New York Festivals Advertising Awards

New York Festivals was the first to create an international competition recognizing the importance and marketing value of innovative media. The 2008 International Innovative Advertising Awards are being judged online by panels of industry experts from around the world. Judging criteria includes: ability of the entry to communicate its message, idea or appeal; design; structure and ease of navigation; interactivity and functionality; originality of the creative/communicative approach; creative concept; marketing impact; and overall user experience.

Categories for the awards in the product and services group include apparel, automotive, alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic beverages, foods, medical/pharmaceutical, entertainment promotion, toys, travel/tourism, and many more. Some of the other categories in this competition include: Advergames and Viral Advertising, Online Advertising, including integrated campaigns that include online elements. There is also a wide selection of categories for Guerrilla Marketing and Alternative Media, such as ambient, event and mobile marketing, blogs, short message systems, and street teams. Lastly, there is a category for CD-ROM advertising.

New York Festivals Innovative Advertising Awards were first established in 1992. In 2007 the Grand Award Winner was IKEA Sweden with an interactive website featuring 5 different walk-in closets where users can control a character to look at different IKEA products in each closet.

Banning Junk Food Ads in Australia

On October 30, 2007, The Sydney Morning Herald, put out an article regarding a new World Health Organization code that will control the advertising of food to children. This code will outlaw the use of popular cartoon characters to sell foods that are high in fat, sodium, and sugar on both television and the internet.

Obesity has been spreading like an epidemic around many parts of the world, and it is now just as prevalent in children in as it is in adults.

This proposal is very similar to the advertising standards of Finland and Germany where advertising to children with the use of cartoon characters is prohibited. In Norway and Sweden, any advertisement targeted at children age 12 and under is banned completely. Currently, there are no such restrictions in Australia, where Children’s Television Standards have not been changed for 17 years.

It is good to see Australia try to help end the growing problem of obesity throughout their country. Children are very impressionable and it is simply unfair to target them with advertisements for unhealthy products, because they are bound to be very effective. The United States has seen are particularly drastic increase in the number of obese children. It would be nice to see some advertising restrictions be put in placed in the U.S. to protect children from being targeted by marketers.

Social Responsibility

According to an article on albawaba.com, a middle east news source, the IAA(International Advertising Association) is now supporting the production of the "One Minute of Responsibility" program. This has been organized by ACT Responsible , and features spots for non-commercial, social and environmental causes. The program is currently being broadcasted daily on Euro News.

The Jordan Chapter of the IAA hosted the ACT Responsible exhibition during the 2nd International Advertising and Marketing Communications Conference held in 2006. The conference had a huge turn out where Jordanian professionals and practitioners were able to look at some of the best creative work that has been done for non-commercial causes.

Herve de Clerck, ACT Initiator and IAA Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility said: “Our goal is to federate, inspire and promote great work in advertising and communication, in favour of social responsibility and sustainable development, and to show how advertising plays a significant role in raising awareness in today’s crucial world issues”.

According to Joseph Ghossoub, Chairman and World President IAA, "Since inception, the IAA has cared about promoting social responsibility." With that being said, it makes sense that the IAA would support an organization like ACT Responsible. It is very important that organizations like ACT exist so that PSA's can be broadcasted to help social and environmental causes that actually make a difference. Additionally the fact that there is real effort being put into these various PSA's is a good thing. It also shows that the advertising and marketing industry is willing to put forth the effort to help these global causes.

Education Conference in Milan

On November 16^th 2007 the IAA held the European Education Conference in Milan. The conference was in collaboration with The Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Milan. It was held with the goal of verifying whether or not the courses offered by Universities in Europe were adequate in meeting the needs and requirements of the current business communications market throughout the world. Both members of the academic community and top industry leaders attended this conference too see how the education system is preparing students for work and suggest ways to improve educations current state. After stating the fact that the goal of education in the field of business communication will be to train students to become professionals in total business communication, the conference was split up into two parts. First, “Communication and Employment: which roles and competences for communicators in the companies?” Second was “Changing Environment & New Professional Skills in the Market for Communication Services.” The conference closed with a presentation on education models that were suggested.

This article makes me think about how I am being prepared for the business and marketing world at Ithaca College. Whether or not my education here is teaching me enough of what I need to know about business and marketing communications to begin a successful career in the field. I will be working at an advertising/marketing firm this summer so I suppose after working there I will be able to get an idea of whether or not I have been trained properly to perform in he marketing communications world. I am not sure if this is happening here; but I hope that similar conferences to this one are being held in the United States to see if our education system is meeting the needs of the business communications market in the U.S. and abroad.

-Alec G.

A Super Bowl in London?

Well, as you know yesterday was the Superbowl and I just recently stumbled upon a very interesting article on foxbusiness.com. Apparently there is talk of hosting a Super Bowl across the pond in London, England. Football has been gaining popularity over in Europe and the NFL has played a number of games overseas with a great deal of success. According to the article sports marketing experts are not quite sure if the most watched and expensive sporting event in America would be a money maker for the NFL if it was played overseas.

For me, when I hear about the Super Bowl, I immediately think about the commercials. This year it cost companies 2.6 million for a 30 second spot! Having the game over in Europe makes me wonder about how it might affect the advertising in the Super Bowl. Will we be watching some European commercials here in the United States, or will it be the same as any other Super Bowl?

Some people believe putting this event in Europe could bring new fans “out of the woodwork” and potentially lead to more money for the league. People have also been comparing this to when FIFA sent its premier event, the World Cup to the United States in 1994. It was a huge success over here and eventually lead to the start of the MLS (Major League Soccer.) I’m not quite sure if having the Super Bowl in London would have that same effect as the World Cup in the U.S. but I think it would be interesting to see how successful it could be over there.

-Alec

Welcome!

This is my blog on International Marketing for my Audience Research class at Ithaca College. In this blog i will address issues relating to international marketing around the world both past and present.