MSN announced today in a press release the finalists for the second annual Emmessenny Awards, which recognize the excellence and creativity in online advertising. The finalists are listed on MSN's website (280 campaigns were submitted), winners will be announced on August 3rd.
Joanne Bradford, chief media revenue officer for MSN commented:

Euro 2004 is almost over, so it's time to start thinking about the Olympic Games, another key moment in a brand's life. AdLatina (in Spanish, free reg.)dedicates the first seasonal article to the advertising power of the Olympics, analysing the branding relevance of the event. Usually the Games are an occasion for global branding (one ad fits all targets), this year the trend seems to go local, with more targeted messages to specific audiences, aimed to reinforce already existing branding messages.
McDonald's for example, will take advantage of the Olympics to support its "I'm loving it" campaign. They created seven tv spots, three of them are not directly connected to the Games.
Further examples quoted in the article explain Coca-Cola, Visa and Kodak's summer strategies.

New Media Age reports the UK's largest online media owners (Yahoo!, Tiscali, MSN and Wanadoo) are giving video advertising a major push this summer as they strive to increase their share of advertisers' marketing budgets.

Sony Ericsson is runinng an interactive campaign on Lycos Spain to promote its Quickshare technology. "Vive la experiencia de compartir" is the tagline chosen to explain the potentials of the new format for mobile pictures. Optize explains there is a microsite supporting the campaign.

MasterCard International's campaign launched in conjunction with Universal Pictures' holiday blockbuster, Cat in the Hat, has won top honors in Web Marketing Association's 2004 Internet Advertising Competition. The press release explains the banner campaign's "Eyeblaster" unit received response rates over twice the industry average for floating Eyeblaster ads and nearly 21 times higher than the overall campaign response rates.
The banner has been developed by IconNicholson.

This year British tennis fans will be able to watch Wimbledon on their mobile phones. The daily service offered by 3 for Wimbledon will include three news bulletins, four key interviews and an end of play highlights package featuring the best of the day's play. The press release explains that along with a video review of last year's tournament, an archive of 'Golden Highlights' footage from previous tournaments is also available to download, including the classic McEnroe v Borg final, Boris Becker's first win aged 17 and the two Williams sisters' finals encounter in the ladies' singles.

I loved the expression Sean Finnegan, Digital Client Communications Director, OMD, used to comment Nike's latest microsite featured in iMedia Connection's showcase.
Nike's "Vapor Station" presents a futuristic online experience in which users can discover the Art of Speed videos, as well as the Vapor series shoes.
You can't miss it

Mobileway is supporting Mastercard in a mobile marketing campaign targeting Euro 2004 football championship spectators visiting Portugal. MasterCard has distributed over two million competition entry forms to participating outlets in Lisbon and Oporto, which are currently being distributed to customers using their MasterCard cards to pay for purchases.
Each bears a unique single-use code number allowing the holder to compete for instant cash prizes which are paid out in-store. Winners will receive a real-time text message and will also be entered for a weekly draw, with prizes including tickets to Euro 2004 matches and dinner with Portuguese soccer superstar Eus�bio. Short-dial international phone numbers will be used to ensure that all Euro 2004 visitors can take part, regardless of which GSM operator they use.
Read more in the press release.

On The International Herald Tribune there is an excellent article by Eric Pfanner on the proliferation of advertising messages in Western societies. Promotional messages are everywhere: tv, radio, print, billboards, internet and, last but not least, movies and videogames. Consumers are getting sick of this invasion, and marketers feel their messages get unnoticed. We are even seeing the birth of so called anti-marketing militants.
The article reports different opinions from the advertising industry. Experts are starting to acknowledge that less may sometimes be more. But not everyone agrees.

Globes [online] reports turnover for Internet advertising in Israel was $21-25 million in 2003, an increase of 45-55% compared with 2002, when Internet advertising turnover was $13 million, according to a new Business Data Israel (BDI) survey.
The five leading Israeli websites are Walla!, MSN Israel, Y-net, Nana, and Tapuz, which collectively gain over 70% of total Internet advertising revenue. Israel's other portals and business sites have less than 30%.

Is email marketing dead? Will RSS save email marketers from unemployement?
How many times did you hear these questions and found no answer? Alex Barnett did an excellent job analysing the debate around RSS marketing, and developing a comprehensive "matrix": Email v RSS, Email Marketer v Customer Matrix.
Alex suggests moving away from a discussion on "RSS vs Email", thinking instead on how RSS can become part of the marketing mix. I tend to agree with him: integration is, once again, the keyword we need to focus on.

Spanish agency Masmadera has designed a new microsite to promote Cepsa's moto lubricants. The press release (in Spanish - pdf) explains the microsite fsupports an offline competition and features a gaming space where users can test their driving abilities, while exposed to Cepsa's brand.

Face of the Fans is an MMS-based initiative by T-Mobile to promote its football sponsorships.
Glue London (which developed the application) explains the campaign involves T-Mobile soccer squads taking MMS pictures in stadium before a match capturing the 'face of the fans' and these images are instantly sent to a dedicated website where they can view a huge gallery of images split by club. Visitors can then vote on any images, including their own, as well as send a viral email of any image to friends.

Coca-Cola has started last week the promotion of its low-calorie, low-carbohydrate drink C2. Online advertising plays an important role in the marketing effort with several interactive units appearing on Yahoo! and MSN (streaming audio, sweepstakes and homepage takeovers).
Read more on AdWeek.

The Italian chic lingerie brand La Perla has signed a partnership with Tradedouler to support its e-commerce web site. The agreement will allow La Perla to be promoted in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the UK. The initiative confirms that La Perla takes the Internet seriously: they have been running the e-commerce site for four years, and they already invested in online advertising on the main Italian portals.

Interactive agency Seven One has developed an online campaign to promote Spiderman 2 in Germany. The press release (in German) explains the initiative aims raising awareness of the movie with an advergame, rich media and the sponsorship of ProSieben.de, one of the country's most visited web sites.

The news is one month old, but it's worth reading to better understand the US' consumer reaction towards wireless marketing. According to a survey by FIND/SVP's Guideline Research Division the practice (of mobile marketing) is generally considered invasive and undesirable by older generations of consumers. The press release explains that, while the survey indicates a lack of desire for consumers to receive marketing messages through these new methods, early adapters to technology, such as Generation Y, are more likely to be open to this type of contact. Keith Kirkpatrick, a consultant for FIND/SVP commented:

A new study (Central and Eastern Europe Mobile Messaging Services, 2004�2008 Forecast) by IDC reveals that the mobile messaging markets of Central and Eastern Europe still offer significant growth potential. Newer services like premium SMS and MMS are expected to supplement traditional text-based messaging, contributing not only to an increase in the number of users, but also to a jump in spending, which is expected to reach around $2.9 billion in 2008.

KLM will target the Italian gay community with an online advertising campaign planned on Gay.it. The airline aims to promote its loyalty program "Flying Dutchman" collecting new subscriptions.
The campaign (which includes an online competition) will start on July 15 and will feature several different ads formats such as banners, pop-ups and the site's chat sponsorship.

Automakers are taking the Web very very seriously. Audi has presented its new A6 with a virtual guided tour developed by GoodTechnology. Revolution Magazine explains that the microsite supports the above the line promotion. Alex Champion, senior Audi designer at Good Technology, said:

Mobile data will generate all mobile revenue growth in Western Europe until 2008, according to the Yankee Group’s new EMEA Wireless/Mobile Data Forecast. The forecast presented in a press release projects mobile voice revenues stagnating at around $124 billion, while data revenues will more than double over five years to approximately $50 billion.

Ringback tones: another feature nobody needs.
Gulp! What a strong statement, the mobile industry doesn't want to hear. It's expressed in an editorial on the Boston Globe which presents ringback tones to the US audience and, at the same time, questions the utility of this gadget.

Eurostar (the train line connecting Paris to London) wants to generate traffic to its website, so it has signed a deal with Tradedoubler to launch an affiliate marketing network.
DM Bulletin reports that TradeDoubler affiliates will be paid a commission for every Eurostar sale transaction secured via their site.

I'm not sure "Internet" traffic is the kind of traffic that will save Eurostar's business.

MSN aims to ignite innovation in advertising with a new program in the United States that teams some of the most creative minds in advertising with its own top talents and advanced technology to develop online advertising breakthroughs. This is Microsoft's ambitious plan unveiled today in a press release. "The Creative Connection" aims to express MSN's commitment to help creative agencies and advertisers building fully integrated advertising campaigns utilizing Microsoft's technology. The campaigns will begin appearing this fall with online ads placed across the MSN network and in premium advertising space including MSN Video, and possible new areas specific to the advertisers' needs. The campaigns will begin appearing this fall with online ads placed across the MSN network. Alex Bogusky executive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky said (with some flattery):

"Tell a friend" is becoming the most used sentence on the Web. Every marketer wants us to spread the word for them... the situation is becoming rather oppressive or, better, inflated. Everyone is talking about viral marketing! Marketers, advertisers, publishers, every online player has something to say on the topic, even the press which is dedicating more and more attention to the "buzz word". The latest article has been published on the NZ Herald that starts its analysis from Burger King's "Subservient Chicken". Fortunately the article adds something new to the ongoing discussion: viral marketing is risky. As Stephen Pearson CEO of the advertising agency Lowe New Zealand says:

Email marketers get often stopped by spam filters. Their challenge to deliver a legitimate promotional message to users' mailboxes is gettin harder and harder. The end is near... But, wait, don't desperate, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! It's called RSS, and it's here to save a lot of jobs in the email marketing industry...
As pointed out today on ClickZ, RSS is, indeed, a medium for marketers, not just a tool for lazy web surfers who want to have all the content they're interested in just one click away.
But the main point I'd like to focus on, is exactly this: lazyness. I tend to forget to turn my feed reader on, and I tend to assume this is something that might happen to several other users. So will RSS really help email marketing to survive?

A new report by Telephia says that entertainment applications are likely to help driving European mobile devices replacement. The press release explains the Telephia European Device Report, based on a survey of 27,000 mobile device users in six major Western European countries, reveals that currently 11 percent of European subscribers regularly use the camera feature on their phone, with another 27 percent interested in having it on their next device. Teenage subscribers (ages 15-17) lead the marketplace in camera adoption and interest, with 16 percent using camera and 47 percent desiring it on their next phone.

"At the end of the day, it's very challenging to get a Pampers box into a video game" said Tim Hanlon, senior vice president and director of TV 2.0, talking about the increasing usage of advergames as a promotional tool. The opinion is reported on Ad Age which dedicates an article to advertisements with gaming functionality.
Advergaming works, but it isn't always easy to fit a product into a game. And this is the biggest challenge for marketers and agencies.

New Media Age reports that Barclaycard is supporting the launch campaign for its new 0% APR credit card with an online ad campaign. The ads, developed by Dare Digital, are currently appearing on the main UK lifestyle and finance sites.

In Germany, Mercedes has introduced online its upcoming model Grand Sports Tourer which will be available on the market early next year. A microsite features the content in four languages, offering a streaming promotional video, as well as a competition to win a design project for your home.

A new campaign developed by iTraffic for British Airways will start on Tuesday on Yahoo! UK. DM Bulletin explains the campaign will use an overlay zip: when the user clicks on it, page content page content unzips drawing the viewer's eye to the promotional message. A preview of the ad can be seen here.

Search engines matter. The European online market matters. As a result of these assumptions, comScore Networks has decided to launch qSearch Europe, a service to track usage of search engines. The first results presented in a press release highlight that the United Kingdom has a more developed online search market than France, Germany, the U.S. and Canada.comScore found that the major Internet portals have a significant opportunity to convert existing visitors to search engine users. For example, nearly 80 percent of U.K. Internet users visited MSN-Microsoft sites in April, but just 34 percent of search engine users conducted a search at an MSN search engine during the month. Likewise, Yahoo! reaches 43 percent of the French Internet population, but only 23 percent of the country's search engine users.

Basically, in Europe, Google rules the search market.

Americans are slowly falling in love with wireless. Probably baseball fans will be among the firsts to become "engaged" with mobile communication. Several baseball teams are signing deals to entertain their fans during the (neverending) matches. Recently the Chicago White Sox and U.S. Cellular to offer fans the opportunity to take part in interactive promotions during games, monitoring the results in real time. Interviews on Instant Messaging Planet Doug Rothrock, vice president of marketing and sales at for Vibes Media said something important:

About 57 million Italian users have received today an sms from the Government reminding them about the European Elections during the week-end. The initiative has generated a lot of polemics first, because over 5 million euros have been spent to send the message, second because this is the perfect example of unsolicited communication.

The Fab Awards have been assigned earlier this month. AdForum, as usual provides full details about the winning ads.
Among the winners in the Interactive section, there are Arc London with its "Coco's Quest" for Kellogg Company, Swedish agency Springtime for Absolut Generations, German agency Elephant Seven with "www.toffifee.com" for August Storck.

Euro 2004 will kick off tomorrow. It's a damn serious stuff over here in Europe. You might have noticed dozen posts about marketing initiative related to the event, but here is something you couldn't imagine: a voodoo doll to support England versus France. The crazy thing is an idea of Panlogic. If you support England or any other team playing against France, you can add yourself a pin to the poor player. Up 'til now, over 142000 pins have been added.

More and more people are turning to the Web to get news and information. The bigger the audience grows, the more interesting advertising spaces on news sites become. The State of News Media 2004, an annual report on American journalism was recently presented, bringing useful demographics information to advertisers eager to get in touch with their ideal target audience.
An excellent article published today on iMediaConnection pictures an overview of the advertising market on news sites, providing information about recent campaigns and indications about the main websites' audiences.

The ringtones market is growing and growing, no matter the continent you are in. The latest article about the ringtones business has been published in Australia, on the Herald Sun where a special top 20 chart of the most popular mobile is expected to take off soon. Australians now send more than 4 billion SMS messages a year (which means about 300 for each subscriber), while teenagers spend up to 9$ to download their favourite ringtones.

To learn more about the Australian mobile market you can also read this article on the same online publication.

Mobile users don't have MMS enabled phones, or even if they have 'em, brands and media owners don't know how MMS look like on their phones. This is the problem slowing the development of MMS marketing campaigns. On New Media Age, Pamir Gelenbe of Flytxt says that they have a very limited control over the quality of the final MMS.
Basically the problem is that users' positive experience cannot be granted. There is the risk to spoil consumers' attention towards MMS campaigns with low quality messages.

Cingular Wireless is investing in its marketing efforts towards young users. Adweek.com reports that the carrier is currently running a campaign to drive voters' registration for the upcoming presidential elections. Cingular is supporting MTV's "Choose or Lose 2004" and Rock the Vote bus tour.

If it isn't viral it won't work. Everyone is doing it viral, why shouldn't we? These might be typical questions for an interactive marketer working for a carmaker. A couple of days ago we talked about Toyota Scion, everybody remembers all the buzz generated by the evil advertisement of a cat loosing his head in a Ford SportKa. Playing with the words we can really say the buzz in the automotive industry is all around viral marketing, as an article on Autoweek points out.
The problem is that the statement I did at the beginning of this post, could also work the other way around. I mean, there might be an inflation: when there are too many buzz' to listen to, some of them (or most of them) won't be heard.

A recent research by Screen Digest, found out that "bored housewives" are fuelling the growth of other games offered on the net. BBC NEWS reports that females make up 65% of the growing market in skill-based games such as cards, solitaire and puzzles. The interesting news is that they are also willing to pay in order to play.

Further information about the research can be found in the press release presenting the results.

Finnish mobile game developer Sumea Interactive has partnered with T-Mobile to publish the official EURO 2004� FOOTBALL game for mobile phones. The press release says the game is an easy-to-play mobile football simulator modelled on the European Championship Tournament in Portugall. It is available now to year-end to over 85 million T-Mobile subscribers in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Russia and Hungary.
Graham Thomas, Vice President of Content Services at T-Mobile commented:

Yahoo! Uk & Ireland and Pringles have partnered to present a special Euro 2004 sponsored section on the portal. Media Week explains the branding exercise will feature on the search engine?s news, scores and photos page for the tournament.

Scion is a new line of vehicles from Toyota will be promoted with an email-based viral advertising campaign developed by Attik. As explained in the press release there is a web site, WanttX featuring four animated episodic shorts entitled "303 Caliber" as well as tC-themed downloadable screensavers, wallpapers, QuickTimes of the campaign's new cinema/broadcast spots, custom browser tools, comprehensive information on the tC, a dealer locator, a "send to a friend" feature as well as the ability to register on the site to receive email updates.
Adrian Si, Scion interactive marketing manager says:

The National Geographic Society has partnered with Rocket Mobile (see the press release) to develop a wallpaper application for mobile phones that features great photos from the Society's collection.
Maura Mulvihill, vice president National Geographic Image Collection said:

Another giant moves in the wireless arena...

Spam is something you have to take seriously, especially if you're a player in the wireless industry in which the problem is (fortunately) in its infancy. Silicon reports that Vodafone, in order to prevent MMS based spam, is considering charging business customers for sending multimedia messages. Rob Borthwick, Vodafone's public policy executive declared:

Ehm... not exactly a good news for the mobile marketing industry.

GoodTechnology has developed a microsite for Audi to promote its TT coupe in the UK. Revolution Magazine explains that through the web site users can download a brochure, book a test drive and learn more about the promotional events in which the cars is starring.
A series of banners and rich media is currently being used on the major automotive web sites to present the microsite.

The MarketingSherpa Readers' Choice Best Blog Awards 2004 have been assigned.
I haven't won but I'm proud I've received an honorable mention as "Best blog on online marketing". Congratulations to Search Engine Lowdown who won in the category, and to my friends Steve (Adrants) winner for Best individual's blog on the general topic of marketing and advertising, Dana (Danavan) for Best b-to-b marketing-topic blog, and Tig mentioned for his MarketingVox. Be sure to check out Ad-Rag which is also very cool!

Sky Sports and mobile operator 3 have signed a video content partnership deal that will allow subscribers to watch sport bulletins directly from their cellular phone. The news is reported by The Register which also comments that the deal is an attempt to revitalise 3's football content channel which isn't performing very well at the moment.

"Don't let the summer slip away" sounds like a song, but it's simply the theme of an integrated campaign launched by the Wales Tourist Board to attract people to the region. DM Bulletin reports that a druid character stars in the campaign, which takes advantage of direct mailing, online advertising as well as Tv and radio spots.

MarketingDirecto reports the results of "Las marcas españolas: embajadoras de la imagen de España en el mundo" a study to measure the brand awareness generated by Spanish brands around the world. Telefonica resulted the most recognized brand, according to a series of interviews with people from 64 different countries. The mobile carrier is followed by airline company Iberia, fashion chain Zara and automaker Seat.

Art of Speed is the blog Nike is about to launch showcasing a series of 15 short films on the theme of speed. The New York Times (free reg.) dedicates an article to the fact, collecting both positive and negative opinions. Some are skeptical that online readers will be interested in reading an advertorial blog. I tend to agree with this opinion, but I also believe that contents' quality will be the key point users will look at in choosing what to read or avoid.

German interactive agency Phase 4 has created a microsite for the Mini Challenge 2004. The Mini Challenge is a race competition which already took place in the Uk, Switzerland, Belgium and South Africa. The site is part of Mini Cooper's marketing strategy aimed to reinforce the brand building a relationship with its customers and prospects.

"Mobile entertainment has reached the point of consumer validation - We know it's a market. It's delivering tangible results and returns." Golden words by Paul Palmieri, director of business development for Verizon Wireless, quoted in an article on Wired. There's excitement in the industry for the growing revenues deriving from wireless. The market is reaching a critical mass and new players are entering the arena, bringing content and experience from Europe and Asia. However, as the article points out, some potential growth is being inhibited by the way mobile content is sold.

Last week Wine Spectator announced a mobile service to provide users with wine informations anytime anywhere. As a logical consequence, the Food Network has decided to launch a similar service for recipes. You can't drink a good wine without eating something. So Airborne Entertainment has developed "Cook Express", a mobile application containing high-quality recipes and helpful tips from some of the Food Network's most celebrated chefs.
Beth Higbee, vice president of new media at Food Network commented:

Berlitz has launched a downloadable language guide for mobile phones- The idea is to help holiday