Ypulse Essentials
Posted by chet on 04-19-2006
Product placements hit comic books (heating up with the male 18-34 demo, brands like Nike and Pontiac are placing products in Marvel and DC comics. Most recently, Pontiac will be placing its Solstice in DC's new "The Rush" comic, aiming to make it as tied to the lead character as the Aston Martin was to James Bond) (The Wall Street Journal)
- MySpace to attack the TV (details are unclear, but company exec talks about "integrating social networking into the TV show and their traditional TV buy") (MediaPost, reg. required)
- Sex offenders on MySpace (Wired ran a search of registered sex offenders through MySpace and found more than you might expect) (Wired News)
- Forget 'Big Brother'… (it’s the "Big Mother" now that can track her kids with the latest GPS phones) (The Washington Post, reg. required)
- The Saatchi & Saatchi girl group for hire (ad agency creates a pop girl group, and offers up everything to sponsors - even their name) (AdRants)
- Special event organizers drool over 'coming of age market' (and the increasingly lavish sweet sixteen parties are giving them good reason to) (USA Today)
- More talk on the drop in illegal downloading (features an interesting bit on Cassi Hunt of screwpirates.com, who has been fighting the RIAA lawsuit practices) (AdAge, reg. required)
- Newspaper audience report shows more evidence of Gen Y getting news online (9% more 18-24 year-olds read news online versus last year) (Gen Y Voodoo)
- The MySpace challenge (article featuring danah boyd covers some of the growth issues still facing MySpace and Wikipedia) (Mediashift)
- Saved By The Bell?..doesn’t look like it (my secret teenage favorite makes its way into two week trial on Adult Swim - the first totally live action show on the network. There has been much viewer backlash to the idea - one viewer’s comments: "cartoons forever SBTB never!") (ZAP 2 it)
- New show has female rocks stars coaching an all-girl band (and features members that can actually play instruments. To air on CW network) (Pop Candy)
- College kids love the hookah bar (and 200-300 of them have opened in the last five years, many around college campuses) (The New York Times, reg. required)
- Brand presence on YouTube ramping up (marketers like Nike and Warner Bros. increasingly using the site to their advantage) (USA Today)
- JibJab launches JokeBox comedy social network (users can share jokes, photos and videos - and it’s getting decent traffic so far) (Marketing VOX)
- Chick lit gets male counterpart: 'Fratire' (testosterone-soaked books like "The Modern Drunkard" are part of a big growth category. Is this Emo backlash?) (The New York Times, reg. required)
- USA Network to cover Major League Gaming (and further solidifies gaming as a spectator sport) (Lost Remote)
- Cyworld ready to attack MySpace (South Korea's slick and huge social networking site coming to the U.S.) (Business 2.0 Blog)
- DIY designer denim (Denim Design Lab offers an elaborate tool kit for $300 that lets users create their own custom distressed styles) (iconoculture)