Advertising Age articles from June 2009

Advertising Age archives from June 2009

DON'T DRIVE OUR CARS, SAY TOYOTA DEALERS IN CANADA; Unusual ad tack seems to have spurred a major uptick in sales of brand.
June 1, 2009... Byline: RUPAL PAREKH WHILE THE U.S. auto industry is verging on collapse, Toyota can boast a record-breaking 2008 in one market, where it sold 25% more cars than ever before. That's not going to make for an instant turnaround for the...

BleuBlancRouge's five-step plan for Toyota.(Financial report)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... 1. Go green While the competition focused on messaging about lower prices, Toyota launched green pricing messages between January and March 2008 with the goal of differentiating the company in Quebec and setting up the rest of the...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Shari Weisenberg.(Sci-Fi Channel Inc.'s marketing)
June 1, 2009... Byline: ANDREW HAMPP VP-strategic marketing Sci-Fi LOVE IT OR HATE it, Sci-Fi Channel's much-blogged-about name change to Syfy has been the most buzzworthy cable rebrand in recent memory. While viewers won't officially weigh in...

Future of advertising? Print, TV, online ads; ARF, Wharton School study finds WOM largely driven by paid media ads.
June 1, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF A RESEARCH PROJECT commissioned late last year with dire-sounding rhetoric about a crisis in advertising has produced decidedly calming conclusions. Among them: Threats posed by DVRs and clutter to TV ads are overblown;...

Michelob joins keg party at Twitter, but will its tweets draw heat? Trouble may follow A-B, given age-verification flap that felled Bud.TV.
June 1, 2009... Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN TWITTER USERS who opt to follow the online musings of Anheuser-Busch's Michelob may be surprised to receive a quick direct-message inquiry from the beer brand asking if they're of legal drinking age. Being asked...

Lutz: GM product is better; now it must erase "reputational deficit'; Vice chairman outlines how the automaker can emerge a "powerhouse'.
June 1, 2009... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY GENERAL MOTORS Corp.'s potential tagline in bankruptcy: "GM. Yes, we can.'' That was the joking suggestion of the automaker's outspoken vice chairman, Bob Lutz, who stressed several times today in a talk with...

The 'best' of real-estate advertising.
June 1, 2009... What would a world without real-estate ads look like? Aside from an even smaller classified section, we'd be deprived of those wonderful ads for local real-estate professionals. And that's a world Minneapolis-based ad director Dana Severson...

WHAT YOU SAY.(Microsoft Corp. advertises for better customer services)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Byline: KEN WHEATON THE question: Could an aggressive ad campaign help a rival like Microsoft win back share from Google? With Microsoft's announcement of Bing and an $80 million campaign to support it, we found ourselves once again...

Penthouse Executive Club ad is one fine piece of ... art.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Ken Wheaton Are you like me? When you think "strip club''regardless of how "high class'' the joint is supposed to bedo you think about sad women who've made some wrong choices in life taking their clothes off for leering strangers?...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Marla Skiko.(Marla Skiko marketing executive at SMG Multicultural)(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: Laurel Wentz Senior VP-director of digital innovation SMG Multicultural HOLDING A DIGITAL speed-dating event for major clients is just one way Marla Skiko convinces marketers that Hispanics can be as active online as other...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Graciela Eleta.(marketing executive at Univision Communications Inc.)(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: LAUREL WENTZ VP-brand solutions Univision DURING THE EIGHT years Graciela Eleta headed multicultural marketing at Procter & Gamble Co., she presided over the biggest ad budget in the U.S. Hispanic market, at over $100...

Need to check your cholesterol? Yes, there will be an app for that; For pharma marketers, the iPhone is a perfect conduit to the consumer.(Big Pharma markets its medical equipment through smartphones )
June 1, 2009... Byline: RICH THOMASELLI FORGET CHECKING the weather or finding the nearest pizza joint; very soon you'll be keeping tabs on your glucose level and blood pressure with your iPhone. That's right, Apple's skyrocketing cellphone is set to...

Real-estate ads find new home on web in recession; House-selling business moves from papers to Facebook, Twitter, blogs.
June 1, 2009... Byline: MARISSA MILEY DISAPPEARING ARE THE bold-colored suit jackets, poufy hairdos and stilted smiles that, for decades, have been plastered across newspaper pages pushing real estate to potential homebuyers. In their stead: informal...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Esi Eggleston Bracey.(marketing executive at CoverGirl)(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF VP-global cosmetics COVERGIRL "EASY, BREEZY'' as CoverGirl's slogan may be, the cosmetics business hasn't always come easy for P&G. Nor has it always been a thing of beauty. Olay cosmetics failed, and Max...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Jessica Buttimer.(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF GLOBAL DOMAIN LEADER CLOROX GREEN WORKS WHEN CLOROX PUT its name on a line of green cleaners in late 2007, some bloggers and competitors scoffed at the idea of a chlorine bleach brand trying to go green. ...

FDA Cheerios challenge shows rise of Third World mentality.(General Mills Inc.'s cereals marketing rules)
June 1, 2009... Byline: Rance Crain IT'S NO WONDER that our health-care system is the costliest in the worldeven though it's by no means the most effective. A big reason is that the system is rigged to protect the status quo. President Obama...

Media Morph: Audioboo.fm.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Byline: EMMA HALL What it is: Think of it as Twitter for the spoken word. Or YouTube for podcasts. Either way, AudioBoo (audioboo.fm) is gaining ground as the new social-media experience in the U.K. It was started by Mark Rock, whose...

Ditching TV-production models is key to social success; Big Spaceship CEO on how nothing is everything in digital.(Interview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NICK PARISH ONE OF THE MOST opinionated figures on the role production shops have in making digital marketing ideas reality has been Michael Lebowitz, CEO and founder of Big Spaceship, who last year spoke out about his company's...

His "games without frontiers' are storytelling's future; `Parking Wars' creator Kevin Slavin talks about crossing channels.(Interview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NICK PARISH THE PRESENT AND future state of gaming looks a little bit like, well, the past, explained Kevin Slavin, managing director and co-founder of Area/Code, which designs and develops games that bounce across multiple media...

Marketers fear frugality may just be here to stay; P&G, Home Depot fret that recession has forever altered spending patterns.
June 1, 2009... Byline: NAT IVES MARY PRYOR WAS doing pretty well until January, when she got laid off from her web-project-management job at cable channel Fuse. Now she's replenishing her wardrobe at clothing swaps, eating on $25 a week, living without...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Jill Beraud.(chief marketing officer at PepsiCo Inc.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA Global chief marketing officer PEPSICO IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE PepsiCo didn't have a global chief marketing officer, but that was the case until December when Jill Beraud, a Victoria's Secret alum, became the...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Jean Lin.(marketing executive at Isobar)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NORMANDY MADDEN GLOBAL CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER ISOBAR CHINA IS THE world's largest internet and mobile-phone market, as well as one of the smartest when it comes to tapping digital media as a marketing channel. So it's no...

WOMEN TO WATCH; KERRY KEENAN.(Young and Rubicam Advertising)
June 1, 2009... Byline: RUPAL PAREKH GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE CONTENT Y&R SIX WEEKS into a summer internship at BBDO, New York, a 21-year old Kerry Keenan sold her first campaign. It was for Frito-Lay's SunChips brand, and she was hooked....

WOMEN TO WATCH; Vida Cornelious.(DDB Worldwide)
June 1, 2009... Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN Creative Director DDB, Chicago WHEN ANHEUSER-BUSCH approached its agencies about launching Bud Light Lime in late 2007, DDB had a problem: The product was supposed to appeal to women and cocktail drinkers,...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Chandra Hill.(marketing executive at Facebook Inc.)(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: RITA CHANG VP-mobile monetization MySpace FACEBOOK MAY lay claim to being the world's top social networking site, but in the mobile arena, MySpace has the leg up in turning eyeballs into dollarsthanks to Chandra Hill. ...

WOMEN TO WATCH; MARTINE REARDON.(Macy's Inc.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA EXEC VP-MARKETING MACY'S THERE WAS A time when Martine Reardon sat across the river from Macy's at the department store Abraham & Strauss in Brooklyn, admiring her rival's advertising campaigns and iconic...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Jenny Cisney.(social media manager at Eastman Kodak Co.)(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: BETH SNYDER BULIK Chief Blogger and Social-Media Manager Kodak JENNY CISNEY'S personal and professional passions first crossed in 2008, when she became Kodak's chief blogger. The 36-year-old social-media maven had worked...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Sarah Armstrong.(marketing executive at Coca-Cola Co. )(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA DIRECTOR-WORLDWIDE MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION OPERATIONS Coca-Cola COCA-COLA CO. is emerging as an industry leader in value-based compensation, and the woman behind that push is Sarah Madden Armstrong,...

WOMEN TO WATCH; JILL NYKOLIATION.(Occupation overview)
June 1, 2009... Byline: RUPAL PAREKH PRESIDENT JUNIPER PARK WHEN JILL NYKOLIATION was growing up in Toronto, she would often take apart her toys to examine how they worked, only to piece them back together. "To this day, I love to deconstruct...

WOMEN TO WATCH; ANDREA KERR REDNISS.(Optimedia International US)
June 1, 2009... Byline: MICHAEL LEARMONTH SENIOR VP-MANAGING DIRECTOR OPTIMEDIA ANDREA KERR REDNISS doesn't Twitter much; she's not a self-styled social-media "expert''; and sometimes she evengaspshuts down her BlackBerry. Yet she's a big reason...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Robin Domeniconi.(Microsoft Corp.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: MICHAEL LEARMONTH VP-ADVERTISING MICROSOFT IT'S NOT TOO big a stretch to say that the future of Microsoft's advertising business, long a symbol of futility for the Redmond giant, is in the hands of its newly named...

WOMEN TO WATCH; GAIL HEIMANN.(Weber Shandwick)
June 1, 2009... Byline: Michael Bush Vice chair WEBER SHANDWICK WEBER SHANDWICK'S Gail Heimann is regarded by many in the PR industry as one of the best minds in consumer marketing. But she hasn't remained siloed because, as agency president Andy...

WOMEN TO WATCH; FRAN HAUSER.(Time Inc.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NAT IVES PRESIDENT-DIGITAL TIME INC. STYLE & ENTERTAINMENT GROUP FRAN HAUSER has been especially worth watching since last fall, when Time Inc. expanded her portfolio beyond People Digital to add the websites for...

Boom in issues advertising could net agencies $1 billion; Groups have already spent $240M this year trying to influence D.C.
June 1, 2009... Byline: MICHAEL BUSH THERE ARE BATTLES brewing in Washington, and agencies might want to join the fight to stake a claim in what could be worth $1 billion in media spending. Long thought to be the playground for PR and public-affairs...

Consultantcy tuts at plan to pay Sorrell $95M in bonuses; U.K.'s leading pension adviser urges WPP shareholders to vote no.(WPP Group PLC)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Byline: EMMA HALL BRITAIN'S LEADING corporate-governance consultancy has urged WPP shareholders to vote against a plan that could see Chief Executive Martin Sorrell take home $95 million in bonuses in the next five years. WPP...

Agencies should make play for their own D.C. dollars.
June 1, 2009... With automakers and financial companies bowing to D.C. in exchange for money, perhaps agencies should get in on the action. And the good news for agencies is they don't have to seek bailouts from the taxpayers to get a bump in their revenue...

How would you pitch the GM account? Industry insiders offer their two cents on a billion-dollar problem.(General Motors Corp.)
June 1, 2009... WITH GENERAL MOTORS Corp. following Chrysler onto the rust heap of tarnished brands, there are plenty of shoulda-coulda-wouldas to be found. The job of marketing isn't to dwell on past failures but rather to help a company find its way forward....

What you need to get into D.C.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... 1. Experience: A high level of government, politics and public-affairs experience, as well as relationships with legislators and members of Congress in states in which it does business. 2. Creativity: A creative team that has...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Jeri Ward.(Audi of America Inc.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY General Manager-Marketing and Strategy Audi of America JERI WARD, who arrived at Audi of America two years ago as general manager-marketing and strategy from Ford, recalls sitting around a table last November...

WNBA GIVES SPONSORS SHIRTS ON PLAYERS' BACKS; Stern's move to allow logos on jerseys could set precedent.(Women's National Basketball Association )
June 1, 2009... Byline: RICH THOMASELLI DAVID STERN has signed off on putting sponsor patches on uniformsbut for the WNBA rather than the NBA. Mr. Stern, the National Basketball Association commissioner, has taken the possibly precedent-setting move...

New book paints Bernbach as much lemon as legend; Creative genius shown as blemished, insecure, leaning on others' work.(Nobody's Perfect: Bill Bernbach and the Golden Age of Advertising)
June 1, 2009... Byline: RUPAL PAREKH TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS after the death of legendary adman and DDB founder, the agency's former PR director has quietly self-published a 200-page tell-all, "Nobody's Perfect: Bill Bernbach and the Golden Age of...

Navigating digital environments.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... OPEN-SOURCE EVERYTHING How do you make the trends buried within a 14 million-person database at-a-glance simple to read? Ben Fry, in his role as director of Seed Phyllotaxis Lab, recently created an interesting visualization device for...

The big Bing theory: Help users decide instead of search; "Sound of found' engine tries to stand out from Google with more query answers, better filters.
June 1, 2009... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN AT FIRST GLANCE, Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, doesn't look all that different from Google. There's a search bar across the top; a list of results down the middle of the page, flanked above and to the right by...

Marketers bet on games to win consumers; Old Navy's interactive circular spurs blog buzz and in-store traffic.(Old Navy Clothing Co.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA ALL THE WORLD'S a game. Well, at least it could be. Game evangelists paint a picture of a world where planning your retirement, studying for exams, donating to worthy causes and even clipping coupons can be made...

Bing buzz had users searching for site that didn't exist yet.(Microsoft Corp.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN WHEN MICROSOFT CEO Steve Ballmer announced Bing, his company's new search engine, last week, it was greeted with the kind of press coverage most internet upstarts can only dream of. Bing was the subject of 1,500 news...

WOMEN TO WATCH; JACKI KELLEY.(Universal McCann)
June 1, 2009... Byline: MICHAEL BUSH PRESIDENT-NORTH AMERICA UNIVERSAL MCCANN IN HER FIRST foray into the agency world, Jacki Kelley has certainly jumped into the deep end of the pool. Not only is Ms. Kelleywho took on the newly created role of...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Barbara Blangiardi.(NBC Universal Inc.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG Senior VP-creative partnership and innovation NBC Universal MORE TV ADS THESE days look less like the hard-sell entreaties of yore that interrupted and distracted and instead seem a part of the TV programs...

WOMEN TO WATCH; WANDA YOUNG.(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF SENIOR DIRECTOR-DIGITAL MARKETING WALMART MAKING AN IMPACT at a corporate behemoth such as Walmart isn't easy, but Wanda Young, senior director-digital marketing, already had significant progress to show in less...

WOMEN TO WATCH; DANYA PROUD.(McDonald's Corp.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: EMILY BRYSON SENIOR MANAGER-COMMUNICATIONS MCDONALD'S USA DANYA PROUD, senior manager-communications, McDonald's USA, had a busier-than-average spring. The public-relations executive, who co-heads U.S. media relations for...

WOMEN TO WATCH; MARY MURCKO.(Rodale Inc.)
June 1, 2009... Byline: NAT IVES SENIOR VP-PUBLISHER PREVENTION MARY MURCKO still has an easy, enthusiastic laugh, despite having to deal with some serious challenges and ever-increasing responsibility as her career has progressed. Just look...

WOMEN TO WATCH; Maureen Lindner.
June 1, 2009... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK VP-GLOBAL ADVERTISING CAMPBELL SOUP CO. WHEN MAUREEN LINDNER took over as VP-global advertising at Campbell Soup Co. in January, she familiarized herself with the company's advertising "across the...

WOMEAN TO WATCH; Suzanne Alecia.
June 1, 2009... Byline: ANDREW HAMPP President Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau IF DIGITAL OUT of home pops up on a marketer's media plan of late, chances are Suzanne Alecia played a role in getting it there. As president of the...

Why "reliable' shows work for CBS; Net wins ad dollars by forgoing quirkiness for safe, stable programs.
June 1, 2009... Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG OVER AT CBS, offbeat is off the schedule. In the past few years, CBS has used upfront week to unveil something a little off-kilter, experimental or quirky. It tested a singing Hugh Jackman in "Viva Laughlin,'' a...

Universities finally espousing branding; Still spend conservatively but start to dabble in TV, print and social media.
June 1, 2009... Byline: MARISSA MILEY FACING BUDGET cuts and smaller endowments, many colleges and universities are realizing that they can't rest on their laurels if they expect to attract the best and brightest. From the University of California at Los...

WOMEN TO WATCH; TIFFANY KOSEL.
June 1, 2009... Byline: MARISSA MILEY VP-Creative director CRISPIN PORTER & BOGUSKY IN HER IMPRESSIVE career at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Tiffany Kosel has garnered awards at nearly every show out there, from Clios to Cannes Lions. She has worked...

WOMEN TO WATCH; TINA SHARKEY.
June 1, 2009... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN CHAIRMAN AND GLOBAL PRESIDENT BABYCENTER TINA SHARKEY is a woman with an uber-missionand she'll not be constrained by legacy business models. That mission: to make BabyCenter the world's parenting...

GREEN MOUNTAIN TAKES ON COFFEE GIANTS CUP BY CUP; VP Whalen says ubiquity, product quality core to growth strategy.
June 1, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA THE BIG PLAYERSMcDonald's, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donutshave gotten plenty of attention for their multimillion-dollar coffee campaigns in recent months. But a smaller, more diverse competitor is stirring things up in...

WOMEN TO WATCH; ELISA STEELE.
June 1, 2009... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER YAHOO AS YAHOO'S FIRST chief marketing officer in almost 18 months, Elisa Steele is charged with guiding the portal through perhaps its most challenging period: Revenue is down in a...

WOMEN TO WATCH; SHERYL SANDBERG.
June 1, 2009... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER FACEBOOK WORKING AS TREASURY chief of staff for Larry Summers during Bill Clinton's presidency, it was apparent to Sheryl Sandberg that technology was the force driving the macro...

The award for Most Bitterly Ironic Media Award goes to ... Why is a journalism school honoring a blog mogul who thinks journalists should work for free?
June 1, 2009... Byline: Simon Dumenco AND THE AWARD for the Most Bitterly Ironic Media Award goes to the Fred Dressler Lifetime Achievement Award, to be bestowed upon Arianna Huffington by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.(appointment of Keith Hindle as Chief Executive Officers)(appointment of Adam Levine )(Kerry Henderson was promoted to senior Vice President )
June 1, 2009... FremantleMedia Enterprises tapped Keith Hindle as CEO. Mr. Hindle will be charged with developing and implementing a strategy for FME's Americas business, which includes operations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean....

Too much reality: Why Jon and Kate need to pull the plug.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Ann Marie Kerwin It's hard to believe that the newest tabloid sensation is a pretty typical Pennsylvania couple who just happen to have eight kids. But Jon and Kate are now two names that grace the weekly magazine covers usually...

Corrections.
June 1, 2009... In a chart accompanying "Mag, Newspaper Readers Aging at Accelerated Rate,'' (AA, May 25), a picture of First magazine, rather than First for Women, was used to illustrate the age statistics for First for Women (48.2, up 5.9 years).

Catch up with our blogs.
June 1, 2009... What are our Small Agency Diarists worrying about this week? What's going on under The Big Tent? Do our Songs for Soap bloggers think your commercial works? ADAGE.COM AS SEEN ON ADAGE.COM/ SMALLAGENCY CLEVELAND: AWARD SHOWS IMPORTANT...

Getting in on the game.
June 1, 2009... Old Navy's not the only one making tasks fun by borrowing classic gaming motivators. Here are some others: FREERICE.COM By correctly answering questions related to vocabulary, math, geography or other subjects, users donate rice to the...

WORK OF THE WEEK.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Teressa Iezzi CREATIVITY TOP FIVE In this week's edition of the Creativity Top Five, Jon Kubik and Adam Noel hand-draw ad ideas to steal in their new blog; Apple and TBWA/Media Arts Lab rig up another video banner; director Sam...

PEOPLE & PLAYERS.(appointment of Karen Sauder, Pamela Narins and Mark Modesto)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Byline: Anna Baskin NEW YORK:GLAMOUR REEL MOMENTS "Cutlass," directed by Kate Hudson, is the first of Glamour's Reel Moments films to be selected for the Tribeca Film Festival. (From l.) Leslie Russo, executive producer, "Cutlass,"...

Why Walmart is getting serious about marketing; Giant attributes success to segmentation, market research and advertising.(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)
June 8, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF It's marketing's time at Walmart. It's easy to become complacent when you are a $401 billion company whose shareholder meeting gets teen idol Miley Cyrus out of bed before 8 a.m. to perform for more than 15,000...

Not that you were, TV networks, but don't count on Chrysler in the upfront; Automaker says it needs flexible buys for $67M budget in Chapter 11.(Chrysler L.L.C.)
June 8, 2009... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY Chrysler isn't planning to participate in the TV upfrontand it may continue life without the brand that carries its name. The marketing team at the automaker, which is restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy...

Side effects of TBWA win include unpleasant Alli account.(TBWA Advertising Inc.)(GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd.)
June 8, 2009... Byline: MARISSA MILEY TBWA's win last week of $170 million of the GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare business comes with what a lot of agencies would consider an unpleasant side effect: the chore of marketing a weight-loss drug that can...

Heineken wants face time with its Manhattan agency; Oddly, it's a digital world that prompted brewer to limit review to local shops.(Heineken USA Inc.)(Manhattan Marketing Ensemble)
June 8, 2009... Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN Heineken USA raised eyebrows in the agency world last week by throwing the creative account for its flagship lager brands into review and announcing it was only considering shops in Manhattan (New York, not Kansas),...

Another round?
June 8, 2009... If Wieden & Kennedy is unsuccessful in its bid to defend its Heineken account, the iconic imported beer will have its fourth agency since 2006. Here's a look at some of the most prolific agency-hopping brands during that period. Wendy's*:...

A look at what GM's agencies are on the hook for; Bankruptcy filing says Publicis is short $146M, Interpublic owed $20.5M.(General Motors Corp)
June 8, 2009... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY Publicis Groupe said General Motors Corp. has asked it to continue working on its accounts during and after its bankruptcy case, even though court records show Starcom MediaVest Group is the automaker's sixth-largest...

People on the move.(MindShare appoints Scott Sorokin)(Euro RSCG Worldwide Inc. appoints Fernanda Romano)(McCann-Erickson Inc. appoints Cathy Saidiner, Christian Cocker and Michael Rice)
June 8, 2009... Scott Sorokin, former president of Aegis Media's Carat, has been named global head of digital for WPP's Mindshare. In the newly created position, Mr. Sorokin's primary responsibility will be to head all global digital-media initiatives for...

Toyota and Telemundo team to embed texts in telenovela opening; Carmaker aims to draw attention to its new Venza by sponsoring nightly viewer messages on show.(Toyota Motor Corp.)(Telemundo Network Group L.L.C.)
June 8, 2009... Byline: LAUREL WENTZ Every night in the opening credits of NBC Universal-owned Telemundo's new Spanish-language telenovela, shot in New York, the heroine Manuela zips through Times Square in her Toyota Venza past the landmark giant...

STARBUCKS CMO: MCD'S JAVA PUSH WILL WORK IN OUR FAVOR; Davenport says chain will draw customers via McCafe "education'.(Starbucks Corp.)(Terry Davenport )(Interview)
June 8, 2009... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK Starbucks chief marketer Terry Davenport has a big job these days. The embattled coffee chain is looking for ways to offer value without discounts that would degrade the brand and market without pandering, all...

Time Warner Cable: El Paquetazo.(Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... Byline: Laurel Wentz As general-market agencies seek more Hispanic business, the growing focus on bicultural, bilingual Hispanics is opening up opportunities. Time Warner Cable picked Interpublic Group of Cos.' Gotham to handle the New...

Five brands bucking the downtrend in beverages; Upstarts have snagged distribution deals with likes of Pepsi, Nestle.
June 8, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA And RUPAL PAREKH Like every other category, the beverage market has been pounded by the recession, with 2008 marking its first volume decline on record as consumers buy fewer bottled beverages. Still, thousands of...

As seen on AdAge.com.
June 8, 2009... As seen on AdAge.com/ smallagency Gould: adland's digital divide While traditional agencies often bring formidable strategic and creative resources to the table, they're just as often lacking when it comes to essential disciplines like...

Heineken wrong to assume NYC has all the ad answers.(Heineken USA Inc.)(advertising)
June 8, 2009... When Heineken USA ends its relationship with Wieden & Kennedy's Portland, Ore., office in the coming months, it will likely be working with its fourth agency in as many years. The account has swung from Publicis to Berlin Cameron to the great...

Subway's $5 foot-long becomes yardstick for fast-food meal deals; Chains fight to keep up with competitor, but will consumers buy it?
June 8, 2009... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK If fast food has one truism, it's that success breeds imitators. Subway handily beat its competition last year with the incredibly popular $5 foot-long promotion. Doing so, it also crystallized the $5 price...

Dedicated social-media silos? That's the last thing we need.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Jonah Bloom You know that social-media department you just built? Go and dismantle it right now, because this stuff is too important to be left to the experts. Every time an apparently foreign object is identified in adland, it...

AT&T NEEDS TO RAISE THE BAR; With its exclusivity window for iPhone fast closing, carrier must fix service woes.
June 8, 2009... Byline: RITA CHANG Joe Wilson, a part-time comedian in Los Angeles, has mostly given up on his iPhone for making calls because he can't get decent reception on the network of AT&T, its exclusive U.S. carrier. After wrangling unsuccessfully...

Media buyers fairly frosty on prospects for prime-time Leno; CBS, ABC expected to top him in ratings even with untested shows.(CBS Broadcasting Inc.)(American Broadcasting Companies Inc. ABC Broadcast Group)
June 8, 2009... Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG NBC is touting Jay Leno's new prime-time program, which will make its debut Sept. 14, as an innovative, DVR-proof move, but buyers say the new talk show will draw fewer viewers than ABC and CBS on any given night,...