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Marketers are partnering with Hollywood producers to embed their products into digital entertainment as a low-cost, low-risk addition to broadcast or cable, particularly as TV upfronts stall and ad budgets contract says Brandweek.
Here’s an episode from Haute and Bothered, a successful series, targeted to teens, sponsored by LG Mobile.
Introduced a year ago by Alabama special effects company, Snowmasters, Flogos are foam logos that float in the sky. On average, Flogos last about 30-40 minutes, drift from 1 to 30 miles while floating as high as 5000 feet, and gradually dissolve into the air.
The company says Flogos are “green” and “100% environmentally safe" because they are synthesized from "proprietary surfactant (soap) based foam formulations and lighter-than-air gases such as helium,” and are about 99% air.
The company’s tagline: “It’s not a bird. It’s not a plane. It’s a Flogo.”
Flogos customers include Lindt chocolates, the California Angels, Disney World, Mercedes-Benz and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts.
Proctor & Gamble Co. (PG) is launching a new Pantene hair-care collection called Nature Fusion that taps into the “natural trend” in an attempt reinvigorate sales of the Pantene brand. Adweek 2/10/09. On another front, P&G is planning to roll out its Mr. Clean Car Wash concept nationally, having acquired an Atlanta-based car wash chain to drive the expansion. Atlanta Business Chronicle 2/5/09.
A Cheetosad roadblock will run on several blogs, including Boing Boing, Indy Mogul and Mashable, over the next six weeks promoting Cheetos “Boredom Busters”, with posts that include fun distractions like IndyMogul’s Xtra Normal free animated movie generator “to put together something quick and ridiculous.” Boredom Busters will also include web-based game links and “original Cheetos-centric content.” Clickz 2/10/09.
Denny's (DENN) is rolling out a digital out-of-home network across its restaurant locations. LCD screens will carry IndoorDirect's theBite Network, a 60-minute lifestyle program with news, entertainment, music and advertising. Adweek 2/10/09
Singer Chris Brown’s ads for Doublemint gum have been suspended by the William Wrigley Jr. Company until an investigation of his alleged assault, on a female companion in Hollywood this past Sunday, is resolved. The woman he allegedly assaulted is his girlfriend, singer Rihanna. CNN 2/09/09. UPDATE: AdFreak posts that Brown has been removed from the Got Milk! campaign. AdFreak 2/10/09.
“In a bid for a slice of the lucrative celebrity news business, Microsoft's MSN (MSFT) and production firm BermanBraun have launched celebrity news website Wonderwall, seeking to build traffic for MSN by attracting “viewers from established media outlets such as People and Us magazines and TV programs including ‘Extra’ and ‘Entertainment Tonight,’ as well as the more rough-and-tumble gossip websites TMZ and Perez Hilton.” Los Angeles Times 2/05/09
Canadian company, SideTrack Technology, plans to introduce the technology to New York’s subway system in 2009 says the New York Times. The first US installation was in the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority earlier this year.
SideTrack and MotionPoster utilize similar technologies that essentially turn train passengers into projectors, and train windows into lenses. How? Light boxes, each one simulating a single frame, are placed inside the tunnel. As the train travels through the tunnel with the passengers looking out the window the succession of light boxes is transformed into a ‘movie.’
According to the NYT, the tunnel advertising is part of New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan to convert real estate into advertising space. They also plan to sell space on turnstiles, digital screens inside stations, projections against subway station walls, and panels on the outside of subway cars.
Photo: David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News of commercial images projected in a Los Angeles train tunnel, via New York Times
The leaderboard, that ubiquitous 728 x 90 banner, is, well, the leader in online ad sizes, garnering 61.2% of all impressions. In distant second place is the medium rectangle, garnering 23.1% of all impressions. Source: Center for Media Research
The term "ad roadblock," or simply "roadblock" typically refers to a type of offering on online ad networks.
An ad roadblock provides an advertiser with the ability to 'own' 100% of the page views on an online ad network, blog, website or other online property, for a specified period of time.
Ad roadblocks are most often used for important announcements and product/service launches.
Singer Chris Brown’s ads for Doublemint gum have been suspended by the William Wrigley Jr. Company until an investigation of his alleged assault, on a female companion in
New York’s subway system in 2009 
