Getting the News into “Brand Newsrooms”

Posted by Kirk Cheyfitz, 10 Jun 2013

Celebrating Oreo’s now-famous twi-jacking (Or is it “twit-jacking?”) of the Super Bowl for the brand’s own milk-and-cookies purposes, the ad business erupted early this year with ecstatic chatter about so-called “brand newsrooms.” While the chatter focused in minute detail on brands and to a lesser extent on rooms, there was virtually nothing about what constitutes news.

Apparently, the ad people peddling brand newsrooms know nothing about news. So the brand newsroom conversation has been ill informed at best and nonsensical the rest of the time.

The focus on news from brands is appropriate and necessary. Brands live in the same digital world as the rest of us. Our world is increasingly dominated by social sharing, driven by content. If a brand wants its stories shared on social platforms – and it does – those stories need to be newsworthy in the most straightforward sense of the term: new and worthy of an audience’s attention. So brands need to master a concept that’s as central to journalism as it is to swapping stories with your neighbor: news value.

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What’s the ROI in That?

Posted by Jon Thomas, 02 Jan 2013

There seems to be no better time of year for brands to empty their pockets and slap their logos everywhere they can in hopes of gaining exposure than the end of the calendar year. Between the New Year’s Eve televised specials, holiday parades, college football bowl games, sponsored parties, Times Square billboards, Super Bowl commercials and more, the in-your-face advertising is literally unavoidable. 

This type of advertising is nothing new. It’s something we’ve lived with for decades and it expands further with each passing year. But the age we live in now, the post-advertising age, has provided audiences with a bit of perspective. The stadium sponsorships, Super Bowl commercials, Times Square billboards—it all seems a little…funny, doesn’t it?   

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Keeping Celebrities Relevant in Post Ads

Posted by Danielle Tepper, 24 Mar 2011
It’s the chicken vs. the egg of the ad industry: Does the brand help the ad or does the ad help the brand? What really makes a campaign memorable?  Is it overall concept, humor or catchy jingles? What about celebrities? Following a February 23 study by Starch Advertising Research, it is estimated that magazine ads become 15% more memorable if they involve a celebrity.
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Pepsi Ditches the Super Bowl for Social Media

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 01 Feb 2010
We’re already a few weeks into the new year. So what does the upcoming decade hold for the ad world? Pepsi’s betting on social media (and cause-based marketing). In fact, last December the company announced it would abandon Super Bowl advertising for a $20 million social media campaign.
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