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New York Times |
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Watch Out, TV: AOL and HuffPo Jump Into Live Video |
AOL and The Huffington Post are readying a live video network that will have 12 hours of programming every weekday when it starts this summer.
The network, which is currently named The Huffington Post Streaming Network, or HPSN for short, was previewed at an event in Manhattan on Thursday.
Roy Sekoff, a founding editor of The Huffington Post who will run the streaming network, said it represented a "substantial investment" by the AOL Huffington Post Media Group, though he would not specify how much. He said there would be 100 employees exclusively assigned to the production of the network, but emphasized that the rest of The Huffington Post's employees would contribute to it.
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Wall Street Journal |
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Forget the Beer and Chips: This Year's Ads Ask Viewers to Suit Up |
Enjoying Super Bowl ads has never required much effort. Sit back, grab a beer and enjoy the experience. This year, though, that party is over.
Marketers are asking consumers to come armed with their technological devices and be prepared to interact with the commercials they see on the screen.
General Motors has introduced a "Chevy Game Time" mobile-device app that offers viewers games, quizzes and prizes, all linked to the game and Chevy ads. The app will give users a code; if the code matches the Chevy license plate in the commercials appearing in the game, the viewer can win prizes, including a new car.
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Business Week |
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Nintendo Needs a Hit in a Hurry |
Super Mario is proving no match for Angry Birds. Nintendo (NTDOY) executives have watched with alarm as consumers spend a few dollars to buy apps like Birds for their smartphones or tablets-instead of spending hundreds of dollars to purchase the company's 3DS portable handhelds, Wii consoles, and games like Mario Kart 7. On Jan. 26, Nintendo unnerved investors by boosting its projected net loss for the fiscal year ending in March from $260 million to $838 million, making this its worst year in the three decades since it began making games.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says the gloom is temporary, despite two years of declining sales for the Kyoto-based company. The Wii U, expected to go on sale in time for the 2012 holidays, will dispel concerns that game-focused consoles are doomed, he says. The centerpiece of the new system is a 6.2-inch touchscreen controller, roughly the size of a tablet computer, that lets users wirelessly connect to the console and shift content between a big-screen television and the device's smaller screen. A player can use the controller to switch camera angles in a game, change the lighting, and flick the picture from the TV back to the touchscreen, should someone else want to watch the tube. Along with a slew of new game titles for the 3DS, the Wii U should "sweep away some reports that game-dedicated devices are coming to an end," Iwata said on a conference call with investors.
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Adage |
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Old Spice Doesn't Respect Other Brands' Personal Space |
Old Spice is too powerful for its own good, or at least for Procter & Gamble's own good.
Odor blocker spokes-muscles Terry Crews carves out new space for the male body spray, in a pair of spots out of Wieden + Kennedy Portland and fellow P&G brands Bounce and Charmin. They are the first ever co-branded ads featuring Old Spice.
The team recruited Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric fame to direct. The films have been released on Old Spice's Facebook page and YouTube channel and will launch on broadcast Feb. 6.
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ADWEEK: The Ads of Super Bowl XLVI: Adweek's Preview |
The Super Bowl is fast becoming an auto show. And last year's record number of car-related spots have led to an even bigger haul this year. Expect close to 20 separate auto (or auto-related) commercials in the game-that's almost one-third of the total number of spots-from brands including Acura, Audi, Bridgestone, Cars. com, Chrysler, General Motors (Chevrolet and Cadillac), Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Acura and Lexus are first-time Bowl advertisers, and they'll be joined by a larger number of newbies than usual. Among them: tax-prep software 2nd Story, real-estate giant Century 21, yogurt-maker Dannon and retail clothing chain H&M.
Of course, the game will have familiar faces, from Coca-Cola and Pepsi to Anheuser-Busch, CareerBuilder, E*Trade, Go Daddy and Mars, this time pitching M&M's rather than Snickers. Volkswagen has the heaviest burden of having to live up to last year's intergalactic success of "The Force." And at first glance, Coke has the most interesting plans, with the plot of its second-quarter spot dependent on what's happening on the field.
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