Word On The Street

You might not love the ads, but they're effective! These are the summer's best according to MRI Starch Communications, a specialist in print-advertising research who has developed an "engagement score" to help identify the best-performing print ads out there. The score combines the percentage of readers who noticed a given ad and the percentage that read at least half of it. Read below each ad for their reasoning about why each ad is so effective. MRI Starch considered 694 one-page and two-page ads with a minimum of 50 words. It then selected the top ads in each of 12 major categories. All selected ads were thoroughly read by over half of those who initially noticed the ad.

Back in 2005, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted online buying would be 10% to 15% of retail. So far, that horse hasn’t left the gate. The U.S. Commerce Department says e-commerce sales are currently less than 4% of total U.S. retail sales and have been flat for several quarters. While in this bad economy, e-commerce is outpacing the growth in our traditional retail stores, offline consumer buying is still the big fish in our pond.

Marketing to Teens & Tweens Just Got Cooler!

Major retailers like Kohl’s, Sears and JC Penney are trying new ways to reach our kids and teens where they live -- on a computer in their own little virtual worlds. If you have kids, then you know whereof I speak. On websites like Stardoll.com, There.com and Zwinky.com our teens and tweens create an avatar (virtual person) to look like themselves and live out life in a virtual world. Here they own virtual houses, drive virtual cars, have virtual friends and buy “virtual” things like clothing from Kohl’s Abbey Dawn Collection, designed by singer Avril Lavigne. It really is marketing genius. It’s a terrific and affordable place to test a new product or brand and encourage trial. Kids love this virtual world stuff. At least mine and several million other American kids do. Think about it…your daughter spends $1 to $5 in virtual “Stardollars” (purchased with Mom and Dad’s real dollars) for a cute new outfit for her avatar. If she likes it, she can also click on a link to the real Kohl’s website and buy the real deal with the rest of Mom and Dad’s real money. 

How effective is it?  In its first 16 days, Kohl's Stardoll (virtual) boutique logged some 2.2 million visits and sold 1.8 million items. Kohls.com lured 97,000 visitors who clicked through from the boutique site. Retailers are also buying billboards in the virtual world advertising their virtual stores. Som...

The winner of our free Ipod give away is Ian Manalastas. Ian, a multimedia developer and operations manager, lives in Scottsdale, AZ  with his wife and 3 daughters. We held the winning drawing on Friday afternoon, July 25. Ian's name was drawn from a list of 95 entries. The contest was part of an open house to celebrate 17 years of marketing and advertising in Phoenix. This was also the official unveiling of our new agency identity. Thanks to everyone who came by to visit, have a hot dog, or just say hi.

Most sources state General Motors Corporation, but when I was at the Chicago Auto Show, a Yukon Denali announcer asked such a question and when no one could answer correctly, stated: Grabowsky Motor Corporation. 


Car manufacturers have generally been around for a long time and most have gone through several owners and to stay current - several logo revisions as well. Here's a great list of some of the big guys. Who knew the BMW criss-cross is based on the Luftwaffe airplane propeller? Thanks to www.neatorama.com.

"Hire people who are better than you are. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine."    -- David Ogilvy, Father of Advertising   ---------------    (Avenue 25's selected quotes from ad agencies, website designers, website developers, graphic designers, web design professionals, search engine marketing pros, business leaders, marketing consultants, web design critics, advertising professionals, interesting people from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York, NY and around the world, our mothers and anyone else we like.)

If your business plan includes growth this year, then it's time to udate that website of yours. Latest numbers show that in 2008, marketers will allocate more of their ad budgets online ($105.3 billion), including spending on their own web sites, than on TV, radio and movie spots combined (98.5 billion), according to a new report by Outsell Inc. and discussed in the LA Times blog.  The survey of 1,088 U.S. firms also found that marketers plan to increase their internet spending by 12.3% this year, and that 61.8% ($61.5 billion) of this budget would be used for their own web sites. Call us to find out what can be done with your web site and online marketing to acheive that growth you've been looking for.

(Wall Street Journal)  Rather than pinching pennies as consumers rein in spending, some retailers are plowing money into standing out from the crowd, hoping to grab market share and emerge from the economy's slump in better shape than their rivals.  --  Some, like home-improvement giant Home Depot Inc., are sprucing up their stores and investing more in customer service. Others, like discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and consumer-electronics specialist Best Buy Co., are touting their commitment to low prices or promoting special deals to help strapped consumers stretch their dollar. (Read more if you're a subscriber)