Brand Noise

Sumner Redstone Buys into Video Games as Key to Entertainment's Future

From WSJ.com (subscription) In the past eight months, Sumner Redstone, the 81-year-old chairman of Viacom, chief executive and controlling shareholder of Viacom has made what amounts to a gradual takeover of Midway Games.

The slow takeover has attracted interest on Wall Street for several reasons. The Viacom chief has admitted to coveting access to the high-growth videogame industry as a good complement to other entertainment assets -- such as Paramount Pictures and MTV -- even though here he is playing for his own account. Mr. Redstone's investment in Midway reflects the central role that videogames from such companies as Electronic Arts Inc. and Activision Inc. are taking in today's entertainment world.

Ecko Announces New Brand Tactics

Mark Ecko Enterprises continues to channel the values of urban life in two fall campaigns for its G-Unit and Ecko Unlimited apparel lines, both slated to break in August. "The 50th Brigade" will portray a day in the life at the fictional G-Unit training complex, where potential members, 7-15-year-old boys, must prove they're worthy of joining the exclusive unit.

"This campaign was designed to reflect basic values like integrity, trust and courage that are persistent in urban culture," said CEO Marc Ecko. "We like to incorporate themes that are central to our consumers' lifestyles." Ashton Kutcher is the new face of Zoo York, a skate-influenced collection of clothing and accessories produced by Ecko Unlimited. He will be featured will be featured in a new ad campaign premiering in magazines next month and do another set of ads for spring 2005. Greg Lucci, vice president of Zoo York, said Kutcher, star of "That '70s Show," represents the spirit of the brand through the attitude and sense of humor he shows in his life and work.

Advertising Age: Youth Report

	Check us out in this week's issue of Advertising Age's special report on 'Youth'

Viva La Bouche!

There is a recent boom in the area of oral care and aesthetics. Our own research shows that teeth whitening and fresh breath are big on the minds of consumers - especially Gen Y. There appears to be more opportunities to tap into here. The latest product from Oral B takes brushing your teeth on the go in a new portable product that can be used in a variety of social contexts. This product is grounded in an often overlooked human scenario - a growing number of young adults who have the habit of carrying there toothbrush to work everyday.

You can see them brushing their teeth in the office restroom at lunch breaks and other pressure points throughout the day. With the growing cultural decline in smoking people have increased value for their mouths in tune with the body as a whole. The mouth has great opportunities for making people happy and feel better about themselves. We expect to see a lot more developments to come.

McDonald's CMO Calls for Move to 'Brand Journalism'

From Advertising Age Speaking at the AdWatch: Outlook 2004 conference at the New York Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Larry Light, McDonald's CMO, described the concept as one marking "the end of brand positioning as we know it."

He went on to say that effective marketing should use many stories rather than employing one message to reach everyone. In effect, he declared that McDonald's was abandoning the universal message concept. "Any single ad, commercial or promotion is not a summary of our strategy. It's not representative of the brand message," he said. "We don't need one big execution of a big idea. We need one big idea that can be used in a multidimensional, multilayered and multifaceted way." He went on to define brand journalism, which he also referred to as a brand narrative or brand chronicle, as a way to record "what happens to a brand in the world," and create ad communications that, over time, can tell a whole story of a brand.

Thinking Outside the (Soap) Box

	The latest campaign for Wisk demonstrates an innovative twist on selling detergent. Focusing on the dirt rather than cleaning the dirt is a great untapped insight on the product's value. The campaign is also well timed for the summer outdoor season. Kudos!

Moving To a New Model of Content Distribution

TiVo, the maker of a popular digital video recorder, announced a new set of Internet-based services on Wednesday that will further blur the line between programming delivered over traditional cable and satellite channels and content from the Internet.

It is just one of a growing group of large and small companies that are looking at high-speed Internet to deliver video content to the living room. "We're fully committed to developing an entertainment experience you can't get over normal broadcast television," said Michael Ramsay, chairman and chief executive of TiVo. "This is what we think the future of television is." This opens up the playing field for redefining how we get entertainment content and what content we get. Niche content can find an audience in a way that it never has before. We may see content premiere on Tivo to TV and then move to theaters as audience demand shifts. The important thing is that it debunks the idea of any one delivery channel being dominant over another. Whether Tivo own's the future is up for debate. What is more important is that this is where content is going. As marketers we need to get our brain around new models of content distribution if we are to generate ideas that will enable brands to coexist in this new changed media landscape. Here are some our thoughts: Content will evolve from viewer interaction - TV Shows, movies and other forms of entertainment will develop from the participation and impact of real people. Smaller niche groups will shape what gets made. Advertising will be forced to get much smarter about content development - Brands that know what people want and know how to add value via increased access will be the winners. There will be infinite repackaging and rebundling of content - Films and TV shows will find opportunities for repackaging and value bundling based on niche tastes. The ability to upsell to premium products is also a huge opportunity. Games will win big - The ability to store and share large rich media files in an easy and accessible way will drive gaming as a huge part of the content pie. Premium access opportunities to preview pre-release titles and additional environments will encourage the viral nature of P2P entertaiment. Indie films will no longer be stuck in art house distribution - Add this viral component to niche titles like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "The Passion" will become an even bigger force in shaping what content drives Hollywood development. The stealth indie projects will find audiences more easily with hard to reach "influentials" who now will be armed with a more powerful tool to drive impact on general audiences. New metrics will emerge - The interaction rate and depth of interaction will measure the value of content.

"Sex and the City" Goes Mass Market

                   

The upcoming premiere of "Sex and the City" on TBS poses an interesting question for the broadcast industry. One...will a "cleaned up" version of the show still drive the interest of the original? And two...will more shows be forced to evolve from premium to mass TV to deliver content that is compelling enough to drive long-term viewership with increasingly elusive audiences?

NBC tried to spice things up last Fall season with their version of the BBC hit "Coupling" but failed to connect. The momentum from the previous show just wasn't there for a US audience. TBS will win with this because the show is so firmly planted in the public consciousness.  But how did something running on a fraction of America's TV sets get to be so part of the cultural zeitgeist? Enter the new era of content development and evolution. A new strategy emerges that we will likely see a lot more of -  repackaging for mass market already tested content properties while walking the line of current censorship pressures. The new evolution for broadcast content may be to drive interest with smaller more savvy influential and offer repackaged versions that the mass market is compelled to take interest in.  You get to be edgy and groundbreaking and still have a future in mass market reruns for decades to come, regardless of how the current mood for policing wardrobe malfunctions may be. I am sure HBO must be readying "The Sapranos" for a similar future if this pans out, as it is likely to do so.

Mattel Gets More Embedded with New Licencing and Partnerships

"By taking the essence of a toy and/or the story that accompanies the toy, we can translate these concepts to different products that are relevant to children today," says Richard Dickson, senior vice president, Mattel Brands Consumer Products. "We are able to create new brand extensions that tie both the toy and its products seamlessly together."

For the first time, Licensing Show attendees can come physically "experience" the different "Worlds of" Mattel, as they bring their brands to life. Show-goers can walk through the Mattel booth and visit the Polly Pocket!(TM) penthouse, listen to the first Barbie(R) music CD, smell the new Barbie(R) and My Scene(TM) fragrances, and hop on the back of a motorcycle to experience the speed, power and performance of the Hot Wheels(TM) brand.

Read full announcement on Business Wire

Low-carb: Evolving Beyond "Light"

Whether die-hard fans or skeptical hold-outs of the latest Atkins low-carb craze, there is more to this than just a diet. Low-carb defines an evolved consumer. This is Generation X's "Light".

Remember how "Light" became the buzz word of the mid to late 80's? It was plastered on every package in the supermarket. It acted as a sort of "seal of approval" to Boomers seeking the right food choice. However, we also remember that "Light" didn't really mean anything. It vaguely represented a fuzzy picture of somewhat lower calories,..or fat...or sometimes neither. The current Low-carb craze speaks to the evolution of consumer sophistication in how food choices are made. How all product and service choices are made for that matter. Who would have predicted that Joe Sixpack would be calculating his net-carbs at his local Subway sandwich shop 20 years ago? The bottomline is that average consumers are more involved with the products they consume than they have ever been. Good news whether we lose that 10 pounds or not.