Enough of the Apple ‘iPad’ hype already. Is it an iPod that doesn’t fit in your pocket? An “ebook” reader with even less battery life than an iPhone? Or just a netbook that lacks a keyboard? If Steve Jobs really wants to help his stockholders, there’s something much simpler he could unveil later this month instead. A dividend.

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This is by no means a mature market consisting solely of immature consumers
An industry needn’t be new in order to enjoy a surge in popularity. The market for videogames is a case in point. A recent report from Deloitte documents a robust increase last year in the number of people engaged in gaming, led by a deepening of the sector’s earlier inroads among consumers who are well into adulthood. This is by no means a mature market consisting solely of immature consumers.

via Videogaming Weathers the Storm.

Marketers get serious about social gaming

Visitors to the sprawling Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week encountered innumerable come-ons from electronics and tech companies. One of the more unusual came from Intel, which at 15 locations throughout the show invited attendees to “check in” using mobile social network Foursquare and earn one of four virtual Intel CES badges, which would enter them into a contest for an Intel-powered netbook.

Game on for Brands.

Olson had most recently handled the assignment
Lee Jeans has shifted its e-commerce business — which consists mainly of efforts on its Lee.com venue — back to independent Kansas City, Mo.-based shop Barkley. There was no review.

Barkley has a nearly 15-year relationship with the iconic brand, handling cause-marketing and public relations chores for Lee, a unit of lifestyle apparel giant VF Corp. Continue reading →

(E Parpis) The Martin Agency has launched its first work for Expedia.com, a campaign that positions the travel site with the tagline, “Where you book matters.”

The push includes television, print, outdoor and online advertising that began last week. A commercial presents the consumer experience of booking with Expedia through the visual metaphor of hands manipulating building blocks. A female voiceover explains: “These are the building blocks of a perfect girls’ weekend.” The ad ends with the message that the site offers “more choices” and “more savings.” (Watch the spot.)

Martin ‘Books’ New Approach for Expedia.

(B. Palmer) The moment technology goes mainstream is the moment you no longer notice it. In some ways, it’s the opposite of what happens in pop culture: when someone is famous, you notice them everywhere, but when technology becomes established, it’s so “everywhere” it sort of becomes invisible. Think about how you used to sit down and log on to the Internet: You made sure you had a free phone line, would dial in, then hear the beep beep beep as it connected. Now you only notice “the Internet” as a construct when something is messed up and you can’t connect. It’s so mainstream it has basically disappeared — it’s a basic utility that we take for granted. Continue reading →

He joins the Omnicom shop from BBH N.Y.

(Brian Morrissey) Tribal DDB has named Robert Rasmussen as its U.S. chief creative officer and executive creative director in New York.

Rasmussen, who joined Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, in November 2008 as ecd of innovation, replaces Steve Nesle, who has left Tribal after serving as its N.Y. ecd. The U.S. chief creative officer is a new position.

Rasmussen, an art director by training, joined BBH after 18 months as ecd at R/GA, where he worked on the Nike account. Continue reading →

The work traveling to the Omnicom shop is backed by $25-30 mil. in media spending

Zimmerman Advertising said it has been chosen as lead agency for the George Foreman brand of household appliances.

The Omnicom Group agency in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said it won the business, previously handled mainly in-house, following a review.

Per Nielsen, the client spends about $5 million annually in major measured media, but that total does not include infomercials, which are a major part of the assignment, along with short-form ad development and media buying. The business moving to Zimmerman, including long-form paid media, totals in the $25-30 million range, sources said. Continue reading →

Independent shop succeeds IPG’s Lowe on pharma biz

(D Gianatasio) Cramer-Krasselt said it has won ad chores on the Zicam cold remedy following a review.

“We are very excited to start working with Cramer-Krasselt for all our creative and strategic needs,” said Bill Hemelt, president and CEO of Zicam parent Matrixx Initiatives, in a statement. “With C-K/Phoenix, we get the advantages of a large advertising network as well as the attention that a smart, talented local firm can offer.” Matrixx is based in Arizona.

The brand spent about $25 million in 2008 on ads and $15 million through November 2009, per Nielsen, but the agency said Zicam’s media outlay is expected to increase substantially — and perhaps hit $50 million — this year.

C-K’s first Zicam work will break in April.

The review stemmed chiefly from the merger of Intepublic Group shops Lowe and Deutsch. Lowe’s Zicam business conflicted with Detusch’s larger Tylenol account, leading Zicam to conduct an agency search five months after hiring Lowe.

Automaker adds iTunes song tagging to its high-tech options

iTunes tagging allows listeners of HD Radio to “tag” songs they like, store the information in an Apple iPod, then purchase and download those songs via the Apple iTunes music store when the iPod is synched with the computer. Continue reading →

Firm looks to move beyond simply supplying technology

(MediaWeek) VeriFone, a provider of technology for electronic payment transactions, has inked a deal to acquire the Clear Channel Taxi Media business from Clear Channel Outdoor. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The deal vaults VeriFone to the front lines of the growing place-based advertising video network business. VeriFone will add all of CC’s inventory from 5,000 New York taxis to its existing network of 6,500 taxis. Continue reading →

(ADWEEK) The tricky thing about any sort of forecast for 2010 is that even though the recession appears, at least on paper, to be near an end, this was no ordinary recession for the media business.

“It’s difficult to separate what’s cyclical and what’s structural,” says eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey. That’s undoubtedly true for media like newspapers and radio, which have felt the earth shake beneath them this year. But it’s also true for a still-maturing medium like digital.

Overall, eMarketer predicts that online advertising spending will increase by 5.5 percent to $23.6 billion in 2010, reversing a 4.6 percent decline last year. But all won’t be well on the Web, which has seen several major issues exposed and exacerbated by the recession. As it turns out, not all traditional brands love banner advertising. There is still far too much display inventory out there. And even the red-hot video segment lacks a sure business model. Continue reading →

Ace Metrix reveals which TV spots resonated most with viewers

Rubbermaid’s ad tops the chart.

A TV ad from Rubbermaid, promoting the marketer’s line of Easy Find Lids food storage containers has been named the most creatively effective ad of 2009, according to Ace Metrix, the syndicated commercial tester. The spot, dubbed “Neat. Not,” which was created by WPP Group’s Y&R and debuted in June, features two women and their respective kitchen cabinets, one messy, one neatly organized with (you guessed it) Easy Find Lids containers. The ad also directed viewers to a Web site for coupons. “Consumers clearly connected with the Rubbermaid creative treatment,” said Ace Metrix CEO Steve Goldman. “The combination of a simple message, clear calls to action and a differentiating product all helped this ad to stand out from others.” Steve Pawl, vp, marketing at Rubbermaid, said the ad and the product “were the result of understanding our consumers’ frustrations around cluttered cabinets. We are especially pleased that the spot resonated so well with our audience.” Pawl credited Y&R for “bringing this solution to life in an engaging and compelling way.

Continue reading →

Pharma giant is in final negotiations to hire WPP media shop

(Steve McClellan) Abbott Labs is in final negotiations to hire WPP Group’s Mindshare to handle media planning and buying duties after a review, according to sources.

The incumbent, Publicis Group’s Starcom MediaVest Group, defended.

The client spent slightly more than $205 million in domestic measured media through the first nine months of 2009, according to Nielsen. Continue reading →