Is Online Video A Threat to Traditional TV Viewing?

Our new media contributor Daisy Whitney writes:

The New Media Minute is back in 2009 and I’m asking the question of whether online video viewing helps or hurts old-fashioned TV. Recent research from Starz and One Touch Intelligence suggests the Web is less of a threat than previously thought. But the New Media Minute asks if that’s a smart assumption to make. This edition also covers a new effort by NBC to hire local video bloggers to produce online reports for its owned-stations, a move that could help attract a younger demographic.

A New Type of Obama Inspired Advertising: Tropicana Squeeze Ad with Obama & Kids Lookalikes.

This is amazing to me. Tropicana has joined the Obama inspired marketing bandwagon. It's becoming a crowded field with Pepsi leading the way, followed by Ikea's welcome signature book and a host of others.

This, though, is different. Pepsi's new "optimism" campaign was inspired by the big, lofty ideas that Millennials hold. These ads are just slick attempts to imitate the Obama family album. It's Dad & the kids. Obama family values

There are multiple ironies here. As far as I can tell Pepsi owns Tropicana. Are they planning to employ the optimism strategy with multiple brands? These Tropicana ads were created by Arnell...the agency that redesigned the Pepsi bottle to more closely resemble Obama's campaign logo.

Given all this admiration, I hope the clients and the agency/ies are going to be on the Plaza Tuesday...or at least giving everyone the day off.


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Photograph by Jugular Advertising.

HBO's Big Love Advertising and Promotion Goes Underground and Innovative.

HBO's great show, Big Love, set to return on January 18th, 2009 for its third season, has furthered its reach in the Times Square spectacular world by going underground with an innovative approach to posters. HBO has bought every--yes every-- poster that spans the tunnel which runs between Times Square and The Port Authority Bus Terminal.


The posters are unique because you can plug headphones into the people portrayed on the poster and listen to their secrets, an allusion to the governing story line that HBO is focusing on in positioning Big Love as a show about "secrets." (That association is a bit tenuous for my taste in this advertising).


It's a fun approach, these audio posters. If people figure out what you're doing and know to plug in. And, ironically (if you're into numerology), there are exactly 42 posters running side by side. A subtle tie into the 42nd St and Times Square station? Or am I over-reaching?

HBO is going to get a lot of credit for innovativeness here. The real trick is 1.) making the technology work 2.) making sure to tell people clearly to plug in and 3.) finding enough room during rush hours to listen. Does it matter... or is the PR what it's all about?


For a look at the wide range of above ground Big Love posters and billboards and a further analysis of the campaign see Cable Marketing

Times Square is becoming a breeding ground for innovative new campaigns from high profile clients. See what Pepsi is Doing with their Refresh Everything campaign here

What do you think?

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Photography by Jugular Advertising

Information Overload: Feeling Overwhelmed and Unable to Stay Current.

This is just a terrific video related to information overload and its causes--a topic I plan to write further about in 2009 (Happy New Year by the way). Increasingly, I've been felt the absolute difficulty of keeping up with the mountains of new content (or slightly revised and re-calculated information) flooding my computer screen and the airwaves. Even in the world at large, more and more physical space is subject to "takeovers" (an advertising word for dominating a media space...i.e. Pepsi's Times Square takeover on New Year's Eve).

The psychology of information overload is a topic I'm looking into. I'm feeling snowed...I'm know others are too.

Because every piece of communication we generate, from emails to tweets to posts is affected. From my perspective here at Jugular the emerging question I see is how we can best put together effective communications for clients in this environment.

I'll be back with more as the year proceeds.

In the meantime, what do you think?

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Pepsi "Refresh Everything" Times Square Billboards for New Years.

So...we decided to go for a lunchtime stroll up to a bumper-to-bumper Times Square filled with people and, across from MTV, found this remarkable collection of vinyl boards of all shapes and sizes for the new Pepsi "Refresh Everything" New Year's campaign. Take a look at these images shot this afternoon. Then imagine these posters translated to neon signs at night pulsating across a Pepsi takeover. Optimists unite! Pessimists desist!





And...just for a bit of the historical text, why not vote for a soda aligned with President Elect Barack Obama. And...I sense a Pepsi category exclusive on the inauguration. If you don't have it. I'd get it.




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Pepsi "Refresh Everything" Website and Video for New Years.

Please click image to enlarge

Pepsi has just launched part two of the "Refresh Everything" campaign which snuck out there quietly via wild postings (a story we first broke here) a couple weeks ago. There's a brand spanking new website refresheverything.com.

There's also a spot designed to break on New Year's Eve that will accompany a massive Times Square program.


All this is carried out with relentless optimism for the future...aimed squarely at the Optimistic Millenials identified by the Pepsi Optimism Project. They're the generation that, whenever we do research with them, expresses an enormous longing for the optimism of the sixties.They envy the generation's protest, music, dress, sexual mores and so much more. They believe they missed a critical period in relatively recent history. See a earlier blog post from The New Advertising on the 60's & 70's generation vs Pepsi's New Millennials.

So it's no surprise that the look of both the site and the video is 60's pop-art-like. Just take a look at Roy Lichenstein 1962 painting "Art"

You'll also see provision for a link to reach Times Square images...something we'll see more of.

I'll be back with some more thoughts. Wanted to get this post out since it's newsworthy and an important new campaign from a major advertiser and their new agency TBWA Chiat/Day.

Update: here are many more details on the New Year's Eve program including the Times Square domination program. Electronic signs with the words from the spot, IM'ing camera phone examples of personal "optimism" for potential inclusion in MTV/Pepsi video (used first that I know in U2's Vertigo tour where audience shots were included on the video screens). From yesterday's AdAge.com or a similar story in Adrant.

Please leave me your contact info if you have any further information about the campaign.

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Five Predictions for 2009 from Daisy Whitney on the New Media Minute.

Wondering what's on the horizon in the new year? Never fear, the five predictions for 2009 are here. From the New Media Minute, keep an eye on mobile phones, Netflix, international Web distribution, George from Grey’s and a newly formed army of cord-cutters.

Daisy Whitney is a noted new media expert who writes for TVWeek, and numerous other publications. She also produces podcasts and the New Media Minute (which will return here the first week of January '09).

You can follow Daisy on Twitter at Twitter.com/DaisyWhitney