attention

Advertisers have known for decades that pictures of babies attract attention and hold the viewer’s gaze. That’s why you often see pictures of babies – cute, startled, smiling, frowning – in ads that have nothing at all to do with baby products. An interesting study from Australia shows what takes a baby-picture ad from merely attention-getting to effective.

Banner ads may be the most common method of reaching consumers on the Web, but they don’t get much respect. Web marketers talk about “banner blindness,” implying that users become so used to the presence of these ads that they no longer even see them. I don’t think it’s time to write off the ubiquitous banner just yet, though. First, here are some comments on college banner ads from top marketing blogger Seth Godin:

Over at BLDGBLOG, Geoff Manaugh points to an interesting study that estimates that we may be missing as much as 15 minutes of a 150-minute movie through the very act of blinking. What's even more interesting however, is the discovery that most movie-watchers tend to blink in unison - at non-critical moments of plot or action.

by: David Armano

by: Jonathan Salem Baskin

One of my pet peeves is the elevation of corporate mascots and celebrity spokesmodels from sales promotion tactics to brand strategy. Only now I'm thinking that in certain circumstances, they really are one in the same.

Almost.

by: David Polinchock

by: Alexander Osterwalder

Book publishers, I think your business model is expiring! If you don't update it now, you will suffer the same fate as the music industry: "cluelessness" of what to do to fight steeply declining revenues!

by: Idris Mootee

Let’s be happy is the global theme of the year. At least most of the ads will be trying to do that. It is starting with the Coca Cola launching a new marketing campaign with tagline "Open Happiness." Both Coke and Pepsi at the same time are launching big new campaigns and big marketing blitzes behind their flagship colas, we are seeing a Cola war in the making. Not a bad thing for this economy.

by: David Armano