Social Cache.
A Nemo blog. Dealing with uncommon cents.

I have only ever been to Cannes for the MIDEM Music Conference so obviously I have missed out on the advertising world’s shenanigans during Cannes Lions 56th International Advertising Festival. Not to worry though, it appears that the folks at the Duffy Agency are covering things on their blog and from what I have read today they have saved me at least 2,600 Euros, not to mention the cost of flying from Portland, Oregon.

Case in point – here’s the list of 10 things that The Duffy folks don’t want to hear again next year. [In fact Nemo's Interactive Director Justin Spohn, said on Twitter "that those are 10 things I don't want to hear ever, anywhere...!"]:

1. ”It’s not about advertising, it’s about engagement.”
2. ”Print’s days are numbered.”
3. ”You don’t want to advertise, you want to have a conversation.”
4. ”It’s about having a great narrative, a great story.”
5. ”Advertising is no longer a one-way process. The consumer can now talk back to you.”
6. ”You have to let go when it comes to the controls for your brand online. Consumers will take it anyway.”
7. ”Online banner and display advertising is a broken model.”
8. ”The next big breakthrough will be centered around mobile devices.”
9. ”Social media is not a fad, it’s here to stay.”
10. ”Consumers are ’always on’.”

Read their whole post here. Follow The Duffy Agency on Twitter here.

Hopefully by this time next year that sad list of worn out phrases will get a fresh coat of paint although I suspect there may well be some papering over the cracks instead.

Oscar Mayer’s latest ad leaves me wondering what there is to blog about. Is a box containing all the necessary ingredients to create ‘a delicious sandwich…in a microwave minute’ really that blogworthy?

Found on Twitter posted by @alisamleo As she says.. “ad-men douchebaggery at its FINEST….”

Hot on the heels of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s decline, the LA Times is reporting that its online advertising revenue is enough to cover the costs for both the online and print editorial teams.

Upon hearing this news, Jeff Jarvis excitedly announced that “What this tells me is that we are on the cusp of the moment when online revenue could sustain a substantial digital journalistic enterprise without the onerous cost of printing and distribution. Hallelujah.”

Though, Valleywag is quick to counter this claim, noting that the LAT newsroom still houses more than 660 people. And in December, the newspaper said that its website only generated 120 million pageviews (one Gawker blogger generated double that amount in just one month). Something doesn’t add up. Valleywag also points out that the cost of actually selling the online ad space isn’t mentioned, nor is the fact that the Times’ parent company recently filed for bankruptcy. Stay tuned…

eMarketer has just confirmed our suspicions with its recent report that social networkers frequent sites like Myspace and Facebook to communicate with each other, not with brands.

More than one half of the U.S. population uses social networking sites, yet massive ad revenues have yet to materialize. Selling ad space on social networking sites was already an uphill battle before the economic downturn, but now it’s getting even more difficult. While 79% of all internet consumers have clicked on an advertisement in the past year, only 57% of those frequenting social networking sites have done so.

Barak Rabinowitz has described the challenge of monetizing social networks as the “elephant in the room” of online advertising. He claims that “It’s 400 million social networkers creating and consuming content, clustering around shared interests and activities—all who have yet to be tapped in any major way by Web marketers.”

With a deepening recession and millions of social networkers avoiding online ads by all means possible, what is the answer? How will these sites continue to remain in business if the ad dollars don’t start flowing?

In yet another social media debacle, the VP of Marketing at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the folks who bring us Motrin, has posted an apology on the company’s web site. After offending millions of moms who carry their babies in those wrap around shawls, McNeil was flayed by a firestorm of criticism from the mom bloggers of the world who Twittered McNeil into submission. McNeil made a cardinal error – they failed to research the very market, new moms, that they were trying to reach and then doubled down and took the weekend off without monitoring the firestorm that was merely smoldering before it erupted. Result – egg on the face and a no doubt expensive ad campaign in the trash can….. Here’s the offending ad –