Why Digital Agencies Are Indeed Ready to Lead

Over the past 18 months, a great debate has consumed our industry: Are digital agencies poised to sit at the head of the advertising table? Depending on whom you ask and what you read, the answer seems to flip flop

- with a majority of people still having reservations and making claims that digital agencies aren’t ready to lead.

So why does the debate continue? Does offline or online really matter to an oblivious consumer who’s only interested in “no-line” communications? Are we spending too much time focusing on who should lead and not enough asking: What’s next?

Butterball Goes Web 2.0

… With Turkey Texts, Blogs Nervous Cooks Can Get Advice, Reminders About Their Birds Sent to Cellphones

Thanksgiving staples are going high tech this year, as marketers look for new ways to ingratiate themselves to a new generation of consumers. Shoppers can now get turkey advice on their mobile phones in the grocery store and get a free pizza through Facebook on Thanksgiving Eve. Butterball’s “Turkey Talk-Line,” the beloved backup plan for millions of first-time turkey chefs, is going Web 2.0 by way of blogging and “turkey texts.”

“We know that consumers are looking for information on the go and on demand,” said Bill Klump, senior VP-marketing, Butterball. “This includes the new audiences we want to reach, such as first-time cooks.” So far, he said, responses to the enhancements have exceeded expectations.

Great marketing tool
The hotline, which was one of the first national, toll-free consumer help lines, started in 1981 when a staff of six was overwhelmed by 11,000 callers. Now a staff of more than 50, the team coddles more than 100,000 consumers each year. Of course, it has served as an unparalleled marketing tool for the company, even playing a starring role in a Thanksgiving episode of NBC’s “The West Wing,” in which Martin Sheen, as President Josiah Bartlet, called the hotline for advice.

The updates are designed to advise a “new generation of cooks” whenever or wherever they need help, be it in the grocery store or at the stove. Consumers can sign up for text messages that give thawing reminders and temperature guidelines, read blogs written by “seasoned home economists,” participate in live chats or watch how-to videos at Butterball.com.

“When the Turkey Talk-Line started 28 years ago, the phone was the best way to give people the important turkey-cooking information they needed,” Mr. Klump said. “This year, Butterball continues to evolve and reach new cooks with initiatives like turkey text messages, a new mobile website and web chats, so that we can provide Butterball’s expert holiday advice the way modern cooks want it, anytime and anywhere.”

Butterball turkeys will also star in a Thanksgiving episode of Bravo’s reality series “Top Chef”. Contestants will be charged with creating their own unique take on the iconic meal.

But it isn’t just about the main event. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest pizza-delivery nights of the year. While the Super Bowl is still the top pizza-delivery night, Halloween and the night before Thanksgiving round out the top three for Papa John’s.

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Latest in Green Marketing: Clothes-Closet Advertising

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — One of the tentacles of the rapidly expanding green-marketing movement is turning consumers’ clothes closets into a new sort of advertising venue. The New York-based Hanger Network has crossed the concept of an environmentally friendly clothes hanger with in-home advertising strategies. The end result is a new medium that helps to protect the Earth at the same time it carries big marketers’ commercial messages into consumers’ bedrooms and other dressing areas.

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Public Might Cut Cord on Landlines, Cable TV

As Consumers Take Hard Look at What Subscription Service to Drop, Their Choices Could Reshape Marketing Landscape

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Agencies, media, telecoms and other marketers are pondering the implications of an impending shakeout where, after years of piling on one subscription fee after another, consumers take a harder look at what they really need.

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Marketing the Big Apple: New York City & Co. A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — New York, the city that never sleeps, is also a tireless marketer of its own image. Two years ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg combined Gotham’s marketing, tourism and partnership efforts into a single new entity called New York City & Co. Staffed by former advertising agency professionals, it has since harnessed some of the Big Apple’s greatest assets to tell the city’s story to the country and the world.

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‘Contribution Revolution’ More Important Than You May Think

How Intuit, Others Let Users Grow Their Business

Pete Blackshaw

Scott Cook, founder-chairman of Intuit, just published a cover article in the October issue of the Harvard Business Review. It’s worth reading — maybe a couple of times, says Pete Blackshaw.

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Why Wal-Mart Is More Important to AC/DC Marketing Than iTunes A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — AC/DC, the vintage rock band that remains one of the music industry’s top sellers, has long refused to market its songs online. Instead, it continues to explore new ways to move the product with bricks-and-mortar strategies, like its new deal with Wal-Mart. “Black Ice,” the group’s first album in eight years, will be sold exclusively there, a move now being trumpeted to the public in New York and Los Angeles with PR stunts that don’t actually include band members.

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Ad Age at the ANA

News and Video, Including Marketer of the Year, From the Marketing Industry’s Largest Annual Gathering

Growth was the theme of the Association of National Advertisers’ annual meeting last week. Given that the industry is staring into the gaping maw of a 2009 that many believe could be its worst in decades, that may sound ironic. But somehow it seemed to work, as speaker after speaker outlined strategies soft and hard for growing in good times and bad. Ad Age editors and reporters were there. Read the news reports and watch videos from the event. Also: See who marketers, agency heads and marketing-services vendors selected as Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year.

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With No Ring, James Is Still No Jordan Behind the Continuing Quest to Turn the NBA’s Biggest Endorser Into a Global Icon

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AdAge.com) — Everybody loves a winner, and in some respects that’s what it’s going to take for Lebron James to achieve his stated goal two years ago of becoming a global icon, along the lines of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali, by the 2008 Summer Olympics.

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People Meter Controversy Triggers Ethnic Angst and Lawsuits

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Arbitron’s commercialization of its Portable People Meter system in New York and New Jersey radio markets this week triggered a flurry of conflict. The attorneys general of both states filed suit to block implementation of the system, which, they charge, undercounts African American and Hispanic audiences. Arbitron then counter sued. Meanwhile, the Hispanic Radio Association and the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters joined with regional minority radio stations on the steps of New York’s City Hall to blast the Arbitron system as inaccurate. Arbitron defends the accuracy of its data gathering.

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Remembering Paul Newman, Marketing and Brand Guy Actor’s Legacy Includes a Philanthropic Model That Holds Lessons for All Businesses

CMO Strategy

Paul Newman will be remembered as many things: actor, philanthropist, race-car driver, husband, father, grandfather. I will always think of him as an incredibly astute marketing guy.

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Denny’s Gets Into Music With Feed-a-Band Marketing Strategy

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Denny’s, the family restaurant chain best known for its round-the-clock breakfast menu, is moving into musical branded entertainment. And for starters it’s simply feeding cash-strapped musicians on tour — offering them a month of free meals at any Denny’s. It’s also inviting some of them into its kitchens to be chefs for a day, with the best of their culinary creations being added to its late-night “Rockstar Menu.” And the new DennysAllNighter.com website offers users sample songs, the ability to vote for the best new bands and other musical connections.

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Economic Worries Dog DMA’s Fall Show

But Direct-Marketing Group Predicts Ad-Revenue Growth Despite Global Financial Chaos

LAS VEGAS (AdAge.com) — At its annual fall show here yesterday, the Direct Marketing Association said direct-marketing media and practices would once again outpace general advertising by a slight margin by garnering 53% of total advertising expenditures. With marketers clamoring for the cost efficiency and targeting that things such as database segmentation, CRM and e-mail marketing provide, this finding really comes as no surprise.

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COO: Fifth-Largest Facebook Social Group Is Facebook Protesters

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In her appearance at the American Magazine Conference last week, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said it was “good” that so many consumers are using the Facebook product to protest the Facebook product. Her remarks came as 2.7 million Facebook users were being urged to boycott the social site next weekend. The Facebook-protest community to which they belong has now become the social site’s fifth most popular group.

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What Would You Do if You Were Marketing VP for a Day? 10 Things for Clients to Consider When Evaluating Agencies

Small Agency Diary

Every once in a while, I play a cruel game. I pretend I’m the marketing VP of a large corporation with a nice budget and ask myself how I would evaluate an agency partner. Of course, that’s what our clients are doing every day, but knowing the underside of agency operations adds another dimension to the game.

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Bogged Down in Marketing Success: Ocean Spray Wades Into New York

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Ocean Spray’s “Straight From the Bog” ad campaign featuring two country bumpkin cranberry farmers has boosted product sales by double digits, said Senior VP Kenneth Romanzi. Mr. Romanzi, as well as the two actors who play the hip-deep yokels, are in Manhattan this week for a PR stunt that includes the installation of a temporary cranberry bog in Rockefeller Plaza.

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Mother Sells Stake in Its Sausage Venture to Blum Enterprises Ad Shop Hopes to Turn Gourmet Food Concept Into National Brand

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Mother, New York, has taken another step toward proving that agencies can create and profit from their ideas for products.

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