A new study of magazine advertising ROI by Marketing Evolution found that magazines are the most cost-effective means of influencing consumer behavior at certain stages of the decision-making process, or “purchase funnel,” beating out TV and online media. Specifically, magazines dominate two crucial stages: brand familiarity and purchase intent.

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Red Mango is throwing down the gauntlet in the “authentic frozen yogurt” wars. The chain has hired the Richards Group, Dallas, in a seven-figure deal to create online, in-store, public relations and event marketing. Print and outdoor work will likely be added in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

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Nascar and seven-time Nascar champion Richard Petty have teamed up to produce a radio and television public service ad campaign, which raises awareness among Nascar fans of broadcast TV’s switch from analog to digital on Feb. 17, 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

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Publicis Groupe’s Zenith Optimedia has downgraded for a third time this year its ad expenditure forecast for 2008. The agency now predicts worldwide ad spending will rise 4 percent this year, down from the nearly 7 percent gain it projected when it last ran the numbers in June.

The media shop also reduced its forecast for 2009 to 4 percent from 6 percent.

The reason for the downgrade, ZO said, is primarily the “financial shock caused by the bank failures during the latest phase of the crisis in financial markets, which has spread uncertainty and undermined confidence in the wider economy.”

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Yahoo is expanding search capabilities on select mobile devices in the U.S., U.K., India, Singapore, Philippines and Canada. Read the rest of this entry »

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A sizable contingent of online video viewers are more engaged with Web programming then they are with TV programming, according to a report released today by online video site Veoh Networks.

Veoh found that so-called “engaged viewers,” those who watch more than an hour of online video Read the rest of this entry »

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Social networking site Facebook went live with Microsoft’s Live Search this week, increasing the information available among friends on the site.

The deal, first announced in July, should open more opportunities to serve local ads from Facebook’s small and medium-sized business ad programs that allow advertisers to target users by location and demographics, according to the Kelsey Group.

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ESPN will offer multimedia coverage of the 2009 World Baseball Classic beginning March 5, 2009, with coverage across ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN2 ESPN2 HD, ESPN Deportes, ESPNews, ESPN International, ESPN Deportes Radio, ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile.

ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise 23 games in the U.S. And all of those games will be simulcast via ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV. Read the rest of this entry »

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Never mind that the advertising market looks bleak. Google still wants to build its share of what little brand advertising there is these days. The company already sells graphic and video advertising on some sites, but so far it has not achieved anything close to the share of these markets that it has with text advertising.

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What’s wrong with the Internet? For starters, it’s a “cesspool,” a festering sea of bad information, said Google CEO Eric Schmidt yesterday while talking to a group of visiting magazine executives at the company’s Mountain View, Calif. Campus during the American Magazine Conference. The cure? More brands! Read the rest of this entry »

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