by Dave Zornow

New York, June 11 — Cell phones are more ubiquitous than water. About 8 in 10 people around the world have clean water but almost 9 out of 10 use a mobile phone. Lucy Hood, Executive Director of the USC Marshall School of Business says cell phone usage also trumps global access to electricity (74%) and landlines (18%), too. Hood told attendees at the Advertising Research Foundation AMS 7.0 Conference that the biggest future growth in mobile use is outside of the US and Europe — using a list of services which most domestic users might find unusual.

ABC Television wants to see you smile. Really.

In his keynote address to the Advertising Research Foundation AMS 7.0 Conference in NYC, SVP Research Charles Kennedy talked about how ABC Television is using “big data,” mobile and new technology to conduct research. Kennedy says that many research studies are like a man looking for his car keys by a street light: it’s the easiest place to look. “I would argue that the best insights are out there in the dark,” he said.

by Dave Zornow

Nielsen, who has relied diaries to capture TV viewing data since the 1950’s, is poised to pick plastic over paper for local audience measurement business. Last month the ratings company announced a worldwide initiative to replace over a dozen measurement devices it uses internationally with new “GTAM” units. The “Global TV Audience Measurement” devices will use audio watermarks to identify content on multiple platforms.

TV Audience Fragmentation: Realizing the Advertising Opportunity

by Gerard Broussard, Pre-meditatedmedia.com

May marks a time of year when advertisers, media agencies and networks crouch to their starting-block positions in anticipation of the start of TV’s upfront marketplace. Like so many years past, thoughts run the gamut from what will be the hottest new programs to which networks or agencies will set the pace for the pricing of national TV commercial inventory during the coming year. The upfront process can be thought of as the ultimate sausage- making machine with as much as 65%-80% of the ingredients (one year’s TV inventory) being squeezed through for sale over the course of a six-week period. As this annual event unfolds, it makes sense to reflect on its true purpose: to deliver entertainment to viewers while tendering marketing value for the event’s ultimate underwriter, the advertiser.

by Mollie Vandor

Hi. My name is Mollie Vandor, and I’m a stalker.

No, I haven’t boiled any bunny rabbits lately. My particular brand of stalking has nothing to do with my romantic life, although it is all about passion — my passion for my career, and for the industry that I work in.

by Dave Zornow

Ad sales people and researchers are always looking for compelling stories on how advertising is effective — and something a smart marketer can’t do without. Here’s a story which proves that point to retailers — using their own words and emotional outrage.

The Village of Haverstraw, NY passed a local ordinance banning cigarette Point-Of-Sale Advertising beginning in October 2012. And the retailers and their trade groups went ballistic. Retailers and their trade groups cried foul in Big Implications for a Little Village’s Ban, a convenience store trade publication article about new regulations passed this Spring to ban tobacco advertising in convenience stores in the Lower Hudson Valley Hamlet Northwest of New York City.

by Art Salisch

Love him or hate him, fans and critics can agree on one thing: conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh makes an impression. The difference is between those who think he makes a good impression or just a lasting one.

We all know that politics is a full contact sport. But does the campaign of Arkansas Republican Steve Womack have cat blood on his hands, after a “hit job” takes out a competing campaign manager’s family pet?

by Larry Elkin

There was something refreshing in the political scene Wednesday when congressional sponsors ran away, as fast as they could, from two ill-considered bills that sought to stamp out Internet piracy by more or less stamping out the Internet.

It was fun to watch politicians on both sides of the aisle scurry together in search of cover.

by Joanne Zornow

Cord cutting — taking your TV without a cable or satellite connection — is a very real phenomenon. TV execs are twitching as they note a growing trend among subscribers to drop television but keep high-speed Internet access for watching TV programming. Although the current number of cord cutting households is low, it does appear to be a growing trend with about 1 in 10 households being Web connected by cable-free.