering emergency so we can ditch a date.

To rid us of the inconvenience of praying for follow-through, Cosmo hosts a call-back service that enables serial daters to pre-set a time for the phone to ring.

Because the ringing effect just ain't fancy enough, you can select the type of caller you want, too.

Consider the potential. This doesn't just make date-ditching easier; it also makes check-skipping more convenient. And it would probably make a unique morning wake-up call too.

The function is powered by Moderati and can be accessed at the mobile component of the Cosmo site. The service costs a dollar and, we suppose, saves you some dignity.

Thanks go out to Snackable Content, who knows how the single do suffer.

by Angela Natividad    May- 4-07    
Topic: Magazine, Mobile/Wireless, Online, Trends and Culture



MasterCard ... Phones ... Boooo

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Post-Priceless, MasterCard's marketing attempts fail to gather much interest or headway. Their new thing, called MasterCard Nearby, leverages the power of wireless provider go2 and a lot of early '90's creative to encourage people to interact more with the brand. The service enables you to do exciting and card-relevant things, like search for ATMs. We started to boo but were interrupted by a yawn and now lack the energy to keep booing. Oh well.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 3-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless



TV Goes Mobile, Life Dies For Fourth Time, PS3 Gets Weird

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- Cynopsis reports, "CBS struck a deal to supply Sprint TV with full episodes, live mobicasts and video highlights from several CBS shows. On demand content includes nightly mobicasts of CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, full episodes of Jericho and clips form several popular prime time and late night shows including the three CSIs, Numbers, Survivor and Late Night with David Letterman. The content will be ad supported with short video pre-rolls.

- Life magazine just can't catch a break. Time Inc. has killed the magazine, now a newspaper insert, for a fourth time. Let the thing die in peace, will you?

- Yahoo is launching a mobile ad network and plans to partner with publishers. Initially, Yahoo has deals with MobiTV, Opera and Go2.

- Surveying 3,000 people, Millward Brown found TV commercials inserted into Internet programming work better than their traditional TV counterparts. Attention and awareness are up over 50 percent compared spots viewed on TV.

- Bill thinks this UK OS3 launch trailer is "weird as hell." We'd have to agree.

- Bob Garfield gets a lashing over at Gawker.

by Steve Hall    Mar-27-07    
Topic: Magazine, Mobile/Wireless, Newspaper, Television