April 1, 2006
In the News
Unilever Challenges Hispanic Chefs
Ten Unilever brands are challenging Hispanic consumers to a cook-off in Unilever's biggest-ever Hispanic campaign. The competition, Desafio del Sabor (The...
Gift Cards Under Attack
Heed the Warning. In February 2006, in a written response to a request from U.S. Congressman Charles Bass (R-NH), FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras expressed...
PROMO Xtra
Excerpts from our e-newsletter 3/21 ConAgra Foods will spend another $75 million on marketing and R&D next year as it rallies around its core brands....
Marketers
Pass It On
Verb now has an adjective: Yellow. The Centers for Disease Control is going hand-to-hand viral for the latest phase of its Verb campaign that encourages...
Hot Props
Batteries Not Included
MP3 players, digital cameras, toy cell phones. The line between Toyland and technology has eroded as youngsters crave the same gadgets Mom and Dad have...
Channels
Three Times A Virgin
Virgin Megastores returns to college campuses this month with a few old friends: sponsors Dentyne, Pontiac and Major League Baseball. Virgin College Mega...
Feature Stories
Interactive Marketing Awards
Best Overall G6's smallest-screen debut revved dealer traffic and brand image, taking our top prize and best SMS/MMS campaign Six months after Pontiac's...
Spinning the Web
Dot-bomb? Internet implosion? The year 2001 may have been notorious for the nosedive taken by so many Web-based companies, but it was a lifetime ago for...
2006 Industry Trends Report
Higher Gear
Earlier this year, some 1,500 media advertising execs gathered at the AAAA conference to discuss how to stem the outgoing tide. The day the conference...
Revenues Rising Again
U.S. promotion agency revenues reached an estimated $5.2 billion in 2005, up 23.5% from the year before. That's nearly double the increase that agencies...
Clipping Slows
U.S. marketers spent $7.23 billion on couponing in 2005, up a slight 0.4% from 2004, per PROMO estimates based on industry statistics. That includes distribution,...
Snail Mail Leaves Its Shell
Direct mail is often looked at as the ol' fuddy duddy, the tri-fold sweeps offer that ends up in the trash without a second glance. And while the tactic...
Outside the Box
Last month, Visa broke new ground when it upsized billboards and touted its fraud-protection service as part of the story line in Ubisoft's crime-solving...
Less is More
Event marketing spending neared $171 billion in 2005, up an estimated 3% for the year, per PROMO research. But the average event-marketing budget fell...
Flipping the Coin
The fulfillment of marketing offers has become a two-sided coin in recent years, as traditional, order completion has been supplemented by virtual delivery...
Playing the Game
Fueled by the need to keep consumers engaged, technology gains ground as a prime tool for games, contests and sweepstakes. Whether it's a text messaging...
The New Frontier
SMS, MMS, SEOit's an interactive alphabet soup that can spell big business and loyalty for brands. In fact, 49.9% of marketers allotted up to 15% of their...
Licensing Blips
Licensing revenue has grown 4% since 2001 from $5.60 billion to $5.85 billion in 2004. And with consumers' love of nostalgia, movies and good, old-fashioned...
Rewarding the Faithful
The loyalty business is booming, garnering almost as much attention and excitement as it did in the heydays of S&H trading stamps, when housewives feverishly...
Engaging Workers
Internal branding is driving the creation of major budgets earmarked to market the company's benefits, products and services to its employees just as...
A Little Bit Louder Now
U.S. marketers spent $19.35 billion on retail marketing in 2005, up 4.8% from 2004, per PROMO estimates. Retail marketing which includes P-O-P, retail...
Try Me!
One million consumers got a surprise last December when they opened their doors to the pizza delivery guy. Over the course of a week, consumers who ordered...
Folding or Holding?
With so much attention being focused these days on digital and face-to-face marketing, has specialty printing lost its relevance? Hardly, but printers...
Goal Tending
Whoever said rolling stones gather no moss should consider what Sprint pulled off with its Rolling Stones half-time show at Super Bowl XL in Detroit in...
Backward Glance
Cleans Away Dirt and Crime
In December 1977, consumer giant CFCP introduced Breen detergent to the metro New York market. Its introductory 25-cent coupon, delivered via free-standing...
Editor's Note
Personal touch
We've spent a lot of ink in our recent print editions and a fair number of bytes for our electronic coverage on the latest technological innovations being...
