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Jan31
Ikea Will Pay You $5,000 to "Make Your Bed"

Ikea, the home furnishing behemoth has partnered with Shycast to promote a contest that will reward $5,000 to the consumer who creates the best video "making their bed."

On the Shycast promotion Web page it says this: "Break The Rules Bed Making We’re looking for bed-making maniacs who aren’t worried about what Mom says. If you mix and match sheets, have a special blankie for the Shih-tzu, or the craziest of quilts this contest is for you."

The idea is to encourage consumers to interact with the Ikea brand and to increase their strong connection with it.

Ikea%20Bed%20Making%20Contest.jpg"Ikea has a high degree of customer fanaticism. They're a customer brand. Really, what they want beyond that is to get an eye on their real world customers that are engaged and interested in their brand," says Drew Peloso, a founder of Shycast.

Besides Ikea, the other interesting part of this story is the strategy being used by Shycast to differentiate themselves from this growing, competitive space.

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Jan31
McDonalds Starting YouTube Talent Search Promotion
Attempting to increase the reach of their popular chicken snack wrap, McDonalds (MCD) has initiated a promotion on YouTube (GOOG) that will offer people making videos an opportunity of have their creation put on YouTube's home page for a day.... Continue Reading
Ogilvy Chooses Technorati to Aggregate Blog Content
Ogilvy North America (WPPGY) has chosen Technorati to help them in their efforts to help their clients know what is happening in the blogosphere.Carla Hendra, co-CEO of Ogilvy North America said that the role Technorati will play will be to... Continue Reading
Nickelodeon Launches Virtual World for Children
MTV's Nickelodeon (VIA-B) has launched their own virtual world called Nicktropolis, where children will be able to talk with Nickelodeon characters, play games, watch TV or chat online with each other if the choose to. They can create an avatar... Continue Reading
Jan30
The Crucial Need to Simplify the Internet TV Experience
Understanding that the this decade will probably end with the Internet being the primary distribution system for video content, many of the big companies are hustling to bring out products that will be ready for the users seemingly insatiable appetite... Continue Reading
Cingular, Travelocity, Priceline Agree to Paying Fines
To keep from having to go through a potentially lengthy and expensive trial, Cingular Wireless (T), Travelocity (TSG) and Priceline (PCLN) reached an agreement with the New York State Attorney General's office to pay fines for the use of adware... Continue Reading
Steve Case's Lime TV Going Cable VOD and Broadband
When Steve Case bought Wisdom TV in 2005, he changed the name to Lime TV and rebranded it as a health and lifestyle channel. But with no growth emerging from its original 7 million homes, his Revolution Living company, the... Continue Reading
Many YouTube Fans Don't Want Pre-Roll Ads
The announcement that YouTube (GOOG) is going to start offering ads via its videos and paying contributors a percentage of the profits, has started a lot of conversation on how it may affect the viewers.One of the ideas thrown out... Continue Reading
Jan29
YouTube Going Mainstream - Never Was a Doubt
The way Chad Hurley and YouTube (GOOG) are spinning it, you'd think that they were a bunch of heroes offering video creators a piece of the monetary pie. Talking about and quoting Hurley, the BBC said, "YouTube founder Chad Hurley... Continue Reading
Casual Gamers Being Offered Choice of Ads
Starting with Big Fish Games, a product offered by WeatherBug parent AWS Convergence Technologies has been extended that empowers casual game users to pick and choose which ads they want to view and how they want to view them.The new... Continue Reading
Jan28
Google Not That Impressive to Madison Avenue
Understanding that it's only a matter of time before search revenue reaches a plateau, Google has been making moves to grab a large piece of the pie of Madison Avenue's brand advertising budgets. So far agencies have been resistant and... Continue Reading
Jan27
The MySpace Behavioral Targeting Strategy
MySpace (NWS-A) is still going through the growing pains that many online community sites share with them: monetizing their site through ad revenue.Right now MySpace makes money in a couple of ways. First they offer their pages to resellers who... Continue Reading
Bill Gates: Today's TV Will be "Laughable" in Five Years
Bill Gates, speaking at the World Economic Forum, said that in a few short years the television experience will be completely transformed from our present means of distribution."I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from... Continue Reading
Jan26
Dow Jones Online Strategy Flourishing
In the fourth quarter, Dow Jones said they now have 811,000 paid subscibers to The Wall Street Journal Web site, an increase of 5.6 percent over last year, said Online Media Daily.Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine added that "Dow... Continue Reading
MSN Display Ads Grow at a Healthy Pace
In a direct connection to the increasing move of advertising dollars to the Internet, MSN (MSFT) advertising revenue increased by $77 million in the last three months of 2006, equal to around a 20 percent increase of over the same... Continue Reading
Jan25
LA Times Finally Embracing the Internet - Are They Too Late?
The newspaper industry is experiencing the same problems that the print magazine and music industries have been going through, by the loss of revenue through the Internet competition, and not making up the difference with their own online sites.One newspaper,... Continue Reading
MySpace About to Start Mexican Version
In what Travis Katz, the head of international media for News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, calls a "soft launch," confirmed that MySpace (NWS) is in the preliminary stages of introducing a Mexican version of the site. He defined the "soft... Continue Reading
Google Adding YouTube Video to Video Search Index
Google (GOOG) issued a statement saying that YouTube video would now be included in video search results through it Google Video search index.The company officially defined the difference between the two services by saying that Google Video would continue to... Continue Reading
Internet Continues to Disrupt Print Magazine Ad Market
The print magazine market continues to struggle as it is trying its usual strategy of saying the cost of paper and postal rates have gone up, and as a result, media buyers need to pay more for their ads. While... Continue Reading
Jan24
Giorgio Armani Brings Fashion Show to World Via Internet
The lines are continually blurring between the Internet and TV as Giorgio Armani brought his fashion show to the online world.Armani said in a statement that "Couture is rooted in fashion history. It is the pinnacle of creativity and craftsmanship,... Continue Reading
Nascar.com Redesigned, Adds 3-D
With the growth in popularity of online communities, Turner Sports New Media, which holds the interactive rights to Nascar, have redesigned their Nascar.com Web site to include 3-D and offer a place where fans can get together and interact. With... Continue Reading
Internet TV Attracts Young, Wealthy Crowd
A new study released by Nielsen Analytics and Scarborough Research show that when the networks stream their shows on the Internet, they draw a younger, wealthier and higher educated demographic to their broadcasts.The study also concluded that fears of enabling... Continue Reading
Jan23
Google and BBC Negotiating to Put Programming on YouTube
A spokeswoman for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) confirmed that the broadcaster is in negotiations with YouTube (GOOG) to offer its programming on the site. She added that they are looking at a variety of options, but there is no... Continue Reading
A Smart Preemptive Move by Anheuser-Busch
Knowing the potential for negative response if they don't take care preventing underage people from accessing their upcoming Bud.TV Web site, AnHeuser-Busch has recruited Aristotle, an age-verification company, to ensure that those interacting with the new site will be of... Continue Reading
Jan22
Google, Two Major Music Labels Testing Video Ads
In their continuing push to go beyond their successful text-advertising strategy, Google (GOOG) has been testing a new video advertising system in conjunction with music heavyweights Warner Music Group (TWX) and Sony (SNE) BMG Music Entertainment.A spokesperson for Google said... Continue Reading
Mike Bebel Trying Different Route for Downloaded Music
Mike Bebel, who has worked with Napster (NAPS) and Universal Music Group, is testing out a new business model for the download music space. He is running the fairly new download service called "Ruckus" that will offer all the music and movies... Continue Reading
NBC Taking "Heroes" Deeper
In a move to make expand their "Heroes" franchise, NBC Today (GE) is looking to the Internet to do the job. They are adding original content to the site, along with commentary by the cast members. It sounds a little... Continue Reading
Jan21
British Hosting Provider UKFast Wins Huge Bidding War for Domain Name
In what was considered one of the most desired domain names in Great Britain, UKFast came out on top in their bid to acquire the domain name: servers.co.uk. While the exact numbers weren't given, it was said to be in... Continue Reading
New Indie Music Agency Makes Deal for Selling Downloaded Music
The recently formed new agency called "Merlin," which represents independent music artists, didn't take long to go into action, as they announced at the annual MidemNet music conference in France that they entered into a deal with Snocap, a digital... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 36
The Difference Between Rules and GuidelinesWhen developing skills for ad copy, or continuing on in learning from what we've already done, it's good to take pause and consider a crucial aspect of the business of copywriting to remains successful.I look... Continue Reading
Jan20
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 35
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 32This next headline deals with simply being human and making mistakes. We no that while no one likes to make mistakes, they will inevitably come. What people respond to... Continue Reading
Universal Trying to get "Smokin' Aces" to go Viral
The soon to open Joe Carnahan movie "Smokin' Aces" is going beyond the traditional advertising methods to offer a couple of new online marketing ideas to see how they catch on.The film which stars Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys and Jeremy... Continue Reading
Jan19
Video-Sharing Ads Must Meet Standards of Other Media in Truth and Accuracy
In a ruling by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, video ads offered on YouTube (GOOG) must meet the standards of truth and accuracy required by other media. The issue was initiated when Dyson vacuum... Continue Reading
Jan18
Online: The New Battlefield of Network TV
ABC (DIS) has taken the early lead in the Internet sweeps as they started to offer their shows online in spring of 2006. It took the other broadcasters until the fall to get their shows online. As a result the... Continue Reading
Families of Sexual Abuse Victims Sue MySpace
When we talked about the battle beginning yesterday, concerning MySpace (NWS) announcing that they were introducing Parental Notification Software, I didn't think it would start this quickly.Less than 24 hours after that post, four families have sued the site charging them with... Continue Reading
AOL Partners with QVC for Live Online Streaming of the Show
Beginning on January 18, users of AOL (TWX) will be able to watch a live stream of the QVC TV Live show; whatever is being seen on TV will be able to be watched in real-time on the AOL portal.This... Continue Reading
ThinkMetrics' CEO Says 1st Position in Google Ads Not Worth it
ThinkMetrics' CEO Brandt Dainow said that in analyzing campaigns he's run for himself and clients over the last four years, he's found that there is no correlation between being the in the top position in Google Ad listings and your... Continue Reading
Jan17
Creating More Effective, Branded Video Ads
We recently talked about how having a video go viral for the online marketer isn't anywhere near enough to do the job that we've set out to do.It's already been proven that people can get others to watch online video... Continue Reading
VideoClix Offers Part of the Answer to Monetizing Online Videos
In the growing demand to have online video that doesn't include the intrusive aspect that television ads do, VideoClix has responded by creating a software that makes this a possibility with its software.With the release of it newest version of... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 34
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 31There is a block that the majority people have within them that keeps them from taking action. Find a headline that deals with thoughts or illusions that are keeping... Continue Reading
Worldlink, Broadband Enterprises Bringing Direct Response Video Ads to Web
Worldlink, which has a stable of marketers it does business with, is partnering with the online video network Broadband Enterprises to bring direct response video advertising to viewers watching streaming online video.Broadband Enterprises has an existing network of 1,700 video... Continue Reading
The Battle Begins: MySpace Offering Free Parental Notification Software
In a move sure to cause a lot of controversy, MySpace (NWS) has decided to offer free parental notification software in a move to satisfy critics from the government.The software, which will be called "Zephyr," will enable a parent to... Continue Reading
Jan16
Advertising Draws More Interest on Niche Sites
Last post we talked about the possibility that there could be a move toward an online upfront market similar to television. This would be connected to the higher traffic sites of course. The question then must be raised concerning all... Continue Reading
Exec Says Internet May Be Moving Toward Advertising Upfront
Speaking at a New York luncheon, Bruce Biegel, senior managing director at Winterberry Group, a direct marketing consultancy, said that the Internet may be moving toward an advertising upfront that is similar to the television industry.Biegel said that “We’re kind... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 33
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline -30With this next headline, you invite the person to take a look and see how easy and simple something can be. This obviously doesn't only appeal to the majority of... Continue Reading
Viral Marketing and Branding
We've talked a lot at thealphamarketer.com about viral marketing and strategies to get people sharing your creation. One of the key elements is humor.All of this is good and right, but there's another important key to success that many marketers,... Continue Reading
The Venice Project is Now Called Joost!
The founders of Skype and Kazaa who have been tantalizing people with The Venice Project, have now changed their name to Joost, and have a new web site presenting the new moniker.The homepage boldly says, "Yesterday, we were The Venice... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 32
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 29A great way to get people interested in what you have to say is in lists. While it still works great, like anything else that is used so much,... Continue Reading
Jan15
Private Equity and What it Means to You
Venture capitalists and investors learned a lot from the mistakes that private-equity investors made in 2000. The result has been that they've changed the criteria for investing in online and media companies.In the past they were willing to invest in... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 31
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 28There is no doubt that the greatest pressure upon people is time. Anything that will help people to save time and make things easier will be attractive to them.... Continue Reading
The Paradox of Internet Marketing Growth
The growth of companies using the Internet to market their wares is known by everybody in the business. That growth should continue on for years into the future. What's interesting in all of this is that while many companies that... Continue Reading
Jan14
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 30
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 27The great majority of people out there want to be connected to a tribe in one way or another; whether loosely affiliated or wholeheartedly. Let's face it, when we're... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 29
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 26One of the major things within a person for not doing something or reading your ad copy is time. It is the most valued commodity that people never seem... Continue Reading
Jan13
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 28
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 25This post we'll talk about the use of a headline that appeals to curiosity to draw people into reading your ad copy. The idea here is that there is... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 27
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 24Another great headline that appeals to the wannabee in someone is the "...be like..." someone or something. What it basically does is take something somebody wants to do, then... Continue Reading
Jan12
MySpace Wants to Take Over the World
MySpace latest venture is to gain a foothold in France in its push to become an international player in the online community marketplace. With social networking sites starting to proliferate around the world, MySpace (NWS) can't afford to let them... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 26
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 23Human beings are always trying to improve upon something, and so in certain areas have a certain degree of dissatisfaction. As a result, there are a number of headlines... Continue Reading
British Broadcasting Corporation Increasing Interactivity
The British Broadcasting Corporation says that they have plans to grow its online presence by beginning to include social networking sites connected to some of their strongest brands like Top Gear, a spokeswoman for the company said.She added that "If... Continue Reading
Most Email Marketers Increasing Spending in 2007
A study by marketing software provider Alterian showed that 85 percent of marketers plan on increasing their budgets for email marketing in 2007. Almost 70 percent of the respondents said that they have targeted email spending to increase specifically. The... Continue Reading
Jan11
Slingbox Users Will Soon be Empowered to Upload CBS Clips to Video-Sharing Sites
In a story we'll probably hear all throughout the year, it was announced by CBS (CBS) CEO Les Moonves at the Consumer Electronics Show that users of Slingbox will very soon be able to take recorded clips of CBS programming... Continue Reading
Universal Music Launches Largest Online Classical and Jazz Site
With the demand for digital downloads continuing to explode, Universal Music has responded by launching what they're calling the largest online classical and jazz music site.After a live performance by the beautiful Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, Mark Wilkinson, marketing director... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 24
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 21The promise of "having your cake and eating it too" is part of the promise made when you begin headlines with certain phrases. People like to believe that they... Continue Reading
Online Retailers Plan on Adding More Rich Media
A report filed by Internet technology firm Scene7 revealed that the majority of e-commerce sites have plans to increase rich media into their internet strategy, with their major focus being on high-quality visuals.Scene7 asked 65 online and multi-channel retailers what... Continue Reading
Online Retail Spending Up 24 Percent for 2006
In a report released by comScore Networks, it showed that online retail spending for the whole year was up by 24 percent over 2005, and the holiday season grew by 26 percent over 2005 as well. Total online spending reached... Continue Reading
Jan10
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 23
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 20This particular headline template or formula, goes about things a little bit differently then the ones we've talked about to this point.Here, you focus on how to solve a... Continue Reading
Three Largest Newspaper Publishers in U.S. Partnering for One-stop Online Advertising
With newspapers losing subscribers in droves, the three largest newspaper publishers in the U.S. (Gannett Co., McClatchy Co. and Tribune Co.) are partnering to sell advertising space on the newspaper Web sites. They are beginning to realize that their survival... Continue Reading
Forbes.com Considered Top Web Site to Advertise On
A bi-annual report called Advertiser Perceptions' Advertiser Intelligence Report, which measures the perceptions that ad agency executives have of media brands across platforms, was released recently. In the area of Web properties, Forbes.com was the clear winner as they finished... Continue Reading
Net Neutrality Bill Re-introduced in Senate
The continuing battle over net neutrality was started again as the Senate re-introduced legislation that would prevent internet service providers from charging more for using higher-speed connections.Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said that the future of the internet "lies in the hands... Continue Reading
Yahoo Acquires MYBlogLog
In a move to expand their social networking business, Yahoo (YHOO) purchased MyBlogLog for a reportedly $10 million, according to Online Media Daily citing Forbes.The service was launched in July and has created communities around a number of well-known blogs.MyBlogLog... Continue Reading
Jan 9
TNS Says Online Ad Spend to Increase by 13.4 Percent this Year
In the continuing topsy turvy world of internet advertising, the figures during the last several months seem to change every week as a new study comes out and gives their numbers.The latest numbers to come out are from the highly... Continue Reading
Learning Effective Ad Copy - 22
The First Ad Copy Weapon of Choice - The Headline - 19Another powerful headline that has worked for a long time is one that points out that what will be read about will help a person to make a solution... Continue Reading