LUCKY BRAND JEANS HOPPED ON the “Denim Highway” in an effort to promote the opening of 45 retail stores within the next 18 months.

For the next 6 months, Lucky will travel the country in a 1949 Flxible bus/interactive showroom that was built, designed and pimped out by the crew of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.”

The “tour” bus drives traffic online to DenimHighway.com, a hub that will house original video, blogs, celebrity interviews, party pics and an interactive concert map where users can track the bus.

The article written by Amy Corr, can be seen here.

“Sony Computer Entertainment America has signed on as the first subscriber to Nielsen’s GamePlay Metrics syndicated service designed to measure videogame usage throughout the U.S.  The service debuts July 25.  As part of the agreement with Nielsen, Sony will supply Nielsen with complete “census” data of all game usage across its PlayStation3 systems and PlayStation network.  But identities of individual game players will not be disclosed, said Nielsen VP Jeff Herrmann, who oversees the company’s game and mobile phone measurement services.”

http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003606367 

“FRESH on the heels of its multi-partner study on in-game ad effectiveness, Nielsen has partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) to develop a measurement system for Web-linked console game advertising.

A new Parks Associates report has forecast game ad spend to reach $2.1 billion in five years – but with brands and agencies clamoring for metrics to fuel that budget boom, The Nielsen Company has taken the lead in delivering comprehensive research by leveraging the expertise of marketing firms, console manufacturers, and game developers.

Through the new agreement, SCEA will supply Nielsen with server side data from PS3 systems across its PLAYSTATION Network, including hours of use, game title and skill level. And while some of it will be demographic, according to an SCEA spokesperson, none will include personally identifiable information. Nielsen will combine that data with metered game usage info from its GamePlay Metrics panels, with the first joint reports due out in the fall.

Although the initial results will enable marketers to calculate CPMs across PS3s and the PLAYSTATION network more effectively, Nielsen ultimately intends to develop a network game advertising measurement system that will foster growth across the industry as a whole. “

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=63460&Nid=31955&p=442156

Yahoo is testing behavior-based SmartAds, which is a mix of brand and direct response advertising. It allows advertisers to target their message and would place ads on webpages based on the users past web browsing history, instead of basing the ads on the webpages content.  This system would rival Google’s AdSense network which places ads on websites based on the content of their webpages.  Yahoo will work with Revenue Science, a behavioral-targeting company on this test.

Omar Tawakol who is Revenue Science’s SVP of Marketing said that:

“There is a big portion of the Web that’s a contextual desert.” “There’s a ton of sites on the Web like entertainment, blogging and social networking sites-all those sites are better served by focusing on the user, not what’s on the page.”

He says this in favor of behavior based ads, citing the fact that many sites on the web that do not have textual context, which makes it hard for Ads to deliver true and effective ads if going by the content of the website.

I see some flaws in this system.  What if there are multiple users of the same computer?  Can this system tell them apart?  How about privacy issues?  Do all users want to show their browsing and behavior history on the web?  It sounds like a cool concept, but there are some questions that needs to be worked out first.

You can read more about this subject by reading an article written by Brian Morrissey on AdWeek. 

Yahoo is also expected to release its own AdSense-like advertising network.  This unlike Yahoo’s recent tests, scans a websites page for its content and then matches that to advertising, much like Google’s AdSense.

According to USA Today, it didn’t take long for sales to hit eBay. As of 4:45 p.m. ET on Sunday, more than 2,600 iPhones sold for an average price of $775.03. The highest selling price: $12,500, for a Saturday sale through eBay’s “Buy It Now” feature, which offers items at a fixed sum.

After months of speculation, the convenience chain has revealed details of its “most massive and complex” monthlong promotion for the July 27 release of “The Simpsons Movie.” Starting today, the marketer will remodel overnight a dozen stores in the U.S. and Canada into the Kwik-E-Marts of the cartoon family’s fictional Springfield, USA hometown.

The CMO of 7-Eleven seems to be going along with the joke as he said:

“When you’re the industry leader, others may want to stereotype or poke fun at you, we get the joke and want to have a little fun with our customers and fans of ‘The Simpsons.’”

Set in Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Burbank, Calif.; Los Angeles; Las Vegas; New York; Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; Seattle; Mountain View, Calif.; Bladensburg, Md.; and Coquitlam, B.C., Canada (on July 3), the stores will remain in drag through the July 27 movie premiere. The stores will switch back to 7-Elevens at the end of the month.

The whole article can be read at AdAge.

After Shakira and Panasonic had recently agreed to extend their partnership for one more year until March 2008, the new advertisements were released in Latin America. Shakira will continue promoting Panasonic audio visual products, including Lumix digital cameras, the Viera plasma television, print, and point-of-sale poster advertisements.  The commercials were filmed in the Bahamas.

A flash version of the advertisement can be seen at the Latin American Panasonic website.  The commercial for the Panasonic Lumix digital camera can be seen by clicking here, and the Panasonic Viera plasma television commercial can be seen by clicking here. 

The commercials are elegant, beautifully done, and should be a hit.

The advertising face of Nikon digital cameras is Kate Moss:

And the face of Canon digital cameras is Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova:

I am sure most of us know the message the designers of this billboard tried to convey with this particular advertisment.

 http://gigglesugar.com/345747

The GEICO cavemen became a hit almost overnight.  The whole series of 30 second GEICO commercials are based on Cavemen who live in modern society getting agitated with homosapiens who treat them as unintelligent and idiotic.  Along comes ABC, they notice this entertaining concept and view it as a money making machine.  ABC plans to pay for the pilot and the making of the show called Cavemen which will supposedly air on ABC’s fall schedule.

Whether or not this show will be a hit remains to be seen.  But how long can this concept stay funny? How long can a Neanderthal Cavemen who gets offended by prejudice against its species, stay funny? Why does GEICO, who gave permission and will get a royalty check for ABC’s use of their characters, have to ruin such a good advertising idea with oversaturation?  Who knows?

Here is what GEICO’s VP of Marketing Ted Ward had to say about the idea:

 “We are excited to have an opportunity to do brand extension.”

Sure this sitcom will serve as a brand reminder.  But at what cost?

Below is a video clip of the show:

Also created by GEICO is an entertaining website dedicated to the GEICO Cavemen, in this site a user can interact with the GEICO cavemen and their crib.  You the user are an early arrival to a party, but you can walk around their bedroom, bathroom, read their books, watch their television, listen to their voicemail, (one of the messages is from girl who seems like a caveman stalker!), and finally read their blog.  Check it out, can be entertaining for a few minutes.

http://www.cavemanscrib.com/

Steve Job’s felt generous and gave ALL of Apple’s 18,000 plus employees the high-end model of the Apple iPhone which currently costs $600 dollars.  This $11 million dollar gesture by the CEO of Apple is not a a big deal considering the launch of the iPhone generated around $400 millions dollars worth of free advertising. 

ABC, CBS, and NBC rejected a ad from Generix Labs poking fun at its diet pill rival alli.  The ad basically shows a character “soiling” her pants after taking the alli diet pill.

The quote from CBS on the matter of why they rejected the advertisement is classic:

“We believe that the extended discussion and depiction of excrement fails to meet a premium standard of good taste and may offend a significant portion of our audience”

All said and done, this particular advertisement was a hit and might have been a great marketing decision.  The controversy surrounding the ad has increased viewership of the spot on video sharing websites such as YouTube.  Personally, after watching the ad I dont blame the networks for their actions.