Notebook

It’s that time of year again…AD Age 2007 Advertising year in review!

Somewhat unsurprising is that overall media spend by the worlds largest 100 advertisers was flat in 2007 when compared to 2006 as companies buckle down with the threat of an American recession looming. 

What is remarkable is that spending in 2007 on online display adds was up 33% while most traditional mediums shrunk or remained flat. This could mean a few things. Either the worlds top advertisers have warmed to the web and are diverting budgets there away from traditional mediums while net budget remains the same or the perhaps marketers are not willing to put the money into huge national campaigns while they wait out the possibility of a recession. In the latter case marketers likely see the web as a more cost-flexible medium which they can put money into or pull out of at any time… in other words the “recession” may have not caught up to web yet.

Whether or not America sees a recession will have a huge impact on the 2008 report but I think its unlikely that we will see web based marketing diminish. The internet has shown its versatility and resiliance and I would expect to see the percent of advertising budgets alloted to web based advertising to continue to grow as the internet continues to expand. 

In any event Procter & Gamble headed up this years list of largest spenders sinking a total of $5.2 billion USD into all forms of advertising followed by american telecom giants AT&T and Verizon at second and third respectively.  

It came as no surprise that when Apple launched the iPhone 3G everyone was gripped with iPhone fever (again). With 3G speed and (proper) GPS capabilities added to the already dubbed “Jesus Phone” it looked like, and will likely be, a huge win for Apple.

Not to be left out, the worlds largest mobile phone maker, Finalnd’s Nokia, announced a string of acquisitions this week. One is for Open-Source phone OS Symbian as Nokia attempts to stave off the forthcoming open-source phone OS from world-beater Google called Android. They also made a move to acquire German location-based social network Plazes. 

These both look like smart movies for Nokia. It’s not a secret that location based technologies are “the next big thing” as companies figure how to combine social networking, advertising and GPS enabled mobile devices. With Apple’s about-to-be-released GPS enabled iPhone and Developer SDK Nokia has clearly seen the need to jump into the game by acquiring two companies that can provide an out of the box solution for their upcoming line of GPS enabled phones. 

The iPhone was a huge step toward mobile and web merging and I was disappointed with the ho-hum response from other mobile manufacturers. However, it looks as though Nokia is making some moves to challenge the position of both Google and Apple as well as defend their turf.

It struck me recently that most people really don’t know a whole lot about how, when and why the internet came to be - nevermind how it works or where it may be going. I guess I find it a bit odd since I can’t think of anything that’s had a bigger effect on peoples lives in recent history. I may be a bit biased considering I work for a company that builds web-based applications, but you would think everyone would at least take the time to wikipedia it!

This month Vanity Fair magazine is out to change all that as they feature a detailed (albiet long) history of how the web came to be. 

The web-exclusive article outlines the different events, people and companies that shaped the internet in a dialogue format. It may not be the complete story (no mention of google or facebook?!) But it’s a start for understanding what began 50 years ago to save us in the event of a nuclear war and how it has been transformed into what we use it for today…a portal for watching remixed videos of the Dramatic Chipmunk on your iPhone, right?

Two weeks ago Alaia Technologies launched the beta program for its latest web based software development project, JumpTools, at the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) show (Realtor Quest) in Toronto, Canada. The Alaia team was thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response we got from the Real Estate community at the show and we want to thank anyone who stopped by the booth.

JumpTools is a web based relationship management tool for real estate professionals. This suite of tools comprises a contact manager, a lead management system and various marketing and collateral generation tools, including an agent site builder.

Currently, JumpTools is in beta and available by invitation only. You can read more information on JumpTools and sign up for the beta program at www.jumptools.com.

Alaia is gearing-up again with Russell Athletic to execute a series of hard-core pinpoint-precision tactical advertising campaigns to promote their complete range of sport-specific clothing, and ‘high-compression’ protection apparel products to athletes, coaches and coaching staff across Canada. The multi-dimensional media spectrum that will be utilized includes national and local media opportunities on: Television, Radio, Print, Online, and Out-of-Home; as well it is purposely designed to further leverage many of the long-term sponsorship relationships that Alaia secured for Russell last year with various Sports Associations like Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS).

We are continuing to grow the Russell Athletic brand ambassador army at full power and we have devised ingenious ways to penetrate deeper into high schools, universities -& -colleges, sports teams (from every division); plus how to hone-in on some other connected relevancy factors such as sports fans which together are having a positive effect helping to help grow this critical component of our overall master strategy. Two of the tactics that have worked extremely well to seed the marketplace have been to use a combination of aggressive viral Product Placement and Sports Venue Signage opportunities. There is definitely finesse required to uncover the best advertising real estate, but it also takes a lot of experience to tie every thing together too.

Last year’s successful media planning and buying negotiations stretched their limited marketing budget to new extremes, but the end results were amazing, high and mighty. Quite simply, we improved Russell’s brand awareness, and increased their sales too. This positive path has also translated into helping our business partnership to continue along a solid path that is building Russell a stronger launching-pad where the brand is now confidently positioned both online, and offline for Alaia to engage in pursuing other strategic partnerships that we have researched and started to connected them with too.

Keep your eyes, and ears open because soon new selected markets laced with captivating and engaging promotions -&- contests will ripple into retail stores, and online too allowing consumers the freedom to purchase Russell products at their first ever e-commerce e-Store anywhere in North America, and the world. Russell’s core target consumers appeals to athletes, coaches, and coaching staff, but they also have cool, hip urban, leisure, and outerwear apparel too that is designed for men, women, youths, and kids — we key-in on all of them, no waste, no clutter.

So no matter what sport you play, or what sports’ mood you are in, on or off the field playing — you will definitely see Russell standing proud beside Football, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, and Track and Field which we continue to strategize what the best plans are that will drive home the message that Russell Athletic has you covered.

* Extra Notes: HD Brown Enterprises Ltd., is the Canadian distributor of Russell Athletic, and BIKE Athletic, and other recognized products, and brands. The company is extending their long successful history licensing these brands from Russell Corporation (U.S) which falls under the umbrella of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and whose CEO is Warren Buffett.

Welcome to the home where custom development meets marketing.

Okay… did this get you excited? Hmmm, well it should!

We were thinking how else can somebody make the news of a website launch exciting for visitors unless you give them something - right?! So we figured that a welcome drink should suffice (at the bare minimum) – therefore as you peruse our new website we encourage you to think about any questions, and comments that pop into your head especially how Alaia might be able to help YOU. We take criticism well — but just so we are on the same page we feel that it is fair to criticize you too if there is something on your mind that Alaia could potentially help your business to solve, BUT YOU CHOOSE TO KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.

Quite simply, this is what we do, and that is what we are good at. If you need help either to figure-out your problem, or the solutions impacts a ton of other dominos in your business then there is no better group to turn to for help.

How does that sound to you?

If you send us a question, and start to interact with us then we owe you a “Welcome Drink”, and since it is not always fun to do this alone we will join you whenever, and wherever you want to meet to discuss business.

…now I guess I would be remiss if I did not at least attempt to continue with the customary “formal stuff” about the yada yadas …so here are the yadas…

Our new website launched with great fanfare, pomp and circumstance from everybody inside Alaia; as well from our clients too who are extremely relieved that we have a better accurate, and more realistic online appearance compared to our old archaic site and who we were many, many years ago. This new site represents Alaia’s metamorphosis. We are not deviating in any way from being who we are which is an exceptionally strong development shop, but we have evolved with our clients and their growing expectations that we absolutely must stay ahead of the curve. This is how we grew, this is how we needed more office space, and this is the reason why we needed to recruit expertise into our company so we could face any task and have the confidence to ask anybody in the marketplace to challenge us.

We love the impossible.

We apply the same amounts of diligence, and care on complex solutions building just like we do on smaller projects.

Please check out our portfolio, and industry experience which we will try to keep up to date as best we can, but it is pretty hard when you prefer to get down to work building solutions that will help companies achieve their critical goals and objectives.

No budget is too small – no task is too difficult.