Boston-based independent shop Connelly Partners today unveils its first advertising for Samsonsite in an effort to relaunch the brand in the U.S.

A 30-second spot called "Bull Fight" features a matador using a wheeled red piece of the luggage in lieu of the traditional cape.

Steve Connelly, CCO and president of the agency, said the commercial is designed to illustrate "the likeability of the brand and underlined how Samsonite Spinners can nimble you up" in situations where quick movements are essential.

Christian Aparicio, a real matador, stars, as does an actual bull, though the two were shot separately and edited together to "interact" in the spot's white, dreamy landscape.

The spot initially breaks on the CNN Airport Network with an additional media buy likely for the holiday season.

Samsonite, based in Mansfield, Mass., tapped Connelly in March and is launching the campaign in tandem with its 100th birthday celebration.

Samsonite spent $5 million on ads in both 2007 and '08, when the account was handled by Omnicom Group's TBWAChiatDay in New York, per Nielsen. There was no measurable domestic ad spending to bolster the brand last year, and the media budget moving forward was not disclosed. - Ad Week

Meet "Peggy," a bearded, clueless and very male credit-card customer-service representative.

Originally done by SFW Porn, Diesel borrows the motif for it's upcoming anniversary, making sure its XXX birthday invite stays Safe For Work. - Creativity Online

Wow. All I have to say.

After a lengthy review process that took the better of a year to complete, Dubai-based carrier Emirates said it has chosen independent agency StrawberryFrog as its lead global creative partner.

The shop's office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, will handle the assignment.

The crème de la crème of India's advertising world was either in attendance or on the podium at last month's Exchange4Media Conclave in Mumbai last month.

One of the principal speakers was Rahul Welde, VP of media at Unilever for Asia, Africa, Middle East and Turkey. He focused his remarks on three key issues: 1. The necessity of having procurement running the business, as media is a commodity and there is no difference in the value or quality of GRPs; 2. The advantages of the disengagement of the agency (both media and creative) from the brand process and the future of essentially free servicing by posting all briefs on the internet (which is now called "crowd sourcing"; and 3. The virtues of screwing all costs down to zero, so if a supplier does not want to work for zero, he will find someone else who will.

No intro necessary, just watch:

"Made in the USA" pride is the theme of Wieden + Kennedy's first campaign for Chrysler's Jeep Grand Cherokee, which carries the new tagline, "The things we make, make us."



A 60-second commercial, breaking today, uses images of American industry to celebrate historical craftsmanship and engineering feats. Shots of skyscrapers, locomotives and welders serve as the backdrop to a voiceover explaining, "As a people we do well when we make good things and not so well when we don't." The spot offers the new Jeep as an example of how such mistakes can be "put right," with the narration concluding, "We just have to do it, so we did."

Mike Manley, CEO of the Jeep Brand at Chrysler Group, said the work "has been carefully designed to communicate the Jeep brand's commitment to American craftsmanship, the return of personal pride and dedication to producing a vehicle that is truly well made and beautifully designed."

More product-specific ads will follow this summer.
Wieden also works on Chrysler's Dodge brand, and is rolling out a new advertising campaign for the Challenger using a "Freedom" theme.

The first commercial in that push, breaking tonight on ESPN SportsCenter, reimagines a battle from the American Revolution with the colonists, led by George Washington, charging the British in cars instead of on horseback. The voiceover states, "Here are a couple of things America got right. Cars and freedom."

The print continues the theme with a black-and-white image of the troops posing with the Challenger and the copy, "This is the car you buy because you can't buy an American eagle." 
Jeep and Dodge spend about $150 million and $300 million annually on ads, respectively, per Nielsen. - Ad Week

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of Internet display advertising are greatly exaggerated. This is especially true in local markets where advertisers, seeing a limit to what search can do, are embracing display ads. That's a happy trend for local TV stations' branded content sites, which depend on display for two-thirds of their online revenue. "Display is on a sharp rebound," said Jon Swallen, svp of research for Kantar Media, which reported U.S. display ad spending gained 5 percent in the first quarter this year to $2.2 billion. TV stations have seen their online business surge 26 percent in Q1 over Q1 2009, per the Television Bureau of Advertising.

"Marketers hit a wall with search. When the efficiency starts to level off, they look to other ways to expand business, and that's where display has come in," said Eric Koepele, director of digital media sales for Hearst Television, which has seen display revenue grow by double-digit percentages this year.

"At the end of the day, marketers have to stand out. If there's no brand awareness from search, they're just like everyone else," added JonPaul Rexing, senior director of sales for ESPNlocal.com.

Another factor: A lot of local advertisers that didn't have Web sites now do. "They have some place to send people," said Tim Reynolds, director of interactive media for Meredith.

No longer just static words on a long, narrow banner, display ads have become much more sophisticated and creative. They're interactive, dynamic and can embed video. For example. Meredith Broadcasting offers retailers a display ad with a built-in countdown to a sale. And an ad on ESPN's year-old espnchicago.com Web site for Old Style, the local and iconic Chicago beer, animates the brew poured into a tall glass.

What's really going to kick display into high gear is monetizing display ads beyond the click. New server tracking tools used by Hearst correlate a visitor's exposure to the advertiser's display ad to a visit to the advertiser's Web site within 30 days of seeing the ad. It's the first time a media company has provided view-through data on the local level.

For one local advertiser, Des Moines, Iowa-based City Wide, a heating and air conditioning company, view-through data showed 24 percent of those driven to the City Wide site didn't click on the ad, but came to the City Wide site within 30 days of seeing the ad on the KCCI Web site. The difference between click through and view through was even more dramatic for Rug & Home, where nearly half the Web site visits on the Hearst ABC affiliate in the Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Ark., DMA were from people who saw the ad but didn't click.

By monitoring both click-through and view-through data weekly, the advertiser was able to tweak creative, resulting in a bigger response lift. "Small changes in creative and layout brought a significant lift in response," said Amy Phoenix, an independent online ad rep working with Hearst Television.

"As advertisers get more adept at using and measuring online media, there will be more demand for display,' said Koepele. "Click through is only the tip of the iceberg." - Ad Week

(Mashable) -- Anyone who has sat stymied with their cursor blinking in a "username" field knows that coming up with a name is harder than you'd think.

How do you find that perfect Twitter handle or that ideal epithet for your blog, website or startup -- one that's snappy and memorable, and that you won't hate by next year?

We talked to bloggers, social media gurus, linguists and naming experts (yes, they exist!) to get the scoop on finding a name that will work on the web.

Zynga is hoping to expand the reach of its online games through a wide-ranging promotional deal with 7-Eleven that will connect virtual goods with roughly 200 million goods sold in 7-Elevens in the U.S. and Canada.
 
The six-week program kicks off June 1. 7-Eleven has virtual goods codes placed on 35 of its store products, ranging from Slurpees to Big Bite hot dogs. The goods can be redeemed at a campaign site, www.buyearnplay.com, and placed in three of Zynga's most popular social games, FarmVille, Mafia Wars and YoVille. About 200 million redemption codes will go out, according to company officials.
 
"We're looking to drive a bunch of new users into our properties and engage our existing users and do some cross-promotion," said Michael Comerford, general manager of revenue at Zynga.
 
The promotion is an extension of a program begun last November to sell virtual currency game cards through 7-Eleven stores. Zynga game-devoted Web sites have carried reports of the game codes appearing on 7-Eleven products.
 
For 7-Eleven, Zynga's audience represents an attractive constituency to build loyalty and repeat visits from customers, particularly millennials, according to Stephanie Hoppe, senior director of marketing at 7-Eleven.
 
"We know social networking and social gaming is something they're interested in," she said. "We want to give them experiences that they'll enjoy and will drive them back to 7-Eleven."
 
The codes are redeemable for virtual goods related to the products, but do not carry 7-Eleven branding. For instance, buying vanilla ice cream earns a customer a Neapolitan cow in FarmVille.
 
The companies have matched up items with the games they think fit most. The male-heavy audience for Mafia Wars can get codes on hot dogs, wings and chips while female-skewing FarmVille is targeted with offers for fresh fruit, bottled water and sandwiches.
 
7-Eleven plans to use national, spot and cable TV spots, satellite radio and print ads to promote the program, which is its largest ever promotional tie-in based on the number of products involved, according to Hoppe.
 
Zynga has become the leading player in the fast-growing social gaming space. It boasts more than 239 million players for its games daily, according to statistics compiled by AppData. Yet its growth has tapered off lately.

The company recently tangled with Facebook, where most of its users play its games, over use of Facebook's new currency system. The companies last week struck a five-year agreement that will keep Zynga's games on Facebook.
 
"I'm looking at new areas of distribution and growth," said Comerford. "Fast growth on a small basis is a lot easier. We're always looking for new markets and opportunities."
 
It is doubly attractive to metrics-focused Zynga because it can track exact results from redemptions, Comerford said.
 
"We can understand who is coming into the games, who has never played before and see if it has affected their game play," he added.