No it’s not a new drink. More like a very “cool” exercise in advertising, publicity and branding. Microsoft officially launched the release of its new flagship Vista operating system and Office 2007 in Toronto, Canada on January/29/07 by building a “Digital Ice House” created from 270,000 pounds of ice.
The project required 500 man hours of production and 300 man hours of preparation to set up. The furnishings included actual tables, chairs, beds, decorations and even a toilet, sink and bathtub all sculpted from ice.
The various rooms of the house featured the potential uses of the Microsoft products that promise easy-to-use search and organization tools and a safer online experience. The built-in Windows Media Center and new mobility features give users more ways to enjoy their favourite digital entertainment at home or on the go.
For Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft recommends system requirements of 1 GHz 32-bit processor, 1 GB system memory and a 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space. Some critics warn that unless your system is well above these minimums, you run the risk of sending your computer into a deep freeze of it’s own with the new MS operating system.
You can watch the Digital Ice House tour right now:

AOIFE WHITE
Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium – A court on Tuesday ruled in favour of Belgian newspapers that sued Google Inc., claiming that the Internet search leader infringed copyright laws and demanding it remove their stories.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company that operates the world’s most-used search engine immediately said it would appeal, claiming its Google News service was “entirely legal.”

A Brussels court ruled in favour of Copiepresse, a copyright protection group representing 18 mostly French-language newspapers that complained the search engine’s “cached” links offered free access to archived articles that the papers usually sell on a subscription basis.

It ordered Google to remove any articles, photos or links from its sites – including Google News – that it displays without the newspapers’ permission.

But in the future, it said it would be up to copyright owners to get in touch with Google by e-mail to complain if the site was posting content that belonged to them. Google would then have 24 hours to withdraw the content or face a daily fine of 1,000 euros ($1,295 U.S.).

The court cut a retroactive daily fine of 25,000 euros ($32,390U.S.) for each day Google did not comply – far lower than an earlier judgment that threatened 1 million euros ($1.3 millionU.S.) a day.

However, since Google removed content and links to Copiepresse newspapers such as Le Soir and La Derniere Heure in September, it is unclear how much any total fine would be.

Google would not comment on the fine, saying its lawyers were still examining the judgment, but did say it was disappointed with the ruling and would appeal.

“We believe that Google News is entirely legal,” the company said in a statement. “We only ever show the headlines and a few snippets of text and small thumbnail images. If people want to read the entire story they have to click through to the newspaper’s website.”

Google said its service actually does newspaper a favour by driving traffic to their sites.

But the court said Google’s innovations don’t get exemptions from Belgian data storage law.

“We confirm that the activities of Google News, the reproduction and publication of headlines as well as short extracts, and the use of Google’s cache, the publicly available data storage of articles and documents, violate the law on authors’ rights,” the ruling said.

Most Belgian newspapers offer new articles to readers for free but charge for access to older stories.

Copiepresse first cried foul last February after Google launched a Belgian version of its Google News service in January 2006, displaying content from local newspapers found by its search engine.

Copiepresse insisted that Google should have asked first before it posted a headline and a link to the story. It also claimed that Google hurt the rights of authors because its stored cache of older stories effectively gave away content to archived stories they usually charge for.

A court ruling in September agreed and ordered Google to remove newspaper content from its news index under threat of daily fines of 1 million euros ($1.3 million U.S.).

That decision came as a shock to Google, which had failed to appear at an earlier court hearing. The court later agreed to hear the case again to allow Google to put its side forward.

San Clemente, CA, February 7, 2007 (PRWeb) — Apple’s “PC vs Mac” TV commercials are #1 on AdCracker.com’s annual list of the world’s most creative ads. Winners also include a world record radio spot, and coupons that ask you to pay more.

“Humor, surprising plot twists, and simplicity are among the most popular advertising techniques this year,” said Steve McNamara, AdCracker’s Creative Director. “There is also increasing parity in advertising creativity around the world, with ideas that work in any language.”

The AdCracker Awards focus on ads that display branding, positioning and direct response techniques. This year, six TV commercials, three print ads and one radio spot comprise the top 10. You can see all ads at AdCracker.com

# 1 “PC vs Mac” for Apple, USA. The ads in this campaign use multiple advertising techniques, such as personification and conflict, to characterize the brand and depict product benefits. All in a simple format - two guys interacting on a white background. The Apple ads accomplish so much, so easily, that they come in at #1.

# 2 “Huggies Rock” is the title of a charming TVC from Israel featuring toddlers playing adult roles at work and home. But this commercial goes beyond cute kids and evocative music. There’s a philosophical message for adults about life here. And that extra layer earns it a spot in our top 10.

# 3 A print campaign titled “Slim” for Levi Strauss & Co., India. These ads use a thin-line illustration style to communicate a Unique Selling Proposition, which also helps the ads leap off the page. Simple sells.

# 4 “Worlds shortest radio advertisement” for the Guinness Book of Records, Norway. A one-of-a-kind, world-record, radio spot. Once you hear it, you won’t forget it. Which is more than can be said of the other 2,862 radio spots you probably heard last year.

# 5 “Suicide” for Electrolux, China.
Here comes the People’s Republic with this TVC showing a woman saving a suicide leaper with her Electrolux vacuum cleaner. This ad made it into the top 10 with the help of a gutsy tag line, “It really sucks.”

# 6 “Old People’s Home” for Norsk Tipping, Norway. In this TVC a Norwegian Nurse Ratched is making life miserable for the old folks until one clever little lady gets lucky at Lotto. A great human interest story with a surprising twist.

# 7 “Park Bench” for Cole Vision Corporation, Canada. In this TVC we see woman sitting alone on a park bench, wearing glasses. She slowly looks into the sky. Then she opens an umbrella over her head. Several seconds pass. Then SPLAT, bird poop hits the umbrella instead of her face. How in the world did she see the bird crap coming from sooooo far away? A clever way to show a product benefit, eh?

# 8 is a TVC titled, “NoitulovE” (that’s “Evolution” spelled backwards) for Guinness, UK. Three gents in a pub suddenly travel backwards in time, all the way to the primordial ooze, where we are told, “Good things come to those who wait.” For you non-pub-crawlers, it takes 126 seconds to properly pour a pint of Guinness.

# 9 on our list is a series of coupons titled, “Reassuringly Expensive” for InBev / Stella Artois, USA. The twist is that the coupons require you to pay more for the product, should you elect to use them. Now that’s a novel idea. And a fresh expression of a traditional positioning strategy, “More expensive, and worth it.”

# 10 “DHL corporate campaign” for DHL Worldwide Express, USA. This series of magazine ads feature strong visual branding elements: layout, typography and color. Plus a distinct brand personality brought to life in the copy. A rare combination in B2B print.

You can see all 10 winners at AdCracker.com

About the AdCracker Awards.
AdCracker Award nominations were open to all commercial communications with persuasive intent, published during 2006. Registered AdCracker CD and online users, about 1000 ad and marketing pros worldwide, voted on a selection of nominations. The final award winners are judged on excellence in 1) branding, 2) positioning, or 3) direct response techniques.

About AdCracker.com:
AdCracker is an interactive tool to trigger advertising and marketing concepts. AdCracker.com was launched in 1999, with Internet sales of AdCracker CD beginning in 2001. AdCracker CD and Online Access are used in over 90 countries by ad agencies, Fortune 500 marcom departments, schools and small businesses.

MEDIA CONTACT: Steve McNamara, Creative Director. Phone: 888-559-6535 or 760 815 4063. Email: pa06 at adcracker dot com.

Before creating a single word of copy for your direct marketing campaign, start by brain storming the question: “What is my offer?” Something Mark Joyner might describe as The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less

So what is an irresistible offer? According to Joyner: “The irresistible offer is an identity-building offer central to a product, service, or company where the believable return on investment is communicated so clearly and efficiently that it’s immediately apparent you’d have to be a fool to pass it up.”

In essence, your offer is aiming to create an itch that your prospective buyer feels a compelling sense of urgency to scratch. And it’s your product/service that will relieve that itch right now. The goal is to create an immediate action that you are directing your reader to take. For instance - buy now! – or - opt in to this list now!

As a starting point, when you brain storm, act as if you are the target customer and ask yourself the following series of questions:

1. What is this about – what are you trying to sell me?
2. What will this cost me – what am I risking?
3. How do I know I can believe you – why should I trust you?
4. How will this benefit me – what will I gain from this?

As you consider these questions from your customer’s perspective, you are looking to establish elements that will eventually become the material used to build compelling copy. Among other factors, look to identify and list ideas that will communicate;

• Obvious, tangible benefits – it’s not a shiny red convertible that you really want – it’s the feelings that you associate to owning a shiny red convertible that motivate you – excitement, sexy, desirable, prestige, accomplishment, prosperous etc.
• Consider bonuses that you can include to “sweeten the deal”. How can you add more value, create urgency and reduce risk by adding bonuses?
• Always think about potential, benefit rich, headlines. Your aim is to capture your reader’s interest. And hopefully, more people reading your copy.
• Reverse or eliminate the risk that is concerning to your customer. Offer a powerful guarantee. For example; include a risk free, 30, 60, 90, 180 day, no hassle return policy. You can even consider a “Better Than Risk Free” offer. For example - return the product and keep the bonus(s) just for trying our product/service.
• How can you establish credibility? What are your credentials – your track record? Who have you helped or served before? Do you have valid testimonials? Who will give you testimonials?

Start listing ideas and remember that, at this stage, the goal is to identify potential objections that your reader might have and to establish responses to those objections. Eventually, you’ll begin to organise and mould this material into a well written, structured presentation of your compelling offer.

So stay tuned for ideas about great headlines, the structure of a sales letter and surveying your customs so that they will practically tell you what to offer them and how you should say it!

Copy That!

The recently released Nielsen//NetRatings for the month of December/2006 illustrates the importance of a good keyword ranking in a Google search query.
The report covers the top U.S. search providers and is ranked by the total number of queries conducted at the provider.
According to NetRatings, Google Search received more queries than the other nine search engines combined. Google handled an estimated 3 billion queries for the period representing about 51% of all searches.

SEARCH ENGINE ESTIMATED # of SEARCHES SHARE OF SEARCH
Google Search 3,035,617,000 50.8%
Yahoo! Search 1,412,904,000 23.6%
MSN/Windows Live Search 499,946,000 8.4%
AOL Search - 362,140,000 6.1%
My Way Search 141,527,000 2.4%
ASK.com Search 128,452,000 2.1%
Earthlink Search 31,930,000 0.5%
Dogpile.com Search 30,487,000 0.5%
Comcast Search 26,931,000 0.5%
NexTag Search 26,835,000 0.4%

…Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for internet audience measurement…for more information please visit: www.nielsen-netratings.com

Good copy is at the heart of every successful marketing campaign. This is just as true for a simple slogan, with genius inherent in its brevity, as it is for a biblical sized sales letter that is typical of direct marketing efforts – both online and off. And there is more to effective copy than just a good turn of phrase.
For any marketing campaign to have any chance of success, there are three factors that must be analysed and understood before a single word is ever written.

1. First, concerning your product or service, what is your offer? In business, nothing happens without an offer! Your customer is asking, “What are you trying to sell me?”
2. Second is your market – for direct marketers it’s your list. The right message to the wrong market = poor sales.
3. Third is the medium or the “piece”. Is it a newspaper ad, a fourteen page sales letter, a post card sized invitation? The tool must suit the job it is intended to accomplish.

In the coming days we will be analysing effective sales copy a little more closely. In particular, we’ll focus in on direct marketing and we’ll start with the first factor – what is your offer?
And soon, we’ll be revealing some pretty good information on how to research your market to help you determine if you even have a worthwhile offer to make! And if it’s not the right offer – what should you be offering?
And finally, if you have the right offer, directed at the right audience, then what is the best way to deliver that message.
So stay tuned!
Copy that!

You’ve seen this before but don’t you just love it. Think about the power of vision combined with action. Microsoft did not have the best product or the best resources but they had the best strategy of bringing their product to the market. And they took action. So really, would you have hired these guys?