Thursday, March 20, 2008

GM To Spend $1.5 Billion Online Through 2010

Big news coming from the country's third largest advertiser. I quote from this Media Buyer Planner article...
"In what could be 'the online marketing shot heard 'round the automotive world.' GM is saying it will dedicate half of its $3 billion marketing budget to digital and one-to-one marketing over the next three years. Because of the marketer's size--GM is the country's third-largest advertiser--some think its stated commitment to digital advertising could have a significant ripple affect across all U.S. brands.


GM is looking to focus on search, gaming, mobile and a broad array of other interactive applications."

Well, we have seen this coming, and market trends point to it but until you actually hear it from the corporate mouthpiece it is just conjecture. I guess we can quit calling it hype and start taking it seriously now. :) Really, if a few more behemoth corporations make these kinds of statements or skip the announcement and start adjusting more spend this way the interactive industry better be ready to handle it.

The FULL ARTICLE HERE

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Hats Off to AKQA

AKQA was named digital agency of the year by Ad Age Magazine. I went to read the piece thinking this would just be another article stating the obvious - that AKQA does great digital creative, however the piece is a great education in how the business model, from start to finish, is done right.

They focus on great work, but it is born out of innovation. I appreciate what they have done and continue to do - from concept to execution.
Read the entire piece HERE