Gatorade Builds a Social Media Mission control

Gatorade has brought Social Media monitoring to a new level watch the video and see how they are on constant alert for anything anybody says about Gatorade 24/7.

Linconln Launches New Campaign without 22 Squared

If you watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday you could have seen the new campaign for Lincoln Financial. According to The New York Times, the Lincoln Financial "Chief Control Officer" campaign was created by Gyro NY and not the local 22 Squared office. 22 Squared created the campaign "Hello Future" where people would see themselves later in life and be happy that they made the smart choice of Lincoln Financial. The campaign was a rousing success garnering praise and a parody on Saturday Night Live. Jamie DePeau, Corporate Chief Marketing Officer for Lincoln praised the spoof calling it, “a rite of passage on the way to becoming an institutional American brand.”

Good work and praise from the client just couldn't keep this one inside I-285. It was a feather in our hats to have a firm from PA vote on our independent shop. Let's hope it's a trend.

Cottrell Figures It Out in 9 Months

After 9 months in Atlanta, Etrade Talking Baby Maker and Fitzgerald + Co Chief Creative Officer, Noel Cottrell, has got Atlanta Advertising figured out. In a Sunday AJC article featuring Mr. Cottrell, The reporter asked for an assessment of the Atlanta advertising community. The response was on cue. The "brain drain" from Atlanta's creative schools to cities like New York and San Francisco. The need for a mid tier agency to step up and bring national level work. And of course the strange inability of Atlanta's leading corporations to embrace the local talent and promote the creative community within their own backyard. Strangely enough, those are the same excuses I heard over 10 years ago as Atlanta Ad Club President when people would say that Atlanta Advertising Agencies had a problem.

The truth is that the Atlanta Advertising Community needs to stop looking out and start looking in. If the Atlanta Creative Community can do the following three things we will become a "go to" city: 1) Do your best work and it will become THE best work. 2) Treat every client as a cutting edge company that wants your best ideas. 3) Lose your fear of losing the business and tell everyone the kind truth. These three things alone will build an environment that expresses a unique culture for Atlanta advertising that will be sought out and embraced.

Welcome to Atlanta Mr. Cottrell. We wish you the best. Some may see you as the a creative messiah and some may see you as an unwanted competitor. Make friends, embrace the culture and help others do their best.

22Squared Gets a Headline

In a world where agencies don't get the ink they deserve, it's good to see local independent agency 22Squared make into the Wall Street Journal. The article did not recognize them for their work on Buffalo Wild Wings or Baskin Robbins. The article focused on their new green designed office space. Yes the space is hip, functional and green, (click on the title and it should take you there) but it's amazing that in a world where agencies are the focus of hit TV series and blockbuster movies, the press rarely sees the agency business as news. We innovate more than any other industry, constantly change our internal makeup, and bring a change or die existence to the business world. It's high time that the business press, especially local press, starts to cover the agency world. We all have a story that's interesting and ready to be told. Cancel your weekends, gather your troops, and prepare to approach the business press to get what you deserve. By the way, they are building another xx building on whatever peachtree street. Why is this interesting?

Atlanta Ad Club Reel Night Back

For those of us who want to bring community to Atlanta Advertising Agencies, nothing could be better than the Ad Club's Reel Night. I was there last year and found it to be just what we need in this town. A high level of creative players showing their hard earned creative stuff in front of the most difficult audience of all. The best part of all is that it was no big deal. There were no winners and no losers. The $400,000 spots stood right up against the $10,000 spots. It was just a chance to grab a beer with your peers and celebrate our craft. I highly encourage a trip to Hudson Grille next Wednesday.

Alex Van Winkle
www.vanwinkleassociates.com

Come to reel night:


Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Time 6:30 - 8:30
Hudson Grille Midtown
942 Peachtree st.
Atlanta, GA 30309

www.atlantaadclub.com

Mobile Advertising Projected to be $1.5 Billion by 2016

According to ABI Research, the market for mobile advertising will grow to $1.5 billion by 2016. Both Apple and Google have bet big on this medium. Apple purchased Quattro Wireless and Google shelled out for AdMob. In 2010, the industry start to get ground swell as early adopting advertisers invested more of their annual budgets. ABI's Neal Strother told InformationWeek, "By now, probably 20% of all major companies have done something with mobile marketing and some of them are doing so repeatedly. Today's mobile campaigns can cost $100,000 or more and annual budgets may run to several million dollars." ABI measures mobile advertising through 5 different categories; display, text messaging, search, in-application, and in-video advertising.

As we steward brands across the new and emerging technologies, agencies should expect to be the early adopters behind this technology. Companies focused in vertical medium dynamic will not be able to make the necessary moved to keep clients on top of the technology.

Campaign Cash Brings a Tide of Money

If you are in advertising or the media in any way, there seems to be a feeling like you haven't felt since 2009. It's a feeling that everything is alright and the market is back to where it belongs. Let's just pray that the feeling lasts. This year's mid term elections threw $4 Billion of media dollars into the market. That is some kind of stimulus. With the corporate dollars now entering the markets, the system was at full capacity. In some markets, the television and radio media had to limit the amount of political ads or else they would gobble up all the inventory. The sheer size of the budgets for political campaigns has become a real issue for the country and our industry. It has been predicted that the upcoming presidential campaigns could throw over a billion dollars into the system.

Now that the campaign dollars have gone through the media markets like a goat through a boa constrictor, we are coming back to what will be normal. Today, all the advertisers who sat on the sidelines during the campaign are coming in strong and the Holiday season is about to crank up. It should be pretty tight out there through the end of 2010 but advertisers and agencies should take a wait and negotiate policy towards spot market advertising in 2011.