Gen Wow

MTV (Finally) Puts Its Music Videos On Demand At MTVMusic.com

Seriously. Why did it take so long? MTVMusic.com is a new Hulu-style site where you can call up any music video, anytime. It's like what you wished MTV was back in the '80s...much less the '90s, and 2000s.

Speaking of the '80s, early users must be fogies - it seems like the top videos are all from the days when video first killed off the radio star. Good times.

Check it all out (be prepared to stay for a while) here.

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Volkswagen's 'Baby Maker' Site Is Infantile Fun

File this in the WTF department: I'm not sure what VW's cooking up in the backseat, but if you want to put the bun in the oven, a new VW site from Crispin will show you what Jr. will look like.

As the site says: "Make a baby without actually 'making a baby...Use this tool to have a Routan baby with a loved one, or a person you hardly even know. Just find the right mate, and make a baby so adorable you just can't help but love."

I'm not sure I've really followed why or how Brooke Shields became the spokesperson for VW. Or why or how the effort has culminated into this website. Or why or how it helps the brand.

But it's twisted fun.

Try it yourself, here.

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LinkedIn Launches App Platform For The Office

Career-related social networking site LinkedIn wants to plug itself into your office.

Business Week is reporting that the site wants to become a Facebook for office workers, by launching its new Intelligent Apps (or InApps) platform. 

Think WordPress, TypePad, SlideShare, Google Presentations and other productivity tools. Oh, and think ads, ads and more ads - aimed at the business audience, and run exclusively via LinkedIn's ad platform. Perfect for marketers trying to reach office-bound professionals.

Plus, whenever users upgrade to paid apps, LinkedIn will get a cut. 

A smart new way to make LinkedIn more in your face - and more useful - when you're doing your job, not just looking for a new one.

Read all about it, here.

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'James Bond: Quantum of Solace' Kicks Up Mobile Marketing Action

Bond is back - and he's more high-tech than ever.

"Quantum of Solace" doesn't hit theaters until November 14, but the mobile marketing campaign has already started, with a full array of mobile wallpapers, a behind-the-scenes iPhone app that gives you the latest, greatest info on the film, and on November 4, a new multilevel mobile game that finds Bond chasing down - and eluding - enemy agents.

In the UK, where the film opens Halloween, SonyEricsson's gone even further, with secret agent phones, and an ambitious, four-part web game called "Directive C902" (a nod to the C902 titanium Silver Cyber-shot phone), which players take on missions for the chance to unlock exclusive mobile phone apps and access to the next level in the game. There's even a contest to win a trip to Monte Carlo.

In my book BRANDING UNBOUND, I look at how a growing number of movies are including mobile in the overall marketing mix - often to astonishing effect.

The new Bond looks to have more than a quantum of coolness - and the mobile effort is a good way to show it.

Check it all out yourself, here. And check out the SonyEricsson effort, here.

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Response Rate For Personalized Check-Out Ads Runs 10% Higher Than Newspaper Inserts

Those annoying ad print outs you get at the supermarket may make for a huge bright spot for marketers looking to weather the economic storm.

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that brands like Coca-Cola, Kraft, Nestlé and Stouffer's have been turning toward ads based on  your personal purchasing behavior for a simple reason: They work.

"It's a really effective way to reach a consumer," Brett White, head of marketing for Stouffer's, tells the Journal adding that the response rate to the checkout ads for its Dinner Club was 10 times as high as for similar ads that ran in freestanding newspaper inserts.

Indeed, the company behind these check-out ads, Catalina Marketing, showed Stouffer's that 6.7% of all shoppers accounted for 80% of its Stouffer's single-serve volume - so Stouffer's could target its most regular buyers, bypassing those who hadn't bought its products.

The company showed GlaxoSmithKline that 60% of the people exposed to check-out ads for Tums come back and buy. 

Is this compelling and convenient, or intrusive and invasive?

And what is the true effectiveness - aren't these ads for products the shopper would buy anyway? So far at least, there's little evidence they work in selling products that compete with the brands shoppers already purchase.

Still, as far as buying more volume, this kind of "behavioral targeting" seems to be paying off for brand and shopper alike.

Read more about it, here.

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Video: 'Wassup' Guys Are Back, For Obama

Okay, the election will be over a week from tomorrow, so we wont' have too many more of these election-themed posts - I promise. The reason they're noteworthy is in showcasing how user-generated content is shaping public opinion. In this particular case, it's especially biting commentary. The "Wassup" guys gained notoriety for their Super Bowl spots for Budweiser. Given that Cindy McCain is a major shareholder, I don't think we'll see the guys again this Super Bowl, unless it's for a completely different brand.

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Video: Ron Howard Resurrects Opie & Richie To Endorse Obama

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

You know it took a lot to get Ron Howard to dress up Opie and Richie Cunningham again - and to enlist Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler to come along for the ride. They do say this election is riding on the older population - people under 40 probably will probably have a WTF moment out of this. But for people who remember the repeats of the repeats, this is kind of a fun (and comically frightening) way to get across Howard's point.

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Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Saturn: Car Maker Launches Web Series With CBS

Talk about driven to distraction.

GM's Saturn brand is stealing a page from Unilever (Suave's "In The Motherhood") with a new online branded entertainment series aimed at women who, presumably, drive around in Saturn automobiles.

According to AD AGE, the new series, called "Novel Adventures," follows a group of four women in a book club. Developed in partnership with CBS, the show will get cross-platform marketing support. Apparently, a different Saturn model is integrated into each episode, and one of the characters is the wife of a Saturn dealer.

"It is not advertising," GM's Dino Bernacchi, director of branded entertainment, tells the pub. The format allows prospects "to experience our brand and is an attractive way to get consumers to engage with our products," he said. 

One of the actresses is Daphne Zuniga, who used to play on "Melrose Place" back in the day.

This is just the latest in a series of digital outreach efforts from the brand. It lauched its own social-networking site last Spring, which in its first three weeks exceeded it six month projections. And, according to the pub, the brand has shifted nearly 20% of its total marketing budget to digital within the last three years - equalling tens of millions of dollars.

I actually didn't realize Saturn was targeting women so much, but it's probably a smart move given women's influence on family car purchases across most every car brand. We'll see how much gravitational pull the brand has with online women - and to what extent it helps sell any cars.

Read all about it, here.

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Newest Ad Platform: Stadium Seat Trash Bags?

Well why not?

Marketers have taken to advertising on other products, grocery check-out conveyor belts and even airline barf bags.

Now, a Chicago-based company called We're Cleaning is introducing a Stadium Seat Trash Bag, in which fans can throw their trash - saving the stadium some money on clean up. And marketers can place advertising on the bags.

This actually seems like a no-brainer. In particular, it seems green marketers - or brands conducting green campaigns - could find cause in the new platform.

Or maybe purveyors of trashy books, movies and videos.

Okay, sorry. I couldn't resist.

Read more about it, here.

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CBS Launches 'Social Viewing' Network

Why just watch TV when you can chat about it, too?

CBS Interactive is launching a solution that enables groups of viewers to collectively interact with streaming TV content, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Called "social viewing rooms," the service mashes up video conferencing, live chat and standard live streaming to create a "communal" experience when watching shows like "CSI" and "Two And A Half Men."

It's actually a little more interesting than just that. Friends can log on and watch shows and participate in polls, quizzes and even throw virtual objects like tomatoes and kisses at the screen.

"In the past when you watch videos online, it's a very isolating experience," Anthony Soohoo (great name!), senior vice president and general manager of CBS Interactive, tells the news service. "This takes people 3,000 miles away and makes them feel like they're sitting on the couch next to each other. The social viewing room is a next-generation social media platform that lets users engage with each other and the content they are watching in a fun new way."

As the Reporter points out, reality shows like "Survivor" may have the most to gain from such a service. Imagine reality stars mixed with reality viewers in "confessionals" and stream-of-consciousness commentary.

Maybe CBS isn't so stodgy after all.

Read more about it, here.

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Web 2.0 Companies Banking On Advertising? Find Plan B - Fast

Reality is sinking in for a number of Web 2.0 companies hoping that, gosh darn it, if they can just get enough users, ad dollars will follow.

"My concern is the really great concepts that are features, not companies," Ross Levinsohn, former CEO of Fox Interactive and partner in Velocity Interactive Partners, tells AD AGE. "There isn't enough advertising to support all those features, and in compression times, advertisers tend to flock to safe names and sites that have real traction." 

Will we see the next weave of dot-bombs claim names like Twitter, Facebook or YouTube die as online ad spend decelerates?

Time will tell.

In the meantime, consider the possibilities, here.

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Study: Less Affluent More Likely To Click On Internet Ads, Video & Otherwise

A new study from iPerceptions, Inc., indicates that the rich just aren't that into Internet ads.

Turns out, the more you make, the less likely you are to click on Internet ads.

In fact, on average, 40% of consumers likely to cock on any ad make less than $50,000 a year. Only 15% make more than $150,000.

It gets even worse with video ads - where 49% of those likely to click on an ad make less than $50K, and only 13% make more than 150K.

What's more, overall, most users say they're more likely to click on text ads than video ads.

Now, as iPerceptions points out, much of this has to do with age. Those under 25 - the group most likely to click on ads, text, video or otherwise - probably do not make $150K per year.

So this may have less to do with income than with age group.

But it does provide some warning to luxury goods manufacturers hoping the Web will help make up for expected tough times this holiday shopping season.

Read more about it, here.

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'High School Musical 3: Senior Year' Makes Its Debut On Mobile

It's not often you see the second sequel of a TV movie make its debut big screen - or to the (very) small screen of mobile devices.

Yet this is the case of "High School Musical 3," the third in a series of what has heretofore come off as the bastard child of "Grease," "Hairspray" and "Saved By The Bell."

Now, PocketGamer is reporting that a mobile game based on the new movie is hitting handsets of BFF's everywhere. In the game, you take on the role of Troy or Gabriella (if you don't know what I'm talking about, trust me, you don't want to), as you play through three hours of storyline based on the 90-minute movie.

There are enough extras to keep HSM3 fans entranced all school year long - including free games, content, wallpapers and info on the characters. According to the pub, there's even a "Track It1" feature for news from the editor of the school paper as soon as it hits. Which, by the way would be an incredibly cool way for school newspapers to operate these days in general.

But that's a topic for a future post.

Until then, read more, here.

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Ad Age Gets Rick's Take On Scion's New Gaming Initiative

Interesting piece in Ad Age's Madison & Vine on Scion's new partnership with Kongregate to help game players create their own shooter games.

What Lexus is to refined elegance, Scion is to customized cool. And few brands are as aggressive - or as effective - as Scion is at connecting with its hip young audience.

How that all translate in an economic downturn that has already seen the brand's sales plummet, remains to be seen.

Story includes my take on the gaming effort. Check it all out, here.

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Sony Bravia: Domino City

Okay, I still like Bravia's Balls and Paint better, but this competes with Bunnies.

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Obama, McCain Break New Ground With In-Game Advertising

First Obama busted a move with the mother of all mobile marketing efforts. Now he - and his heretofore slow-on-the-digital-uptake opponent John McCain continue the race to capture the youth vote with new in-game advertising efforts.

Obama has purchased an ad buy within Burnout Paradise (subliminal slam?), an Xbox racing game, while the McCain campaign - they of still-trying-to-learn-how-to-log-onto-"the-Internets" fame - has actually launched a Facebook advergame called "Pork Invaders."

I'm not sure there's a lot of credibility in that one, given Republican profligacy. The game hardly has currency, given it's based a 30-year-old video game (perhaps to reach aging boomers instead of the youth vote?). And given the game's title, you can't help but think you can put lipstick on a ... oh never mind.

But geez, who would have thought the McCain camp could come up with an advergame? Kudos to the McCainannites.

Read more here.

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A New Take On 'Me': Beloved A-Ha Video Finds New Life With 'Literal Remix' Version

By way of Time Magazine: "Take On Me," an icon of 80's era music video, is getting new life through a remix that changes the lyrics to repeat exactly what is happening onscreen - with lines like "Everything's drawn and super 8os/Lots of squiggly lines...I'm handsome either way/You know you like it when I'm flirting with you."

Oddly enjoyable as a trip down one of the goofier stretches of Memory Lane (see how great actress Bunty Baily looks these days, here) - and no doubt the first of many literal remixes to come.

As Time rightfully points out, Family Guy has had its own A-Ha moment - to humorous effect in its own right.

A good example of user-generated content, in this case, one Dustin McLean, that will no doubt spark interest in the real (or illustrated) deal.

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Dove: 'Waking Up Hannah' Packs Some Wow

Unilever's Dove's doing it dirty. Well, maybe just a little bit.

Dove's new website WakingUpHannah.com says it's the world's "first interactive romantic comedy" - an online video that enables visitors to choose from three different story lines - Energize, Refresh and Cool Moisture - and then watch as Hannah - the title character - recovers from a night of drunken partying and gets ready for a blind date. The site says it's aimed exclusively at Canadian audiences (and makes a point of saying it's not aimed at consumers in the US). But never mind.

The site, which Creativity says is from Ogilvy Toronto, enables visitors to do things like choose which deodorants Hannah will wear, click on her mobile phone to view her text messages and pictures, and hear ongoing commentary. You can even get Dove coupons.

In a way, it's like a more controlled version of Unilever's "In the Motherhood," in which a limited number of options enable viewers to watch in what sitting - without having to wait a week for what Creativity calls seven different endings.

As for the Dove brand, there is a kind of departure form the "Evolution" and "Onslaught" efforts that have gained so much attention. "Hannah" is true to that "live life your way" mentality, but Hannah lives in a world of attractive, affluent women - mostly white - who don't face the pressures of beauty stereotypes because they're hip enough to create those trends.

Still, likely a home run for Dove's target audience. If you want to know why options like "Hannah," "In the Motherhood," and "Evolution" come to be, don't miss my interview with Laura Klauberg, senior vice president of global media for Unilever - the first woman, and first American, to hold the purse strings of Unilever's $4 billion ad budget - on how the Web is helping the company connect with its key consumers as never before possible.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Conclusion

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'You Betcha!' (Wink!): Sarah Palin Sound Bites Now Available As Ringtones

Say it ain't so, Joe: Thanks, but no thanks, Sarah Palin's rearing her head, not answering questions the way the moderator may want her to, to speak directly to Joe Six-Pack via a mobile ringtone near you. The maverick.

Only one problem. The ringtones, from FunMobility, are actually mashups of Palin's hilarious sound bites and things like hockey sounds, Loony Tunes songs and pigs (as in lipstick on).

Unnecessary. Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey has been killing by just using many of actual Palinisms. 

You can put lipstick on a mashup ringtone, and...oh never mind.

Read more, here.

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'Sim' Advertising: The Sims Gets More Realistic (And More Commercial) Than Ever

"Sims 3" may as well be called SimAds.

The latest installment of the popular videogames will feature dynamic in-game ads, which can be changed out when the game has a live Internet connection, according to reports in AD AGE.

In this, the first new Sims outing in five years, the simulated characters will venture out and about Pleasantville, where they'll naturally come into contact with paid advertising messages.

"Advertising is very organic to the 'Sims 3' experience," Steve Seabolt, VP-global brand development for the Sims label, tells the pub. Movie-theater posters and billboards will host ads, and EA will continue to integrate brands into the gameplay.

By way of example, Seabolt says: "Suppose your Sim had a tough day, or the Sim kids are out of control, maybe the Sim worked out -- that could be a moment for that particular pain relief," he said. "And they take that pain relief and feel restored, better rested ... less on edge."

In the past, the Sims have done deals with H&M and Ikea, letting users download branded content into the game. Now, H&M is asking for billboards to promote the fact that players could now dress sims in their fashions.

It's an interesting notion - leading to ask whether the Sims might create an in-game economy much like Second Life. Many advertisers have tried to integrate their brands into that virtual world experience, mostly to bail out after finding too few eyeballs in any one place to gain attention. But in a more defined environment like The Sims 3, perhaps advertising and commerce can find traction that has eluded their MMOG bretheren.

Or, you know, at least simulate them.

Read more, here.

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