Advertising Week, now in its fifth year, brings together industry decision makers for a week of seminars, discussions, presentations and panels here in New York, the heart of the advertising world.

In this hybrid of a thought-leadership program, high-tech special event and conference, virtually all aspects of the business are parsed -- with an eye toward growth and talent development via a lively exchange of opinions and ideas.

Adweek covers all the key happenings of the week, with reports on the important sessions, as well as news-maker interviews and photo galleries.




ADWEEK COVERAGE:

Sept. 25: To Compete Locally, Global Brands Must Adapt

Sept. 25: Political Ads More Negative Than Ever

Sept. 24: Anomaly's Johnson on the Joys of Being a 'Suit'

Sept. 23: Social Media: 'What's the 'Big Idea'?

Sept. 23: Goldstein: Client Spending Will Stay the Course

Sept. 23: Jimmy Wales: 'Make Your Brand Authentic'

Sept. 23: Media Execs See Tough Times Ahead

Sept. 23: Mark Cuban Saves for the 'Rainy Day'

Sept. 23: Luncheon Honors U.S. Fund for Unicef, Tap Project

Sept. 22: CEOs Stress Less Talk, More Action

Sept. 22: Mobile to Become the 'First Screen'

Sept. 22: Caveman, Sheep Top the Charts

Sept. 22: IAA, UN Officials Meet on Climate Change

Sept. 8: Changes In Store at Advertising Week's 5th Edition



To Compete Locally, Global Brands Must Adapt

By Andrew McMains

NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 25) -- The success of a global brand in a local market hinges largely on the brand's ability to adapt to local needs and tastes, according to Millward Brown Group CEO Eileen Campbell, who spoke today during an Advertising Week panel discussion on global branding.

"Cultural relevance is important," said Campbell. "You need to respect local culture and become part of it."

As an example, Campbell pointed to Ogilvy & Mather's "Real Beauty" campaign for Unilever's Dove, which in Western markets has featured images of everyday women in their underwear. In the Middle East, the concept was modified to simply reveal the face behind a woman's veil.

Other keys to global brand success include crafting a clear and consistent positioning and having a sense of dynamism and authenticity, said Campbell.

And, of course, the "brand experience" has to be great, she added. Showing a slide of Millward Brown's top 15 global brands for 2008, Campbell noted that they "tend to have a uni-brand strategy." The list included Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Google, Citi, Toyota, McDonald's, Nokia, Apple, IBM, Marlboro and General Electric.

That said, a global brand is "not just a logo, it's not just a common philosophy," rather, such brands "engage with consumers in a way that feels local to them," she said.

Size, in and of itself, doesn't always matter. "Being big isn't necessarily better ,and frankly, bigness brings complexity," Campbell said. And when it comes to devising a marketing approach, "the core human motivations are the things that are going to transcend cultures."

Also part of the discussion, which was moderated by Brandweek editor Todd Wasserman, was John Weinstock, vice president of marketing for digital appliances at LG Electronics USA, and American Marketing Association chief marketing officer Nancy Costopulos. More than 30 people attended the 45-minute event, which took place this morning at the Paley Center for Media in midtown Manhattan.



Political Ads More Negative Than Ever

By Eleftheria Parpis

NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 25) -- Politics is a dirty game. And according to political consultants speaking at an Advertising Week session, the tactics in this election are getting dirtier, with both presidential campaigns relying on mud-slinging ads that have no strategic underpinnings and cross the line between fact and fiction.
 
Seventy-seven percent of Obama's ads the week after the Republican Convention were negative, compared to McCain's 56 percent, according to a recent study by the University of Wisconsin, cited the moderator, USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, at a Pulse of America discussion.

And the attack ads are damaging both candidates in the eyes of the public.

"Both of these campaigns have diminished whatever their message might be," said Republic consultant and strategist Ed Rollins, who was political director for Ronald Reagan in 1984, and this year served as campaign manager for Mike Huckabee.
 
Reviewing McCain's controversial commercial telling voters that Barack Obama supported sex education for kindergarten kids, the panelists agreed that the ad was a misstep.

"Obama is being pretty negative in some of his ads, but the overall impression is that McCain is playing fast and loose with the truth," said Democratic consultant and strategist Bob Shrum, who worked on the failed presidential bids of Al Gore and John Kerry. "The biggest effect of the McCain advertising right now has been sullying the McCain brand. And as anyone in this room knows, if your ad is hurting your brand, it doesn't matter what else you are getting out of it."
 
Despite challenges from the press, the McCain campaign has continued to take a sensational approach in its ads, Rollins said. "It has damaged McCain. You can say negative things about your opponents as long as they are truthful, but it's a fine line."
 
Obama's ads have also been negative, but such efforts -- like the spot depicting McCain as out of step and computer illiterate -- were driven by strategy, said Shrum, while McCain relies on "tactics and misdirection. Whatever has occurred to them at a given moment becomes an instant ad."

Campaigns used to try to paint a picture of a candidate over time, noted Rollins. "Ten, 20 years ago, you used to try to tell stories like any other ad campaign. The problem today is that everything is a spot," he said. "It's almost like Obama is a new car and all we have to do is put a bunch of pings in it and at the end of the day the old car is the solid car. I don't think there is a consistency."
 
One of the strongest ads in the campaign so far, both consultants agreed, is a straightforward two-minute salvo in which Obama talks directly into the camera and explains some of his proposals for economic recovery.

"I would run it everywhere," said Rollins.

"It's the best ad of the campaign so far," added Shrum.

McCain's ad attacking Obama's position on sex education was cited as the worst.



Anomaly's Johnson on The Joys of Being a 'Suit'

By Andrew McMains

NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 24) -- Anomaly co-founder Carl Johnson, speaking at a daylong account management conference in midtown Manhattan today, argued that being a "suit" is the best job in the business. In fact, if he entered the business today, that's the role he would choose.

Johnson cited the "all-access pass" nature of working in account management, the breadth and variety of tasks associated with the role and the "sheer unexpectedness" and unpredictability of it all. "It's the agency's only white-knuckle ride," he said.

But the job's virtues are also its challenges and you have to love being a suit to do it well, according to Johnson, who addressed a crowd of about 250 at the conference, which was presented by the American Association of Advertising Agencies as part of Advertising Week.

"The problem is, it's a damn difficult job," said Johnson, who before Anomaly was worldwide chief operating officer at Omnicom Group's TBWA in New York. "You have to love it because it's painful, it's difficult, you get a ton of abuse, you work hard."

What's more, if done badly, account management can be the worst job in the world. The key, according to Johnson, is to focus on what will drive client business, not keeping the client happy. Also, account managers must be willing to take responsibility for whatever happens on their watch, he said.

"The fundamental principle is: It's all down to you -- good and bad," said Johnson.

Johnson spoke during the afternoon session of the conference, held at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Other speakers included Ogilvy & Mather worldwide CEO Shelly Lazarus, R/GA CEO Bob Greenberg and Starcom MediaVest CEO Laura Desmond.

The CEOs of McKinney in Durham, N.C., Colle + McVoy in Minneapolis and Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners in Sausalito, Calif., also reflected on how they've re-shaped and modified the role of account management at their respective shops.



Social Media: What's the 'Big Idea'?

By Shahnaz Mahmud

NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 23) -- The "big idea" for brands in social media to be truly successful has yet to materialize, according to the first Facebook Spark Series of discussions at Advertising Week.

"[Brands] are not there yet. They are on the cusp. They have the technology and know-how -- it's not for lack of trying or creativity," said Rick Webb, co-founder and COO of The Barbarian Group.

While the messaging is there, said Webb, the problem is the experience is more interactive and less social.

The definition of a big idea, said Rei Inamoto, co-chief creative officer of AKQA, differs on the medium. "It's what you do [rather] than what you say that becomes the idea," he said.

Facebook in and of itself is a big idea, as is Twitter, which started out as a small idea, said Inamoto. But where brands are concerned, it hasn't happened yet. He sees one of the greatest challenges for brands as letting go of a bit of the branding to focus more on the consumers in the space.

Another problem, he said, is that brands tend to view the channel, such as the social network, as the answer.

Advertisers have been putting up brand pages on Facebook, but this is a "complete misuse" of the space, according to Richard Ting, vp and ecd, mobile and emerging platforms group at R/GA. He likened that to a billboard set up on the side of a street. What are missing are the elements of utility and entertainment all at once, he said.

Another hindrance for growth, said the Barbarian Group's Webb, is the social media platforms' reluctance to work outside their membership bases. They must allow functionality across platforms while maintaining connections, he said, adding, "If this doesn't happen, it will be difficult [for brands] to recognize the [relevant ad] spend."



GroupM's Goldstein: Client Spending Will 'Stay the Course' in 2009

By John Consoli, Mediaweek
 
NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 23) -- Marc Goldstein, president and CEO of media agency conglomerate GroupM North America, said he is confident that many companies would not cut back on advertising in 2009, despite the troubled economic conditions.

Speaking at a second-day session during Advertising Week, Goldstein said while "it's premature to make any rash judgments" based on the economic events of the past 10 days and that every marketer will be in for a "rocky road," he doesn't believe companies will make any "rash decisions to cut ad spending."

Right now he believes most companies will "stay the course" and whatever happens down the road with the economy "will affect each company differently."

But Goldstein said it's his impression marketers might have finally followed advice that media agencies have proffered for many years. That is, in tough economic times, clients should continue to spend dollars on advertising to maintain their market share.

"In the past, we have always recommended to our clients that in a down economy they maintain ad spending so that they would not lose market share and have to eventually spend more to reestablish their brands," he said. "In the past, clients didn't heed that, but over time they've learned their lesson. That message to clients today resonates more. They really do recognize that if they cut back on marketing, it will be harder to recover later."

Goldstein, who as head of GroupM in the U.S., oversees media shops MindShare, Mediaedge:cia and MediaCom, said media agencies today must be more than just buying services. "We must be involved in the strategic planning process," he said. "That plays a critical role in what we do. We need to have a strategic plan to how we market our clients' brands."

Goldstein was part of a panel that included Maria Luisa Francoli, CEO, MPG; Miles Nadal, chairman and CEO, MDC Partners; and Byron Lewis, chairman and CEO, Uniworld Group.

Nadal agreed with Goldstein that marketers would not be making rash judgments this time. "I think clients still have substantial budgets, but they are trying to figure out how to spend them," he said. "There is money available for 2009. Some companies will spend more than others, and in every category there will be winners and losers."

Lewis said it is important during these challenged economic times that marketers not forget the "low-hanging fruit," i.e., African-American, Hispanic and Asian consumers, who have massive combined spending power. He urged marketers to make sure they "add multicultural to the conversation."

Francoli said marketers should also consider social media when planning campaigns, saying that while sites like YouTube and MySpace are not "measured media," they do reach a huge number of consumers in a nontraditional way.



Jimmy Wales: Make Your Brands Authentic

Wikipedia's co-founder touts transparency and engagement
 
By Brian Morrissey
 
NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 23) -- Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is a big believer in authenticity, so much so that he mentioned it over a dozen times during an on-stage interview as part of Advertising Week. In the view of Wales, brands need to get beyond blasting messages at people and start providing tools for their supporters to convey real views of products.
 
"You have to be sincere about allowing for community control," Wales said in an interview with Liz Ross, Tribal DDB's president of the Americas and global CMO. "The best way to approach it is to create a product that doesn't suck," he added.
 
Wikipedia has been a runaway success. It attracted almost 87 million visitors in August, according to comScore Media Metrix, ranking it as the No. 8 global Internet brand.
 
In 2004, Wales started Wikia to apply the lessons of Wikipedia to a for-profit business. Wikia lets users create fan sites about nearly any topic. Wales touted the site built by fans for the DreamWorks movie Transformers. It now has 6,000 pages of content and has generated the equivalent of 20 million free impressions for the toy and movie franchise.
 
"They're actually going out and selling the brand," he said. "It's very different from the top-down broadcast-style marketing."
 
Prior to his appearance, Wales sat down with Adweek to discuss the secret of Wikipedia's success, the threat of Google's power and how advertising needs to change.
 
What is responsible for Wikipedia's success?
Everyone always knew the Web is ... an interactive participatory medium. But it took a long time for the medium to mature and for people to figure out social models that work in terms of people love to talk, discuss and debate. The question becomes, how can people come together to build something rather than a message board where people endlessly argue and debate? People love building things with their friends and people they share an interest with. The success is driven by the fact that the resulting product is something people like to read. It's a cycle. As it began to get popular, it drew more authors and more content, which drew more readers, and so on. It's a shift from top-down media to bottom-up media.
 
How much do you owe the participation Wikipedia has attracted to its non-commercial status?
I think it's important in certain ways, but not in the ways most people think. Most people who work on Wikipedia do it because they enjoy it. It's not something you do because it's a charity. I believe people will do things from a charitable impulse only to a certain point. If people volunteer, they have to enjoy the work itself. If it's enjoyable and inherently rewarding, people will continue to do it. Everybody who is participating has to have a reason to participate. Those reasons can be quite diverse. [Wikipedia] being a charity and a social utility is part of it, but it's not everything.
 
Why didn't you have advertising on Wikipedia?
In the early days, we wouldn't have been able to support the site through ad revenue. It would have been so tiny it wouldn't be worth it. We were born in the dot-com-crash era. We didn't have that as a viable option. It was really a hobby, a group of people who had come together to write an encyclopedia. We thought of it as a community project. People didn't want to have advertising on it and donations worked fine.
 
What's your advice to advertisers wanting to tap into social media?
There are a lot of lessons coming out of Wikia. It's where we're seeing communities being built around brands that are very intense. In my presentation, I'm going to talk about the Transformers community. It was created in anticipation of the movie. The community went completely bonkers over this. They built some 6,000 pages of content about the movie, the toys, every aspect of the franchise. What you're seeing is, the traffic continues to grow even though the movie has come and gone. The franchise is benefiting from this kind of community engagement. For brands it takes authenticity that you can't fake. What you have to recognize is that if you're creating something that's good -- a good product or user experience -- you're going to have people who really get into it. There are communities out there and they don't mind dealing with the companies creating that product. What they don't want is to be pushed around. They don't want a top-down approach. They don't want you directly controlling your activity. They want to be heard and actively engaged.
 
Who's doing a good job of this?
J.J. Abrams and Lost. They've been really good with seriously engaging their audience of hard-core fans, and turning them into evangelists who build things for the ordinary fans. Outside of the entertainment industry, I don't know who is doing really innovative work yet.
 
Why is Wikia working on search?
We've seen a real concentration in search. Something like the top three firms handle 90 percent of search queries. It's proprietary; it's a black box. The search engines have taught us that it's a mathematical formula and it's neutral because it's an algorithm. There's a distancing from this being editorial commentary, but it is. If you search for Thomas Jefferson, Google will tell you these are the 10 most important things. That's a completely non-transparent process. We have no idea how they're compiling that. In fact, they go to great lengths to disguise how it is done. In contrast, if you go to Wikipedia and you want to know why it is the way it is, you can go to the history page and the discussion pages. You can contact the authors and ask them questions. It's all done in public. My idea is to do that and make search as transparent and community controlled.
 
Does advertising need to change?
There are things in advertising that need to change. People need to think about more complicated and involved user engagement. We're moving from an era of broadcast media to participatory media. It's the same in advertising. Word of mouth is far more important than ever before. Influencing the passionate consumers is more important than before. In this environment, it's getting harder to convince people with a mass blast of your brand image all the time. What's powerful is to engage the early adopters and influencers who will go out in a peer-to-peer way to sell your brand. It's easier to get called on your BS now. There's a cute art project using the Wikipedia "citation needed" notation. There are some people in New York who are going around on billboards putting on "citation needed" stickers. Consumers can talk back now. You have to think twice about making some outrageous hyperbolic claim. Maybe it never worked, but it really doesn't work now.



Media Execs See Tough Times Ahead

Though digital holds out some promise

By Steve McClellan

NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 23) --  Commenting on the general mind-set of his agency's clients in the current tough economic climate, Jack Klues, a managing partner of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi, recounted advice his own financial advisor gave him last week: "'Don't take any rash actions.' That's where our clients are right now."

As for ad spending in 2009, Klues said he expects many clients to change their media mix in a bid to make "a relatively fixed amount of dollars work harder." Brand values may need to be expressed in different ways, he said. "From the consumer perspective, clients need to get the right messages in front of people."

Klues' comments came during an Advertising Week "Leadership Conversation" here on Monday.

At the same session, Wenda Harris Millard, media president and co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, sounded a sobering note about the current economy and its impact. The Wall Street meltdown and ensuring credit crunch will have "pretty severe implications for medium-sized and smaller businesses and consumers," she said.

Cheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, said that if the mortgage crisis continues and many more people lose their homes, "I think every [advertising] category will get hit." That said, she also believes there is an opportunity for digital, which, she claimed, commands about 28 percent of consumer usage and only about 10 percent of the share of total ad dollars.

But when it comes to online media versus offline media, "It's not an either/or situation, but what's the best way to drive an idea," said Laura Klauberg, svp, global media, Unilever. Klauberg noted, for example that the company's Dove "Real Beauty" campaign from two years ago "was launched with billboards."

Millard said the key for marketers is to "connect intelligently with consumers."

A year from now, said Klues, "We won't be talking about analog versus digital or maybe even channels at all. It's all digital. What we're trying to do is identify by audience, whether it's new mothers or dog owners wherever they are."



Mark Cuban Saves for the 'Rainy Day'

Calls Internet 'matured,' says newspapers' end is near

By Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK  -- (Sept. 23) -- According to Mark Cuban, the online space is in for a shakeout, and newspapers' best option is to declare bankruptcy.

"The Internet has matured. It's not where all the excitement will happen over the next five years," he said Monday during a panel entitled "The Future of Media" at the fifth-annual Advertising Week in New York.

Asked where he is putting his money these days, Cuban said: "In the bank. This is where you save for the rainy day."

As the Web continues to become more mainstream, the HDNet chairman expects some hot online properties to begin running into trouble as their lack of moneymaking potential becomes apparent.

Cuban bets that one future growth area of entertainment will be a face-to-face evolution of online networking: big sports and other events shown on giant screens to large audiences. He also signaled that he would keep an eye on mobile opportunities.

Cuban also recommended that newspaper owners declare bankruptcy, arguing that soon they won't reach enough people.

Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff also took a bearish view on traditional media, suggesting that their content sometimes actually loses value in the digital age.

"These brands look more and more ridiculous," he said, pointing to what he called "the obsolescence of weekly news magazines." He also argued that people who only read The New York Times these days are simply "old people."

As a result, Wolff expects some big media brands to come up for sale at good prices in the coming years. "I'm sure Time magazine will in very short order be available," he suggested.

Meanwhile, AOL chairman and CEO Randy Falco argued that brands still count in today's highly fragmented digital-media world. "The blogosphere is not the most reliable source of news," he said.

Univision Communications CEO Joe Uva also defended existing brands. As long as they provide unique value, they could even attract new revenue from micropayments, premium services and online subscriptions, he said.

Meanwhile, AOL is using Advertising Week V for one of its first big promotional pushes for its collection of online ad assets.

Pillows and signage emblazoned with the slogan "Platform A -- seize the Web," touting its ad display network, were placed in visible locations at Monday's event, and brochures and posters touted such AOL brands as TMZ, Moviefone, Bebo, Lemondrop and Advertising.com with the tagline "Let our brands work for yours."

Among the top 11 things people might not know about AOL's properties, one fact sheet listed: "More women 25-54 go on AOL Media Properties in a day than watch The Oprah Winfrey Show."



Luncheon Honors U.S. Fund for Unicef, Tap Project

By Eleftheria Parpis

NEW YORK -- (SEPT. 23) -- The Stars of Madison Avenue kick-off luncheon at Advertising Week yesterday honored the U.S. Fund for Unicef for its cause marketing programs, including The Tap Project and Pampers' "One Pack = One Vaccine" efforts.
 
"The U.S. Fund for Unicef was our unanimous choice for the Stars of Madison Avenue award that honors innovative marketing and advertising campaigns from both creative and philanthropic standpoints," said Ian Parmiter, president of the Advertising Club. "The U.S. Fund for Unicef has evolved into a sophisticated marketer that effectively reaches out to consumer, business and political communications in support of the world's children."
 
The Tap Project, created by David Droga and his agency Droga5, began in 2007 as a New York City event on World Water Day. It asked restaurant patrons to pay $1 for a glass of tap water in order to help raise awareness and funds to provide clean and accessible drinking water to children around the world. The campaign has since expanded nationwide with the sponsorship of American Express and the help of agencies across the U.S. such as TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles, and Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. The campaign is expected to roll out globally next year.
 
"Tap has been an amazing thing. I feel so proud at least instigating something [like this] and seeing where it's going," said Droga. "The thing about Tap was that it was one of those ideas that anyone could have. It's such an obvious idea. Of the 25,000 children that are dying every day, 5,000 are water-related deaths, which makes the mind boggle as we all get served our water here today."
 
Pampers' "One Pack = One Vaccine" campaign was launched this spring in North America. According to the company, it has generated funding to provide more than 45 million vaccines to protect women and newborns in developing nations against tetanus. Actress Selma Hayek promoted the effort, which donated the cost of one vaccine for every package of diapers bought that displayed the "One Pack = One Vaccine" sticker.
 
"When you get the privilege of going to work every day to do something that your heart calls and someone actually calls it a career, it is a remarkable thing," said Caryl M. Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for Unicef. "Then when some people take the time to acknowledge the efforts of that work, I don't think it gets much better than that."
 
Accepting the honor, Stern announced the launch of a new Unicef effort to begin later this fall called "Believe in zero." The campaign stresses the ultimate goal of the organization that one day "zero" children will die of preventable causes. The campaign will include print and online ads and TV PSAs featuring celebrities such as Lucy Liu, Joel Madden, Marcus Samuelsson, Al Roker and Nicole Ritchie, among others.
 
Stern told the audience that the number of daily children deaths is getting lower. According to a recent U.N. report, the number has dropped to 24,000 from 25,000.
 
"We wanted to do something more important than an annual event, something more substantial and a little more dimensional than a clever headline," said Stern. "We've been striving to show people what's different about Unicef and get them motivated enough to stand up and be part of our cause."
 
The new call-to-action "perfectly expresses our commitment, our passion and our abilities," said Stern. "Put simply, who are we? What do we do? We are the folks that do whatever it takes to save a child."



CEOs Stress Less Talk, More Action

Agency chiefs discuss engagement at Advertising Week '08

By Andrew McMains

NEW YORK -- (Sept. 22) -- Less talk, more action is key to getting consumers to meaningfully engage with brands these days, according to four agency CEOs who discussed marketing in an age of consumer control during an Advertising Week panel discussion this morning.

"It's not about what brands say, it's about what brands do," said Nick Brien, CEO of Interpublic Group's Mediabrands. "It's about authenticity of marketing."

BBDO worldwide CEO Andrew Robertson added that the focus now is on "creating experiences that by participating in them, consumers change their behavior."

Echoing that sentiment, Aegis Media North America CEO Sarah Fay said that a core question facing marketers today is "not what do we want the consumer to see or hear but what do we want the consumer to do?"

Fay, Robertson, Brien and Group M worldwide CEO Irwin Gotlieb spoke at length about the ramifications of consumer empowerment during the CNBC CEO Summit event, which lasted an hour and was moderated by CNBC's Maria Bartiromo.

The panel also reflected on the downturn in the U.S. economy, acknowledging that it has and will continue to impact both client and consumer behavior.

Particularly hard hit have been the automotive, travel and leisure categories but others, including cosmetics, continue to thrive, the panelists said. Some marketers are also re-thinking marketing messages.

"There are definitely clients [for whom] the value message is going to become a much bigger component" of their marketing plans, said Robertson.

Gotlieb argued that consumer confidence is better than one might expect given the downturn in the economy and rising fuel prices. One explanation may be that "the consumer can't comprehend what has happened" on Wall Street, he said. "Time will tell."

"The issue is now whether the level of confidence is going to get shaken" more, said Brien, who added that for agencies, "it's a much more challenging environment."



Mobile to Become the 'First Screen'

By Shahnaz Mahmud

NEW YORK -- (Sept. 22) -- Bob Greenberg, CEO and global chief creative officer at R/GA, and Arto Joensuu, global director of e-marketing for Nokia, today explained how the "third screen" -- or mobile media -- will become the "first screen," surpassing television and online.

"Complicated changes are due to the impact of technology on marketing," said Greenberg. The evolution of the screen -- as all media -- is dependent on consumer behavior, he said.

Nokia's Joensuu believes most handsets will include global positioning systems, cameras and Internet capabilities -- and therefore "unique abilities for marketers" in this changing landscape. At this juncture, his view is that this medium is "under tapped" by advertisers.

Part of the discussion at Advertising Week gave way to a demonstration of what Nokia and R/GA have been working on together. The first leg of a campaign created earlier this year was dubbed "Urbanista Diaries," in which consumers were given Nokia phones with GPS systems to take on their travels and record images from around the globe. The photos were shared through Nokia widgets. Social media was at the center of the campaign.

The second part of the campaign is called "Nokia Vine," which is more of a "life travelogue," said Greenberg, and the goal is to create an emotional connection, said Nokia's Joensuu.

Further, he said mobile is redefining media, transforming the way media is "bought," "owned" (via branded channels) and "earned." The latter, he explained, "Provides compelling marketing solutions that drive advocacy. Earned media will drive media investment in the future," he said.

Greenberg noted that the point is not to just shift money from one platform to another. "We have to change the mindset," he said.



Caveman, Sheep Top the Charts

Geico, Serta, USPS and UPS score in icons and slogans contest

By Eleftheria Parpis

NEW YORK Advertising Week 2008's top icons are Geico's caveman and Serta's sheep. The top slogans are the United States Postal Service's "We deliver for you" and UPS' "What can brown do for you?"

Those were the winners of the 5th-annual icon and slogan contest disclosed today during the kick-off of Advertising Week in New York

The winners were determined by online voting powered by Yahoo! at advertisingweek.com/wof, and were inducted into the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame.

Among the nominees for top icon this year were the AOL's Running Man, the Budweiser Clydesdales, the Burger King, Mr. Clean and the Vlasic Stork. The other slogan nominees were the California Milk Processor Board's "Got milk?," Nike's "Just do it," MasterCard's "Priceless" and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's "What happens here, stays here."

Geico's caveman was introduced by The Martin Agency in 2004, and a bunch of the prehistoric characters starred in their own short-lived ABC sitcom, Cavemen, in 2007. (Geico also won for its Gecko icon three years ago.)

Serta, through Doner in Southfield, Mich., introduced its sheep characters in 2000.

The UPS slogan made its debut via Martin in 2002.

USPS, whose agency is Campbell Ewald in Warren, Mich., began using its "We Deliver for You" line in 1988.

Jerry Shereshewsky, an Advertising Week director and CEO of Grandparents.com, said the contest, which received more than 2 million votes, is a "testament to the enduring quality of imagery in advertising." The voting took place from Aug. 27-Sept. 19.

Last year, the icons Orville Redenbacher and the Chick-fil-A cow and the slogans "Ding! You are now free to move about the country" for Southwest Airlines (from GSD&M Idea City) and "The few. The proud. The Marines" from the U.S. Marine Corps (by JWT) were honored with inductions into the Walk of Fame.

The program is conducted by Advertising Week in partnership with the Advertising Icon Museum which opens in Kansas City next year.





IAA, UN Officials Meet on Climate Change

Global initiative set for Poznan presentation in December

Adweek Staff Report

NEW YORK -- (Sept. 22) -- The International Advertising Association today led the industry's first meeting with United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in an effort to rally support for a global communications effort to help combat climate change.

The meeting was timed for the start of both the 63rd UN General Assembly and the opening of the fifth-annual Advertising Week industry event.

According to Michael Lee, executive director of the IAA: "The ad industry is up to the task of making a significant contribution to help change consumer behavior, influence public policy and help the UN make further progress on this issue. The ultimate selling proposition might just be saving the planet."

In attendance with Kiyo Akasaka, under secretary-general for communications and public information, were industry heavyweights Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe; Michael Roth, CEO of Interpublic Group; John Wren, CEO of Omnicom; Miles Nadal, CEO of MDC Partners; Seth Farbman, senior partner, managing director of Ogilvy & Mather (representing WPP Group); David Jones, global CEO of Euro RSCG (representing Havas); Tom Carroll, global CEO of TBWA Worldwide; Byron Lewis, CEO of UniWorld; and Linda Saywer, CEO of Deutsch, who also co-chairs Advertising Week.

At the meeting, Ki-moon said: "Now is the time for action, and we welcome this assistance from the advertising community, which will bolster our present capacities."

The new global initiative will be presented at the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, in December.




Advertising Week Sees Changes for 5th Edition

Organizers stress topicality and inclusion, but critics blast event for cramming in 'too much stuff'

By Andrew McMains

NEW YORK -- (Sept. 8) -- Acknowledging that the thick lineup of events for Advertising Week could prove overwhelming for some attendees, the co-chairs of the fifth annual industry event have scheduled the bulk of next week's activities at a few core venues that are within walking distance of each other in midtown Manhattan.

Also, to help attendees find what they're most interested in, Advertising Week added a function to its Web site that enables visitors to search the week's events by topic words. In addition, co-chairs Linda Sawyer and Chuck Porter have sought to make this year's week more topical and inclusive by welcoming new faces such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and National Basketball Association All-Star guard Steve Nash.

Still, critics continue to feel that "the problem is too much stuff" and that too many of the "usual suspects" participate in panel discussions. Also, some wonder if the industry needs a week of panel discussions, interviews and special events every year.

"Couldn't we do it every other year?" asked one source. Said another: "I like the notion of getting together in one place" with a large group of industry peers. "But the massive nature of the event makes me shy away as well. It just feels so massive to me."

Sawyer and Porter acknowledged such complaints in separate interviews with Adweek last week, and pointed to steps they've taken to improve the experience. Despite the criticism, attendance has grown each year since its inception, from 8,000 in 2004 to 28,000 last year. Organizers are expecting some 40,000 attendees this year.

"What we're getting to be good at and what we're going to be better at now, even after this one, is weighing what was interesting and what wasn't interesting, so we can continue to hone" the experience, said Porter, co-chairman of MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami

Clutter concerns Porter, with some 100 sessions scheduled across five days. But the week is presented as a Chinese menu of something for everyone rather than a meal to be consumed from start to finish. As Sawyer, CEO of Interpublic Group's Deutsch in New York, put it: "It's not everything for everyone."

Other highlights this year include Donny Deutsch interviewing Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels; a "Can an Idea Change the World?" panel discussion featuring One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte; a two-and-a-half hour exploration of advertising in the digital age; and a CEO exchange featuring BBDO's Andrew Robertson, Aegis' Sarah Fay, GroupM's Irwin Gotlieb and Nick Brien of IPG's Mediabrands.

Those events will take place at The Times Center (CEOs, "Change the World," Lorne Michaels) and the Paley Center for Media (digital age) -- two of the three core venues this year. The other is the Nokia Theater in Times Square, where Billboard's Tamara Conniff will interview musician Jon Bon Jovi, and Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington will lead a Yahoo!-sponsored discussion about consumer behavior.

Advertising Week also will highlight initiatives designed to generate interest in the industry and address the long-standing problem of lack of diversity. For example, the week has provided $150,000 as well as technical support and curriculum ideas toward the opening of the Brooklyn High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media, a proposal put forth in 2006 by Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz that became a reality this fall.

And for Sawyer, such efforts best represent the true spirit of the week that Ken Kaess and Ron Berger launched in 2003. "It's sort of a not-for-profit in the spirit of what it is," Sawyer said. "But given that we have created revenue generation over the last few years that we've been able to channel as a give-back to the issues and the committed initiatives of this industry, if we can make a profit and do that, that's great" too.