Revenue Magazine

The first publication devoted entirely to the world of affiliate marketing.
Website: http://www.revenuetoday.com/

Volkswagen - Counterculture

Advertising: The ’60s as the Good Old Days

IF you remember the ’60s, as a popular saying goes, you probably weren’t there. No matter. Madison Avenue is taking you back with a skein of campaigns celebrating sights and sounds of the decade. The ads are filled with images like Volkswagen buses festooned with groovy graffiti, daisies and other power flowers, peace signs, psychedelic drawings in DayGlo colors and hair, long beautiful hair, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen (to quote a lyric from the era).

COMMENT: What is most intriguing about the trend is that the ads present many of the contentious aspects of the ’60s — the protests, the hippies, the challenge to authority.

Discount Rate

Fed Cuts Rate a Quarter Point; Stocks Dive

In announcing the cut, the Federal Reserve signaled its concern that the credit crisis may be damaging the broader economy. The Dow fell nearly 300 points.

COMMENT: I am concerned about inflation and the outlook for our economic growth in 2007. The subprime mortgage problems might be making banks and other lenders reluctant to lend not only for housing but for other activities as well. I feel a recession coming on!

Flying the friendlier skies?

Airlines offer videos on air etiquette

Airlines and customers have differed on what it means to be a good traveler. Southwest Airlines Co. was criticized for telling a young woman in July that her outfit was too revealing to fly. Chief Executive Gary Kelly issued an apology to the young woman, Kyla Ebbert, that was read on "The Dr. Phil Show."

COMMENT: Part of the problem is that airlines haven't properly educated the public on what to expect aboard a plane. If people don't know how to behave long before adulthood, they are certainly not going to be receptive to a short animated film on the airplane. Unfortunately if they are already ill-mannered adults, their children will be the same.

Freelancers Walk Out at MTV Networks

Freelance workers from MTV Networks walked off the job today filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom to protest recent changes in benefits.

COMMENT: ABOUT TIME!! Another labor action is expected to take place outside Viacom later this week. Members of the Writers Guild of America, who have been on strike for five weeks, are expected to picket there on Thursday.

MYSPACE UNPLUGGED

In an attempt to position itself as a destination for hearing and buying music, MySpace is inviting musicians to perform songs for a program called Transmissions. The Web site will show and sell videos of the performance.

ADVERTISING - Dr. Martens Featured in ADs & Fashion Shows.

ADVERTISING: An Antifashion Classic Returns

After Dr. Martens ran advertisements that depicted dead rock stars. The brand has a new campaign, a new agency and fresh ambitions for a comeback. The campaign, by Exposure Communications of New York, features young models wearing Docs with grunge- and punk-inflected outfits and expressions of bored disaffection; the spots are appearing in publications like Teen Vogue, Spin and British GQ, GQ, Vogue, Seventeen, Lucky and Us Weekly (which declared, “They’re baack!”)

COMMENT: The promotional stategy to stimulate selective demand actually was orchostrated to defend their current position. Furthermore, The all purpose work boot website has Internet initiatives, too. It recently started a contest where people can custom-design the classic 1460 boot online (http://www.dmbootdesign.com/). This is a great example of intergrated marketing communications (IMC).

INSTITUTIONAL ADVERSTISING - LIRR

"Be TrainSmart" Safety Campaign Launched
Learn to Cross the Gap Safely

COMMENT: The goal of the "Be TrainSmart" campaign is to improve customer safety by raising customer awareness about safe habits and customer behaviors that will reduce the number of accidents for those traveling on the LIRR. The campaign will run for an entire year, focusing on safety factor every 2 months. It will include the use of posters, brochures and advertisements at stations and on trains.

FEARING SAMSUNG'S SCANDAL

For weeks, the manufacturing giant Samsung has been battered by accusations of corruption. But because South Korea's economy is so heavily dependent on a handful of conglomerates like Samsung, Koreans fear that striking these behemoths too harshly may hurt their own economic well-being.

CANCER DRUG DISAPPOINTS

An analysis by the staff of the Food and Drug Administration appeared to dim the prospects that Genentech's drug Avastin would win approval as a treatment for breast cancer. The drug did not help women with breast cancer live meaningfully longer, the agency staff said, and it caused significant side effects.

Retooling - Competive Market Strategy

2 Airlines to Cut Back Plans for Increases in Capacity

Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines will scale back seating-capacity plans for next year on mounting concern over high oil prices and a weakening United States economy. Delta said yesterday that it would cut domestic capacity as much as 5 percent in 2008 and projected that higher fuel costs would wipe out its operating profit this quarter. Southwest, the largest discount carrier, still plans to increase overall capacity in 2008, but it reduced its projected growth for a third time, to a range of 4 to 5 percent.

COMMENT: Southwest is also hurt by higher fuel prices, but far less than competitors, giving the carrier a distinct advantage in an industry where beating the other guy often seems more important than actually doing well.

Levi Strauss Jeans

RESEARCH: A Nevada tailor named Jacob Davis came up with an improved design for making denim jeans, which were already popular with farmers and working men of all types. The problem with denim jeans was that the pockets always ripped out from people jamming their hands in the pockets. Davis came up with a solution to that problem, and that was to put copper rivets at the stress points of seams, such as at the pockets, and at the base of the fly. He didn't have the $80 required to file a patent, so he approached Levi Strauss to finance the venture. Struass was a successful San Francisco businessman, selling denim and canvas pants to miners. Davis' improvement to Levi's already sturdy jeans turned them into an icon.

Ford Galaxie 500

RESEARCH: The Ford Galaxie was the primary full size car built in the US by the Ford Motor Company for model years 1959 through 1974. A version of the car was produced in Brazil under the names Galaxie 500, LTD and Landau from 1967 to 1983. As often is the case with American cars, the model names shifted around from year to year, but the Galaxie was always Ford's full-size car. In the late 1960s, the low trim Fords would be the Ford Custom and Custom 500, while the high end would be the XL and LTD, but the Galaxie was normally the high volume counterpart to the Chevrolet Impala.

ART LINKLETTER vs BILL COSBY

Vs.








Kids Say the Darnest Things

Synopsis: Hosted by television personality Art Linkletter, Kids Say the Darndest Things captured youngsters saying a variety of funny or occasionally touching things. This video compiles two hours of the long-running show's best moments, focusing primarily on the funniest moments. Bill Cosby hosted an attempted revival of the program in the '90s.