iTunes removed cigarette from Mad Men visual

This is wild. Switched caught an edited version of the graphics of "Mad Men", season one on iTunes, where the cigarette had been removed. The cigarette then magically reappeared.

Pitvertising: TV screens built into the armpits of shirts.

An advertising world first has been launched in London - pitvertising. Ananova reports.

"The innovative new concept uses digital TV screens built into the armpits of shirts.

It was developed by deodorant manufacturer Right Guard as the ideal way to market its products.

A hired team of 'Pitvertisers' was sent out into the streets of London to test the new medium."

Men Get Mad in New York Subway

Mad Men is advertised in Manhattan subway cars, under the city subway system's new plan to sell out all flat surfaces. These are obviously, uh, non smoking cars though.

[via Gawker with more pictures]

Veoh Targets Video Ads Based On Past Viewing Patterns

Web video startup Veoh is bringing its behavioral targeting advertising program out of beta today, writes The Washington Post.

"The ads are targeted at one of nine groups, including viewers interested in action videos, cars, pop culture, sci fi, anime, and family fare.

Veoh groups viewers into these interest groups based on their past viewing, searching, browsing, tagging, and commenting activities on the site. The ad-targeting technology uses some of the same underlying algorithms as its recommendation engine."

Product Placement Creeps Into Amateurs' YouTube Offerings

According to The Washington Post, product placement and corporate sponsorships have been seeping into new, user-generated turf lately.

"Last year, Dr Pepper sponsored production of a music video by YouTube star Tay Zonday, who is Web famous for his song "Chocolate Rain."

This year, Sprint Nextel is offering a few bucks to people who incorporate a new Samsung phone into a home video and post the results to YouTube. The first 1,000 videos to incorporate the Instinct phone get $20 apiece, and one grand prize-winning entry will win $10,000.

... It's easy to understand why sites like YouTube are attractive to advertisers and corporate sponsors. Getting a 30-second commercial on the air in front of a prime-time audience costs hundreds of thousands of dollars; uploading a video to YouTube costs nothing. Big-name entities from Revlon to Coldplay have recently sponsored contests on the video site. "

Dexter's Hit List. Showtime's viral video campaign

AdFreak writes up The Dexter Hit List, Showtime's new viral video ad campaign for Dexter.

From The Dexter Hit List, after uploading a picture of yourself, you can send your friends a personalized police press conference video, where you appear as the main suspect in a blood soaked investigation.

Last year, Showtime promoted the series with a death threat video campaign, where from a website, viewers were able to send personalized death threat videos to their friends/enemies.

Other past and gory Dexter promotional campaigns:

-- Italy promoted Dexter launch with a set of knives

-- Showtime Painted 14 Towns Red for Dexter

YouTube advertising revenue worldwide: $200 million

Although users of the popular video-sharing site view clips more than one billion times on most days, the site hasn't been as popular with big corporate advertisers.

World-wide revenue from YouTube ads has fallen short of Google's expectations this year, and is likely to total about $200 million for the full year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Networks are trying new ways to get viewers to watch ads

Whether using a split screen to keep the action going or recruiting celebrities to star in ad-sponsored micro-series, networks are continuing to experiment with ways to keep viewers tuned in during commercial breaks.

What several networks are doing:

- TLC: Split-screen featuring behind-the-scenes action during commercials

- MTV: Ad-sponsored micro-series featuring celebrities; comedic spots sponsored by advertisers

- ESPN: Split-screen during NASCAR events, showing race action and commercials side-by-side

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

Study: PCs Steal TV's 'Share of Screen'

One out of every five hours spent watching video is now done online, according to an Ipsos study.

... More than half (52 percent) of Americans over the age of 12 have streamed or downloaded a digital file. Consumers 18-24 spend the largest percentage of their time (27 percent) watching video on their computers.

[via AdWeek]

UK Online ad spending to overtake TV this year

The Internet will overtake television as the biggest advertising medium in Britain this year, with over 19 percent of total ad spend, according to a forecast by Enders Analysis.

[via Reuters]

Ashvertising

For smokers who step outside of their office or restaurant to enjoy a cigarette, Belgium-based ashvertising has come up with a way to entertain them thanks to "street furniture". An outdoor device that combines an ashtray with a TV-sized colour screen.

"As smokers finish and extinguish their cigarettes, the screen displays world news, sports results and weather forecasts along with advertising spots."

[via SpringWise]

Microsoft to Use YuMe to Place Ads in Videos

Microsoft will begin using YuMe, a start-up that specializes in serving advertisements matched to online videos, as it tries new ways to gain a larger slice of the online ad market.

[via the WSJ]

Popcorn Popping Cell Phone Clip Outed as Advertisement

We already knew the home-made videos appearing to show corn being popped by the heat given off by ringing mobile phone were a hoax, but it turns out they part of a viral advertising campaign put together by a company called Cardo Systems, which markets a Bluetooth headset designed to "reduce power output by up to 99 percent."

[via Switched]

Related: - Office Metltown video is a viral campaign. It was created to promote Angelina Jolie's new movie, "Wanted".

Office Metldown video is a viral campaign for Angelina's new movie

According to Yahoo Tech, it turns out that the much written about video called "Office Metldown" which became a YouTube hit, was created to promote Angelina Jolie's new movie, Wanted.

The video looks like it was recorded by a security camera, and shows an office worker going ballistic after a co-worker bumps into his desk, knocking off a stack of papers.

Yesterday a press release shed some light on the origin of the mysterious clip claiming it was created to promote a movie called "WANTED" starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman.

"One of the film's main themes is how to escape 'office slavery'" - said Bekmambetov "The success of the video doesn't mean the audience is gullible - it shows that people see themselves in this story. They see the truth - about themselves, about their suppressed desires and their need to break free.

Just for the record, here's a YouTube link to what is probably the first "bad day at the office" video that was a huge success online ten years ago (1998).

MPs reject TV advertising plans

The UK government has indicated it will reject proposals from the European Union to loosen rules on product placement in TV shows, reports the BBC.

"Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said that product placement could "contaminate" British TV programs.

Advertisers have been calling for the changes following a decline in revenue from traditional TV adverts.

... Under the new EU rules, the practice would remain banned in children's programs, news and documentaries.

Mr Burnham said he would begin a consultation shortly on product placement and was ready to listen to the arguments.

"But here and now I do want to signal that I think there are some lines that we should not cross - one of which is that you can buy the space between the programs on commercial channels, but not the space within them," he said. "British programming has an integrity that is revered around the world and I don't think we should put that hard-won reputation up for sale."

Google Analytics Starts Measuring TV Ads

Google’s experiment with selling and measuring TV ads on the Dish satellite network just got a lot more interesting. A month ago, Google incorporated the ability to buy TV ads into AdWords. Now, it is taking all of that ad impression data and layering it on top of Google Analytics. TechCrunch reports.

"... Within Google Analytics, which many companies already use as a dashboard to measure their Website traffic and the effectiveness their online Google ad campaigns,it is now possible to also measure the effectiveness of your Google TV ads. It shows you how many times your ad was seen on TV, and overlays that on top of a graph showing how many people visited your Website."

Online Television Draws Large Audiences In Europe

When it comes to online television, American companies and programs are what we tend to discuss. Research shows that online television is extremely popular in Europe, however, and so Europeans could drive the next wave of advertising trends. WebPro News reports.

European broadcasters and advertisers are sure to be doing their best to make money from the large audiences. With so many companies and countries involved, it seems quite possible that they'll hit upon an approach to advertising that will become the online television standard.

CW Attempts to Get Fans 'Cwinging' Between TV and Web

As part of its upfront negotiations, the CW is offering advertisers a chance to attach commercials to a series of up to two-minute-long video clips that will tell a story around one of its teen stars. The catch: To see the entire tale, viewers must watch the first clip on TV, the next one online and then tune back in to TV to see the end. AdAge reports.

"The CW, which in its short life has shown an eager willingness to reinvent TV ads, has dubbed this latest ploy "cwingers."

... Cwingers will appear during the network's "Gossip Girl" program as well as its soon-to-launch "90210," an update of the old Fox "Beverly Hills, 90210" program.

Notably, this innovation comes as the fledgling network has run into ratings trouble and its core audience is increasingly watching video."

To Thwart TiVo, a Nod to Television’s Golden Age

As marketers strive to counter the growing ability of viewers to skip or avoid advertisement spots, they are bringing back the live commercial. [via The New York Times]

"When TV began as a national medium, many spots were delivered live because many programs — dramas, soap operas, talk shows — were live. Some products, among them Timex watches and Polaroid instant cameras, made their reputations through spots that offered audiences live demonstrations.

The shift to recorded series relegated live commercials to “remember when?” reels. Now, as marketers strive to counter the growing ability of viewers to skip or avoid spots, live sales pitches are being reconsidered for their potential stopping and staying power."

Online TV Ads No Longer Afterthought

Conscious that millions of people are now watching TV shows online, marketers are likely for the first time this year to make digital-ad buys a key part of their "upfront" ad-purchase negotiations with TV networks, media buyers say.

"The digital ads aren't a throw-in after the main conversation is over. It's now part of the main conversation," says Alan Schanzer, managing partner at MEC Interaction North America, part of WPP Group's media-buying and planning unit Mediaedge:cia.

[The Wall STreet Journal]

Two new Mac Ads

Apple has released two new ads, "Sad Song" and "Pep Rally", viewable on Apple's Get a Mac page. [via TUAW]

YouTube ads for viral videos: 'buzz targeting'

Google is starting to share more details about its high priority of making more money off YouTube's popularity, introducing an advertising product on Tuesday called buzz targeting.
News Blog reports.

"The ad product uses an algorithm to find videos that are about to "go viral," when word of mouth (or IM, or blog, or e-mail) promotes a Web site to a phase in which it spreads like wildfire. In this case, ads are overlaid on the bottom fifth of viral videos supplied by YouTube partners who share ad revenue with the search giant.

Until now, YouTube ad campaigns have been more targeted to specific demographics. Buzz targeting adds a broader option, though the ads still are sold as categories such as entertainment or how-to, a YouTube representative said."

Colleges Putting Their Own Spin on YouTube

Frostburg State University, like a growing number of schools, is trying to elbow its own messages onto such sites as YouTube to promote themselves, create a virtual community and drown out embarrassing clips (like this one for Darthmouth). The Wasington Post reports.

"Marketing in higher education is really at a crossroads," said Nora Ganim Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "Those that don't engage and manage social media are going to be left behind."

Universities are moving onto social media including Facebook, iTunesU and YouTube "because they know that's where students are nowadays," said David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. To not have a presence in those areas means risking being left behind in the student conversation of this generation."

Turning down the volume on TV commercials

From your TV set, a man shouting about the great deals available at the used-car lot. The IHT reports.

"Broadcasting regulators like the FCC have long had guidelines to try to prevent this. Still, consumers insist that television channels continue to turn up the volume during advertising breaks in an effort to grab their attention.

In Britain, regulators moved last week to dial down the noise. The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice, which sets British TV ad guidelines, adopted a new rule, saying TV ads should not be "excessively noisy or strident."

Many ads, according to the broadcast committee, are recorded using a technique called audio compression. This shrinks the range of sounds in a 30-second spot. That way the ads can remain within previous guidelines, which typically prevent advertising from being louder than the maximum volume in a program."

The guidelines advise broadcasters to use a piece of equipment called a loudness-level meter to ensure compliance, which can measure "subjective volume," the audio level that the ear perceives in a show with a variety of sounds. This, according to the committee, is the best way to deal with compressed ads."

Combining TV and online ads benefits advertisers

Using TV and online together in advertising campaigns is significantly more effective for advertisers than using either in isolation, according to new research from Thinkbox and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). U-Talk Marketing reports.

"Findings show that their combined use produces major benefits for advertisers, including dramatically increased positive brand perception amongst consumers – some 50% higher – as well as significantly greater likelihood of purchase.

This is the first time the effectiveness of using TV and online in tandem has been examined in depth.

The sample focused specifically on ‘digital consumers’; people who own a digital TV and use broadband internet, and are medium to heavy users of each."

IAB Introduces Online Video Ad Guidelines

The Interactive Advertising Bureau introduced a set of guidelines on Monday (May 5) aimed at bringing more standards to online video advertising--and ultimately to make the still burgeoning medium easier for advertisers to buy.

... "This is a historic day," said IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg, likening the announcement to a similar set of landmark guidelines put in place for banner advertising in the late 1990s. David Doty, the IAB's senior vp, thought leadership and marketing, predicted "seismic shifts" would occur in the online ad business as a result of their adoption."

[via MediaWeek]

ABC.com Tries More Ads For "Desperate Housewives"

BC-Disney TV Group (DIS) is about to test a defacto rule in Web video -- that consumers won't tolerate sit through consecutive ads when they watch TV online.

ABC digital president Albert Cheng told THR the network is going to experiment, and see if they can move to a model that's closer to broadcast TV. "We want to push it a little bit to see how it would go," he said.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Google still scratching head over YouTube profits

Google CEO Eric Schmidt likely surprised few by confirming Wednesday that his company's video-sharing powerhouse YouTube isn't quite throwing off lots of cash. News Blog reports.

"It was obvious from Google's earnings reports that YouTube has yet to generate material income. Still, it's worth noting, 18 months after Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion, the company has acknowledged that it hasn't "figured out the perfect solution of how to make money."

... More than 10 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Google and YouTube are paying what many believe are millions in bandwidth costs every year. They have every right to be compensated. "

`Secret' of `Scarlet' is revealed

"Scarlet" may look like a new TV show and act like a new TV show — but it's no new TV show, writes the Associated Press. It's an LG marketing campaign for their new series of slimmer-than-slim LCD flatscreen TVs.

Instead of pointing out screen size and pixel resolution to potential buyers, "Scarlet" is pitched as "a new TV series" from director David Nutter, whose credits include "The Sopranos," "Smallville" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

The big-budget advertising campaign stars model-actress Natassia Malthe as the sexed-up, butt-kicking, red-eyed heroine "Scarlet." There's no mention of LG — or even a prominent image of the TV itself — in the advertising materials or commercials.

... Billboards for "Scarlet" began popping up in cities like Paris, Los Angeles and Singapore about a month ago while commercials and online ads began appearing on sites like Gawker, Variety and E! Online as early as two weeks ago. They all led viewers to ScarletSeries.tv, a site that features a high-impact movie-like trailer.

Madonna - Message to YouTube

She's gone to extreme lengths to promote herself and her new albums over the last 25 years, but vacuuming is a weird and unattractive first.

Madonna has posted a video online featuring her cleaning the set of her new 4 Minutes studio, stating, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". The clip has already been viewed over 1.2m times on YouTube. I think it's horrible so you will not find it embedded on this blog.

The odd YouTube video is Madonna’s attempt to poke fun at fans who are posting homemade videos of her new single online.

The pop superstar says, "All you people out there who are making videos to my single, you’ve got to clean up after yourself."

[via Sowetan]

NCAA March Madness ads online more profitable than on TV

CBS this year presented every game of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament on the Web for free, marking the first time a major U.S. sporting event has been so readily available online. Now the numbers are in, and they indicate that even for a company reared in traditional media, the Internet may be more profitable. Mercury News reports.

"... The network made $4.83 in advertising for each of its 4.8 million online viewers and $4.12 for each of its 132 million television viewers, according to data from CBS and TNS, a research firm.

CBSSports.com executives declined to disclose advertising rates but said the prices that advertisers paid for reaching 1,000 online viewers were as high as or higher than the prices for reaching the same number of television viewers."

Life happens inside a Google Video window

"Any Film You Can Imagine", Google Video's outdoor campaign using see-through billboards in Berlin.

Watch the video on YouTube. Wonderful.

[Billboardom via AdFreak

Google TV Ads: Buy The People, For The People

Soon, anyone with an Internet connection will be able to buy a TV spot — on any one of 94 networks, including A&E Network, Bravo, CNBC, CNN, Discovery, ESPN, Fox News Channel and MTV — delivered to any of Dish Network customers' 14 million set-top boxes. MultiChannel News reports.

"In the next few weeks, Google will make the service publicly available to anyone who signs up online."

TV networks seek formula for online ads

A good article from the Associated Press on how networks are trying out new advertising ideas for their content online. Their challenge "is to grow viewership online without cannibalizing traditional ratings and DVD sales while making more money on programming seen on the Web."

Some interesting figures mentioned... Networks now charge more per thousand viewers online than they do over the airwaves, where the average for a primetime show is about $25.

"For an advertiser, you're getting a clear performance result," said Bob Davis, a Web investor and former CEO of search engine Lycos. "No matter what the click-through (rate) they get, it's infinitely larger than the click-through they get on TV. The click-through they get on TV is zero."

ABC, which streams "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" on its ABC.com site after airing on TV, is aiming to tweak its formula to make its online ads as lucrative as its TV ones."

Image above left: is from an episode of the CBS series, the 'Big Bang Theory.' CBS Corp. executives faced a challenging reality last fall before the debut of 'Big Bang Theory': TV viewership was flat. So the network debuted the show in its entirety for a week online despite risks that the giveaway would sap viewership for the TV premiere.

Gossip Girl promos on YouTube

Gossip Girl returns Monday April 21st. Promo videos have been posted on YouTube.

As AdFreak puts it: "with a bang in every sense of the word, as one of its new promos includes an image of two characters doing the do, with the caption “OMFG.”

Two more videos here and here.

UK online ad spend to overtake TV: report

The Internet will usurp television as the biggest advertising medium in Britain by the end of 2009, according to a report published on Monday, reports Reuters.

"Britain has the most developed online advertising market in the world which the report by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Center said was worth 2.8 billion pounds ($5.6 billion) in 2007.

It said last year's 38 percent online ad growth was driven by the rising number of people online, the introduction of cheap laptops and the growing popularity of catch-up TV on the Internet through services such as Channel 4's 4oD".

MIPTV: Advertisers, producers rethinking marketing strategies

Once upon a time in medialand, broadcasters, content producers and advertisers were at the controls, and consumers, if they wanted to watch TV, were captive audiences. The word "prosumer" was a typo, and 360 degrees meant a circle.

Those days are over. Consumers are at the controls and speeding seamlessly across as many platforms and devices as they can get their hands on. At the same time, content producers and distributors, branding strategists as well as advertisers are tripping over themselves to keep up with consumers.

Read full article in The Hollywood Reporter

Win $1000 in the Hunt for Bin Laden

A scavanger hunt for camera phones is launching in five cities on Monday, to promote Morgan Spurlock's new movie Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, premiering April 18. JustPressPlay reports.

Street-teams will create and locally distribute multiple branded reward flyers featuring contest information and unique stills from the upcoming film.

With help from local radio stations, contest participants will search around their towns and cities to snap a photo of any of these images in the two week contest period from their camera phones and email it to a pre-determined email address that will be clearly marked on the flyers between 4/7 and 4/18.

Utilizing the image recognition based mobile marketing technology from SnapTell, each picture will then be verified and the participants will receive a message back confirming their entry into the contest and a link to exclusive content from the film.

Fans will also be able to enter by following clues in promotional ads in local newspapers.

Watch Apple trailer.

Two new Mac ads

Two new Mac ads. Yay!

[via TUAW]

Revenue from video ads and banner ads on video sharing sites

The entire market for non-YouTube in-video ads this year is worth between just $50 million and $60 million, according to VideoEgg CEO Matt Sanchez.

Bear Stearns last month estimated that YouTube will pull in $90.2 million in domestic revenue and $13.8 million in international revenue this year. That’s not restricted to in-video ads; in fact, the vast majority is expected to come from banner ads shown on pages alongside video."

[via NewTeeVee]

Is the Ad a Success? The Brain Waves Tell All

Agencies and advertisers are growing more interested in neuroscience in their never-ending efforts to improve effectiveness.

“The role of neuromarketing is to understand how people feel and react,” said Elissa Moses, chief analytics officer at EmSense. “It in no way sets out to meddle with normal, natural response mechanisms.”

[via The New York Times]

Online TV Generating Mainstream Revenues

New research from Informa Telecoms & Media shows that legitimate online TV and video services will generate revenues of US$7.9 billion in 2013, almost six times the 2007 figure.

Advertising will consistently outperform a la carte and subscription-based download services in terms of revenue generation and North America will be the largest revenue-generating region, accounting for 63% of the 2013 global total.

[via Broadcastingbuyer]

The Delicate Art of Video on Search Pages

Google and Yahoo have both started including video advertising on search results pages. Depending on how consumers react, this could open a vast new source of ad revenue or could deter users from clicking on the already incredibly lucrative text ads.

[via Bits and Google video ad (embedded above) via search engine land ]

Making millions when the boss isn't looking

Free Web broadcasts of U.S. college basketball let CBS reach the sports fan at the office, and turned the Web-advertising model on its head. Grant Robertson writes for Globe and Mail.

"It's one of the fastest-growing, most lucrative departments at CBS Corp. right now. But the company's president, Les Moonves, has a far more blunt way to describe how the network has turned March Basketball basketball into an Internet gold mine.

"People sit at their computers and waste away their afternoons watching basketball games while their bosses are looking the other way," Mr. Moonves told analysts recently in New York.

When asked about the advertising dollars CBS expects this year from online broadcasts of the annual U.S. college tournament starting today, Mr. Moonves simply added: "We are having our best year, by far. Ever."

It started almost as a joke three years ago when CBS began offering the online games at no charge to see how many slackers at the office would tune in during the first two days of the competition.

The massive response in 2006 nearly bogged down the network's servers, proving the at-work audience for Web TV was formidable. Revenue surged from $250,000 (U.S.) the year before, when a subscription model was used, to about $4-million from advertising alone."

Related: Office madness.