Philly Ad Club Announces Winners of 2009 Annual ADDY® Awards at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

PHILADELPHIA – The Philly Ad Club will pay tribute to the region’s best and brightest advertising minds on March 5, from 6:30-10 p.m. as the Philadelphia Museum of Art plays host to this years ADDY Awards ceremony. Once again, this Philly Ad Club annual competition drew hundreds of entries for the organization’s highest honor. Guests at the event will also enjoy a private showing of the Paul Cezanne exhibit.

Aptly situated this year at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, surrounded by the efforts of the world’s greatest and best known artists, the ADDY Awards ceremony is annually attended by a who’s who of the Philadelphia advertising community, to recognize the finest advertising campaigns and creative thinkers in the city. ADDY Awards winners are chosen by judges from leading agencies across the country, including this year from DraftFCB, Ogilvy & Mather, Vigilante Advertising, DDB, Burrell, and Smashing Ideas.
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Smart, original spot airs in 11 Chicago regions

CHICAGO – Leading production and post production house, Optimus, announced that it has completed and aired “Done,” the TV commercial based on the winning script from the Optimus “One Shot” contest. The contest was staged last August in partnership with the firm’s brand marketing agency, Scott & Victor, LLC. It was a rallying call to the Chicago advertising community to showcase genuine creativity and generate excitement about Chicago as a creative environment. “Done” was initially aired on Comcast on January 22, and will be aired in 11 Chicago regions from January 26 through February 2.

“We came up with the idea to give away a spot that would be created by Chicago’s freshest young talent and produced start-to-finish by Optimus and our new in-house production arm, ONE. We also would handle media placement of the spot,” said Tom Duff, president of Optimus. “After developing the ‘One Shot’ contest concept with Scott & Victor last August, we issued a creative brief and asked for the most creative and original expressions of it.”
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CBS is First Advertiser to Appear in the Ads That Debuted Last Week

NEW YORK – The New York Times announced that it has begun offering ad placements on its front page below the fold. CBS was the first to appear.

“This high impact placement represents an exciting new opportunity for our advertisers to reach our educated, affluent and influential readers across the country,” said Denise Warren, senior vice president and chief advertising officer for The New York Times Media Group. “In 2006 we began testing ads on some section fronts and received a very positive response from the advertising community. A strip ad on the front page of The New York Times will be highly attractive to advertisers looking for premium real estate for their campaigns.”
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Analysis of Independent Data Also Shows Advertising on Content Sites Performing Better Among Young, Affluent Audiences
New York, NY – January 8, 2008 – A new report released today by the Online Publishing Association, OPA, found that after analyzing independent Dynamic Logic MarketNorms data, advertising effectiveness scores on quality, original content sites, as represented by OPA members, were numerically higher than on the web in general, on portals or on ad networks. The strong showing for these sites swept across nearly all measurements outscored industry norms for the Internet in 47 out of 47 advertising metrics.
 
The new report, “Improving Ad Performance Online” is the second in a series of OPA reports leveraging Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms® database, the largest of its kind, and an industry standard for measuring online advertising’s effectiveness and branding impact. The first wave of the study was conducted in July, 2008. Both reports look at ad effectiveness scores for high quality, original content sites, compared with those for overall MarketNorms, portals and ad networks.
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Data from Internet Activity Index Shows Content on the Rise with Elections, Economic Crisis; Online Commerce at All-Time Low

New York, NY – December 3, 2008 – The Online Publishers Association (OPA) today announced that time spent with online content reached a 2008 high in October, according to the group’s Internet Activity Index (IAI). And while content soared in October, share of time spent with e-commerce hit an all-time low. The exclusive Index, which the OPA launched over four years ago, measures the amount of time consumers spend online each month with commerce, communications, community, content, and search.

Content has consistently led all categories since early 2006, and October’s data marks a new high for 2008*. Over 45% of consumers’ online time in October was spent with content, an increase of 6.1% since the beginning of the year. The jump was driven by consumers’ growing reliance on trusted online media outlets, and in particular, the dramatic news related to the nation’s financial crisis politics.
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Hires Executive with Capitol Hill Experience Complemented with Private Sector Work as Director of Government Affairs for IAC

New York, NY – November 21, 2008 – As part of its continuing effort to engage in public policy related to digital media, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) today announced it has added the position of Vice President of Government Affairs and hired Michael Drobac. Drobac spent years working on Capitol Hill and most recently was Director of Government Affairs for IAC. 

The OPA, which represents the world’s leading providers of high quality, premium online content, is committed to being active in policy debates on behalf of its member companies. As digital media has become a vital part of the lives of consumers, policy makers have taken an increasing role in examining the industry. While welcoming the important role of Congress, the FCC and other regulators, the OPA has sought to ensure these groups understand the industry’s economic fundamentals, its efforts at self-regulation and the important services it provides to consumers.
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Buddy Media Application Enables Facebook Users to View, Test and Judge Print and Television Ads of the Past and Present

NEW YORK – Buddy Media, in conjunction with Atmosphere BBDO Senior Art Director Jason Culbertson, officially unveiled the new Ad Battle Facebook application, which allows people to view two different print and television ads submitted by fellow Facebook users and vote on which ad they think “wins” the battle. As an ad wins battles, its ranking increases, with the highest (and lowest) scoring ads highlighted under the app’s “Best and Worst” section.

In addition, when users submit ads that win “battles” their personal Ad Battle ranking (which can range from “Featherweight” to “Heavyweight”) improves. People can also use Ad Battle to compare their ad rankings with others on their social network, securing a perspective on whether their own “ad judgment” is in the mainstream or not.
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OPA Sites Now Engage 79% of U.S. Internet Audience

New York, NY – October 21, 2008 – Nearly eight out of ten Americans who use the Internet visit an Online Publishers Association (OPA) site, according to new comScore data for August. The OPA also announced today it has recently added ten new Members and six new Supporters to the Association.

OPA Member companies, all of which are providers of high quality, premium online content, have a combined, unduplicated reach of 149.3 million monthly unique visitors, or 79% of the total U.S. online population.* They include a great diversity of content, with the leading publishers of general and political news, sports and entertainment information, product reviews, travel information, business and financial news and more.
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