Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category

Dallas station creates clever promo

CNN.com ad blends into top stories

This morning CNN.com ran an ad in the upper right area of its homepage that looked suspiciously like one of the top stories, except for the TravelZoo logo in the lower right corner and the “Advertisement” tag.

Columnist offers ways stations can boost brands

In a guest column for TVNewsCheck, Paul Greeley pens his ideas for ways stations can create better marketing campaigns and branding strategies.

The column comes on the heels of NBC’s recent decision to consolidate marketing departments and offers up some interesting and, in some cases, daring, ideas, such as adding topical mini-newscasts before local news, partnership with radio stations to match demographics and working with cable channels to promote local news.

Vizrt to launch new branding tool

Vizrt is getting ready to roll out a new version of Viz Multichannel 2.5, a TV branding software package.

The new tool focuses on providing “hands off” management of tickers, banners, snipes and program schedule graphics, reports Broadcasting & Cable.

“This new version makes the creation, scheduling, and delivery of channel branding an automated, cost-effective process that will benefit broadcasters in today’s demanding, multi-channel business environment,” said Ran Yakir, head of R&D Israel, Vizrt, in a statement.

The software could have a key role as the slumping media industry looks for new ways to integrate advertising directly into programming, such as the methods reported earlier this week by Advertising Age.

Gannett forms digital media network

Gannett has announced the creation of a new advertising network that will allow advertisers to reach multiple Gannett-run sites:

Gannett Co., Inc. announced today the formation of a groundbreaking network that will change the way advertisers reach their target customers. The Gannett Digital Media Network ties together more than 100 digital communities with a combined reach of approximately 25 million people.

Included in the network are Gannett’s best-of-breed news and information sites, led by USATODAY.com, the web site for the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper. It also includes the local sites for Gannett’s massive network of newspaper and broadcast properties, representing some of the most recognized brands in their communities, such as AZCentral.com and IndyStar.com. The consumers visiting these sites are incredibly attractive to advertisers. On the whole, they skew higher on metrics such as education and household income and, according to a recent Jupiter Research study, local sites rank highest for trust in advertising and attract consumers who spend more money online. This combination of national reach and true local engagement makes the Gannett Digital Media Network unique. (more…)

Killer Tracks launches Vitamin A in U.S. market.

Killer Tracks has rolled out a new Australian based music library entitled Vitamin A, complete with 6 CDs of radio-friendly commercial vocal tracks with edits and instrumentals.

The tracks include male vocal rock anthems, simple drama grooves, sassy female rock, peaceful guitar atmospheres and Latin-vibe rock. The majority of tracks include vocals and an alternate underscore version with no vocals. The library also includes standard breakdowns.

Overall, the music sounds nice from the demo NewscastStudio was provided. We had the chance to samples 10 full songs which ranged in styles. Out of the 10 we had a change to sample, “Take it to the Limit” was our favorite and would work well any most commercials and promos. It could even work as a news promo campaign.

For more information on Vitamin A and Killer Tracks visit killertracks.com

Online publishers to start offering new, bigger ad formats

CNET’s Webware blog has an interesting preview of some new advertising formats that will be rolling out this summer to sites in certain advertising networks. Whether TV news sites chose to adopt these formats remains to be seen. Will the tough advertising market make them more appealing to advertisers and therefore stations? We’ll see.

MSNBC.com ‘roadblocks’ interactives with ads

MSNBC.com has started adding a type of “pre-roll” ad before some of its interactive features. We first noticed this Monday on the network’s citizen journalism photo gallery, where an ad for American Airlines appeared before the content loaded.

Similar to pre-roll video ads, the advertisement “takes over” the page, with the user blocked from clicking or using the content until after a set period of time has passed.

‘Snuggie’ taking over cable news channel breaks

It’s a little off-topic, but we thought we’d take the time to make note of the plethora of Snuggie commercials that show up on cable news channels.

Time Magazine has taken note of the trend, pointing out that the product reminds some of a satanic cult’s outfit.

While these ads have always been a staple of cable television due to its low cost, apparently they’re showing up more now since networks need to fill ad slots and, consequently, are going for much cheaper than normal.

The Snuggie isn’t the only informercial-like ad that’s making increased appearances lately. There’s also Mightly Putty and those sound enhancers that look like cell phone headsets… At least someone is making money?

‘Leading the Marketing & Design Economy’ theme for 2008 Promax BDA conference

Promax|BDA has set its 2009 conference for June 16-18, an event that will center around the theme “Leading the Marketing & Design Economy,” an appropriate title given the current struggles facing the industry.

Promax|BDA is the world’s largest television marketing conference attracting industry leaders and executives from top television networks, cable channels, local stations, station groups, distribution, syndication, media and creative agency, design and emerging media.

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CNN adds large leaderboard ad to homepage; plus some thoughts on online advertising

CNN.com has been experimenting with some new forms of online advertising recently.

Within the past few months, Apple has bought a wide skyscraper-style ad that runs along the right side complemented by a horizontal strip ad under the site navigation. One of these ads had the familiar “Mac” and “PC” actors, in the full motion video, looking at the ticker displayed in the banner “above” them.

Monday saw a Chevron ad that starts out very large and then shrinks to a narrow strip once its played through once. Users can re-expand it by clicking the “+” sign on the banner.

It’s interesting to see news sites experimenting with some new forms of online banner ads. The days of straightforward banner ads are slowly fading and, in today’s troubled economy it’s no doubt that advertisers are demanding more bang for their buck.

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