This person will be responsible for contributing to and developing media strategy, negotiation and cost comparison of media buys, and developing and conducting presentations. The Assistant Media Strategist will help manage accounts with media mixes that include both physical and digital media.

This person will be part of a planning team that includes Account Planning, PR and Media. Must be able to work with the planning team in the development of marketing objectives and strategies.

Sound like you? Get the full job description here.

The Media Strategist will be responsible for developing media strategy, negotiation and cost comparison of media buys, creating presentations and presenting to clients.  The Media Strategist should have the ability to manage accounts with media mixes that includes physical and digital media.

It is critical that the candidate have solid experience in search engine marketing and SEO, and can grow to become the resident expert.  This person will be responsible for managing SEM across multiple clients and educating agency teams on best practices.

Sound like you? Find the full job description here.

First of all, the Super Bowl has become somewhat of a sports institution, eclipsing many of our national holidays as the time to get together with friends and enjoy food and beverages. And, maybe it’s because I now have school-age kids who don’t want to miss a minute of the game. Or, because I’m a bit distracted on Sunday evenings, thinking about the week to come.

But, here are some of the other reasons to consider the move to Saturday, some economical and some social:

- Kids could stay up later than they could on a school night
- Super Bowl parties could be even bigger events and would encourage more families (even non-sports fans) to get together. These bigger events would require even more food and beverage purchases – benefiting retail more
- Restaurant and bar traffic would likely increase as well
- No doubt, networks would enjoy a rise in viewership
- International fans could more easily stay up late to watch – on-strategy for the NFL’s globalization strategy
- Less workplace absenteeism come Monday morning
- One person even suggested that the Pro Bowl could be played on Sunday in the same stadium for those worried that the host city’s revenue would be negatively impacted

Now, the NFL has made its position known: the Super Bowl on a Sunday has worked well for 44 years and they don’t anticipate moving it. See SI.com article. But, with NFL games already being played on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, it doesn’t seem like such a stretch.

And there’s a growing movement of “Move the Super Bowl to Saturday” petitions on Facebook and a number of writers calling for a national holiday on Monday. If you want to join others in petitioning the NFL to move the Super Bowl to Saturday, you can even do that online here.

Besides, we’d have even more time to discuss the Super Bowl ads. So, who’s on-board?

The campaign let us spark conversations with Stripes customers:

And about the brand amongst their customers:

Using Lamar Outdoor’s iSpot technology, the boards were up and streaming tweets almost instantly. And just as quickly, this mashup of social and traditional media was getting attention from followers and the industry. If you’d like to hear more about the campaign, @TrippWestbrook can tell you all about it this April at the OAAA Conference in Miami. See you there.

Until now, paid search has always been a pull medium with unknown amounts of inventory. The amount you get is dependent on the amount of times searchers hit the search button — which is currently around 530M times a day. This seems like a lot of inventory, but advertisers want more. Because of the consistently high ROI that paid search delivers, a lot of brands have allocated more and more of their budgets to it over the years. And even though this is good news for the medium, several industries are seeing a rise in rates to record highs — posing an uphill battle in continuing to achieve effective ROI metrics.

Behold…

Access to more scale is now available with search retargeting. Here’s how it works. I like to think of it like a boomerang.

A searcher types something into a search engine, but then they get distracted or they aren’t happy with the search results and walk away. A day or so later, that same person receives a display ad that is directly related to what they’ve recently searched for. In other words, it takes a qualified lead based on real and recent consumer intents, and gives your brand another chance to get in front of that person moving them along the purchase funnel. They threw something out there with search, and a relevant offer or product came back around to them through display – like a boomerang.

Even cooler are the different ways to target based on the search query data. You can target by keyword, topic or category. Location targeting is also an option. And frequency capping is another important consideration.

We’ve now met with over 10 ad networks that offer searching retargeting based on search queries from Google, Yahoo! or Bing. And as we introduce more clients to this product offering, we hope to have more success stories to share. There are endless opportunities for targeting scenarios and compelling creative! More boomerangs to come.

While the banner was great for driving clicks (and in some cases he will still be good for this), the artist formerly know as the banner looks way different. He’s more about finding messaging opportunities and developing content, rather than advertising. His purpose is to inform and to entertain, to create an emotional bond.

You might not recognize this guy, but he does stand out as being rich – living among marketing and content. Whenever you hear him speak, he’ll want to exchange something that’s of value. A real 2-way communicator. Lastly, he’s a big believer in doing more — whether inside the ad unit or the context of the entire screen.

I think you’ll be glad you met him particularly as we see the value of the impression going down and the value of attention going up. With that said, impressions aren’t going anywhere — they’ve been around for years. To quote Doug Weaver, who’s also been around the digital space for years, “There’s a reason we call it an impression, not a transfer.”

Let’s all be prepared to hit play on the artist formerly known as the banner and get ready to be engaged!

Look for the 60-second spot on ESPN during the second commercial break at approximately 7:13 p.m. (Thank you Firehouse media planning.) Here’s a sneak preview if you just can’t wait or are fearful that sleep may set-in after a day full of turkey: Interstate Batteries on YouTube

DIY expert and “Today Show” correspondent Lou Manfredini wanted to use a Rug Doctor machine as part of a home cleaning segment on the “Today Show” this morning. So, we arranged for the machine and a range of cleaning products to be sent, and I (along with my good friend Schubert Pereira from Rug Doctor) went to 30 Rock to help Lou prep for the segment.

Here’s a little recap of past 18 hours in NYC…
• After a quick rehearsal on Monday evening to see how the product would be used, Lou took us on a brief after-hours tour of Today Show studios (pretty cool stuff)
• Found out the segment producer was a fan of Rug Doctor, as well
• Got a “Good Morning” from Hoda Kotb as we walked into the building with her on Tuesday morning
• In the Green Room, we sat next to Daniel Wright from “The Biggest Loser”
• Then Ann Curry walked into the Green Room and stood next to me to greet some guests
• Our segment followed a hilarious interview with Sandra Bullock
• The Rug Doctor cleaning solutions and machine got some good airtime
• And the visual of the Rug Doctor machine cleaning the carpet on-air made two people in the Green Room say “Wow” and “That works really well” — and they had no idea we were from Rug Doctor

Pretty good trip to 30 Rock, I would say. Here’s the segment — take a look for yourself…

Picture of rehearsal:

Don’t get me wrong, I will print out an email coupon for a free ice cream cone any day, and gifts.com has revolutionized the way that I do my Christmas shopping. But when making decisions about what to purchase for people on my list, I would much rather dog-ear the pages of a catalog. Even my digitally-focused kids get jazzed when the latest issue of American Girl or Lego arrives.

So I find it interesting to watch the recent trend of clients that turn away from direct mail to try out more web-related methods. Clients seem swayed to test the waters of the digital realm in reaction to pressure to “go green” or to capitalize on the latest buzz over mobile devices and social networks.

Sure, it is important your brand keep up with “emerging media”, but let’s not lose sight of the target. It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. In a recent quest to source a database for a client’s email blast, I found a result of a NextAction.net survey that points out some interesting statistics:
• Up to 50% of online purchases are driven by receipt of a physical catalog
• Offline customers have a significantly higher lifetime value and greater brand loyalty than customers sourced through search or other online tactics

The challenge is to build valuable long-term customer relationships through a combination of tactics that blend offline and online media. Many brands that we love have found a way to use the digital world to enhance our shopping experience and reward our loyalty. So go ahead and grab their attention with the digital goodness, but don’t lose sight of what can be achieved when a message is supported by the staying power of traditional methods.

Speaking directly from the 18-49 female demographic: as of yesterday’s mail delivery, I now have in hand the big blue Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off postcard AND a Central Market flyer. Now I can finally get the new bath towels I’ve been eyeing — and maybe even pick up dinner.