Amazon Kindle has finally opened up its platform to advertisers. So now, there are two versions – ads, or no ads. However, as is the case with Pandora or with any “lite” version of an app where the ad supported version is free for download, the Kindle will still cost people money. Amazon is decreasing the price for the Kindle by $25, if the consumer is okay with seeing ads on a regular basis. I’m not impressed. $25 is a nice % discount, but it is not enough. As an advertiser, I love that there is another platform for me to reach my target market, however as an avid reader who has not gone Kindle yet, this will not convert me.

Back to me as an advertiser. While I commend Amazon for opening up an additional advertising touch point and another revenue stream, in order for an advertiser to get an ad into a Kindle, there are hoops to jump through. First, there is a minimum spend. This is partly due to the “hype” of advertising in the Kindle along side the operational cost of reformatting content to fit the platform and for measurability (impressions and clicks). While this may be common place, the minimum spend is not so minimum, and in most cases is equal to the maximum spend that most advertisers are willing to shell out for one publisher overall. The other issue is lead time. In a digital ad world where creative versioning based on learnings is happening in real time, Kindle advertising requires over a month to load. Not very progressive, and a huge deterrent for DR advertisers. Excuse me, Amazon, can you please address accountability. How can you segment my ad (demo, contextual, genre)? How many people will see it? What happens after the click? Can we use 3rd party validation?

While the platform is still new, take it as you will, I do have faith that these pain points will be fixed in due time – however, I am not sold just yet.

The NY Times announced on Thursday that they will begin charging hefty subscription prices to readers who want to get their daily dose of the Times digitally…Starting March 28th visitors to nytimes.com will only be able to read 20 articles a month for free. Once they hit that limit they will be prompted to purchase one of three digital news packages @$15 every four weeks for access to the Web site and a mobile phone app (or $195 for a full year), $20 for Web access and an iPad app ($260 a year) or $35 for an all-access plan ($455 a year). All subscribers who take home delivery of the paper will have free and unlimited access across all Times digital platforms except, for now, e-readers.

I for one love me some NY Times…and easily read more than 20 articles a month digitally, but at those prices, not so much…I use to subscribe, but stopped years ago once I could get it for free on the Internet, in fact I made it my homepage. But @ $200 a year, which is still $100 below a paper subscription, I don’t think so. I have too many other items like cell phone and data plans that didn’t exist before.  So I’ll be one of the millions that work around this pay wall and link to the articles that I want to read from Google and other sites.

It will be interesting to watch this play out and see if “The Times” is right and they get the 15% of loyal readers they want to convert…That would be huge for the newspaper industry.  But the cat is out of the bag and I don’t think it’s going back in…

Lady Gaga is the biggest artist in the world. With over 8 million people following her Tweets and over 11,000,000 fans on Facebook, she has built herself an army of little monsters through the power of social media. So what’s left when you have built such an impressive army? The answer is simple: harness them. Today, Lady Gaga made an announcement via Facebook to all of her little monster all over the world to join a new facet of her social media onslaught – The Official Lady Gaga Street Team.

The goal of this newly formed Street Team with Fancrops, which promotes social media with a purpose, is a brilliant idea that enables the legions of voracious Lady Gaga fans to take her message and brand even further, faster into the social media stratosphere. After you sign up to be a member of the Street Team, using your existing social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Itunes, a new team member can choose to complete the tasks assigned.

Tasks include simple things like posting your favorite lyrics from her new single, Born This Way, on Facebook and tagging it via Gaga. Then you simply submit a screen capture of your completed task through the Lady Gaga Street Team website and earn points towards the purchase of Gaga merchandise. Each task is assigned a different value of points (i.e. posting her interview with Jay Leno on Facebook will earn you 50 points, and simply reviewing and rating “Born This Way” on Itunes will earn her little monsters 200 points). It’s really that simple, but this goes way beyond the promise of essentially free merchandise. The true power here, which is yet to be measured, is the ability to not only make your fan base feel more included in your world, but also to pick specific things you want promoted about your brand/message and unleash them into every major form of social media. Paws up everyone! For Lady Gaga, this is only the beginning of her total global domination via all forms of media.

It’s fascinating how search terms can “capture the spirit of 2010” so adequately and appropriately.  Google recently released their 2010 Zeitgeist, which in their words is “the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed into Google this year.”

From highlights of the 2010 Winter Olympics, to devastating natural disasters Google has broken out all of the pressing news and issues of this past year.  The Zeitgeist includes the top global events of the year, lists of the fastest rising search queries (globally and nationally), and a sensational illustrated video review of 2010.

Look back on 2010 and watch as Swine Flu and Susan Boyle become concerns of the past as the iPad, Twitter, Katy Perry, and Cupcakes top the search charts.

Social media networks have allowed NASA and the White House the ability to interact with the American people in a way different from any other form of communication. By using the latest online technologies that social media networks provide, like “3-D visualizations, streaming video, and integration with location-based social network Gowalla,” NASA can communicate with the public about their achievements, successes, and future plans in space discovery.

As for the White House, social media is a way to reach out to the people on critical issues this economy is faced with. In other words social media is a powerful source for reaching out to the people. But it is also a source where people have the power to reach out to the world. Never before have the public been able to rise to a level of equality with the authorities. The voice of the people can be heard from every corner of this planet. Social media can be or may be the gateway for fixing the world.

Click here to check out the story.

#nuevofiesta

Let’s see…how to launch a new car to market? I could do TV commercials, done that…I could do Print ads, played out…I could even do a banner ad campaign on Gawker, maybe… OR, if I was a multi-million dollar company with seemingly endless marketing dollars, I could try Twitter…right?

Ford company and Wunderman (of Buenos Aires) have kicked-off a Twitter campaign in Argentina, where Twitter is still fairly new, to promote the launch of the new Ford Fiesta in Argentina.

In this Twitter launch, Ford gave the top “tweeter” in Argentina a free Ford Fiesta under one condition:

1. Said “tweeter” must drive the car around for 5 straight days and Tweet about the experience for all his followers to see.

The campaign took a turn for the better when celebrities agreed to do Twitter interviews during the 5 day roadtrip – expanding the reach of the campaign to even more users. In all, the campaign reached 50% of all Argentina tweeters (about 200,000 users) – while this raw number does not seem impressive, the campaign has yet to fully go viral, and let’s not forget, it didn’t cost a thing.

Just when you thought social media could not get any bigger, you were mistaken. Social media, more specifically FourSquare and Twitter, have gone UNIVERSAL (Twitter actually made it to space in 2009, just never in conjunction with geo-based marketing). As if taking over the world was not enough for these two social media powerhouses, they have just been introduced to outer space by NASA Astronaut Douglas Wheelock.

The check in from outer space marks the beginning of a partnership between FourSquare and NASA and the launch of NASA’s FourSquare page. Users can now check in to various NASA locations in order to unlock the “NASA Explorer” badge. Something that would-never-be astronauts can strive to do, in order to be as close to space as possible…without ever getting there.

Check out the NASA FourSquare page here…

The ANA Conference is in the book.  It was an incredible few days of content and connecting with friends and colleagues.  ANA celebrated it’s 100th anniversary.  A truly remarkable accomplishment.  To think, during that period of time, marketing has changed so much and continues to evolve today faster than ever before. 

Over the course of four days we heard from a few truly great marketing minds.  The first full day of events,  Day 2 featured the following speakers:  Marc Pritchard (P&G), Marilyn Mersereau (Cisco), Mark Baynes (Kellogg) and Joe Tripodi (Coca-Cola).

Day 3 featured Ted Ward (Geico), Keith Pardy (RIM), Jim Speros (Fidelity) and Michael Francis (Target). 

Speakers on the final day of the conference included John Hayes (AMEX), Ralph Santana (Samsung), Candace Mathews (Amway) and John Caron (Darden Restaurants). 
Common themes found within each presentation:

1) Brand transparency
2) A need for a greater connection to consumer needs
3) Building a business through “Brand Action”
4) Social, Social, Mobile, Social – it was discussed a lot

Hands down, the most dynamic speaker was Marc Pritchard (P&G).  He discussed P&Gs ability to connect with consumers in a very emotional way.  Their brand benefits were clear and transparent to the consumer and the messaging strategy resonates with meaningful memories embedded deep within the consumer.  Memories from their childhood.  Memories of comfort and security.  The brand pays off the consumer needs of today, but the marketing message calls upon these triggers of the past to capture the consumer attention. 

With more than 1,500 conference attendees looking on, Marc’s presentation reached an emotional level leaving half the room in tears.  His passion for the P&G business and his belief in how consumers would truly benefit from using P&G products was unparalleled.  It was truly amazing but to be honest, I would expect nothing less of P&G. 

In a very different way, I would rank Michael Francis (Target) a close second.  His presentation was dynamic and smart.  He clearly demonstrated the marketing evolution Target needed to go through to ensure they remained connected to consumer needs.  Creative messaging of old highlighted what Mike called “Bright, shiny people”.  The creative was beautiful and it showed gorgeous people wearing, using or having fun with Target Products.  The models used in their :30 spot looked more like Hollywood’s “A” list. The main selling message – Target can make you (the consumer) feel like a celebrity.  It worked – for a while.

The need for message transformation came as our economy dropped and consumer confidence fell dramatically.  The consumer had a different need.  Gone were the days of wanting to feel like a celebrity.  Here are the days of survival (a little dramatic, but you get the point).  Wieden & Kennedy did a fabulous  job of  connecting to a true consumer need. 

The new creative, produced beautifully, showed the consumer enjoying a luxurious vacation.  Upon camera pull back, the spot reveals that they are actually in their backyard.  The super reads “lawn chairs $11.95”.

A second spot shows a couple sipping designer coffee in a trendy coffee house.  Upon camera pullback, it’s clear they are in their kitchen.  The super reads “coffee maker” $8.95. 

The new creative connects with a big consumer concern – “How should I exist in this new economy”?  Target shows the way for the consumer, highlighting the new frugal lifestyle that is a must today.  The connection is made with the need wonderfully through the new creative execution.  The message has been transformed and Target wins in a big way. 

Take a look at a few spots here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5fEKBnsdX0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDzUY2f-6I8&feature=related

Lastly, their newest effort uses :15 spots to make quick connections. With the tagline “Life’s a Moving Target”, Target connects with simple consumer needs and show value immediately:

These are great.  Check them out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N0wRs_Xr-E&NR=1

And my favorite ….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNYwpedglB4&NR=1

Lastly, I found Joe Tripodi (Coca-Cola) to be informative and entertaining.  I think we are all well aware of how large the organization is, but it blew me away to learn they employ more than 1 million people worldwide.  Joe talked about Brand Action and the ability Coca-Cola has to deliver relevant content to any screen at any time around the world through the Coke Digital Network. 

However, even with all this Brand Action and change for Coke, I found it really interesting to learn that the Coca-Cola logo has remained exactly the same for more than 100 years.  Now that’s staying true to brand.

Social marketing was  a main theme discussed by all.  Read a few of my Tweets from the show – they all focus on how a brand connects with consumers through the social space.  Empowered consumers lift the brand up, make it their own and elevate success like never before:

 - ANA Conf Done! Key buzz: Transparency, Connecting Brands to Economic Needs and Building Brand Through Meaningful Action #ANAmarketers

 - Michael Francis – Target: Watching “Life’s a Moving Target” new short TV spots and cross marketing strategy. It’s Brilliant! #ANAMarketers

 - Jim Speros – Fidelity: A Brand is a trust mark. Customers in tough times depend on a brand promise #ANAMarketers

 - Jim Speros – Fidelity: What you say, where you say it and how you say it – Critical for building a brand in a tough economy #ANAMarketers

 - Keith Pardy: RIM (Blackberry) Empower your community of fans to elevate your marketing mix and drive results #ANAMarketers   

 - Joe Tripodi-Coca-Cola: There are great ideas around the world-we need to tap into the creativity. Social gives us access! #ANAmarketers

Still, even with all this success, there’s no true ROI to be had when reviewing success of social efforts.

A few of the low-lights include the Day 1 School of Marketing Workshops.  The content was novice and the Q&A was limited and dull.  Also, NBC / Universal hosted a conversation over lunch on Day 2.  It was poorly planned out and extremely difficult to get any value out of the almost hour long discussion. 

All in, this was a valuable event.  It’s great to hear different perspectives.  It’s incredible to debate contrasting POVs and truly amazing to connect with many people across the industry, one on one in such a great setting.

Next up, the Consumer Electronics Show and the TED Conference.  Let’s go.

Live at the event with Steve Farella about to take the stage. The house is packed and the discussion is lively. A full report to come later.

Advertising Week is alive and well.  Audrey Siegel & Steve Minichini attended the Opening Gala at the Minskoff theater last night.  It’s great to see old friends and to make new friends as well.  TargetCast gets in the mix today at the MobileAdSummit at 4:45 with Steve Minichini participating within the panel discussion Apps:  The Game Changer.  The event will be held at B.B. Kings Blues Club.

Tomorrow is HUGE.  TargetCast will host the Evolution or Extinction Series for Print &  Radio at the Paley Center for Media.  The discussion, moderated by Steve Farella, Audrey Siegel and Harlan Schwarz will kick off at 9:00 AM.

Tweets and Blog posts to come.  Stay tuned.