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News and commentary for marketing professionals - from MediaPost.

Research Brief: Financial Security An Elusive Concept
A study from the American Savings Education Council (ASEC) and AARP shows that 91% of young adults report having financial goals for themselves, only 53% report sticking to a monthly budget. And while 62% have given at least some thought to their own retirement, 61% feel their retirement savings is behind schedule. 42% of these young adults give themselves a grade of D or F to describe how well they are saving.
Marketing Daily: Survey: Just One Product Was Memorable--Wii Fit
The lesson for this economy is that marketers should not sacrifice brand equity to deals, coupons and other immediate-sales messages. "One of the things that we talk about is that in times of recession so many companies will cut back on product and promotional innovation, but this is exactly the time when that is the last thing they should be doing," says Mintel's Lynn Dornblaser.
Marketing Daily: Yellowbook Goes Back To Future In New Effort
"The futuristic aspects in the new television commercial represent Yellowbook's commitment to continued innovation and, importantly, to helping consumers find what they're really looking for--wherever they search--today as well as tomorrow," a company representative says. The campaign builds upon a tagline introduced in May, "Say Yellow to the future."
Marketing Daily: Believe It Or Not, Consumers May Be Shopping More
Marketing Daily: Kodak, PGA Tour Set Golf Competition
Marketing Daily: AAF Inducts 8 To Ad Hall Of Fame
Marketing Daily: Dr Pepper Puts Gamer Star's Face On Bottles
In a consumer promotion being billed as one of the largest not only in video gaming but professional sports, Dr Pepper will kick off its second year as a sponsor of the Major League Gamer (MLG) Web sites by featuring an MLG gaming star player on more than 175 million 20-ounce bottles of the regular and Diet Dr Pepper.
Marketing Daily: PandG Bows New Ads For Gillette Fusion
Marketing Daily: Zurich Financial Puts Concierges In Airports
The European company says the effort is meant to support its new brand mantra, "delivering when it matters." The theme was introduced with its Zurich "HelpPoint" global campaign last month in 80 countries. The concierges will help travelers with documents, hotel bookings, auto rentals, city maps, luggage carts, or wrapping paper for gift purchases.
Out to Launch: Out to Launch
Alton Brown digs Welch's. PC can't get no satisfaction. Let's launch!
Marketing Daily: CVS To Offer Doorbuster Deals Before Black Friday
Marketing Daily: Top Toys: Hannah's Hot, Beats Out Bratz
And Disney's "High School Musical" items are also coming on strong, breaking the Top 10 list for girls for the first time, reports the National Retail Federation's 2008 Top Toy survey. But the big news, in a ranking that is usually all about dolls for girl and cars for boys, is that video games are appearing on the girls list for the first time.
Email Insider: Driving More Value From Your Email Investment
It's fourth quarter -- budget time -- and in this economy many of us are focused on maintaining our budgets rather than obtaining approval for additional spend. As marketers, just like our colleagues, we need to step up and contribute. We have to do more with less or make a solid case for how we'll do more with more. Email remains the most efficient direct channel there is. It's time to stand up, pound our chests and make sure senior management knows it!
Search Insider: Thoughts On Google's SEO Starter Guide, Voice Search, and YouTube Sponsored Ads
Here are thoughts on three topics this week (that are coincidentally all from Google). The first: Google gives natural search optimization its blessing with the SEO Starter Guide.
Mobile Insider: Not Mobile Customers, But Mobile Audiences
From the time I started this column several years ago, one of my persistent laments of the mobile industry has been that tech companies are not by their nature and culture media companies. It never was in their DNA to think of themselves as content platforms that need to market and merchandise media. They don't think of third-party publishers and advertisers as partners and benefactors with whom they share audience data in order to better target content. And, most of all, they don't really think of their customer base as an audience that constitutes an asset it can use in dealing with all of these third parties.
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: It's Official. Anheuser-Busch Is No More
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Google, PandG Staffers Walk In Each Other's Work Space
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Contrarian Reckitt Outperforms It Rivals
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Dell: Supercomputing Coming To Mainstream Businesses
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Cardholders Squeezed As Issuers Cut Credit Limits
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Online Shopping Grows A Mere 1%, Data Show
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Yum Brands Bets on Taco Bell To Win Customers Overseas
Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Microsoft Touts 'Future of Music Exploration' With Zune 3.0
Gaming Insider: Reality Check
This past week an article from ClickZ got some love for its extreme take on the state of the industry. Which was of course that consoles are going to die to the masses of newer, younger casual games. Of course, the author of the ClickZ article didn't actually qualify any of his opinions with numbers. I mean, it's obvious that casual games are going to eat consoles alive, right?
Media Technology Futures: How Deep In The Sand Can You Shove Your Head?
Obviously, pretty deep. I am referring to an article that appeared in today's New York Times, "Is Wal-Mart Too Cheap For Its Own Good?" While the article may be all about how Wal-Mart is having a tough time breaking out of the low-cost, low-end market, the bigger-picture message is this: not only is the report likely right on the money from a brand equity point of view, it was leaked to the mainstream press via an online property, wakeupwalmart.com.