Old Spice Debates: It’s a brave man who questions ad industry orthodoxy. One touchstone of the ad world is the brilliance Old Spice Guy campaign. The Wieden + Kennedy-created effort has been awarded high and low in ad circles for bringing new life to the P&G brand. But at Ad Age, brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin is unimpressed. He calls the campaign “a textbook example of why every brand doesn’t need a content strategy, and maybe why it isn’t so old-fashioned to focus marketing on selling things instead of being entertaining.” Ouch. But is that so? As my former Adweek colleague Andy McMains was quick to point out, the Old Spice campaign is credited with driving strong sales growth, as evidenced by its Effie award, which recognizes creativity that actually sells stuff. Of course, it’s hard to unpack what’s to credit for those type of things, but there’s little doubt the Old Spice campaign revitalized its place in the market. There’s certainly the suspicion, however, that the ad world loves the Old Spice Guy far more than average people.
Stat of the Day: 50 percent of Netflix subscribers view video via their game console. At Hulu, 89 percent watch via their computers. Source: Nielsen
Whither the Daily: Amid all the hubub about the fate of the Murdochs hangs a question: What’s going to happen to The Daily? The iPad-only publication was Rupert Murdoch’s baby — apparently the idea for it came to him in a dream — and the uncertainty swirling around NewsCorp only heightens the precarious ground on which The Daily stands. The New York Observer tackles the question, highlighting the fact that The Daily editor in chief Jesse Angelo is a Murdoch favorite. While the Oberver predictably focuses on personalities, the fate of The Daily might hinge more on its strategy of being a daily-only publication in a real-time era.
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Podcast ad buyers have yet to see a slowdown
Ad buyers have yet to see clients cut their podcast budgets – though the time of podcasts as the shiny new medium may be coming to an end.
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The programmatic open marketplace is faltering, but publishers see a bright spot in private programmatic deals
Publishers are coming to terms with their open programmatic marketplace RPMs being 20-55% lower than they were this time last year, but the hope is that programmatic guaranteed deals will make up the deficit.
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Marketers weigh the cons of working with Google Ad Manager amid Justice Department’s new lawsuit
When is it time to back away?
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SponsoredHow Jounce Media and Teads are framing SPO’s role in driving business outcomes for brands
As supply chain concerns abound, marketers are increasingly focusing on the main motivators that drive efficiency in their operations, including financial considerations, supply chain transparency and, most recently, environmental concerns. Sustainability has not always been at the forefront of the digital video buying process for the ad industry, but brands like Teads are taking steps […]
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Atlas Obscura wants to be profitable before raising funds in a tricky media market
Atlas Obscura wants to turn a profit this year before it raises another funding round, at a time when publishers are facing lower valuations and pickier investors as deal activity slows.
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WTF is cookie stuffing?
Fraud is a well-documented pox on digital advertising, but it’s also an issue for publishers and marketers working together on affiliate marketing deals, too. One of the more tried-and-true techniques is cookie stuffing.
