Today’s International Herald Tribune is wrapped around a glossy advertisement for COS stores, of Paris.
I pick up my copy of today’s International Herald Tribune, and the glossy black and white wrap around advertising is mesmerizing. A pale model in black dress advertises for Cos stores of Paris.
The logo of the newspaper appears over the ad, then the real Page One with the news of the day is inside.
Being that the IHT is a sister publication of The New York Times, one wonders why this type of luxurious and visually appealing advertising has not made its way into the TImes. Especially in these difficult economic times, aren’t there incentives to offer ads such as this one to clients in New York?
I can see where Saks, or Bloomingdales, or many of the other large, upscale department stores would immediately go for this. But, who knows?
The ad is so attractive that it makes one pick up the newspaper, as it is printed on top of the line glossy paper stock. The rest of the news is all inside, ready for consumption.
Aggressive advertising positioning, creative reconfiguring of how ads are placed on newspaper pages, these are all strategies that make perfect sense to consider in the current environment.
When the President does not read newspapers
Estado de Sao Paulo has published editorial commentary on why President Lula does not read newspapers
“Don’t come to me with anymore facts,” President Lula is quoted saying to reporters who interview him
Yesterday we praised President Obama for his statement to The New York Times about how he reads newspapers, printed ones, that is, and likes the feel of a newspaper. We thought it was the best marketing newspapers could get at a much needed time. For original blog, go here: http://tinyurl.com/actywu
One of our regular readers here, Alexandre Linhares Giesbrecht of Sao Paulo, Brazil, wrote with some interesting information about his own President Lula, who boasts of not reading any of the press, as it gives him anxiety and “is not good for my liver”. One of Brazil’s largest dailies, Estado de Sao Paulo, has devoted editorials and columns to the question of Why the President Does not Read.
So, again, thanks President Obama for not only “reading newspapers” and liking the feel of them, but by just reading. Something to be proud of.
Paris in the morning: turn off that alarm clock, please
Cities are like people. Some are morning cities, others are cities that live for the night.
Such is Paris. I start my run thru the center of Paris at 6:32 am, and Paris is mine to enjoy alone. The city sort of snores as I pass by. Only signs of life are the street cleaners (God, they hose the boulevards up and down as if preparing for a party tonight—-maybe!), the big trucks deilivering crates of water and drinks to the restaurants, plus the occasional jogger (not many this morning).
You can see Paris yawning, stretching and sort of pleading with Mom: Please can I sleep another five minutes?
But, as for humans, reality strikes, and the alarm clock goes off—-in the case of Paris, around 7 am, all the lamps lining the Champs D’Elysees (they don’t call it the city of lights for nothing) suddenly go off.
Time to wake up, Paris, someone yells from above the street lamps.
And by 7:12, cars everywhere, commuters on the way to work, everyone marching and looking forward, briefcases in hand, pondering what this Wednesday will hold.
The window of the fabulously luxurious Louis Vouitton store shows a trunk so big one could put a piano inside of it, sort of like those that Bette Davis would carry as if she prepared to sail on the Queen Elizabeth. At 15000 euros, a bargain!
The Renault Atelier displays a vintage automobile that, indeed, Bette Davis would have taken a ride on with her man of the moment.
I finally get back to the hotel, now in heavy traffic. But, alas, the homeless woman who usually sits just a few steps from the entrance to my hotel, is already there, along with her doggie. Instead of wearing her usual cap covering her hair, she is brushing her long hair, with the ease and style of a Las Vegas showgirl in her dressing room, preparing for her stage entrance.
She smiles at me, and, for a moment, she could have been Rita Hayworth as Gilda.
That’s how Paris wakes up this day.
Knowing your audience: The Mario Garcia Jr. blog
Mario Garcia Jr. today writes about Seven Things You Absolutely Need to Know About your Audience.
Here is an excerpt:
Knowing your audience helps you put yourself in their place. Putting yourself in the place of the audience is the best way to approach a communication project. Too many times I’m finding writers writing for writers, editors editing for editors and designers designing for designers, all the while losing sight of the one thing that matters most – the audience.
Only in understanding your audience and what motivates them will you be able to engage them. Understanding them is more than looking at market data and assuming behaviors. It’s taking the time to talk to them and finding the answers to these very important questions. So, what are you waiting for? Ask them.
Go here:
http://tinyurl.com/bg8yht
The following items may be of interest to you, from the IFRA Executive News Service:
– USA: For The New York Times, the digital future is now
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10193349-93.html
– USA: Times Techie Envisions the Future of News
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/the-future-of-n.html
– USA: News Corp. Buys Brooklyn Newspaper Chain
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-news-corp.-buys-local-brooklyn-paper/
– Stop the press! The future of US journalism
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/stop-the-press-the-future-of-us-journalism-1642112.html
– Behind the Incredibly Shrinking Media
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/mar2009/db2009039_236056.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
– Back to the future: MediaNews revives “print your own newspaper”
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/03/back-to-the-future-medianews-revives-print-your-own-newspaper/
– Out with the Dead Wood for Newspapers
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/mar2009/ca20090310_251590.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
– Top Online Publishers Offer Bigger Ads
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/digital-downloads/broadband/e3idb7a65553a4b13f6693a116609fb9812
– Why papers are leaving the Associated Press
http://www.visualeditors.com/apple/2009/03/why-papers-are-leaving-the-associated-press/
– ‘Journalism That Matters’ Is Entrepreneurial
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=159629
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To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
https://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
TheMarioBlog posting #210