Common Causes
The world’s three largest advertising agencies — London’s WPP Group and New York City-based Interpublic Group of Companies and Omnicom — in April announced a plan to jointly construct an online advertising exchange.
Expected to launch this summer, the as-yet unnamed exchange is designed to connect buyers and sellers of Web marketing materials and offer research and data that marketers can use to make knowledge-based media buys. The three partners will invite other agencies to join the exchange.
“Technology presents a great opportunity to create a platform from which the billions of dollars now spent on media every week can be transacted much more effectively and cost-efficiently. We expect that the platform will both improve service and cost-efficiency to our clients and simultaneously benefit media sellers,” reads a statement issued by the companies.
The new company will be based in New York City. Michael Lotito, chief operating officer of Interpublic’s Initiative Media arm, will serve as ceo.
Verizon Wireless, Bedminster, NJ, is joining forces with RadioShack Corp., Fort Worth, TX, to launch Verizon stores within 4,400 RadioShack locations nationwide this month. The pact gives Verizon access to more than one million customers per day. For the launch, Verizon will offer 2,000 free weekend minutes to consumers who sign on for its National SingleRate plan. Verizon and RadioShack will also cross-promote by offering $30 RadioShack Cool Cards with the purchase of Verizon handsets.
The U.S. Postal Service signed a three-year extension to its title sponsorship of the U.S. Cycling Team, which it has supported since 1996. Additional team sponsors include Visa, Nike, Yahoo, and Volkswagen. The team is owned and managed by sports marketing agency Tailwind Sports, Sausalito, CA.
Polaroid, Cambridge, MA, and Nike, Beaverton, OR, are leveraging their combined clout with teen girls for the Nike Runamok Pic, a sporty sneaker design featuring a built-in window to house sticker photos taken with Polaroid’s I-Zone instant camera. Promotions include a Best Friend Search contest in Seventeen Magazine in which teens submit i-Zone photos. Grand-prize winners get their pictures published. Nike and Polaroid are also offering a co-branded shoe clip in specially marked packages of I-Zone film.
Boston-based Gillette Co.’s Venus and Soft & Dri and Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble’s Era Max have signed on as one-year sponsors of the newly launched Women’s United Soccer Association. Sponsorship packages include rights to WUSA trademarks and logos, advertising during national telecasts on TNT and CNN, on-air billboards and graphics, branding on one team’s uniform, on-field signage, space at wusaleague.com, and sampling opportunities.
Hit Entertainment/Lyrick Studios, Dallas, inked a deal with Sears, Roebuck and Co., Hoffman Estates, IL, for an exclusive Bob the Builder effort running in stores from July through December. Sears will offer Bob products in categories such as toys, gifts, and home décor in a store-within-a-store featuring P-O-P materials. Sears Portrait Studios will offer Bob backgrounds. A European import, the Bob the Builder kids series centers on a friendly builder and his crew of wacky machines. The property made its U.S. debut in January as part of New York City-based Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. programming block.
