the thought

THAYER MEDIA ANNOUNCES ADDITION OF VICE PRESIDENT, ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

CENTENNIAL, CO FEBRUARY 19, 2007—Thayer Media, one of the largest media planning, buying and placement agencies in the Rocky Mountain region, has hired Melissa Humbert as its Vice President, Account Management. Melissa’s responsibilities include account management, client service, agency partnerships, and new business development.

Melissa brings 13 years of advertising agency experience to Thayer Media, most recently as the Director of Account Management for Karsh & Hagan Communications, Inc. Her background spans international, national, regional and local accounts across the automotive, travel and tourism, retail, real estate, health care and financial categories.

A fourteen year-old strategic media planning and buying agency with annualized billings in excess of $25 million, Thayer Media has grown to become one of the largest woman-owned firms in Colorado. Thayer Media represents a broad spectrum of clients in a variety of industries ranging from restaurants to financial services to real estate investment trusts.

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04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Meridith Hinman

I have never been one to plan my life around television shows. When I’m home and have the TV on, I usually find something okay to watch. Now that the invention of the DVR is an option through the cable company, I am hooked. I would hear about all these great shows on NBC, ABC and FOX, but I was never home to see them. Now with a DVR I record a few shows a week, so when I am home and do have the time to watch them, I can watch what I want to. The DVR is great; the best part is when you are watching a show that you recorded you can fast forward through the commercials…or is that the best part?

Working in the advertising industry and especially in the media placement side of advertising the DVR might be putting us out of a job. Is it possible that the value of our advertising dollars on television don’t hold value anymore? On the positive side I have read that the DVR can offer a look at the viewers’ habits and behavior since most devices record user activity in fine detail. Since most DVRs require Internet connectivity, viewers’ information can be stored for marketers use. This still doesn’t help the fact that commercials are being ignored. Don’t you think it’s odd that advertisers’ pay cable companies to run their ads and cable companies turn around and sell a product to their customers that allow them to block the ads?

If the DVR stays around, I think the Internet will become the biggest outlet for advertising, if it’s not already. The Internet has grown exponentially in every way, so it makes sense to say that Internet advertising is definitely on the rise. As for the DVR, I love the concept of watching shows when I want to, but maybe they can remove the fast forward feature? When it really comes down to it, I love my job so much more than the DVR.

03:16 PM | Permalink

Vicky Czarniecki

I’m not sure when it happened, but Americans have become obsessed with celebrity culture. These days there seem to be more tabloids than legit newspapers in any given market. There are even popular blogs devoted solely to celebrity gossip such as perezhilton.com and thesuperficial.com, which, I admit, I check on a daily basis.

Companies are noticing this love affair that America has with celebrities and they are starting to try to use it to their advantage. In the past, American celebrities would only do commercials in foreign countries because they said that they wanted to keep their professional image in the US. Many celebrities are now capitalizing by endorsing products in the US and companies are hoping that everyday Americans will connect with their product because of their adoration for the celebrity advertising it. In a recent episode of 30 Rock on NBC, they made light of this situation. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) explained to a recently broke Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) that to make enough money to keep from losing his house all he had to do was find a product to put his name on and it would sell. It didn’t matter what the product was because the product wasn’t what was being sold. What was being sold was Tracy’s name and image. Jack told him that people would buy him, not the product. Tracy came back with The Tracy Jordan Meat Machine. Hey George-isn’t imitation the greatest form of flattery??

I can’t help but wonder why the sudden change of heart? Why do the celebrities do it? Is it for the money? I thought they were all about remaining professional. Did they sell out? Or is it more that they want, in a way, to sell themselves? Celebrities have an image that they project to the world. This image has evolved into their brand. When you really think about it, a celebrity is a brand. You have your Tara Reids and Julia Roberts. Why else would they have so many agents, hairdressers and P.R. Reps? By doing commercials and being broadcast across the country on a daily basis they are trying to further their own brand. Plus, they have to find some way to pay for their million dollar homes.

Continue reading "I'm a celebrity...buy my stuff!" »

11:46 AM | Permalink