Double Vision: The Race Issue RevisitedJuly 14, 2008 Writing just over 100 years ago, W.E.B. Du Bois famously declared that "the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line." Now, with polls indicating the U.S. is as likely as not to make Barack Obama its president, it's clear the line has blurred. But does the problem remain? Read Full Article 
Affluent in SpanishJuly 14, 2008 Perhaps nothing symbolizes the rise of the affluent Latino consumer more than the ascent of high-end tequila. Overall, the category grew 10 percent in 2007 to 7.9 million cases, according to Impact, New York. And the growth is being driven in party by high-end entries like Jose Cuervo's silver Platino, which retails for around $58 for a 750 ml bottle. "There's a whole segment of [affluent] Hispanics who are getting back to their roots, and not just drinking cognac, whiskey or scotch, but tequila," said Rene Valdez, brand manager for Casa Herradura, an upscale tequila that's now being distributed in the U.S. via Brown-Foreman, Louisville. Read Full Article 
Upfront Special Report: Sitting PrettyJune 23, 2008 Despite a laundry list of potentially negative influences, the broadcast networks this upfront season have bested themselves yet again, raking in an eye-popping $9.23 billion, just north of last year's take -- thus, all the media attention that's been heaped on this year's negotiations. But what was largely overlooked in that coverage was the strength of the nets in dayparts outside prime time, which, with the exception of evening news, all turned in year-over-year growth in dollar volume. In fact, late night -- a stagnant daypart for many years-this year upped its upfront take versus last year. Read Full Article 
Are You Ready for Some Futbol?June 09, 2008 Soccer has proven to be a tough sell in the United States. The North American Soccer League began in 1968 with a national contract to broadcast games on CBS, but the ratings were dismal and, because the league tended to draft past-their-prime players from other parts of the world, it never got much respect globally. By 1984, the league had disbanded. Read Full Article 
Upfront: The Programmers -- This Year's ModelsMay 26, 2008 More than three months after the Writers Guild of America strike was finally settled, the walkout is still the networks' bete noire. What was most notable about the recent upfront presentations was the lack of new fall shows that typically fill the network schedules. Consequently, the nets are opting to return an overabundance of freshman series from this season. Some of them are passable, if not smash, performers (ABC's Samantha Who? and The CW's cult hit Gossip Girl), while others, in an ordinary season, likely would never get a second shot (NBC's Life). Read Full Article 
Divorce: A New Target for MarketersMay 26, 2008 At divorce360.com, the chat rooms are abuzz with those buckled into the matrimonial roller coaster. "In the state of Georgia can a spouse go to jail if adultery is proved against him or her?" Anne1 writes. (No, answers a family lawyer, spaznskitz, who posts frequently, but "it would be nice, wouldn't it?") Read Full Article 
Cable Report 2008May 19, 2008 Going into this year's upfront, the major cable networks are well-positioned to gain market share in ad dollars, a direct result of their gain in audience share. Our first-ever Cable Hot List, compiled by Mediaweek senior editor Anthony Crupi, highlights 10 networks with the strongest mojo -- from No. 1 USA's hit-making prowess to No. 10 E!'s ability to whip up pop-culture dreck into a tasty pate. Read Full Article 
Dude, Where's My Upfront?May 19, 2008 For some, talk of a digital upfront means a surging medium on the brink of maturity. For others, it feels more like a cutting-edge business being forced to use the fax machine when a perfectly good e-mail client sits on the desktop. Read Full Article 
South Asians' Growing American CloutMay 12, 2008 Last fall in New York, at the first annual summit of the South Asians in Media and Marketing Association, Rishad Tobaccowala was one of many high-caliber media industry speakers to discuss the burgeoning and highly desirable South Asian market. Read Full Article 
Hispanic Marketing Report: Social NetworksMay 05, 2008 One crude measure of the power and reach of the growing U.S. Hispanic marketplace is that five years ago seven of the dozen Spanish and bilingual TV networks mounting upfront presentations this month didn't even exist. Three of the upstart networks -- LATV, Spanish Broadcasting System's Mega TV and V-me -- all launched nationally in the past year and are hosting presentations for advertisers for the first time. Read Full Article 
Upfront PlayersApril 21, 2008 With the number of players multiplying, new programs and programming genres cropping up, and ratings standards and rates fast changing, the upfront is more chaotic than ever, making a scorecard essential. So, here we present Upfront Players, a rundown of the leading TV programmers, their top sales execs, their returning and (where available at this early stage) new shows, and analysis that aims to shed light on how these players stand to fare heading into this wild period. We break down the players by network, cable and syndicated. Read Full Article 
Text MarketApril 07, 2008 To a marketer, U.S. Hispanics aren't just attractive because they are, as a population, expanding. The segment is also ahead of the curve on mobile computing. According to a 2007 survey by M:Metrics, Seattle, U.S. Hispanics are much more likely to use their mobile phones to do things beyond normal voice calls. While 3.1 percent of the general population used their mobile devices to watch videos, 6.7 percent of Latinos did and 26.8 percent of Hispanics sent a photo or video with their phones vs. 15.3 percent of the general population. Read Full Article 
Focus on BlogsApril 07, 2008 Last year a new Publicis Groupe initiative conducted qualitative research for the French election. The initial response from participants was pretty much in line with the consensus among French voters: Nicolas Sarkozy was "scary" -- an unknown entity with a lot of ideas, but also a candidate who was viewed as young, ambitious, impulsive, and a departure from the political establishment characterized by former leaders Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand. Read Full Article The Body PoliticMarch 31, 2008 In a recent skit on YouTube, Hillary Clinton impersonator Rosemary Watson portrays the presidential hopeful alone in an Iowa hotel room, rehearsing an upcoming speech. "New hand gestures, Iowa. Take one," announces faux Hillary, dressed in a white terry cloth robe. Read Full Article 
Special Report: MagazinesMarch 31, 2008 AdweekMedia has selected The Economist's John Micklethwait and publisher Paul Rossi as Executive Team of the Year, and the title comes in at No. 1 on this year's Hot List. Over at Rodale's Men's Health, editor in chief David Zinczenko, our Editor of the Year, is at the top of his game. Under the indefatigable Zinczenko and his colleagues, the men's lifestyle champ has won over readers and advertisers alike and spun off an array of smash sidelines. Another standout in the brutally competitive men's magazine field, Conde Nast's Men's Vogue, is our Startup of the Year. New York snags Design Team for its award-winning, week-by-week visual telling of the story of the city and its piquant, buzzworthy covers -- a stock image and a single word summed up Eliot Spitzer's stupefying flameout on front of the March 24 issue. And as publishers continue to figure out how to make the Web work for them, one site -- People.com, an extension of Time Inc.'s potent People magazine -- shows them the way, scoring tremendous traffic and becoming our first-ever Magazine Web Site of the Year. Read Full Article 
Attack of the KidsMarch 17, 2008 Early reports on the ill health of the kids upfront have been greatly exaggerated, according to network ad sales executives, who hope to swap out Chicken Little projections of a flat to down market in favor of a more blustery Foghorn Leghorn outlook. "You'd be crazy to think that the upfront will be flat," says Jim Perry, evp of 360 Brand Sales, Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group. "Food has rebounded strongly, as have QSRs [quick-service restaurants]. And movies are healthier than they have ever been." Read Full Article 
(Not So) Green MachinesMarch 17, 2008 At the 2008 Michigan International Auto Show in Grand Rapids last month, Doug Scheer stood on a small stage flanked by a couple of flat screens at the edge of the General Motors booth. Scheer, who lives in Detroit, is a magician-for-hire, and the b-list auto-show circuit is bread and butter for him. Scheer's paycheck for this gig will be drawn from GM accounts (no small part of why his delivery is richly woven with lines about the automaker's commitment to alternative fuels and its dedication to saving the planet). Read Full Article 
Here, There, EverywhereMarch 10, 2008 My eyes open, sort of, and the first thing to greet them is the chunky typographical "SONY" logo on the clock radio that has just awakened me. It's a suitable start to a day that will be filled -- or, as I soon discover, overfilled -- with designed objects and images. Read Full Article 
Spatial RelationsMarch 10, 2008 Ad agencies, with their creative focus and unconventional corporate cultures, offer a fertile laboratory to explore cutting-edge change in the workplace. Read Full Article 
Traditional Media Go MobileFebruary 25, 2008 As the cell phone morphs into a Web-enabled information and entertainment device, most leading print publishers have begun creating editions for the third screen. But can an old medium make the leap to one of the newest? Read Full Article 
Walk the TalkFebruary 18, 2008 Last week, a Google Android prototype was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, giving the industry its first peek at the software that aims to bring the power of desktop computing to handsets. Google wants Android to become the predominate operating system for what is expected to be the world's largest communications channel. Android's open-source platform allows developers to create any number of applications for mobile phones, which are expected to debut in the second half of this year. Read Full Article 
Google Leads Search PartyFebruary 18, 2008 If you were to google the phrase "Google dominates," you would be greeted by at least 24,000 different links, while "Google dominates search" would yield some 1,400 results. Clearly, Google's supremacy is a hot topic. Read Full Article 
Pressure Mounts for Chinese Shops, Study SaysFebruary 02, 2008 Chinese agencies are coming under pressure as a "short-term mindset" takes hold among clients, yielding more project-based relationships and driving high turnover, according to a new report by independent consultancy R3. More than 25 percent of the relationships reviewed were less than one year old, up from 19 percent from R3's previous China study two years ago. Read Full Article 
The Rise of BRICFebruary 01, 2008 What used to be considered the developing countries of the Third World are quickly becoming the emerging economies of the next world. BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China are four markets with unique characteristics, but are nonetheless tied together by the potential created after changes in their political systems unleashed the consumer demand of 43 percent of the world's population. Read Full Article 
The New Gold StandardFebruary 01, 2008 Three years ago, Tim Armstrong, Google's top advertising executive, sat down in a crowded Starbucks in New York's Astor Place, grabbed a piece of paper and sketched out his vision of the future of advertising. The critical fuel for the machine he envisioned: customer information, used for targeting, altering creative and measurement. In short, data. Lots of it. Read Full Article
|
NEWSLETTER
Receive a comprehensive roundup of the biggest stories of the day.
|
SUBSCRIBE
Stay connected to what's happening in the advertising industry with delivery of the print edition and complete online access.
|
Advertising Industry NewsWhat's happening in the advertising industry in China, Brazil, and Russia? What strategies are foreign advertising industry professionals employing in other part of the globe? Find all that and more regarding foreign marketing, advertising and promotion at Adweek everyday! |
Video
ADVERTISEMENT
News
Havas Posts Record 8% First-Half Organic Gain
July 25, 2008
BOSTON Riding strong Asia-Pacific results and surpassing most analysts' expectations, Havas today reported record first-half organic revenue growth of 8 percent to approximately $1.184 billion. (Havas CEO Fernando Rodes Vila is shown.) Read Full Article
ADVERTISEMENT
Community
The World of 'Green Advertising'
If you recently happened to turn on the television, surf the Internet or leaf through a magazine, you'll noticed that "green" is no longer only the favorite color of environmental groups. "Green" has become "mainstream" and turned into a big business.
Read Full ArticleMore Guest Columnists
Cultural Movements Usurp Traditional Marketing
I've written extensively about Cultural Movements. They have the power in this digital world of ours to create huge new brands, rip down governments and break age-old traditions.
Read Full ArticleMore Guest ColumnistsFOURTH ANNUAL IMAGES IN ADVERTISING AWARDS
Commercial Closet Association recognizes the best gay and lesbian advertisements of 2007.
July 28, 2008 - July 28, 2008
New World Stages, Worldwide Plaza, New York
At The Roundtable
AdweekMedia's At The Roundtable is a dynamic business networking and collaboration tool for media, marketing and advertising experts and enthusiasts.