August 2007 Trends

websites to watch
Sproose
A search engine that borrows from the social-networking model: displaying results based on voter ranking.

Anywhere.FM
A new online music service that allows users to upload their entire music collections and listen to them wherever they have an Internet connection.

Pownce
An invite only microblogging/social networking site that allows users to send messages, files, links, and events to a network of friends, individually, in groups or to their entire network.

Hulu
Set to go live in October, this free ad-supported site will stream full episodes of hit series such as "The Simpsons" and "My Name is Earl."

 
blog trends
Bloggers Key Marketing Aid For Wizarding World Theme Park
Universal Orlando Resort is inviting opinions from fans and bloggers when deciding the taste of butterbeer sold at Hog's Head tavern and chocolate frogs from Honeydukes—delicacies whisked from the pages of J.K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter novels and into a high-tech theme park scheduled to open in Florida by 2010.

Tumblr
Tumblr is your friendly, free, and terrifically easy tool for creating tumblelogs. To make a simple analogy: If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks. You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create.

 
fashion trends
Baggu Bags
Designed by mother-daughter team Joan and Emily, Baggus are sleekly designed, easily portable, reusable bags that come in a number of funky colors. Meant to be used as an alternative to paper and plastic shopping bags, the company estimates that using one BAGGU for a year avoids the waste of 300 to 700 disposable bags. We think this will resonate with consumers who are looking to 'do good' in small and effortless ways.

StyleMob
Joining similar personal style networks StyleDiary and ShareYourLook is StyleMob, a new social networking site with a fashion bent. On StyleMob.com, users create profiles where they upload photos of themselves modeling their self-styled ensembles, accompanied by details on each item and a backstory about the outfit. Other members of the community then give feedback via a MySpace-style comments section.

 
technology news
Cheap HD DVD player Coming—Format War Rages On
The format war far from over, but HD DVD is on roll—at least as far as PR is concerned. Last week the big news was both Paramount and DreamWorks becoming HD DVD-exclusive studios, and now Venturer Electronics has announced it will release a budget HD DVD player—the SHD7000—by the 2007 holiday season. There have been several reports indicating that cheaper, off-brand HD DVD players were on their way, but Venturer is the first company to make a formal announcement.

Will Gaming Kill the Video Star?
MTV Networks announced yesterday that it'll invest $500 million in the expansion of gaming properties worldwide in the next two years. As the release puts it, the move "signal[s] the continued emergence of gaming as a key pillar in MTVN's global vertical entertainment strategy."

Embedded Real-Time Info Could Target Travelers
Imagine being able to electronically transmit real-time travel information, maps, directions, coupons and marketing messages from posters hanging on walls in malls, airports, subways, or bus stations to mobile phones. Not a futuristic fantasy, but a live project recently launched in London.

 
interesting articles

Latin Influence Reaching Fever Pitch Within Food, Beverages
Maybe not today, but if you're in the food and beverage (F&B) business, the growing crossover appeal of the Hispanic milk-and-fruit-based blended drink known as a licuado is more than likely to play a direct or indirect role in your company's future (if it isn't doing so already)

Facebook Gets Personal With Ad Targeting Plan
Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.

Chips, Dip and Nintendo Wii
Consumers of All Ages Are Throwing Video-Game Parties, and Advertisers Want in on the Fun Just after Christmas last year, Evite staffers began to notice Nintendo's Wii video-game system popping up in search queries, idea forums and party themes. In fact, they were seeing more than 100 Wii parties a month. So in March, the online-party-invite specialist launched dedicated Wii party-planning pages. This month, it added invitations including actual Wii avatars, games and themes. Residents at Maryland's Riderwood retirement community held a Wii baseball tournament.

How the "High School Musical 2" DVD Will Help Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Mend Fences with the Mega-Retailers
When the Big Boxes first learned that John Lasseter had pushed back "The Tinker Bell Movie" 's release date, they weren't real happy. But as Jim Hill reports, now that these stores realize that they'll be selling this "High School Musical" sequel in place of Tink, it's looking like a much happier holiday shopping season.

Movie Mantra: Happy Trailers To You, Until We Bleep Again
Everyone seems to be going "green" these days, but film marketers hoping to add a little "T & Ammo" to trailers are using alternative media that give a green light to previews tagged with racier red or yellow bands.

Bloggers Key Marketing Aid For Wizarding World Theme Park
Marketing Daily
August 22, 2007

Universal Orlando Resort is inviting opinions from fans and bloggers when deciding the taste of butterbeer sold at Hog's Head tavern and chocolate frogs from Honeydukes--delicacies whisked from the pages of J.K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter novels and into a high-tech theme park scheduled to open in Florida by 2010.

Warner Bros. Entertainment and Universal Orlando Resort announced in May the construction of a 20-acre Harry Potter theme park at the Universal Orlando Resort. Both companies have based the park--The Wizarding World of Harry Potter--on the famed seven-book series. Now organizers are looking for ways to connect and interact with fans through online polls, blogs and Web sites that give them a voice in shaping the experience at the park.

"The key influencers of the Harry Potter brand are living and breathing 24 hours a day on the Internet," Cynthia Gordon, vice president/new media partnerships at Universal Orlando Resort, tells Marketing Daily. Park executives affectionately call bloggers on some of the most influential fan sites "the AP of the HP world."

Sites like MuggleNet.com and HarryPotter.com provide a strong marketing connection between the Harry Potter brand and the zillions of fans worldwide. Bloggers follow news in real time to get a clear idea of where the company is heading, or how top brass feel about certain market forces affecting the industry. Almost instantaneously, the thoughts of company executives are revealed as they occur.

The insight into the power of bloggers came shortly after sending a viral marketing e-mail and sharing information on the Harry Potter theme park with seven Web masters. Following the web cast that detailed the agreement with Warner Bros., Universal Orlando's Web site experienced a 400% spike in traffic, the majority of visitors coming from links posted on mugglenet.com.

The number of interested fans flocking to the press room on the day of the announcement spiked, too--from 30,000 to 1.5 million. The news became No. 13 for the most-searched topic on Google. Now, about 60,000 fans are registered on the Universal Orlando Resort's site to get updates on park happenings. "You don't control it," Gordon says. Just let it happen, and "don't stand in its way."

The park plans to leak information slowly. There are no plans for mass mailings or press releases to general consumers, the travel industry or media. When ready, park organizers will direct fans to the news "with a wink and a nod" through sites and blogs. The idea isn't a random experimental marketing stunt. Analysts say more U.S. consumers are visiting blogs. Peter Kim, Forrester Research senior analyst, believes the strategy makes sense, but because traveling to the park for some could become a high-ticket item, Universal Orlando Resort may want to invest financially in generating buzz.

"They could hold a contest to find out what butterbeer tastes like, fly the [winner] to the park to taste it, film the event and then upload the video to YouTube," he said. "Integrating offline with online would give the campaign more legs."

With one eye on overseeing the theme park, Rowling--who began her career as a novelist writing in Edinburgh cafes--has the other on a detective novel. The author has been spotted with a notebook in hand at coffee shops in Scotland, a British newspaper reported Saturday. Rowling--now Britain's richest woman worth $1 billion--according to Forbes magazine, wrote initial drafts of the Potter series in city cafes.

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Cheap HD DVD player Coming--Format War Rages On
Cnet News.com
August 29, 2007

The format war far from over, but HD DVD is on roll -- at least as far as PR is concerned. Last week the big news was both Paramount and DreamWorks becoming HD DVD-exclusive studios, and now Venturer Electronics has announced it will release a budget HD DVD player--the SHD7000--by the 2007 holiday season. There have been several reports indicating that cheaper, off-brand HD DVD players were on their way, but Venturer is the first company to make a formal announcement.

Details are a little slim at the moment, but here's what we know. The SHD7000 has an HDMI port capable of outputting video at 1080i. That's comparable to Toshiba's HD-A2, and as long as your HDTV has decent 1080i deinterlacing, you should still get very good image quality with a 1080i signal (assuming it is of comparable quality to the HD-A2). According to the press release, the SHD7000 also has onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding. The HD DVD spec only requires players to be able to decode two channels of Dolby TrueHD, so we don't know for sure if the SHD7000 will be able to decode multichannel Dolby TrueHD soundtracks (to date, all HD DVD players have handled 5.1 TrueHD decoding.) Like all other HD DVD players, the SHD7000 also has an Ethernet port, so it should be capable of playing networked enabled special features, as seen on titles like Blood Diamond. The press release also states that it will be able to upconvert regular DVDs and play standard audio CDs.

The press release doesn't mention a price yet, but VideoBusiness is reporting a $199 MSRP. On the other hand, poster Robert Spalding over at AVS Forum claims to have received an email indicating the street price will be closer to $150. We certainly can't vouch for that street price--it remains firmly in the rumor mill for now--but a $150 HD DVD player could have a big effect on the format war, especially with the cheapest Blu-ray players still around the $500 mark. We've contacted Venturer for more information on the pricing of the SHD7000 and will update this post accordingly.

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Will Gaming Kill the Video Star?
Business Week
August 17, 2007

MTV Networks announced yesterday that it'll invest $500 million in the expansion of gaming properties worldwide in the next two years. As the release puts it, the move "signal[s] the continued emergence of gaming as a key pillar in MTVN's global vertical entertainment strategy."

Of course, it's also a sign that MTV is moving yet further away from the fundamental pillar on which it forged its name, music and music videos. When was the last time you watched an amazing music video on MTV? For that matter, when was the last time you watched any music video on MTV?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not arguing that investing in gaming is any bad thing (we just published an entire Special Report entitled The Power of Gaming, after all). And of course, evolution, as Darwin taught at least most of us, requires often radical change from those wishing to retain relevance and viability in an ever-morphing world.

But with these gaming investments and as the MTV motherchannel strays ever further from its musical foundation to flirt with reality TV and fawn over the young and allegedly fabulous, other media vehicles/vultures are moving in to scoop up the audience left behind. Their theory: It's not that young people don't want to watch music; they just require it to be presented to them in a smart, modern, relevant way.

HBO's experimenting at the moment, with its On Demand channel currently devoting time to teen hearthrob singer, Justin Timberlake. That includes showing his latest video, LoveStoned, (below), shot by Robert Hales. The video's really not bad, if you discount the awful second half, with its dream/heaven/oh-so-sincere singing-to-camera sequence. And it provides a nice interlude for casual channel flippers who can't decide what they want to watch but might be persuaded to stick around for five minutes.

But more interesting than the aesthetics of the promo is that HBO, a channel that's made its name with its smart programming (ok, ok, John from Cincinnati was really weird, but at least they had the grace to kill it off quickly) is dipping its toe in waters that MTV seems happy enough to exit.

As MTV shifts its focus from video to console in the name of its global vertical entertainment strategy, HBO is apparently looking to broadcast well-rounded entertainment packages of everything from comedy to music, playing and perhaps beating the erstwhile industry leader at its own game as it does so. Now is that, to paraphrase Alanis Morissette, ironic or what?

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Embedded Real-Time Info Could Target Travelers
Media Post
August 29, 2007

Imagine being able to electronically transmit real-time travel information, maps, directions, coupons and marketing messages from posters hanging on walls in malls, airports, subways, or bus stations to mobile phones. Not a futuristic fantasy, but a live project recently launched in London.

The Transport of London, Imperial College London, and public transport data company Kizoom are collaborating on the three-month project dubbed Visualization of Real-Time Transport Interchange, or VORTIX. The companies are working with technology known as Near Field Communication developed jointly by NXP Semiconductor and Sony Electronics.

NFC, a short-range wireless standard, enables two devices to communicate within a few centimeters apart. Embedding NFC into 19 posters around Blackfriars Underground station in London lets travelers transmit maps, directions, real-time travel advice and marketing messages from the posters to their mobile phone.

Today, a handful of people will trial the service, but Steffen Steinmeier*, NXP's head of global business development for NFC, says as the project progresses the number will expand to 500 by the end of this year.

Travelers input a destination into their 6131 NFC-enabled Nokia phones being used in the trial, and, when changing modes of transportation at the Blackfriars station, will touch a poster to get updated information sent to their phone. Other phones are compatible with NFC technology, too.

A Java-based application on the phone lets travelers receive information on the handset screen nearly instantaneously, including a map of the station, real time information, and links to surrounding shops and locations. URLs provide additional information on travel services and points of interest.

Advertising, promotions and marketing on mobile phones are possible applications that extend beyond the initial installation aimed at electronic payments and gathering information, Steinmeier says. "You would provide the traveler with special offerings through a link on the phone," he says. "By touching the poster you could trigger an SMS message that would deliver to your phone a coupon redeemable at a nearby store."

These smart posters tested at a theater last December in Bangkok, Thailand, allowed moviegoers to download movie tickets, information and ringtones from posters hanging on the wall to their phone.

Products with built-in NFC can simplify the way consumers share information, or make fast and secure electronic payments. NXP and Sony designed the technology to transmit information between two devices not more than one inch apart. A simple touch can establish a NFC connection that's also compatible with other wireless devices running Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

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Latin Influence Reaching Fever Pitch Within Food, Beverages
Marketing Daily
August 22, 2007

GOT LICUADOS?

Maybe not today, but if you're in the food and beverage (F&B) business, the growing crossover appeal of the Hispanic milk-and-fruit-based blended drink known as a licuado is more than likely to play a direct or indirect role in your company's future (if it isn't doing so already).

The California Milk Processor Board wasn't just being clever when it recently adopted this Hispanic/English hybrid version of the famed "Got Milk? campaign as a tagline. This organization is predicting that licuado will become "the next burrito."

And while beverages are an important part of the Hispanic-influence juggernaut that's impacting the U.S. F&B industry with growing force each year, they are by no means the whole enchilada.

The U.S. Hispanic F&B market reached nearly $5.7 billion in 2006, and is expected to grow by 11.5% this year to reach $6.3 billion, according to a new study on this sector from Packaged Facts, the publishing division of Marketresearch.com. In addition, PF predicts that the market will show CAGR of 7.4% over the next five years, to reach $8.4 billion by 2011.

The data include three PF-defined categories: "authentic Hispanic" products (any product, whether Hispanic in origin or not, made in or imported into the U.S. from Hispanic countries, plus traditional staple items made in the U.S. by a Hispanic manufacturer, and products made here using traditional Hispanic recipes); "mainstream Mexican" (foods such as nachos, salsa, tacos and tortillas that have become part of mainstream American habits--although PF excludes tortilla chips, chili products and alcohol in calculating market size for the very reason that they are now "so American"); and "nuevo Latino" (traditional American foods made with Hispanic ingredients, plus "unique new creations that meld a variety of Hispanic flavors and food traditions").

Among the top 10 Hispanic F&B categories by total sales, stand-outs in terms of CAGR between 2002 and 2006 were bakery items (17% CAGR), rice/rice mixes (14.3%), picante (9.8%) and seasoning/spice mixes (6.6%). But cheese and sauces/marinades each grew in the 5%-plus range, and even the top-selling categories continued to make gains: tortillas/taco shells (4.5%), salsa (1.7%), entrees/handheld items (5.2%), and refried beans (1.9%).

PF projects that five categories will experience double-digit CAGRs between this year and 2011, driving a preponderance of the sector's growth: milk/milk-style beverages (20%); entrees/handheld items (19%); meat (16%); fruits/vegetables (14%) and yogurt/cultured dairy drinks (14%).

It's hardly news that the leading marketers of Hispanic F&B products in the U.S. now include not only names like Goya, Authentic Specialty Foods, Cacique and Don Miguel Mexican Foods, but Campbell, ConAgra, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Hormel, Kraft and Nestle.

(Advertising to U.S. Hispanics reached $3.3 billion in 2004. In 2006, P&G spent $158 million on consumer packaged goods advertising in Hispanic TV and print media, PepsiCo spent nearly $74 million, and Johnson & Johnson spent $71 million, to mention but a few of the top users of these media.)

More intriguing are the ever-more effective, and aggressive, strategies being employed by marketers playing in the big leagues within this space.

Kraft--which has been marketing to the Hispanic community for 20 years--doesn't rely on its mainstream Mexican brand Taco Bell, points out PF. Instead, the mega-marketer focuses on research, adapting products to the needs and preferences of these consumers, employing region-specific marketing teams, and offering on-target outreach tools like its bilingual food site, ComidaKraft.com. The site includes a bilingual search tool offering a wide variety of recipes--regional and Latin-inspired, as well as traditional American fare--step-by-step preparation instructions, plus personalization tools and on-demand English-to-Spanish translation.

Recognizing U.S. Hispanics' high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and lactose intolerance, Kellogg has created a mobile tour in partnership with Lactaid that will visit 125 locations to offer tests for such medical conditions. Bilingual nurses will administer the tests, and participants will learn about the program through a brochure that was created in Spanish, and receive a bilingual magazine offering advice on healthful eating.

Last fall, General Mills began deploying bilingual brand ambassadors to 200 locations in California and Southwest states to pass out goodie bags full of samples of its brands and copies of Editorial Televisa's magazine Que Rica Vida (also the official name of the tour).

Meanwhile, Unilever is going all out with its "Desafio de Sabor" ("The Flavor Challenge"), an outreach program based on regional cooking competitions in key Hispanic markets; and ViveMejor, its first program to include all of its food and personal care brands within a single platform targeted to Hispanics. The program includes print, digital, TV and retail Hispanic elements.

That's not even touching on the innumerable, ambitious efforts being unfurled to capitalize on non-Hispanics' increasing passion for both "mainstream" and more adventurous Hispanic-influenced food and drinks.

"The yearning to experiment with all foods Hispanic has practically become a Latin fever in the United States," sums up PF publisher Tatjana Meerman.

And while big marketers are clearly hip to the Hispanic phenomenon, "mañana" is not a word that figures in their strategic vocabulary.

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Facebook Gets Personal With Ad Targeting Plan
Wall Street Journal
August 23, 2007

Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.

Eventually, it hopes to refine the system to allow it to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area.

As the industry watches the Palo Alto, Calif., start-up to see if it can translate its popularity into bigger profits, Facebook has made the new ad plan its top priority, say people familiar with the matter. The plan is at an early stage and could change, but the aim is to unveil a basic version of the service late this fall.

A news-feed ad from Facebook's current program

People familiar with the plan say Facebook wants to accomplish what Google Inc. did with AdWords, which lets anyone place ads next to search results by buying "keywords" online. It brought in the majority of the search engine's $10.6 billion in revenue last year. A Facebook spokeswoman acknowledged the company is working on an ad system, but declined to provide details.

Most users of Facebook treat it as a sort of online scrapbook for their lives -- posting everything from basic information about themselves to photos to calendars of events they plan to attend. They create a social network by linking their own Web pages with the pages of other users they consider online "friends." Facebook already uses some information from users' pages in a rudimentary system that allows advertisers to go online, and starting at $10, buy simple "flyers" that run as boxed ads on the left-hand border of Facebook pages. But for targeting, advertisers are limited to age, gender and location of the user.

The new service would let advertisers visit a Web site to choose a much wider array of characteristics for the users who should see their ads -- based not only on age, gender and location, but also on details such as favorite activities and preferred music, people familiar with the matter say. Facebook would use its technology to point the ads to the selected groups of people without exposing their personal information to the advertisers.

These ads would show up differently than the banner ads and boxed flyers that appear on the borders of Facebook pages, say people familiar with the plan. Instead, they would be interspersed with items on the "news feed," which is a running list of short updates on the activities of a user's Facebook friends. In addition, the ads would show up on Facebook pages that feature services provided by other companies, one person says.

Facebook has already had some success in getting users to notice similar ads created in a separate initiative. Under that program, launched last year, advertisers say they typically spend about $150,000 for a three-month campaign that gives them a special page on Facebook, as well as the news-feed ads. But customizing these campaigns can be a costly process for Facebook, which has to dedicate staffers to the efforts.

Facebook hopes allowing advertisers to buy customized ads online will be a less labor-intensive way to take advantage of the personal data people reveal on the site. A key part of this new plan is that Facebook would use an automated system to process transactions instead of requiring advertisers to work with a Facebook representative, people familiar with the plan say.

Next year, Facebook hopes to expand on the service, one person says, using algorithms to learn how receptive a person might be to an ad based on readily available information about activities and interests of not just a user but also his friends -- even if the user hasn't explicitly expressed interest in a given topic. Facebook could then target ads accordingly.

Getting this right is important for Facebook, which was founded in 2004 by then-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and which has become Silicon Valley's latest darling.

While the Web site had roughly 30.6 million visitors in July, the company says it needs to do a better job profiting from its huge user base.

That's because unlike other hot Web start-ups such as MySpace and YouTube, which were acquired by large Web and media concerns, Facebook wants to stay independent and potentially go public. Last year it stepped away from talks with Yahoo Inc. and Viacom Inc. to be acquired for close to $1 billion. The start-up's investors have publicly said they hope to take Facebook public at a valuation approaching $10 billion. That would require the company to generate far more revenues and profits than it currently produces.

Finding a way to use people's interests and personal connections to show them relevant ads has "always been the promise of social networking, but we're still waiting to see the big successes," says Debra Aho Williamson, an online-advertising analyst at New York-based eMarketer Inc.

Facebook is on track for $30 million in profit this year on $150 million in revenue, say people familiar with the matter. About half of that revenue is expected to come through an ad deal with Microsoft Corp. that lets Microsoft sell many of the major display ads on Facebook's U.S. site. The deal will likely bring in $200 million to $300 million for Facebook through 2011, and potentially much more if Facebook's traffic grows rapidly, say people familiar with the matter.

However, advertisers say the addictive quality of social networking means users are so busy reading about their friends that they hardly notice display ads and, even if they do, are loath to navigate away to an advertiser's site. Advertisers say the percentage of people that click on display ads is lower on Facebook, News Corp.'s MySpace and other similar sites than on other popular Web sites like Yahoo Finance and CNET Networks Inc.'s News.com site.

As a result, Facebook has needed to diversify its revenue sources away from just display ads. The new ad plan is being spearheaded by Matt Cohler, vice president of strategy and business operations, and Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president of product marketing and operations, with input from CEO Mr. Zuckerberg, say people familiar with the matter.

Facebook's plan, if it works, could be potentially powerful for advertisers. While Google's keyword-targeted ads aim at "demand fulfillment" -- that is, they are triggered by Internet searches conducted by people who are actively looking for something that they want -- Facebook's new ad plan could help advertisers address an area called "demand generation." This involves using available information -- not just from a user but also the activities and interests of his "friends" on the site -- to figure out what people might want before they've specifically mentioned it.

"It's about saying, 'We are going to take this information because you've acknowledged that you have an interest in X, Y and Z,'" says David Blum, who oversees the interactive division of Sausalito, Calif., ad agency Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners.

But Facebook's new plan faces hurdles. It could upset Microsoft, which is itself trying to build technology to make it easier for advertisers to place targeted ads on Facebook. A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment on this issue.

While Facebook plans to protect its users' privacy and possibly give them an option to keep certain information completely private, some Facebook users might rebel against the use of their personal information for the company's gain.

And the perceptions that targeted ads create can be as much of a problem as the reality. "Most people don't realize how targeting works; it becomes so good that even though it's anonymous, you feel like they know you," says Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Publicis Groupe-owned consulting firm Denuo Group. However, he says Facebook needs to be careful in implementing any targeted ad system, lest loyal users "find it creepy."

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Chips, Dip and Nintendo Wii
Consumers of All Ages Are Throwing Video-Game Parties, and Advertisers Want in on the Fun
Ad Age
August 27, 2007

Just after Christmas last year, Evite staffers began to notice Nintendo's Wii video-game system popping up in search queries, idea forums and party themes. In fact, they were seeing more than 100 Wii parties a month. So in March, the online-party-invite specialist launched dedicated Wii party-planning pages. This month, it added invitations including actual Wii avatars, games and themes.

The Wii party popularity is part of a growing phenomenon that's overhauling the video-gaming industry. That is, video gaming is beginning to transcend the solitary boy-in-the-basement stereotype with a new generation of gamers including women, older people and younger children who want to play in a more social atmosphere.

"In the past, video gaming tended to be less mainstream, especially among adults. Today more games are rated "E" for everyone and more parents are inclined to play these types of video games with their children. The Wii, in particular, is great for parties because of the level of activity and the multiplayer format -- it's fun to play and fun for others to watch," said Lariayn Payne, VP-marketing and public relations at Evite.

And while Wii is a big part of that social movement, it's not alone.

Tearing it up with friends
"Guitar Hero" fests, for instance, are becoming popular at home and in bars and restaurants. The game parties pit wannabe rock stars against each other in ax duals. Particularly popular with college kids and young couples, "Guitar Hero" (a next-generation version, "Guitar Hero 3," is due out in October) parties spawn MySpace and Flickr pass-along ideas, photographs and brand mentions.

How far behind can Mountain Dew, beer-makers and bean-dip marketers be in actively courting this audience?

"In terms of marketing, there's a lot of opportunity just waiting to be hatched, especially on the local level," said David Riley, analyst with the NPD Group, and an avid gamer who has hosted his own Guitar Hero parties.

Building communities
Nintendo already is striking up partnerships such as the Evite one. Beth Llewelyn, senior director-corporate communications at Nintendo, said the company has partnered with Norwegian Cruise Lines to put Wii and Wii parties onboard cruises, as well as the Erickson Retirement Communities to place Wiis in those group homes. They're also in discussions with local libraries about how to use Wiis for community-building.

"The opportunities are almost unlimited in tapping into new ideas or working with new partners," she said. "We're talking to a lot of people we haven't before -- from media outlets to partners to consumers. It's really broadened our base."

Nintendo is trying to cast the net even wider by giving consumers in certain influencer groups -- mother/daughter, couples and active 50-plus leaders -- Wiis for them to hold parties for family and friends.

It's all contributing to a booming video-game industry. NPD Group reported overall hardware sales are up 34% with consoles alone up 69% during the first half of 2007 vs. the same time period during 2006. NPD also said the industry is on track to ring up $16 billion ot $18 billion in sales this year.

Wii tops software sales
The rise of this social gaming is definitely visible in the numbers. Of the top-10-selling video-game items in June, seven were Wii software or accessories. "Guitar Hero 2" for PS2 and Wii ranked Nos. 6 and 7 respectively, selling almost 400,000 guitars (and software) at average prices of $80 to $90, according to NPD.

And just wait until fall, when more social-party games such as "Boogie," the Wii dance game from Electronic Arts (which began running its own ad campaign last week with TV spots set to the tune "Boogie Oogie Oogie"), and "Rock Band" -- MTV and EA's make-your-own-band game with drums, guitar, vocals and downloadable tracks -- join the fray. "SingStar," a karaoke-type console game published by Sony is another potential hit social game in the U.S.; it's already huge in Europe, and just released here, but already garnering fans.

Mr. Cole said he recently met with a group of U.S. music merchants who were concerned that kids are playing video games instead of musical instruments. When he mentioned "Guitar Hero" to them, they hadn't heard of it, but their attention was riveted. "I told them video games are actually a perfect opportunity for you to build your audience," he said. "Yamaha could do a custom instrument that ties into video games, for instance."

He added, "This is the beginning of where the video-game system becomes more like a general entertainment system. ... It opens the doors for a lot of different applications."

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How the "High School Musical 2" DVD Will Help Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Mend Fences with the Mega-Retailers
Jim Hill Media
August 20, 2007

When the Big Boxes first learned that John Lasseter had pushed back "The Tinker Bell Movie"'s release date, they weren't real happy. But as Jim Hill reports, now that these stores realize that they'll be selling this "High School Musical" sequel in place of Tink, it's looking like a much happier holiday shopping season

Never mind about all of Zac Efron's fancy footwork in "High School Musical 2." This morning, it's Mouse House executives who are dancing in the streets.

The way I hear it, the suits back in Burbank are positively giddy over the record ratings that this "High School Musical" sequel received. With over 17 million viewers tuning in on Friday night to catch this Disney Channel Original. Which makes "High School Musical 2" the most watched basic cable telecast in history.

But—out of all of the departments & divisions at the Mouse House—do you know who's happiest about "HSM2"'s astounding success? Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

And—no—it's not because WDSHE is already eagerly looking forward to those millions of "High School Musical 2" units that they'll be able to move in the coming months. But—rather—because this "High School Musical" sequel is now Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's get-out-of-jail-free card. A way for Mickey to mend fences with mega-retailers like WalMart & Target.

"And why would the Mouse now be on the outs with the Big Boxes?," you ask. Four words. "The Tinker Bell Movie."

Let's remember that -- just 15 short months ago -- that Disney Consumer Products announced with much fanfare that "Tinker Bell and the Ring of Belief " (i.e. A WDSHE home premiere which was being produced by DisneyToon Studios) would be turning up on store shelves just in time for the 2007 holiday shopping season. And that this DVD—along for the three "Tinker Bell" sequels that DTS already had in the works—would help turn the "Disney Fairies" franchise into a "Disney Princess" -sized powerhouse.

Soooo ... Because the Walt Disney Company said that it was putting together an unprecedented promotional campaign for "The Tinker Bell Movie" (Which was to have featured planes, trains and buses with new "Powered by Pixie Dust" paint jobs ...

... as well as a cover story for "People" magazine. Where—for the first time ever—Tink was supposed to talk)

... dozens of retailers made commitments to the Walt Disney Company. Agreeing to be the Mouse's promotional partner on "The Tinker Bell Movie." Which virtually guaranteed that this home premiere would be one of the best selling DVDs of 2007.

Until—of course—John Lasseter saw a work-in-progress version of "Tinker Bell and the Ring of Belief" and then decided that this DisneyToon Studios production wasn't really up to snuff. Which was why John ordered that this direct-to-DVD project be completely reworked. Which effectively pushed back the release date of "The Tinker Bell Movie" until the Fall of 2008.

Now this decision may have won John lots of fans in the Disneyana community (Who see Pixar's Grand Pooh-Bah as a real champion of the return to quality at the Mouse House). But the pushing back of the "Tinker Bell Movie" 's release date was an absolute disaster for the folks at Disney Consumer Products. I mean, these folks had literally spent years mapping a massive promotional campaign for that "Disney Fairies" -related DVD. Doing everything from changing the release date of the Platinum Edition of "Peter Pan" from October of 2008 to March of 2007 to persuading the U.S. Postal Service to release a stamp with Tink's image on it in the weeks just prior to "The Tinker Bell Movie" appearing on store shelves in the Fall of this year.

What's that you say? You don't believe that the Walt Disney Company would actually resort to this level of planning, particularly in support of a "Disney Fairies" -related DVD. Okay. A slide that was shown at a Disney Consumer Products presentation at the 2006 Licensing Show, which outlined for potential licensees the "Engage & Excite" portion of the "Disney Fairies" franchise launch. Which was originally supposed to have occurred from July 2006 to June of this year. And included the Tinker Bell stamp that I mentioned previously as well as a "Tinker Bell Movie" teaser that was to be tacked onto the 2-disc Platinum Edition of "Peter Pan."

Anyway ... All of Disney Consumer Product's carefully crafted plans got knocked into a cocked hat by Lasseter's decision to push back the release date of "The Tinker Bell Movie." And the way I hear it, the mega-retailers were furious that that best selling DVD that the Mouse had originally promised them for the 2007 holiday shopping season now wasn't going to show up 'til 2008.

Now add to this the fact that -- due to Walt Disney Studios significantly cutting back on the number of movies that it would be producing each year as well as DisneyToon Studios' output for the past year basically being reduced to nothing because of all the political in-fighting that was going on between Lasseter, Ed Catmull and former DTS head Sharon Morrill -- Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment was having trouble coming up with sufficient new titles to feed to the Big Boxes. Which meant that Mickey was now in danger of losing its primo shelf space at consumer electronics giants like Circuit City and Best Buy.

Which is why the folks at Disney Consumer Products are now said to be absolutely thrilled with the ratings that "High School Musical 2" received this past weekend. Given the record number of people who tuned in to watch this Disney Channel Original on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights ... Well, that virtually guarantees that a DVD version of "HSM2" will soon be able to move millions of units.

Which (not-so-co-incidentally) was exactly the sorts of sales figures that WalMart, Target, Best Buy & Circuit City were hoping to get from offering their customers "The Tinker Bell Movie." But now that the DVD version of "High School Musical 2" can be dropped into that late November / early December sales slot that was left open when John Lasseter ordered that the release date of "The Tinker Bell Movie" be pushed back ... The people at Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment & Disney Consumer Products are suddenly breathing a lot easier.

Mind you, not everyone at the Mouse House is thrilled with how well "HSM2" did this past weekend. I'm told that the folks over at Walt Disney Pictures (Who have already begun preparing "High School Musical 3" for a Spring 2009 theatrical release) now figure that they're going have to spend millions in order to get Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale to appear in the third & final film in the series. Which (according to the logline description of HSM3's plot that I've recently been shown) will feature both the senior prom as well as the high school graduation of everyone's favorite Wildcats.

But what do you folks think? Is swapping the DVD version of "High School Musical 2" for "The Tinker Bell Movie" really a fair trade? Which WDSHE title do you think will actually sell better at the Big Boxes?

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Movie Mantra: Happy Trailers To You, Until We Bleep Again
Brandweek
August 6, 2007

Everyone seems to be going "green" these days, but film marketers hoping to add a little "T & Ammo" to trailers are using alternative media that give a green light to previews tagged with racier red or yellow bands.

The Motion Picture Assn. of America in theaters uses a color-coded trailer system much like the Dept. of Homeland Security's terror table: Green means "approved for all audiences by the MPAA" and red fills in for R or PG-13 fare. An FTC crackdown in 2000 on red trailers has since seen many theaters show only green label previews.

But the Internet, mobile phones, satellite radio and other emerging technologies are allowing studios to go "bluer" with their previews. So are tech companies that aim to make it easier to verify the age of site visitors.

At New Line Cinema's dedicated Web site, a Shoot 'Em Up (Sept. 7) trailer was given a red band (which requires site peepers to prove they are at least 18) due to plenty of gunplay, quick glimpses of tawdry sex and an F-bomb. Online trailers for Knocked Up (released in June) and Superbad (due this week) also carried red tags. The site for vampire flick 30 Days of Night (Sept. 7) carries a red band and is ". . . allowed to show more of the gore of people getting their necks ripped out by the vamps," says blog Moviemarketingmadness.com. However, a yellow tag to accompany slightly softer online trailers for "age-appropriate Internet users" recently debuted along with a preview for Rob Zombie's Halloween remake (Aug. 31).

The MPAA is going to be busy. As the world becomes more digital and marketers can customize consumer messages, it "offers studios the ability to use every medium to its strength," said Cliff Marks, president of sales and CMO at National CineMedia, Centennial, Colo.,which creates preshow theater packages. "In three years, every medium will have custom trailers created for them. It's not that expensive or hard to do."

And then there's the whole notion of social networking of movies, in which consumers have control by creating trailer mashups. "If studios gave you the capability to take tools and make your own trailer to send to friends and say, 'Let's go see this movie Friday night!' people will do that," said Marks.

Outdoor ads also have caused agita among parents who can't restrict their kids from viewing violent or racy images on the road. Several billboards for horror movies have been under siege this summer. Hostel: Part II showed a character carting around her decapitated head, while Captivity had what looked like snuff scenes. In 2005, rapper 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' billboards gauged as too gun crazy were the subject of a boycott.

Profanity is acceptable on some media. An ad for 2006's Bug on Sirius Satellite Radio promised to "scare the shit out of you." But in traditional trailers in theaters and online, many movie marketers are leaving language to the imagination. This summer's Live Free or Die Hard's tag, "Yippee-ki-yay, M-F-er" was muffled in theater and online trailers, with the profane line replaced by an explosion. A Superbad trailer cuts out as a teenage girl says, "What the f—?"

According to the MPAA Web site, all ads must be submitted to its advertising administration prior to being released to the public. Ad materials include, but are not limited to, "all print ads, radio and TV spots, press kits, outdoor advertising such as billboards, Internet sites, video or DVD packaging, and trailers for both theatrical and home video releases."

In any case, there's lots of exploration going on via digital media. "It could be in theaters, in malls, on phones, in airplanes," Marks said. "Studios are looking for ways to be creative to reach people targeted to that movie."

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