Advertising Age

March Retail Sales Swoon: 'Worse Than We Expected'
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The nation's retailers today reported the weakest for the month of March since 1995, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, which tracks 80 retailers and takes into account sales at stores ...

Colleges Criticize Quantity of Beer Ads During NCAA Broadcasts
... More than 100 college presidents and athletic directors are urging NCAA President Myles Brand to re-examine the presence of alcohol ads on broadcasts of games, suggesting that college sports and beer advertising are a bad mix.

A Battle of Media Sumo Wrestlers: Zucker vs. Weinstein
In other news in this 3 Minute Ad Age report, a Missouri marketing agency is using fleas to deliver news releases. And, Chrysler has committed a record digital media spend to its launch of the new Dodge Journey vehicle.

A Bit of a Blur in the Netherlands
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- European opticians Pearle used a combination of roadside billboards and hundreds of ads on moving trucks to make a point about having one's eyes examined.

Yahoo Makes Goo-Goo Eyes at Google
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Two days after Yahoo's terse response to a letter over the weekend from Microsoft's CEO, the Sunnyvale-based portal announced it will begin testing Google's search-advertising service.

WOM From Family, Friends Trumps All Other Consumer Touchpoints
This Advertising Age article quotes Bruce Goerlich, President of Strategic Resources at ZenithOptimedia, as saying: Word of mouth is incredibly powerful, but we as an industry are not doing as good a job as we could do in generating it ...

links for 2008-04-10
How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips). Buy second monitors for everyone, they will save at least 30 minutes a day, which is 100 hours a year… which is at least $2000 a year…. which is $6000 over three years. ...

What is marketing effectiveness?
Advertising Age’s Jack Neff wrote a great piece last month, “Why Mix Models Don’t Mesh with Digital,” about how many companies aren’t investing in these new areas because the budgets aren’t big enough to be factored into the marketing ...

Links - 10th April 2008
(Advertising Age); Write like a blogger (Seth Godin); How to be creative (Gaping Void) NB: This is a classic; Google street view raises privacy concerns (Guardian); How Apple wins by breaking the rules (Wired); New York Times news ...

Family, Friends Most Influential on Shoppers
Family, Friends Most Influential on Shoppers - Advertising Age - MediaWorks NEW YORK (Adage.com) — Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases, according to new ...