The Afternoon Report, October 22, 2008

This information, called The Afternoon Report, is provided by a daily email blast from the publicity firm of Boneau Bryan-Brown, which maintains this blog.


Next Stop: Visual Ads
MTA Test-Drives GPS Bus Screens
New York Post - by Holly M. Sanders
"The MTA is looking to put high-tech digital screens on the sides of buses so it can target ads to neighborhoods and even individual blocks. Right now, the MTA is testing the screens on the M23 bus route in Manhattan. If the test is a success, the agency will install the digital displays on some 200 buses beginning in the first quarter of next year, an MTA spokesman said. - For instance, the screens can show an ad for Saks Fifth Avenue while in Manhattan and change to Target in Brooklyn. The ads can even change languages according to the ethnicity of a neighborhood "In the morning, we can show Starbucks, and on the way home from work, a Budweiser ad," said Dave Etherington, Titan's global marketing director."
This is fascinating -- especially as it might apply to the arts. For example, do you show ads for In the Heights in Washington Heights. This kind of micro-targeting and micro-marketing could transform, in fact, the advertising industry if it is done well.


How To Build Brands in Digital Age
AdAge.com - by Allan Adamson
"With all the new terms and jargon and the changing dynamics, questions abound. How do you cut through the clutter? How do you get someone's attention without being perceived as disruptive? How do you get consumers engaged and wanting more? How do you take advantage of digital tools and tactics to learn more about consumers and deliver better, more-relevant brand experiences? I wanted to find out more about this topic, but instead of just reading about it, I interviewed more than 100 of the best and brightest people in marketing and technology and wrote a book about it called "BrandDigital." The following excerpt is about the way marketers built brands in the pre-digital world compared with the way smart companies are building brands today."
This is a great start to what must be an excellent book. Everyone is asking the kinds of questions Adamson is asking -- we should all check out the answers.

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