Brand Central Station

Blackhawk Content announced the debut of their live-action, web-based sitcom series on the www.petcentric.com web site yesterday.  The site, supporting Nestle Purina’s PetCare division, is a content-rich environment for people who are crazy about their pets.

So, it makes sense that content for pet-crazy people should be fun and entertaining, right?

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According to the annual MarketingSherpa, end-of-year survey of top online marketers, the more passive forms of lead acquisition (e.g. banner ads in e-newsletters and rented e-mail marketing lists) saw a fall-off in investment in 2007 versus the previous year. The more organic forms of list-building (e.g. excercising house lists, contextual search ads and SEO) have seen the best return and appear to be destined for larger shares of top marketers’ budgets in 2008.

Top online marketing tactics for last year (according to the MarketingSherpa research) include:

• Behaviorally targeted ads favored: Still a favorite, marketers say they will be investing more in them in 2008.

• House lists top paid search: More marketers reported success with house email lists than paid search ads — a reversal from a year earlier.

• Test, test, test again: Marketers are measuring and testing more in almost all categories surveyed.

• SEO begets strong ROI: Search engine optimization is delivering a strong return on investment, according to more than half of the marketers surveyed.

• Viral gains converts: Agencies are urging marketers to explore viral marketing and advertising in mobile phones, online video sites and virtual worlds.

A good bit of time was dedicated to discussing viral marketing, too – especially viral video.  Among the observations made:

• 93% of marketers said agencies recommend either an increase in spending or begin spending on viral video.

• 87% reported recommendations to start or increase viral marketing on social networking sites.

• 62% said agencies advised advertising in games and virtual worlds – the highest number of recommendations for a first-time budget while paradoxically attracting the highest number of recommendations to decrease spending. This confusion clearly reflects the medium’s unproven status.

• 60% saying they are urged to try wireless ads on mobile networks –- it came in second in first-time budget recommendations.

MarketingVOX reports that Johnson & Johnson has launched a series of animated shorts at the new web site: touchingbond.com.  The shorts feature Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay as the voice of the baby.

The campaign is intended to reach a generation of young mothers who have grown up with the web as their primary source of information.

J&J has also created a series of animated shorts in Spanish.