Advertising

5 warning signs that Apple has lost its magic

"The product pipeline will take years to screw up," says Bob Hoffman. "The ad pipeline can be screwed up in no time."

Bob Hoffman is pessimistic about the future of Apple (AAPL) without Steve Jobs at the helm.

The San Francisco-based advertising executive who writes a blog called The Ad Contrarian and a slim volume of aphorisms by the same name doesn't buy the consensus that, as he puts it, "Jobs built MORE

Dick Costolo on how Twitter makes -- and might make -- money

With a multi-billion-dollar valuation and relatively small revenues, Twitter is Exhibit A for those who believe Silicon Valley is experiencing another bubble. At Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference on July 19, the company's CEO, Dick Costolo, explained how the company's business works, including what ad products its customers are buying and how Twitters sells to them. He even hinted a major future product area: capitalizing on the commerce currently being conducted MORE

Why offline ad spending is like 'the war on drugs'

Customers have moved to the digital realm -- but big-brand advertisers are following reluctantly.

By Stacy Cowley, CNNMoney tech editor

FORTUNE -- There's a disconnect between big brands and their customers. People are spending more and more time online and on their gadgets, but advertisers remain wary about shifting their spending into the digital realm. Internet analyst turned venture capitalist Mary Meeker estimates that there's a $50 billion gap between where the money MORE

Dow Jones' media columnist tells Apple to fix its iPhone ads

Those TV spots are No. 1 in Jon Friedman's list of ways the phone can regain its "swagger"

You might think that Apple (AAPL) would know best how to promote its own products.

You would be wrong, according to Jon Friedman, the media columnist for Dow Jones' (NWS) MediaWatch. His Monday offering starts with the premise that the iPhone has lost its "swagger," and then helpfully offers seven ways the company can MORE

Mixed reviews for the latest 'I'm a PC' television ads

Microsoft's new marketing campaign seems to be stuck in a time warp of Apple's making

Reactions to the new Microsoft TV ads -- the first of which aired Monday night (video below the fold) and featured a young woman who is persuaded to accept a free state-of-the-art Windows 7 PC by a salesman who secretly built a computer store in her home -- run, like water faucets, either hot or cold.

Half MORE

Apple airs second iPad 2 ad

"And if you asked us, we'd say it's just getting started."

Debuted Tuesday night. Available on Apple's (AAPL) YouTube page and at Apple.com.

Below: the first iPad 2 ad, "We believe."

Facebook: Where marketing efforts go to die?

Fans! Likes! Followers! The social site was supposed to be the Holy Grail for corporate marketers, but the search for that mythic chalice may still be on.

By Kit R. Roane, contributor

FORTUNE -- The advertising firm Interpublic Group invested $5 million in Facebook five years ago and now has roughly $250 million to show for it, at least on paper. The question is whether Interpublic's clients, or the rest of the MORE

iPad ad as mission statement

Apple uses a 30-second TV spot to sell not just a gadget, but a philosophy

"This is what we believe," begins a gravely voiced narrator over an understated piano in the new Apple (AAPL) TV spot that debuted Saturday (and is available here and below the fold).

"Technology alone is not enough. Faster, thinner, lighter; those are all good things. But when technology gets out of the way, everything becomes MORE

Facebook blocks Google's Ads

...at least until Google signs on to Facebook's terms.

Facebook developers often use advertising to monetize their applications and until recently, Facebook has been pretty hands off on what ad companies developers can use.  However, that is all about to change.  Facebook is now requiring ad services to agree to certain restrictions on advertising, which include a commitment to never utilize Facebook user data, reports Network Effect.

There is at least one major network MORE

Facebook's #3 advertiser is Microsoft search hijacking page

1.75 billion Facebook ad impressions were purchased by the Microsoft proxy.

In a post called "Facebook Books $1.86B in Advertising; Muscles In on Google Turf," Adage details Facebook's growing advertising pool. Here's a chart of social networking's biggest ad sources. Obviously, Facebook is most of that.

Two notables stand out...

Interestingly, Google itself was the fifth-biggest advertiser for the same period, as it was looking to market its Chrome web browser. Curiously, the third-biggest advertiser MORE