I Love Media

Lenovo is the only Chinese company having a worldwide sponsorship for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Lenovo bought I.B.M.’s personal computer business in 2005 and has plans to use its Olympics campaign as a launching pad for its brand.

Lenovo’s largest shareholder is the Chinese government and its biggest operations are in Beijing, Americans who watch ads during the Olympics this August will see only a company that wants to show off its technology and not its Chinese roots.

“In China, the advertising will be very much leveraging the heritage of a Chinese company,” said Glen Gilbert, Lenovo’s vice president for brand management. But “in the U.S., we won’t be making direct mention of that.”

The strategy makes sense in light of the political outcry over Beijing as an Olympics host. The Olympic torch has served as a lightning rod for public anger over China’s policies in Tibet and Lenovo was the company that designed it. The torch is scheduled to arrive in Tibet on Saturday,its stay there has been reduced to one day.

-Source: Mediaweek

One has to wonder about the basis of the deal but riding on the back on green issues…

The Financial Times has signed a six-figure commercial deal with energy and technology company GE, the sole sponsor of a series of specialised magazines focusing on climate change.

Three magazines will be circulated throughout the UK and Europe over the summer and the autumn, and will also be available via an online microsite on FT.com.
To access this article and the full site archive.

-Source: MediaWeek

The top 10 Green List:

Auto Brand – Honda
Travel & Tourism – Fairmont
Tech – Hewlett-Packard
Transportation – Enterprise
Retail – Whole Foods

How do top green brands grab the attention of consumers to get the message out? Increasingly, Creative feels the pressure of interaction and engagement with the public through digital initiatives which strips creative duties and the playing feild therefore expands.

I love that Keith Reinhard, Chairman for DDB Worldwide, believes that proper creativity can make one ad work as hard as hundreds and has a new meaning for ROI(Return On Investment).

Relevance
Originality
Impact

-Source: Ad Age

Thailand has added one more product to their roster of knockoffs – The Rolex watch.
The Swiss luxury item that normally sells for $2,000 plus is being reworked and reconfirgured by the hands of Thai workers to resemble the jewellery for 90% less in cost. New and old companies specializing in authenticity checks are are on the prowl to aid those in question.

btw: You can also go to http://www.ripoffreport.com to post suspects or find out who to avoid(a for consumers, by consumers hub). Eryn

-Source: Marketplace

I really enjoyed the portion of pop sauce network’s “sites” section. The brand content drivers are working with top tier advertiser’s in electronics, auto,gaming, wireless & retail to name a few..ZVue has launched this global pop culture advertising network in San Fran.

You can find them at http://www.popsaucenetwork.com
Icludes – User generated content, daily media, women and humor, geek chic and more…

You are seconds away from Festival de Cannes reviews shown on Norm Wilner’s (NOW) blog of the event from the French coast. This may get you insight and direction as to what you should stay away from at TIFF in September. I am a fan of the creative advertising produced in 2007 with familiar faces posing in real form. I have included both ads.

In other news, Google lab released a new app called Google Friend Connect.
I actually think that if people want to use friends to gain awreness or reader’s to their site, product, service or blog they should pick extremely carefully…and do it..once.You risk loosing credibility and while word of mouth is best you still want to remain somewhat of a novelty no?

-Source: Thornley Fallis

What do you think? Set up a group of women (20 brides) in their dresses to compete climbing a mountain of wedding cake to search for a 25,000 prize in Times Square would do it to promote Season 5 of Bridezillas?
Fun, catchy and great visual grabber as a concept? definitely but exploitive and silly as usual for women’s entertainment? After watching it – for sure!

-Source: Showbuzz

Is it about fans?…perhaps
Is it about the impressions?..probably not…
Is it about the clicks?…maybe
The metrics are all still fuzzy but cost per conversation seems to be the bottom line.which one of your friends is most energy efficient? questions are keywords to
drive results and traffic in google and social media sites.
Seth Goldstein of SocialMedia Networks spoke in New York on June 3rd about this issues.

-Source: Ad Age

Oprah has become large enough to be a walking commercial endorsement as most already know.

She doesn’t do structured brand-integration deals or live commercials. And Harpo Productions tightly controls advance and post-publicity about the praise that gets parceled out. Because nobody tells Opra what to say this has become a part of the appeal to have her review the titles.

She is the very pinnacle of product publicity. And yet, despite Oprah Winfrey’s and Harpo Productions’ dogged efforts to protect her brand and, by extension, the many smaller ones that draw energy from it, Oprah has taken some notable dings lately, largely of her own making.

How do you get your brand on “Oprah”? It helps if Oprah likes your brand or its ads. It helps more still if Oprah’s producers like you. And it possibly helps even more if Oprah likes you or the person endorsing your brand.
Both Harpo and marketers, however, deny quid pro quos. And the successes of such smaller brands as Kitchen Aid and Dolly Parton indicate one need not pay to play on “Oprah.” Dove Unilever amongst the most profited brand –
“I’m sure Oprah really does like the ads,” author Virginia Postrel wrote on her Dynamist.com blog. “But I doubt that the ‘Dove girls’ would be on the show without Unilever’s advertising checks. Dove also just happened to choose Oprah’s best friend [and O Editor at Large] Gayle King to receive their first Dove Real Beauty Award.”
Raising eyebrows in a Wall Street Journal interview in October 2005, Silvia Lagnado, then Unilever’s global brand director on Dove, said: “Just last week, we started a relationship with Oprah. We are sponsoring her show. She mentioned the Dove products on the show and had the women in our ads in their underwear in the show.”

-Source: Ad Age