In a First, Football’s Hall of Fame Opens Doors to Marketers

Van Heusen, JC Penney Sponsor Fan Initiative in Larger Marketing Play to Reach Men

Major pro sports halls of fame tend to be largely pristine, marketer-free shrines to their respective sports, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame is breaking with that tradition in a new multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with Van Heusen and JC Penney.

The fashion brand and retailer are partnering with the hall on a microsite housed within JC Penney’s website that intends to give fans a voice in the debate over which players ought to be enshrined in the Canton, Ohio, museum. A voice, of course, is not the same as a vote — but the fan’s choice will be promoted extensively via the NFL Network, the league’s premium-cable-TV outlet, and could influence the selection process. The microsite for the partnership incorporates social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

What the Semantic Web – or Web 3.0

…- Can Do for Marketers

It’s been nearly 10 years since Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited with inventing the worldwide web, expressed his vision of a “semantic web,” in which all web data — and the meaning of that data — could be read by machines. Since then, much of the slow-moving progress toward this smarter and more powerful web has been courtesy of academics and data librarians.

Recently, however, the semantic web has been enjoying a commercial revival of sorts and is often referred to by the new buzzword “Web 3.0.” Given how insane the pace of life is these days, I thought I’d offer a few thoughts on what I’ve been learning about it.

Since I can already feel the rising tide of negative comments as that version number graces the screen, bear with me for a second. Semantic web is just one of a few things often referred to as Web 3.0 — others include topics like data portability or mobile web. But I think entrepreneur Nova Spivack offered the most useful definition by simply calling it the third decade of the web (2010 to 2020) and referring to the technology trends that will hit maturity during that time. Most importantly, the next generation of the web will bring us out of information overload and be more relevant and meaningful.

But Web 3.0 is not just about improving the consumer experience. And it isn’t some industry ploy to sell you more services. The next-generation web — the semantic web — aims to solve some of today’s biggest problems in marketing.

So what is it? Well, semantics refers to the meaning behind data. Right now, computers are good at sending data back and forth but not great at discerning the meaning of that data. Semantic web aims to change that. Perhaps it’s best explained in describing what marketers can hope to gain from it.

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Musicians, Marketers on the Record, if Not the Same Track

CMJ Panel Highlights Benefits, Continued Perils of Band-Brand Partnerships

Songs for Soap

Marketing and licensing one’s music is more important than ever, and this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, held on New York University’s campus, struck up conversations with the publishing and advertising worlds that would have been unimaginable when the fest began 28 years ago.

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Sarah Palin ‘SNL’ Online Clips Soon to Eclipse TV Among the Top ‘Most Popular’ Shorts on Hulu.com

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s appearance was very good for “Saturday Night Live,” bringing the show its best ratings in 14 years. But the number of people who have watched the clips on the web is closing fast, and will soon surpass the 15 million that watched on TV, if it hasn’t already.

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The Meltdown: Woes Go Well Beyond Financial Flux

Marketers Take Some Solace in the Fact That Consumer Confidence Doesn’t Have Far to Fall

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — The good news for marketers: The 500-point drop in the Dow last week didn’t deal any serious new blows to consumer confidence. The bad news for marketers: Consumer confidence was already shot, and the market’s sickening roller-coaster ride didn’t help.

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Self-Absorbed Media Missing the Biggest Story of Our Time Sure, We Can Talk About Who Said What About Lipstick, but Now’s a Good Time to Refocus the Conversation

Commentary by Jonah Bloom

There can be a positive in this mess, if we hear the alarm bell and confront the real challenge — the need to rebuild the American economy for the 21st century.

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Will All-in-One Products End Their Reign?

With Nothing Left to Add on, and ‘Total’ Items That Are Not All That, Marketers May Go Back to Single-Benefit Claims

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Arbor Strategy Group, a new-product consulting firm that has tracked the history of package-goods launches for many years, found most categories ultimately spawn a product labeled “total” or “complete” at the tail end of a lengthy bout of product and benefit proliferation. Then competitors start all over again with single-benefit claims.

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Boost Your PR by Doing Something, Not Just Saying Something

Marketers Should Consider the Potential of Annual Events

Al Ries on Marketing

Every country, every state, every city, every company should consider the long-term potential of sponsoring events that generate PR. “PR first, advertising second” has been our mantra for a number of years. But PR can often be more effective if it’s based on “doing something” rather than just “saying something.”

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Outdoor Advertising Readies Dramatic Audience-Metrics Change A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The outdoor advertising industry begins the preliminary rollout of new audience-measurement protocols this month that could dramatically alter its business. In development for four years, the new “Eyes On” system uses complex computer modeling and eye-tracking technology to determine how many people actually look at billboards throughout 200 U.S. markets.

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Industry Unleashes Flood of Studies to Prove Its Worth

Harsh Times Demand (Even) More Concrete Evidence of Effectiveness

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — A slew of media companies, agencies, research firms and even marketers themselves have ramped up efforts to churn out elaborate studies or research results as selling tools.

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More Marketers Want to Get to Know You CRM Surges as Brands Demand Measurable Results

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The days of spending millions of dollars without being able to track their effectiveness are soon to be over. Enter CRM. As the U.S. economy worsens and consumers rein in discretionary purchases, brands are ramping up their customer-relationship-management efforts, aiming to grab some of that money by building one-to-one relationships with consumers.

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Study: 53% of Marketers Will Reduce Ad Budgets

ANA Poll Shows Majority Intends to Tighten Belt

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The latest trend in advertising: budget shearing. So says a recent survey from the Association of National Advertisers, released today.

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McGuire Leaves CMO Post at Sears Holdings Sears Brand Marketing Chief Gerstein Will Take Over

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Sears Holdings Chief Marketing Officer Maureen McGuire is leaving the retail company. She will be replaced by Richard Gerstein, the CMO for the Sears, Roebuck & Co. brand, the marketer said.

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Marketers Love Conversation, Unless the Consumer Starts It

Listening Gets You More Than Complaints — You Get Positive Brand Association and Word of Mouth

Commentary by Pete Blackshaw

If the consumer voice is so important these days, why are brand feedback, or “contact us,” forms so get-out-of-my-face unfriendly? Welcome to the “conversational divide.”

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Beijing Hot Pot Summer Heat and Poor Planning Turn the Green Into an Olympic Endurance Test

China Olympics 2008

Visitors to the Olympic Green in Beijing are finding hot weather, large distances between venues, very little shade and limited food options. Poor planning has turned the space into an Olympic-size endurance test.

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Is Digital Being Overhyped?

As consolidation and the quest to build the largest display network continues, it’s time to ask just what exactly is everyone chasing. For all the new media spin, is it just old media? FULL ARTICLE

Why Digital Marketing Needs a Reboot David Armano suggests marketers are too often reaching for toolboxes from the past and often ignoring how people really use the web. FULL ARTICLE

What Marketers Can Learn From Twitter’s Stumbles Its nonresponse to downtime is losing it fans. And in other news, has Twitter jumped the shark? FULL ARTICLE