Somewhat improved Q4 performance bolsters hope at holding company

Publicis Groupe today said its fourth-quarter revenue dipped 5.4 percent in organic terms, a measure that factors out the impact of currency fluctuations, acquisitions and other variables.

That performance constitutes an improvement from previous quarters, and would appear to confirm company CEO Maurice Levy’s belief that the worst of the economic crisis is over, the holding company said. In announcing Q3 results in October, when organic revenue slipped 7.4 percent, Levy was the first industry executive to publicly declare a recovery had begun. Continue reading →

Brands seeking to understand whether their online video efforts measure up now have a new resource

Brands seeking to gauge how their online video efforts measure up to competitors’ campaigns now have a new resource.

Analytics firm Visible Measures has released Trends, a Web-based tool that provides access to traffic, audience and engagement data from hundreds of online video campaigns.

Essentially, Trends is designed to help brands determine benchmarks for video ads, which can be used in both post-campaign analysis and for planning purposes. This has been an area that’s been lacking for the still young medium, where even experienced buyers often don’t know what to make of some of the numbers they receive on campaigns. Continue reading →

App lets users sample camera’s touch-control technology

Nikon is promoting its new camera equipped with touch technology via a Web app that gives consumers a simulation of touch-control capabilities for their online photo galleries.

The Nikon Virtual Touch Experience is a utility that uses a Webcam to let users move through photosets and resize images with gestures rather than their touch-pads or a mouse. Users can download the app at Nikon site AshtonsCoolPix.com.

The Virtual Touch Experience uses edge-detection technology to achieve the trick.

Interpublic Group’s MRM Worldwide created the application as a way to showcase the benefits of the Nikon Coolpix S70 camera. The point-and-shoot device has touch-screen controls instead of buttons, allowing users to operate the camera with gestures similar to those used with iPhones.

“Nikon wanted to push that it had an innovative product,” said Farid Chaouki, director of innovation and user experience design at MRM. “It’s hard to convey that in an advertising banner, so we developed a utility that will add value and make people understand Nikon is about innovation.”

The tool is a bookmarklet that users can drag into their Firefox toolbars to use around the Web. It doesn’t require plug-ins or toolbar downloads, although it does require a Webcam.

Sweethearts, which have managed to remain a staple of Valentine’s Day for 145 years despite tasting like fruit-flavored chalk, have announced that they’ll be adding the phrase “Tweet me” to their conversation hearts this year. Sweethearts and Twitter seem like a match made in brand heaven. As Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, put it, “It’s even more proof that people can say anything in short messages. A 140-character message may seem short. Sweethearts are even smaller.” The messages clearly needed a little updating, as past high-tech phrases now seem absurd. Like “Fax me.” Really, who faxes a love note? Probably the same sort of weirdo who publicly declares their love in 140 characters.

Proof that the marketing strategists behind the iPad should have thought harder about their branding.

Continue reading →

The company’s ads are aiming for humor again with a campaign called “The World’s Greatest Spokesperson in the World.”

The effort, via independent Durham, N.C., agency McKinney (which picked up the account from TM Advertising in 2009), shows the spokesman returning after a lengthy hiatus in the woods, where he’s grown a thick beard. After shaving, he dons a suit and starts practicing with a wooden microphone and an old corded phone to get his moves back.

A narrator informs us that the spokesman was once so persuasive that when he left, the global economy crashed 150 percent, and “it was said that his words carried so much weight that you had to lift them with your legs.”

‘World’s Greatest Spokesperson’ Touts Nationwide.

Until recently, the online local space was considered sleepy at best, dormant at worst. Yet no one doubted its potential at some point down the line.

But now, a confluence of factors is spurring interest in the local Web. As a result, several major online media companies are embarking on ambitious content plays in the segment, including AOL’s local news project Patch.com and MSNBC.com’s purchase of EveryBlock.com. Plus, both Google and Microsoft have recently shown interest in purchasing the local listings guide Yelp.

A New Zip Code.

It was a frequent outburst over a slew of Facebook updates and tweets as Google Inc.’s (GOOG 538.94, +5.82, +1.09%) Buzz, its latest foray into social networking, got the wrong kind of buzz. This was probably not the kind of viral chatter the top execs at the GooglePlex envisioned when they named, perhaps prematurely, their newest product Google Buzz.

In Silicon Valley and beyond, many critics and consumers were saying “Buzz off” to the company’s attempt to turn its popular free Gmail service into a social network.

Google Buzz may be a lesson in viral backlash Therese Poletti’s Tech Tales