Survey: Most Advertisers Engage in Branded Entertainment

Sixty-three percent of marketers surveyed by The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) say they their company has participated in branded entertainment projects in the past year. The survey results of marketers' attitudes toward branded entertainment were presented during the ANA's annual Television Advertising Forum, held today at the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York.

An exclusive survey by the ANA of 118 senior marketers detailed their views on branded entertainment. A convergence of the advertising and entertainment industries, branded entertainment is more than just product placement, according to the ANA; it is the integration of a product within an appropriate context. Further analysis of the data concluded that forty-two percent of the marketers surveyed said that the top benefit of incorporating branded entertainment into their marketing mix is to make a stronger emotional connection with the consumer. This outranked the other benefits chosen by respondents by nearly double.

23-Mar-05 » File under: Research (1)

Calvin Klein Brings Back CK One With New Ad Campaign

Ten tears after its grunge-like CK One campaign, Calvin Klein is relaunching the brand in April with a new television, outdoor and print ad campaign. The campaign will feature 40 mostly unknown models in a hip party scene in a building shaped like the CK One bottle. The campaign, designed by Fabien Baron and shot by David Sims, will continue with the "You're the One" tagline.

23-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Amazon Lists Viewsonic Monitor As World's Fastest Computer

Either a joke or a simple error, Amazon has listed a Viewsonic monitor as a computer having a 10GB chip, 2,000 DIMM, a 30,000 GB hard drive and weighing 14 hundredths-pounds. All for $2,312.95. Certainly, there will be computers that powerful someday soon but not right now. One reviewer raved about the "product," writing, "This laptop is the bargain of the decade. 10.00GHZ of power.

I use one to currently calculate the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I even caught it calculating on how to make the perfect cup of tea. The speed that this laptop can move at is nothing short of outstanding. Shame it doesn't have legs though."

Sure to be removed from the site at some point, here's a screenshot for posterity's sake.

23-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Dad Places Ad Claiming School Filled With Drugs

Park Ridge, Illinois resident and father to two grammer school children, Dominic Vecchio, placed an ad in last Thursday's Park Ridge Herald-Advocate claiming the his Maine Township High School District is a regular trading ground to heroin and crystal meth. Unsurprisingly, the ad has caused a stir and raised the ire of school district officials who deny Vecchio's claims.

"We've never had any incident that suggests that heroin or meth is being sold or distributed in our hallways," said Principal David Claypool. "It's just an unfair accusation." The kids thinks Vecchio is stretching it a bit too. Senior John Mallory said,"It was irresponsible. About 99 percent of the school doesn't do heroin or crystal meth; it's a tiny pocket, and the deans and administration are doing a good job trying to combat it."

Vecchio said he met with children in the town who told him drugs were on sale at school and, perhaps in reaction to a friend's 15 year old son dying of a heroin overdose last fall, Vecchio decided to spend $900 of his own money to place the ad and raise awareness of the issue.

23-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Lost's Evangeline Lilly Fronts Online Dating Service

Not new, as AdJab points out but since we go weak in the knees for Lost's Evangeline Lilly, we just thought we'd dream a little dream for a minute or two as we write and tell you she's the face of telephone chat service LiveLinks.

Great score for LiveLinks. We do wonder though if, with her new found fame, she regrets associating herself with a service for shut ins with no social life. OK, that's harsh. Everyone lives a different lifestyle but still. Alright, we're done with our Evangeline Lilly moment.

23-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Church Group Uses Halo 2 to Promote Religion

Acknowledging the forgone conclusion that, just like sexual abstinence, there's not much a parent or minister can do to stop kids from playing Halo 2, several churches are embracing the games as a channel through which to teach gospel. Director of Equipping of Dare 2 Share Ministries International Lane Palmer explains, "The point is that almost everyone already has run out and played it, so we think this is an awesome opportunity to take something hugely popular in our culture and turn it into a way to share the most important message. What we need are people who approach their Christianity with the same passion and concentration as they do with video games."

Palmer likens the story line of Halo 2 to that of the Bible, "Don't you just hate it when a bunch of outer space freaks get together and decide it's their mission to torch humanity? ...the Halo storyline is remarkably like a major theme of the Bible."

"God created people in a perfect world in a perfect relationship with Him, which made Satan and his angels very jealous. So since the beginning of time, they have been on a mission to destroy all humans.

Here's what Jesus said - 'A thief (Satan) is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of' (John 10:10). Jesus came to this planet to save the planet from a group much worse than the Covenant and from a fate much worse than physical death."

Halo 2, the new church. Hmm.

23-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Greyhound Targets Urban And Hispanic Markets With Radio Campaign

Comedians Wanda Sykes and Adal Ramones are featured in a new, national radio campaign for Greyhound Lines, Inc. aimed at urban and Hispanic markets. Already running in the Pacific Northwest area, the campaign is slated to launch in the Southwest in April.

23-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Website Ad Clutter Study Launched

Factor TG today announced the launch of an advertising clutter comparative study for online publishers which will measures the effect of advertising to editorial ratios and the effect they have on reader's perception of the site and the advertised brand. The study will be fielded over the next three months with results available in June.

22-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Burger King Hootie Commercial Spawns Taco Bell Spoof

Adrants reader John Brock points us to a spoof Taco Bell commercial created in response to a Fark thread which comments Burger King (CP+B) has gone insane with its new Hootie commercial and asks Farkers to submit their own screwed up commercial for another fast food chain. Jason, from Monolithcreative took on the challenge and created this oddity for Taco Bell. Part Starship Troopers, part Saturday morning cartoon, the ad has a bunch of tacos marching toward their enemy ending Iwo Jima-style with the tacos holding the Taco Bell flag gloriously.

With its war-like overtones and copy that reads, "We fought to protect the value of freedom. And the right to be full," the spot seems to comment on the current state of affairs over fast food, its health issues, whether it needs regulation and perhaps why it might not be anybodies business if we are fat or not.

Jason explains his creation to us, writing, "The Taco Bell commercial was really just made for fun (and the Fark thread) but animation and video is something that I really enjoy doing. I saw an opportunity to create a video that would be viewed by a large audience so I took advantage of it." Add this one to the growing list of consumer created commercials.

22-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)

Movie Critics Don't Lie. Movie Ads Do

Not that we ever really believed all those praise-worthy quotes heaped on top of all movie ads to make even the most pitiful movie seem like it will be great but we never really took the time to dissect the racket behind movie blurb abuse. Thankfully, someone has. Gelf Magazine has collected some favorable quotes for recent movies and put them back into the context of the original articles from which they were ripped. One great example is for 16 Years of Alcohol. A quote from the Daily Star in the movies ad says, Trainspotting meets A Clockwork Orange making the movie sound pretty good. The actual quote is not so positive. It reads, "This glum, violent drama about a Scottish thug ruined by drink is written and pretentiously directed by Richard Jobson whose approach—Trainspotting meets A Clockwork Orange—is bad enough to drive you to drink in no time."

That's why we like Ebert and Roper's Thumb method of recommending a movie. It's not so easy to take a thumb out of context.

22-Mar-05 » File under: Research (0)