Despite having achieved mainstream status a few years ago, the total audience for online video continues to balloon. And YouTube’s dominance in the category seems boundless, as the site delivered more than 10 times as many video streams as any other site in the U.S. last month.

According to the latest report issued by Nielsen Online, 137.4 million Americans watched Web video in December, a healthy increase of 10.3 percent vs. the same month in 2008. Those viewers streamed over 10.7 billion videos during the month, representing an increase of 11.8 percent vs. the same time period a year earlier.

Audience for Online Video Keeps Climbing.

Sandwich chain routinely spends $80-90 mil. in measured media

Quiznos has named independent WongDoody in Seattle as its lead agency.

According to the client, the shop “will build on Quiznos’ creative brand history while also serving to implement the new look, feel and overall brand refresh of The New Quiznos.”

The sandwich chain routinely spends $80-90 million annually in major measured media, per Nielsen. A Quiznos’ rep said WongDoody was tapped following a review. Media buying was not part of the process and that assignment remains at Pohmedia.

Quiznos Taps WongDoody.

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.

See Brett Arends

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 →