“… a McKinsey study of the 1990-91 recession found that companies that remained market leaders or became serious challengers during the downturn had increased their acquisition, R. & D., and ad budgets, while companies at the bottom of the pile had reduced them.”
From a New Yorker article about companies that go for it during hard economic times and hit it out of the park.
I’m not 100% on what’s going on here but I like it much more than whatever Microsoft is up to lately. At least the song is good. From Mother, NY
The people behind the open source (as in free) ad server OpenX has launched their own marketplace for online impressions. OpenX Market competes directly with Google AdWords and it’s a good thing, Google recently launched their own free ad server solution, so OpenX really needed a compelling reason for their users to stick around. At launch, OpenX Market already has a monthly run rate of more than one billion impressions.
Magazine advertising pages are down 26% in first quarter of 2009 according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Sporting magazines were among the hardest hit publications. Boating, Sporting News, Boating Life, and Sport Fishing all posted declines of around 50 percent.
A former Senior Partner has filed a lawsuit against WPP and Ogilvy. The company is accused of over-billing their clients and wrongful termination, lots of details to be had in this article at Media Bistro
This spot for AT&T features Tom’s Shoes, a shoe company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes they sell. Unfortunately AT&T is a giant telecom company and the feel good vibe of Tom’s just doesn’t jive with that.
The pleasant looking lady above is Aimeé Ann Duffy a Welsh neo-soul singer. That’s about all I can tell you though, am I the only one that thinks the above advert makes 0 sense?
Agency Layoffs
