Ad Club Blog

Susan Retik-Ger touched all of us with her courageous story at the Women's Leadership Forum. Together with the event attendees, The Ad Club, our sponsors, and volunteers helped raise over $4,000 for Susan's non-profit organization, Beyond the 11th, which provides support Afghan widows. Her commitment to this cause was born from her own journey into widowhood — a journey that began on September 11, 2001, when her husband David was killed on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the World Trade Center.



To hear more of her story and learn how you can get involved with Beyond the 11th visit http://www.beyondthe11th.org

In preparation for our Women's Leadership Forum, we have planned a Twitter party for this Wednesday, March 10th, from 7-8pm EST.

Moderated by Creative Strategist, Lisa Hickey (@lisahickey), and Tweeting under the name "Women's Wednesday" (#ww) we will engage women in a virtual dialogue about the best advice they ever got. Some of the advice we collect will go into a coffee-table book to be distributed at the event.

To get your ideas rolling, here are the four questions we plan to put out over the hour. If you can't make it online for the Tweet-up, but you would still like to share your thoughts- visit our Facebook page and write it on our wall or link us to your blog!

Q1: Inspired by Women's Leadership Forum speaker, @ellynletters, book "What I Know Now": What do you wish you knew when you were younger that you know now? #ww
Q2: What do you see as the greatest struggle for women today? #ww
Q3: Who has been the most influential female figure in your life and why? #ww
Q4: What's the best advice you ever got? #ww

Please follow @theadclub and log-on on next Wednesday to share thoughts, expand your social network and connect with other vocal women in the online community.

Other confirmed discussion leaders will include:

Annette Arabasz (@ConnellyAgency) Web Developer/Designer at Connelly Partners
Neha Yellurkar (@nehaleela) Interactive Strategy at Hill Holliday  
Cindy Gordon (@newcynthia) Vice President, Digital and Social Media at 360 Public Relations
Kathy Kiely (@madameprez) President, The Ad Club
Nicole Berard (@mullenunbound) Associate Creative Director, Mullen

Women's Leadership Forum Speakers

Diane Hessan (@communispaceCEO) CEO of Communispace
Ellyn Spragins (@ellynletters) Author of "What I Know Now: Letters to my Younger Self"

Ad Club PR Committee Members

Rebecca Sullivan (@rebeccasullivan) Rebecca Sullivan Public Relations
Mike Rush (@mycrush) 360 Public Relations
Kaitlin Maud (@kaitlinmaud) The Ad Club

For more information & to RSVP for the party head on over to Facebook!

The Ad Club & The Ad Club Foundation are proud to announce The 2010 Diversity Internship program.

The Diversity Internship has developed into one of New England's most premier internship programs. Past participation has included Arnold, Staples, Blue Cross Blue Shield, GSN Digital, Oasis, MIT Technology Review, Digitas, and many more.

For all participating companies, The Ad Club offers the following benefits:

    * Recruiting dynamic and intelligent students from New England's most prestigious colleges and universities
    * Screening candidates and matching them with your company's particular needs
    * Working closely with your company to provide multiple qualified candidates for internships
    * Pairing each intern with a mentor for the summer
    * Hosting 5 events for interns over the course of the summer, including a career development panel at the end of their program

Each intern will be offered a summer stipend of $3,500, to be paid by the host company.

By March 12, please let us know how many interns your company would like to host. The program will last from the beginning of June to the middle of August, for a total of 10 weeks. Recruitment and placement will take place over April and May.

The Ad Club welcomes new members!

• Trustee Members: Jack Morton
• Corporate Members: Continuum
• Entrepreneur Members: Antler Agency

The Ad Club is excited to announce that we will be giving away a pair of Opening Day Tickets!

In preparation for our Women's Leadership Forum, we have been searching far and wide to collect "the best advice." Beginning today, March 1st, we will be looking for our Facebook Fans to post the best advice they ever got to our Facebook wall. Your submission can be words, pictures or videos. The submissions will be used in our book "The Best Advice I Ever Got" to be distributed at our Women's Leadership Forum and the videos will be played during registration at the event.

On Friday, March 12th we will review the entries and the Facebook fan who submits the Ad Club's favorite advice will get to live like Mad Men with us for a day. They and a friend will attend the Red Sox Opening Day game against the Yankees on April 4th and will be treated to two grandstand seats and an all-you-can eat dinner buffet with endless beer, wine and soft drinks at the Best Buy Club inside Fenway Park.

So what are you waiting for? Visit http://www.facebook.com/theadclub to submit the best advice YOU ever got for a chance to come to Opening Day.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Chrysler is prepping to name SapientNitro its digital agency of record for all automotive brands, replacing Omnicom Group's Organic, executives familiar with the matter say.

The shift to the independent network represents the latest chunk of Chrysler business to leave Omnicom after a series of creative and media agency reviews the car maker initiated last summer following its alignment with Italy's Fiat.

The last round of the interactive review was said to be a three-way shootout between Organic, Meredith Corp.'s Genex and SapientNitro.

A SapientNitro executive confirmed the win, while spokeswomen for Chrysler and Organic declined comment on the shift.

Executives familiar with the matter estimate the account -- which gives SapientNitro responsibility for digital duties globally across the Dodge, Ram Jeep and Chrysler brands -- is worth nearly $30 million in billings. It caps a nice new-business run for the network that was formed last year out of the merger of traditional agency network Nitro Group and Sapient. Among other things, SapientNitro was recently named to Unilever's global digital roster and tapped as lead agency for Target's coming e-commerce platform.

Last week, Chrysler Group named Meredith Corp.'s New Media Strategies agency its new social-media marketing agency of record. That move furthered the expansion by Meredith, a company perhaps best known for publishing magazines such as Family Circle and Better Homes & Gardens, into agency services. Social media duties, along with its customer relationship management business, expand on an existing relationship between Chrysler and Meredith, which began with custom publishing services. Meredith acquired Los Angeles-based Genex in 2007. Chrysler handed Meredith Integrated Marketing CRM from Omnicom's BBDO Detroit, which has since shuttered.

Chrysler in recent months has totally overhauled its agency roster. The automaker is also working with Richards Group, Dallas, for Ram creative; GlobalHue, Southfield, Mich., for Jeep; and Fallon, Minneapolis, for the Chrysler vehicle brand.

Check out the article on AdAge.com

BusinessWeek: AOL Moves to Build Tech 'Newsroom of the Future'
CEO Tim Armstrong deploys software that helps journalists collaborate on articles readers seem to want, then reports the traffic they generate

By Douglas MacMillan

Tacked to the newsroom walls in AOL's downtown Manhattan headquarters are pages and pages of Web traffic data. The numbers tell the growing number of journalists who work there how well their articles are performing and—thanks to the ads that appear alongside them—who's paying the bills.

Judicious use of Web-analytics software is a hallmark of what AOL Senior Vice-President Marty Moe calls the "newsroom of the future," a large and growing news gathering operation at the heart of AOL's turnaround effort. As demand dwindles for the dial-up Internet service that made AOL (AOL) a tech powerhouse in the 1990s, Chief Executive Tim Armstrong wants to jump-start growth by creating original online content and selling ads to appear with it.

To succeed, Armstrong, who will complete his first year at the helm in March, is leaning on AOL's background in technology. Rather than merely craft articles and passively post them on the Web, as many newspapers and magazines do, AOL is using software to determine which articles to write and then give journalists up-to-the-minute data on how much traffic those articles generate. It helps the journalists collaborate in low-cost ways, too. "We really want to enhance journalism with technology," Armstrong says in an interview. "We feel like we have a strategic window to invest in quality content."

AOL has hired more than 500 full-time journalists, many of them veteran reporters and editors seeking refuge from the business implosion in print journalism. The company also buys material from more than 3,000 freelance contributors. As AOL becomes better known for creating its own "quality content," advertisers will pay more to put their advertising on its pages, says Armstrong, former head of U.S. ad sales at Google (GOOG). "Brand ads should be a lot bigger on the Internet today and I think it's going to take hard work and creativity."
"The way is open for AOL to innovate"

Armstrong, who led AOL through its spinout from Time Warner (TWX) in December, hasn't said how much ad revenue he expects from the news operation. But he signaled his commitment to beefing up news when he largely spared journalists from a round of 1,400 job cuts in January. "The journalism enterprise was not affected at all," says Moe.

Startups such as Huffington Post and TechCrunch are similarly attempting to build online media companies from the ground up. Few, if any, are trying on such a grand scale. Media behemoths, meanwhile, are still struggling to find profitable ways to translate print operations to the Web. "The way is open for AOL to innovate," says Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University.

AOL will need to persuade Wall Street that it can succeed where others have failed, says Mark Mahaney, an analyst at Citigroup (C). "The market is skeptical that they've got a new mousetrap here," Mahaney says. Since it began trading publicly in December, AOL's stock has hovered near its opening price of 25.07. On Feb. 3, AOL reported a fourth-quarter profit. Still, the editorial operations are likely losing money, Mahaney says. Ads account for $471.6 million, or about 58% of the total. On Feb. 19, the stock rose 72¢ to 25.15.

To keep costs in check, some of AOL's news and blog sites, including Politics Daily and Engadget, are entirely run by virtual workforces. Editors and writers interact and produce news remotely, using tools such as chat.
profit-sharing with journalists?

AOL plans to continue hiring editorial staffers. In February, the company signed Marty Steinberg, a 28-year veteran of the Associated Press, to be executive news editor of AOL News. Armstrong also plans to replace Bill Wilson, the departing head of its media business, with fellow Google alumnus David Eun in March.

News editors' computers come equipped with software—created internally by combining data from AOL's own analytic tools with such other resources as social network feeds and Google's trend-tracking service—that provides daily updates on the number of Web clicks AOL's stories receive. "Audience growth and audience engagement have to be the things that we judge the most off of our journalist investments," Armstrong says. AOL is even considering sharing a portion of quarterly profits with staffers whose work fetches the most page views.

In January, AOL ranked seventh in overall traffic on the Web, with 87.6 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen—a drop of nearly 2% from a year earlier, when it ranked fifth. Its news sites make up about one fourth of that traffic, or 22.5 million page views.

To help get traffic flowing back to its site, AOL is letting user interest play a role in story assignments. Editors use internally developed software to figure out what topics are hot on the Web, based on activity on such sites as Google and Facebook. Frequently, stories are assigned to explore such popular topics as "How to Open Champagne," which was published in December on AOL food site Slashfood.
"fear" readers will generate fluff

Seed, a service AOL launched last year, similarly pays freelance journalists to write on subjects in demand. For example, Seed recently asked for short, 100-word blurbs on "Your best packing tips." Entries are edited for quality and accuracy and then posted on AOL sites. Vetting outside contributors and thoroughly editing the submissions is crucial to keeping AOL's brand intact, Armstrong says. "I don't think we would call it user-generated content," he says. The company's January acquisition of StudioNow, for $36.5 million, will let videographers post content on AOL sites for pay.

Some journalists fret that by letting the readers decide which stories get assigned, media outlets risk turning their attention away from hard, investigative news. "My fear is that once they start analyzing where their traffic comes from and where their dollars come from, they decide maybe journalism should go after Hollywood celebrity stuff and sports figures who are doing dope," says Alan Mutter, who writes about the media industry on the blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur.

That hasn't been the effect for James Graff, who joined AOL after losing his job as a senior editor at Time. "We're breaking stories," Graff says. "We're feeling the kind of hum that comes from the fact that we're building something."

Douglas MacMillan is a staff writer for Bloomberg BusinessWeek in New York.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2010/tc20100221_085000.htm

AdWeek: The New Tech Heads
Digital technologists share their expertise, creativity

What's the best way to marry content and code? For general agencies that question is being answered by digital technologists, an increasingly critical interdisciplinary position that helps shops create compelling digital experiences for clients. These experts, who come from disciplines including programming, strategy and production, have the digital agility necessary for today's fast-paced times. "We're in a period of transition where more and more people are discovering the need for this role," says Chick Foxgrover, CIO at the 4A's and principal at Web content strategy firm Foxpath IND in New York. "It's about taking a more holistic view of what it means to create for media." Here, a look at four senior agency talents who are redefining creativity in the digital age.


Scott Prindle > Executive creative technology director > Crispin Porter + Bogusky

"Technology fuels great ideas," says Rob Reilly, co-ecd at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. "It's critical for agencies like us." The MDC Partners agency has been at the forefront of digital creativity ever since "Subservient Chicken" put on its garters for Burger King in 2005. Back then, the agency was just beginning to build its in-house digital resources and, after winning the Volkswagen account late that year, it turned to Scott Prindle, a technical director at R/GA, to help oversee its digital future. The economics grad from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who received his early Web training at the U.S. Department of Commerce, says, "I liked bringing digital and technology capabilities into what was then more of a traditional creative environment. Alex [Bogusky] and I agreed that technology is a creative discipline." The agency is now armed with 50 technologists who are an integral part of the creative process, says Prindle, 39, who joined R/GA as a programmer in 1996. There, Prindle ran the technology side of the Nike and Nokia accounts. During his CP+B tenure, he's seen the emphasis on talent shift from the visual -- e.g., Flash designers needed to produce microsites and banner ads -- to programming. "Someone ... who has a solid grounding in IT, is comfortable working across a number of technologies and is a good problem solver is the ideal candidate now," he says. Reilly notes that the tech capabilities allow for greater creative experimentation and allows them to comp ideas in real time, an instrumental tool in selling ideas such as the recent Facebook facial-profiler app for Coke Zero or the mobile app for BK that gives users entry into the King's cell phone. "Having Scott here," he says, "allows us to control our destiny."


-Eleftheria Parpis

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/our-products/in-print/digital/e3ib5173b54f64bf8d28bb472d996173999

There it was.
Right after The Who had finished their Cover Band of The Who act. Right at the beginning of the third quarter.
A 60 second TV spot. For Google.
My thoughts ran like this:
What is this? Google? On TV? WTF?
Google, the darling of the digiterati, the vanguard of the new order, king of the world where advertising in print, magazines and television would be obsolete, where everything would be digital, where brand was a four letter word, where search rankings were the holy grail, where TV was a colossal waste of money because it could not be measured, arbiter of the new world where clients would only market to consumers ready to buy.
Google. One of the Four Horsemen of the Advertising Apocalypse, Keepers of The Sacred Algorithm, tip of the spear of the Digital Revolution.
Google? On the Super Bowl with Bud, GoDaddy and Doritos?
What on earth were they doing there?
Here's what I figured. Google does nothing without looking at the numbers. And the numbers told them this:
Search is passive. Advertising is active.
Search commoditizes. Advertising differentiates.
Search creates measurable clicks. Advertising creates desire.
Search harvests. Advertising sows.
And Bing is starting to crawl up their behind.
Oh, yeah. It's on.
By aggressively advertising, and positioning themselves as a "decision engine", rather than a "search engine" Bing (and Microsoft) have forced Google to blink.
Google didn't advertise on the Super Bowl because they wanted to.
Google advertised on the Super Bowl because they had to.

Bob Minihan, Executive Creative Director/Partner ISM Travel and Lifestyle Marketing
Read more on the ISM Blog.

Boston Marketing Agency Captains of Industry Announces Incredibly Boring Web Content Challenge Companies can submit their most boring web content. The winner will have their content “Captainized” for Free – making it fun or fascinating.

 

Boston, MA: February 16, 2010 –Captains of Industry, in partnership with their media sponsor MarketingProfs, today launched the Incredibly Boring Web Content Challenge. The Challenge will offer one company the chance to have a piece of their most boring content Captainized for free, in the form of a web video, podcast, quiz or other engaging web media.

 

Here’s how it works. Companies can submit their dullest, most incredibly boring product or service to www.captainsofindustry.com/yawn. The Captains will pick the one that really makes them snore and Captainize it for free, making it ideal for effective inbound marketing campaigns.   

 

“Even great products can sound dull if their story isn’t told well on the web,” said Ted Page, Principal and Creative Director of Captains of Industry. “The Incredibly Boring Web Content Challenge is a good way to demonstrate that it is possible to make any subject matter exciting and entertaining, helping clients attract the right customers to their sites.”

 

To enter, participants can send a link to the content they think could use a makeover to yawn@captainsofindustry.com by March 8^th, 2010. It can be anything from a chunk of web content or a downloadable document—but participants must provide an active URL that is no more than 2 pages in length. To be eligible, the submitter must occupy an officer, marketing, or sales position at their company. Only one entry will be chosen for Captainization into an exciting piece of FREE content.

 

To learn more about the Incredibly Boring Web Content Contest, watch the Announcement Video and view the submission guidelines at http://www.captainsofindustry.com/yawn/.

 

Stay tuned for more updates about the Incredibly Boring Web Content Challenge at www.captainsofindustry.com.

 

 

About Captains of Industry

Captains of Industry is an independent marketing and filmmaking company dedicated to telling their clients’ stories, engaging customers, and getting results. The Captains have expertise in renewable energy and viral marketing and have created memorable work for clients ranging from First Wind, Alteris Renewables, and Deepwater Wind to Dunkin’ Donuts, Bose Professional Systems, and SolidWorks. In a BusinessWeek CEO Guide to Online Video, two of Captains’ campaigns were ranked among the top ten created nationally. Learn more at www.captainsofindustry.com or follow us on twitter @CaptainsBoston.

 

About MarketingProfs

 MarketingProfs is a rich and trusted resource that offers actionable know-how regarding marketing applications of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools along with coverage of more traditional marketing topics, such as lead generation and email marketing. The MarketingProfs team is committed to helping you market your products and services smarter. Entrepreneurs, small-business owners and marketers in the world's largest corporations make up our more than 350,000 members. Our library of more than 3,000 articles, online seminars, conferences, discussion forum, and special reports deliver the tools, templates, and tactics you need to quickly turn even the toughest marketing challenge into your own marketing success story. Follow MarketingProfs on Twitter @MarketingProfs.