People Watching – AdAge Media Stars (Part 2)

After my previous blog of media stars, here are some more stars excerpted (and some with my comments) from AdAge’s “Media Mavens: The Year’s Ad Industry Media Stars“,
Cherilyn Ann Gumiit
Media Buyer, WongDoody

What a creative idea wonderfully executed. An “advertising Cinderella.”

“WongDoody client Alaska Airlines had sponsored the Seattle Seahawks since the 1970s. But this year, the team made its way to the Super Bowl, and the airline called for the traditional “congratulations” print ad.

WongDoody wanted to go further. A creative realized that on wet skin, the color in ordinary newsprint would become body paint. A concept was hatched: Alaska Airlines would take out a spread in the team’s blue and green colors and give airline-style directions for making the body painting kit.

But getting approvals wasn’t that easy. The faux-body paint had to be tested on humans to be certain it wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction. “It had never been done before,” says Ms. Gumiit. “And we had to be sure we got the Seahawks colors right.”

To integrate the effort, a website was created where fans could post photos of their body paint creations. In two days, the site received 220,000 hits (even though butt-cheek entries were not allowed online).

The coup de grace came on Super Bowl Sunday. While others paid millions for those coveted spots, the newspaper kit, which cost about $130,000, was featured in some of the fan coverage on ESPN. In all, Alaska Airlines estimated it got at least $400,000 in nonpaid publicity.”

“* Doesn’t have a degree but developed into “media diva”

* Body-painting experiment scored a touchdown ”

James Hedleston
VP-Global Media and Content Distribution, American Express Co.

“James Hedleston turned heads at the Association of National Advertisers’ TV Ad Forum last March, when the American Express Co. VP-global media and content distribution announced that AmEx was putting the kibosh on the traditional definition of TV and reclassified it as “rolling video stock” -a term that encompasses cinema, preroll online video, video podcasts and traditional TV.

Creating new ad structures seems to be a specialty of Mr. Hedleston’s. “He creates new words and terminology to remove barriers,” says Nancy Smith, VP-global media and sponsorship marketing, and a Media Maven in 2004. Ms. Smith says. Mr. Hedleston was her first hire at AmEx 10 years ago, and she considers him a “terrifically creative marketer” who recognizes that a 30-second TV spot is video, and how to take what was a commercial and make it into a piece of content that can live in different video formats.”

Greg Johnson
Exec VP-Global Director, Interpublic’s Emerging Media Lab

“Interpublic cut the ribbon on its Emerging Media Lab with a splashy Los Angeles party in February that brought out top talent from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. The soiree was the first public glimpse at an array of future-leaning electronics-think an e-mail-capable refrigerator-but it was also a sort of coming out for Greg Johnson, exec VP-global director.”

“”Part of the job of the lab is, to some degree, to debunk the hype,” he says. “It’s also about finding a methodical approach to trying things. So it’s not about seeing a story in BusinessWeek and then just doing something.” The lab has hired specialists in user-generated content and in mobile marketing.

He said Web 2.0-the highly contentious notion of a second-generation of internet protocol that’s more two-way-is an often misunderstood concept. “Most marketers think of their assets as the creative thing they’ve built, like video content or a website,” he says. “My thing is to think of functionality, essentially code, as a marketing asset. It helps build brand, engage customer, interact. It’s not a separate thing; it’s not just technology in the background. Functionality is really important and you can see that when you look at some of the mash-ups that can be done with Google Maps. That’s an area that’s still underleveraged.”

* Making functionality a critical marketing asset

* Building team of mobile and user-generated content “