Herald Tribune On Subaru, Logo

TOPICS: Mainstream media news. Logo gay TV campaigns profiled in International Herald Tribune report on advertising. Subaru. My Big Gay Sketch Show. MTV Networks. Logo gay advertising and PR. PlanetOut gay media and gay market services company stock price continues to plummet.

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###LATEST PLANETOUT MEDIA UPDATE###:

In a follow-on from our report in Gay Market News last week about the market problems of media giant PlanetOut, the PlanetOut share price continues to fall still further. The stock is now down to 89 cents, at its all time lows, after further big drops late last week, yesterday and again today. If it remains below $1 for more than 30 days the Nasdaq exchange may delist the stock. The latest PlanetOut share price is here.

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There is a great story in the International Herald Tribune about some of the innovative things being done to engage consumers more than traditional advertising.

The IHT advertising article is well worth reading in full, but we chose to extract a little here about the approaches being used on Logo - MTV Network's gay and lesbian network in the US market, to show how gay advertising and gay PR is being turned into a desirable for lesbian and gay consumers, rather than a nuisance.

Here is an extract:

Networks try new ways to keep eyes on ads

By Louise Story
Published: May 21, 2007

NEW YORK: To many people, the commercial break is when you use the restroom, change the channel or grab a bite to eat.

But television networks, under pressure from advertisers who want their commercials to be seen, are trying to change that.

Fixing the commercial break is the most pressing topic of discussions this spring between the U.S. networks and advertisers as they negotiate television ad sales deals for the next year. Pressure to keep viewers tuned in is greater because of the rising number of digital video recorders, which allow people to fast-forward through commercials.

All of the networks say they are experimenting with ways to hold viewers' attention during commercials. But Viacom, the media conglomerate that owns cable networks like MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and Spike, is describing more specifics than most. Viacom says it has come up with several formats that could help keep people tuned in, and its creative teams have been involved in some of the production.

The changes include creating commercials that last for an entire break, integrating stars from programs into the ads and developing story lines that run through the ads. MTV and VH1 have decided to change from two commercial breaks per half-hour to three, so that each one can be shorter.

Viacom executives said that their networks' youthful audiences have made it acutely important for them to innovate.

"They're younger, they're more quickly engaged and more quickly dismissive if they're not engaged," said Judy McGrath, chairman and chief executive of MTV Networks, which includes MTV, Logo and Comedy Central.

In one example from February, a Verizon Wireless ad ran during a live telecast of a concert on MTV, but the camera never stopped showing the concert in the background. As the band Fall Out Boy continued to play, an image of a Verizon Wireless phone appeared in the center of the screen; viewers did not have to miss a beat of the concert and could still hear the crowd cheering.

"The whole goal here is to blur the line between content and advertising message," said Hank Close, executive vice president for ad sales at MTV Networks.

Logo, the lesbian and gay network, is currently showing a two-minute commercial for Subaru that tells the story of a couple of women who like to take extreme athletic trips together. Only at the end of the ad does the Subaru logo appear.

On a new Logo show this month, "The Big Gay Comedy Sketch Show," Amp'd Mobile, a U.S. cellphone company, sponsored an ad that stars an actor from the show "The Gay Werewolf." In the commercial, which filled the entire two-and-a-half-minute commercial break, the actor played his character from the show, a man who turns gay whenever there is a full moon.

Not coincidentally, the werewolf in the ad likes to call his mom on his Amp'd Mobile phone.

MTV last summer created a new character, a woman named Parker, to turn commercials for Herbal Essences hair care products into more entertaining content. There were five serial ads that led up to the network's Video Music Awards. First Parker sneaked into the theater where the awards show would be held, and then she was mistaken for a presenter and pushed onto the stage.

Finally, for all the television viewers who had been following the Herbal Essences ad story line, Parker appeared on the red carpet during the awards show - and waved to viewers as if she were a real celebrity rather than the star of a few television commercials.

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