advertising and marketing

In the world of "so bad, it's good," this may well qualify as bad. Or good.

It's Domino's Pizza selling a new iTunes app in Japan. Because if there's one thing pizza needs, it's an iPhone app.

Domino's wants you to know that no expense was spared in the creation of this app. So it wasn't going to sink to using Brad Pitt, Jack Nicholson, or Leonardo DiCaprio to sell it.

No, it was going to employ that versatile performer Scott Oellkers. Should you have been unaccountably held up in North Korea playing basketball, Oellkers is the president of Domino's Japan.… Read more

Call it a Microsoft holiday tradition. The annual #DroidRage Twitter campaign is back.

The general idea of #DroidRage is to "share your Android malware horror story."

And while there are some tweets supporting Microsoft, they aren't easy to find -- despite this tweet by Microsoft: "Yikes! Hundreds of #DroidRage stories already since our tweet last night."

Instead, the tweets are trending toward flaming Windows.

Here's how adamwiniecki put it: "marketing guru who came up with #droidrage actually secretly works for Google."

He's right. There is precious little about Android malware stories. … Read more

When your CEO is slightly automatonic, you need to find positive emotions for your brand elsewhere.

Facebook decided it would go to Wieden and Kennedy, the same people who do those lovely Nike ads, in order to obtain a 90-second spot that would move you to tears.

Facebook, you see, exists to move you to tears. It's about being human, open, and connected.

Oh, and it's about $7 if you want to be sure lots of people actually see your updates.

But, no. What this ad wants to tell you is that Facebook is like chairs. Yes, empty … Read more

How many fronts can a good war have?

An infinite number, if the bazooka fire around the iPhone 5 can be believed.

For Google's Motorola doesn't want to be left behind Samsung and Nokia, both of whom have already tried to mock Apple's new elongated marvel.

I am indebted to TechCrunch for coming upon a Motorola Google+ post (also on Motorola's Facebook page) that enjoys an ad with a mocking tone.

What reason could Motorola have to mock the iPhone 5? Why, it's the iOS 6 Maps app, of course. You know, the one that doesn't seem to quite get the locations right.… Read more

The lovely thing about a new iPhone is that it brings people together.

Whether your Karl is Rove or Marx, whether your Justin is Bieber, Timberlake, or Theroux, somehow the iPhone has always brought so many together in wondrous adoration.

And yet the new iPhone 5 ads released yesterday seem to be creating an oddly conflictual atmosphere.

The ads, to my eyes and ears, seem to be a rather smooth journey back to the future. Some of Apple's recent ads have tended toward the dull. Can anyone remember even one exciting ad for the iPad?

At heart, they've … Read more

commentary If Google's marketing video for its in-the-works high-tech specs turned your stomach as much it did the stomachs of certain tech bloggers and editors who shall remain nameless, you'll no doubt appreciate the satirical -- and, we suspect, all too probable -- take that's embedded below.… Read more

Ad industry market research firm eMarketer released estimates Thursday that predict ad spending on Facebook will reach nearly $1.3 billion worldwide in 2010--and is poised to hit over $1.7 billion in 2011.

"Brand advertisers are making Facebook a core buy," senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a release. "Ad spending is building quickly and the mass audience is one that marketers cannot ignore any longer."

The bulk of that $1.28 billion figure--$835 million--is in the U.S., which is home to less than a quarter of Facebook's users. That's … Read more

For certain brands, a "social media strategy" consisting of a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account is last year's model.

One of the trends you tend to see at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas, is that it's where big, nontech brands show up to test edgy social-media marketing initiatives in the ultimate geek test bed. A brand we'll be seeing a lot of at this year's SXSWi, which starts Thursday, is the General Motors-owned Chevy.

A sponsor of the festival, Chevy is going all-out with just about every … Read more

As promised, AOL turned on its redesigned homepage Thursday in conjunction with CEO Tim Armstrong's ceremonial ringing of the New York Stock Exchange opening bell. The company formally spun off from parent company Time Warner this week and is now traded publicly, and to commemorate the media-centric rebirth, it enlisted branding agency Wolff Olins to give it a spiffy new look.

Wolff Olins describes the rebranding as "deliberately disruptive and deliberately unlike what is being done by other online media businesses...designed for an environment where media is no longer broadcast, but rather is discovered through fragmented, non-linear … Read more