Unilever To Launch Dove Digital Channel

Dove is launching its own channel on Dove.com. The initiative will feature experts discussing today’s beauty issues. The channel will also give viewers a chance to join the conversation.
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MediaPost Publications – Unilever To Launch Dove Digital Channel – 04/11/2008

CALLING IT A MAJOR INITIATIVE in the digital space for a consumer brand, Dove says the channel will reside at dove.com.  The innovative new interactive, multimedia channel launches first in the U.S. and will be rolled out to the UK and Canada in the next three months.

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Filed under: advertising, CPG, interactive, Promotions, UGM, Video, VOD, Women

Older Consumers Favor TV, Print, But Net Lures Browsers In Big Numbers

If eyeballs are glued to any tube, it’s more and more likely to be YouTube rather than the Boob Tube across the room. An IDC study says people spend 70.6 hours per week, on average, with all media. They spend 16.4 hours glued to television and 3.9 hours with newspapers and magazines. Age determines media use; older consumers favor TV and print.

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Older Consumers Favor TV, Print, But Net Lures Browsers In Big Numbers

IF EYEBALLS ARE GLUED TO any tube, it’s more and more likely to be YouTube rather than the Boob Tube across the room.

Tech and media consultancy IDC, which has published a study on consumer online behavior, reports that the Internet is where people spend the most time browsing–32.7 hours per week.

Filed under: Baby Boomers, Consumer, Media, TV, VOD, websites, youtube

Online Video Attracts Six Out of Ten Internet Users Weekly

A new report says six out of 10 high-speed Internet users watches or downloads online video content at least once a week.

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Research Brief » Blog Archive » Online Video Attracts Six Out of Ten Internet Users Weekly
According to the latest Horowitz Associates report, Broadband Content and Services 2007, six out of ten high speed Internet users watch/download online video content at least once a week and 86% do so on a monthly basis, compared to 45% and 71%, respectively, in the 2006 study. News and user-generated, non-professional content are the most often viewed genres, followed by movie previews/trailers, music videos, and previews/segments of TV shows.

Weekly viewing of full episodes of television shows doubled from last year, with 16% of high speed Internet users watching TV online on a weekly basis.

Filed under: Branded Entertainment, Consumer, digital, Internet, Video, VOD, websites, youtube

Practicing the Subtle Sell of Placing Products on Webisodes

American Eagle Outfitters is at the forefront of a trend toward
advertainment, making videos to engross viewers while glamorizing a
brand.

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Practicing the Subtle Sell of Placing Products on Webisodes – New York Times
AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS, the retailer that sells jeans, T-shirts and hoodies for the 15- to-25-year-old set, has been at the forefront of the trend toward advertainment, in which companies make videos to engross viewers while glamorizing a particular brand.

Last summer, on its Web site, ae.com, American Eagle introduced a dedicated media channel called 77e, which plays music and videos. The idea was to make visitors intrigued enough by what they saw to entice them to click further and buy clothes. Much of the content on the channel has been commissioned specifically as entertainment and used the American Eagle brand almost incidentally.

Filed under: advertising, Branded Entertainment, Consumer, Internet, trends, Video, video search, viral, VOD, widgets, WOM, youtube

Ad Houses Will Need to Be More Nimble

This article talks about how clients are demanding more and better use of consumer data, specifically when it comes to advertising on the Web.

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Ad Houses Will Need to Be More Nimble – WSJ.com
The Web’s emergence is forcing ad executives to succumb to marketers’ demands that agencies reinvent how ads are created, and forgo their TV-centric approach. Clients are even calling for changes in the way ad firms are structured. But until now, few advertisers have spent more than 5% to 10% of their marketing budgets online. With the growth of online video and social networking, ad experts expect that percentage to jump significantly this year.

Softness in the economy also will likely drive more money to the
Internet, which can be cheaper than other media and has a reach that is
easier to measure, which is attractive to advertisers in slower times.
Merrill Lynch predicts overall ad spending in the U.S. for 2008 will
grow 2.3%, while the portion of that spending on the Web will increase
18%. Publicis Groupe’s ZenithOptimedia says it expects the amount spent
on Internet advertising to overtake spending on radio in 2008, and
spending on magazines in 2010.

Filed under: advertising, Consumer, content, digital, Internet, social networking, Video, viral, VOD, websites

Nike, Coke ring in the New Year with call to fitness ads

Coca-Cola is announcing today a two-year deal beginning Tuesday with cable
on-demand fitness network ExerciseTV that will place Coke’s Enviga green tea and
brand images on some of the channel’s 200 workout shows and create original
Enviga programming.

Nike, meanwhile, returns as a title sponsor for MTV’s
New Year’s celebration and will kick off a TV and billboard fitness campaign
around its “No Excuses” theme. Throughout MTV’s Tila Tequila’s New Year’s Eve
Masquerade 2008, Nike will air a 60-second ad with U.S. Paralympics basketball
player Matt Scott, who sits in an empty gym bouncing two basketballs while
rattling off excuses people use to duck workouts. A giant Nike billboard going
up Monday in Manhattan will spew motivational messages throughout the month. The
first: “Yesterday you said tomorrow.”

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Nike, Coke ring in the New Year with call to fitness ads – USATODAY.com
NEW YORK — Getting in shape is the perennial New Year’s resolution that brings a surge in ads for Weight Watchers, gym memberships and fad diets. Joining them in ringing in the new year with a call to fitness will be Nike and Coke.

Friday, Coca-Cola (KO) will announce a two-year deal beginning Tuesday with cable on-demand fitness network ExerciseTV. A deal for undisclosed terms will place Coke’s Enviga green tea and brand images on some of the channel’s 200 workout shows and create original Enviga programming. Enviga claims to help burn calories by speeding up metabolism with green tea extracts and caffeine. Three daily servings can increase calories burned by 60 to 100, the company says.

Filed under: Consumer, CPG, exercise trends, health, TV, VOD

The Joy of Cyber-Cooking

Food sites are hugely popular on the Web. Fueling the growth are social networking tools that let home cooks share recipes, tips and comments.

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The Joy of Cyber-Cooking
Bonnie Bucqueroux is the Internet’s own iron chef. Doubt it? Just watch the woman cook a Christmas turducken.

Ms. Bucqueroux, (pronounced “buck-a-roo” she says), wrestles with the meaty monstrosity in a homemade video on Epicurious.com, Condé Nast’s online site for foodies. In the seven-and-a-half minute short video, Bucqueroux talks viewers through the proper preparation techniques to cook a deboned turkey filled with a deboned duck crammed, in turn, with a large-breasted chicken (deboned, of course). “It’s enough to make the PETA people cringe,” says Bucqueroux, a vegetarian who often cooks for her carnivorous extended family during the holidays.

Filed under: Consumer, content, experiential, food, interactive, Internet, social networking, technology, trends, Video, VOD, widgets, youtube

Shoetube.tv Gears Up For Valentine’s Day Launch

The site, which targets women 18 to 44, will be ad-supported, allowing sponsors
to buy video ad overlays, ShoeTube Boutique microsites, banners, and contest and
polling efforts. So far, Nine West has signed on to promote its 30th anniversary
as well as the launch of its fall 2008 boot line.

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MediaPost Publications – Shoetube.tv Gears Up For Valentine’s Day Launch – 12/26/2007
BETTING THAT THERE IS NO end in sight for American women’s obsession with shoes, Powderhouse Productions is getting ready to launch ShoeTube.tv, a web channel devoted to nothing but shoes. (okay, there will be a little bit about boots, too.)

Programming for the site–scheduled to launch on Valentine’s Day–includes eight regular segments, says Marcy McCreary, director of new media, marketing and sales for the Somerville, Mass.-based company. “Pimp my Pump,” for example, allows women to show off their own shoe embellishments; “Walk on By” features woman-on-the-street videos shot in major U.S. cities, and “Real or Deal” invites contestants to decide whether a designer shoe is real or a knock-off.

Filed under: Branded Entertainment, clothing, Consumer, digital, fashion, living target, Media, trends, viral, VOD, websites, Women, Young Adults

P.&G., the Pioneer of Mixing Soap and Drama, Adds a Web Installment

The consumer products giant has created “Crescent Heights,” a new
online soap opera that aims to reach young viewers where they watch
most — their PCs and cellphones.

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P.&G., the Pioneer of Mixing Soap and Drama, Adds a Web Installment – New York Times
Can young Ashley find success and happiness in the big city? Will the dashing Eric win her heart? Can she make consumers buy more Tide detergent?

Stay tuned. Or logged on.

The company that brought soap operas to radio, then television, Procter & Gamble,
is trying the same strategy online with “Crescent Heights,” a new show
intended to reach young viewers where they watch the most — their PCs
and cellphones.

The series, which is more sitcom than soap,
focuses on a recent college graduate, Ashley, who moves to Los Angeles
from Wisconsin to start a career in public relations, and her emerging
circle of friends and romantic interests. Written, directed and
produced by Hollywood veterans, the three-minute episodes are as
polished as any television sitcom.

Filed under: advertising, Branded Entertainment, Consumer, CPG, Internet, living target, Mobile, trends, TV, viral, VOD, websites, WOM, Women, Young Adults, youtube

Contests, YouTube and Commercials Converge for Skin Product

Looking for the “Hottest Mom in America,” Medicis Pharmaceutical
introduced a multimedia campaign to market its cosmetic wrinkle filler
to middle-income women.

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Contests, YouTube and Commercials Converge for Skin Product – New York Times
GOING to a dermatologist for antiwrinkle injections is not just for women on Park Avenue, according to the maker of a cosmetic wrinkle filler. Middle-income women can enjoy youthful skin, too, the company’s new advertisements suggest.

Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, which makes medical and aesthetic products for the skin, introduced a multimedia campaign this week to promote Restylane, a dermal injection that reduces the appearance of wrinkles. It is the first time that the company, which says that Restylane is the top-selling in its category, has marketed the product directly to consumers.

Filed under: advertising, Consumer, CPG, digital, Moms, Video, VOD, websites, Women, Young Adults, youtube