MySpace Music will run instream audio ads sold by national Internet radio sales company Targetspot. According to reports, the audio ads began running last week for advertisers like Turbo Tax and Office Depot. The ads are inserted after a listener hears one song, and can be followed by a complete album or up to 100 songs on a playlist without another interruption.

Targetspot has announced that this is an exclusive deal that adds MySpace Music’s audience to a network that includes AOL, CBS, Yahoo!, Slacker and Live 365.

Since MySpace Music’s  launch in September 2008, unique visitors to the music.myspace.com subdomain have increased 190 percent — growing from 4.2 million unique visitors to 12.1 million in June 2009. Year-over-year traffic to the URL has increased 1,017 percent. Since June, MySpace acquired social music site iLike, and later added imeem to its platform as well. MySpace Music was an announced key partner in Google Music’s music discovery platform.

This is great news for CBS backed Targetspot, and for the Internet radio industry. Last fall Pandora announced that they were beginning to air instream audio ads. It’s important for the development of a successful business model for Internet radio that key platforms like Pandora and MySpace Music contribute to creating that business model by running audio ads and creating more and better opportunities for advertisers on their platforms.

Give me your violent crotch shots, your fairly non-committal anti-abortion football players, your math-is-hard girlies who cry into their tax forms.

The most offensive ad on right now? Office Depot.

The Attempt: Reframe the type of soulless big box that ran valiant small business out of town as the savior that empowers valiant small business to run the soulless big box out of town.

Thereby saving a small business.

Thereby rewarding the superior service and heart of the small business.

Thereby, perhaps, keeping the vitality of the town intact when that box shuts – and it’s portrayed as broadly cocky and callow so we know exactly how soulless it is.

The Brief: “we help hard-working small biz compete and win” or something like it. Just like Staples. Just like Office Max. (I know, I worked on Staples back in the day)

Been to a mid/small town’s main street lately? There’s probably an empty storefront, dollar/pawn/check cashing joint or half-drunk can of Venom energy drink where the office supply store once thrummed.

How did they sell this?
Why did they approve this?

Where else can I get toner cartridges?

My daughter’s ad packs came this morning but she only told me about it just now. lol

Inside the Big 5 sleeve expect to get the following:

• Best Buy
• DirecTV
• Fred Meyer
• Kohl’s
• Office Depot
• Office Max
• P&G (so much for the P&G site saying we don’t get it)
• Parade magazine (no coupons but there is an ad from Campbell’s Chunky for up to $5 in savings @ Chunky.com)
• Red Plum
• Safeway
• ShopKo
• Smart Source
• Target
• Walgreens
• Walmart

Office Depot Deals 2/7 thru 2/13

Foray mechanical Pencils 6-Pk $1

Office Depot Brand Correction Tape 2-Pk $1

Uni-Ball Vision Needle Rollerball Pens 4-Pk $2

All Wilson Jones ½” & 1” Basic View Binders $2

This interview is incredibly interesting. He’s clearly very in tune to music and the way it reaches out. Fran Ashcroft produced for bands i’ve never heard of and The Gorillaz.

Interviewer: The record business is suffering alot from people downloading
Fran: Well that’s what they say! It’s true lots of people download stuff because they can. Lot’s of people used to tape music from the radio because they could. Do you know anybody who kept all the cassette tapes that they taped off the radio in the 70s? I don’t. And the same will be true of downloads, you delete them after a bit….what happens is the stuff that you like and you enjoy and that you would actually put your money down for is the stuff you want to…keep.

I think we’re going to see a big divide between…Top 40 music and everything else. On the one hand, Top 40 stuff will remain in the kind of position it is now with the same kind of money being put behind it…The other 98% of music that’s out there will be able to be marketed to its own particular niche.

EXACTLY!!! I completely agree.

When artists wake up to the fact that if they sold 50,000 albums with a record label, they have a listener base of 50,000 they can draw on. Then what’s the point in having the record label when you can sell it to your fans directly.

I agree though I believe it’s happening now with artists declining to sign with big labels and going Indie or making their own lane to distribute their music. It’s reminds me of a quote from The Office:

“Michael: No, we don’t actually cut the paper. That’s a good question. The paper is sent to us cut, and dyed, from a paper manufacturer, and then we sell it to a business for more than we paid for it.
Abby: That’s not fair. [the rest of the kids agree]
Michael: Yes it is, well, w-w–you need someone in the middle to facilitate…
Jake: You’re just a middleman.
Michael: I’m not just a middle… man…
Melissa: Wait, why doesn’t the saw mill just sell paper directly to people?
Michael: You are describing Office Depot, and they’re kind of running us out of business.
Dwight: We have better service than they do!”

Watch artists come to see this and cut out the middle man.

It’s a question of using the most appropriate tools for the work you’re supposed to be doing.

Autotune anyone? It’s about having tools to your trade and using which ones are appropriate for what you’re going for. It’s NOT about one artist telling the rest of the virtuosic populace that a certain tool is “dead” or out. Let the artist decide for themselves.

Peace and x out the middle love.

Inside the Big 5 sleeve you should expect to get the following ads and inserts:

• Fred Meyer
• Albertsons — DOUBLERS CONFIRMED!
• Target
• Safeway
• Best Buy
• Walmart
• Red Plum
• Sears
• Smart Source
• Office Depot
• Macy’s
• ShopKo
• Kohl’s
• DirecTV
• Comics
• Parade
• Office Max
• JCPenney
• PetCo
• Walgreens
• Michaels
• Staples

If you buy Turbo Tax Federal & State Returns Deluxe for $49.99 you can get:

• FREE Quicken Starter Edition after $30 mail in-savings
• Plus
• FREE Over $1,100 in software, after mail-in-savings
• Plus
• A FREE Sony DVD Movie after mail-in-savings.

OR

If you buy H&R Block At Home Deluxe Federal +State + e-File for $39.99 you can get:

• FREE $10 Office Depot Gift Card
• Plus
• Over $1,100 in softward FREE after mail-in-savings
• Plus
• Free Sony DVD Movie after mail-in-savings (choose from 50 titles)
• Buy $75 of HP ink and get a $15 iTunes Gift Card Instantly

In a new report called Rating Customer Service Experiences, 2010, I analyzed how 4,600+ US consumers rated their customer service experiences with 92 large companies across 14 industries. Led by Barnes & Noble, Kohl’s, and Marriott, 24 companies received a Net Satisfaction Score* of 80% or higher.

At the other end of the spectrum, 10 firms had Net Satisfaction Scores below 50%: Charter Communications, Comcast, Washington Mutual, United Healthcare, Aetna, Citigroup, AOL, HSBC, Bank of America, and Capital One.

The absolute scores tell only a part of the story. We also compared the customer service rating for each company with the average for its industry. It turns out that credit unions, Kaiser, and Apple led 25 firms that were five or more percentage points above their peers.

At the other end of the spectrum, 11 firms fell more than 10 percentage points below their industry average: Washington Mutual, Charter Communications, Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, United Healthcare, JP Morgan Chase, Aetna, Capital One, United Airlines, and Office Depot.

I also examined the ratings given by different generations of consumers. In 10 of the 14 industries, Seniors were the most satisfied with customer service. For nine of the industries, Gen Y were the least satisfied.

*Net Satisfaction Score: We asked consumers to rate their customer service experiences on a 5-point satisfaction scale. To create the Net Satisfaction Score, we took the percentage of consumers who gave the company a “4″ or “5″ and subtracted the percentage of consumers that gave the company a “1″ or “2.”

The bottom line: Focus on customer service in 2010.

This week’s nominee comes from a friend of Ad Mavericks with a keen eye for detail – and a strong “Buy Into the Circle” determination to support local businesses!

Have you seen the latest tv spot from Office Depot?:

Creative?  Yep.  Clever?  Check.  Well produced?  You got it!  Off the mark?  Absolutely!

Just for kicks, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of “Dan” the owner of the small barber shop in spot. Dan’s the little guy.  The guy who has spent his life working, paying taxes, furrowing away enough money that he could both make a comfortable-enough living to support his family and hopefully someday retire.  Then one day, a competitor comes in.  The “big box” guy with the slick marketing plan and cheaper prices.  The one that could ultimately drive Dan out of business.  Little versus big.  Local versus national.  David versus Goliath.

Fortunately, David (in this case Dan) is clever enough to develop a strategy to defeat the big box titans.  Unfortunately, he probably does it at the expense of one of his local business comrades who has worked at the local office supply store for years.  See, Dan opts to spend his money with ANOTHER BIG BOX RETAILER to battle the one that moved across the street to compete with him.

This is a brilliant spot if you’re a local independent like Tripletts or Storey-Kenworthy or Koch Brothers.  But when you’re the national, big-box retail brand suggesting that you battle the big guys by buying from the other big guys?  That dog just won’t hunt!

So congratulations Office Depot, your oxymoronic ad makes you our Worst of the Week!

Author: AdMavericks
www.lessingflynn.com
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

I suffer from calendarphobia.

It manifested itself when I bought a calendar from Office Depot instead of the bookstore.  That meant my week began on Monday with Sunday tacked on at the end, sharing a square with Saturday.  It seemed logical enough, but my brain wouldn’t make the adjustment.  When I wrote down appointments, my brain counted squares instead of reading the day, so I’d write it in the wrong place, thereby showing up a day late for appointments.

I have now reverted to the calendars with Sunday at the beginning of the week.

Six months ago when I went to the doctor, she took issue with my exercise schedule (picture it written in the little triangle on Sundays) and wasn’t impressed with my weight, either.   (Please don’t try to picture that at all!)   She expected an improvement by my January appointment.

I’ve been dreading that appointment for days.  Even though I know I’ve lost a little weight, that may or may not show up on the scales. We’re talking numbers I can show on one hand here and they can be distorted by things like  fluid retention,  constipation…  you get the drift.  (Oh, add “gas” to the list.)

My brain has been stressing for days about the looming appointment,  telling me,  “ACK!!  Weigh-in on Tuesday!” and sending me into panic mode.

Panic mode is …well… constipating.   All day yesterday I swallowed Citrucel fiber pills with glasses of water, hoping for a record BM.  It didn’t happen.

Last night I didn’t have anything to eat or drink after midnight (as if we all drive through Wendy’s at 3 AM!) and set the alarm for 6:30 AM.  My doctor has moved to the suburbs, so what used to be a five-minute drive now takes 30.  I made it without so much as a cup of coffee, with ten minutes to spare.  As  I sat in the car until 8, my stomach began rumbling,  letting me know that the fiber pills had been noted and processed.

The notice indicated that the train would be coming through about 8:30 AM.

I figured that was about the time my doctor would be sticking her finger up my rear end to check for polyps.

Oh, dear gawd. . . !

There was no bathroom in the waiting room.  You may know that I have a history with doctor’s office bathrooms.   I waited while the woman ahead of me checked in.  The receptionist finally looked at me and asked, “Do you have an appointment?”

Of course.

She could not find my name on her appointment sheet.   She looked at my record and informed me that my appointment isn’t until Thursday.

Ducky.  Calendarphobia recurrence.  I must not have put that last loop on the 8 when I posted it in my brain.  I was so sure, I hadn’t even looked at the calendar.

By that time it was 8:10.  I figured I had about 20 good minutes.

“Could you do my bloodwork now so that I won’t have to fast again on Thursday?”

She shook her head regretfully. “No, because I don’t have the lab order yet.”

Ordinarily, I might have pushed that a little, but the clock was ticking.  If I hurried, I could get to a supermarket for pears, broccoli, and more fiber pills before  I broke into a cold sweat.   Hey, when you’re planning something–and I’ve got two days here– might as well dream BIG.   Dreaming about poop is not something I do, generally, but hey…!

Somebody alert Ripley’s, please.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

I’m one of those people who enters the codes from my Diet Cokes into an My Coke Rewards account.  I do it because they include some good causes to which points may be donated.  They’ve recently added the American Red Cross Haiti Relief as an option and they’ll donate two points for every point we do.

Looks like the TCH eating machine is at it again because my daughter’s ad packs arrived a short time ago and some of the ad packs look to be ripped so she’ll have to go through them and find out how many were damaged to get replacements for her customers in the morning. If you get the TCH and find your ad pack damaged call the TCH for a replacement but please make sure you tell the operator that it wasn’t your carrier’s fault (because they’re charged 50 cents per complaint) but rather it was a machine problem on the TCH end.

At any rate, here’s what to expect in tomorrow TCH ad pack. Again, keep in mind not all ads are typically included in the ad pack such as Rite Aid.

• Big 5 sleeve
• Parade magazine
• Comics
• Sears
• Target
• Office Max
• Best Buy
• Walgreens
• Red Plum
• Home Depot
• ShopKo
• Dependable Appliance
• Smart Source
• Office Depot
• Fred Meyer
• Geico
• DirecTV

This is also a symptom of Obamaworld: the economy is held back because businesses and financial service providers such as Telecheck Services are so scared that they incompetently reject perfectly valid, fully funded good checks from established customers and demand actual cash greenbacks.

How can the economy recover when horrible companies like Telecheck services impede the transaction of legitimate business.

 Today, January 22, 2010, six days after Office Depot refused to accept checks from Frank Lynch University, an established, existing customer with a pre-existing account, an assistant from Office Depot HQ called and happily announced “You are a VIP customer and we will accept your checks!”

I asked, what does VIP mean?

She said we will accept you checks with no problem!

WOW

After six days of frustration, humiliation and setting back our Haitian Relief Fund, now they will do us a great favor and accept our checks?

I asked if anything else comes with Office Depot’s VIP Status.

She said, No, but we will accept your checks.

They are as likely to see a check from Frank Lynch University as Obama and his close confidants  are to be seen in church.

Since we know the White House monitors this site, look for Obama to appear in church after January 22, the date of this posting.

As Governor Palin says: “You betcha!”

Office Depot had some assistant who was nice and said she would look into why Telecheck thinks Frank Lynch University cannot write checks, but otherwise, TOUGH S^^^ they still won”t take our checks or help us in our Haitian Relief Efforts in any way. Telecheck is rated F by the Better Business Bureau and with good reason.  When called, telecheck assures you that you are able to write checks, and your bank confirms you are fully funded to cover checks.  But office depot is unable to make their own decision and override telecheck’s mistakes. The President of Office Depot doesn’t have time for this. Does not matter  that we are the most efficient Haitian Disaster Relief

please email    steve.odland@officedepot.com

with copies to  mediarelations@officedepot.com

and         Investor.Relations@officedepot.com

be sure to mention Frank Lynch University and say you are

GOING TO BOYCOTT OFFICE DEPOT!!!

I have been trying to set up a fund inside

Frank Lynch University 

but we hit the wierdest roadblock

Special Nonprofit Fund for

Haitian Earthquake Disaster Relief

We have been seeking to create a special website for Haitian Earthquake Disaster Relief, but cannot do it because Office Depot refuses to sell us the computer equipment.

If you think that is wrong, email your comments to:

mediarelations@officedepot.com

Why would you wish to donate to yet another Haitian Earthquake Disaster Relief effort? There are already many such sites, some of the absolute scams.

First, nobody has a monopoly on charitable giving. Reasons to donate through Frank Lynch University include:

Second, we are an established, IRS recognized Section 501(C)(3) publicly supported nonprofit charity, so you can be certain that your donations are fully tax deductible.

Third, Frank Lynch University’s efforts will result in more money for Haiti both in the short run, and in the long run, because we plan a continuing effort, which may include providing a long term educational establishment in Haiti. Haiti has the lowest educational levels of all the countries in the Americas, so relief is a long term commitment.

Fourth, we are more efficient than any other charitable organization, so all your donation will go to the victims. The University does not even have occupancy or utility expense and everyone is unpaid. The only expenses will be bank and credit card fees. In contrast Red Cross loses almost one-third of your money to salaries, to restaurants, and to overhead; and the Clinton Bush effort is wasting money because it is staffed with his government cronies who run it like every inefficient  government operation, and it is  flying Clinton for photo ops, which not only waste money but also  takes troops away from distributing aid to provide security for Clinton and his entourage, while also preventing aid planes from landing. We are the most efficient provider, absolutely.

You can be certain that virtually all of your donations will be used to provide actual services to the devastated Haitian people than with any other Haitian Earthquake Disaster Relief effort.

Click to visit the Haiti Relief  Fund at Frank Lynch University

Office Depot 82X Remanufactured High-Yield Black Toner Cartridge Review

Check Price Now!

Office Depot 82X Remanufactured High-Yield Black Toner Cartridge Feature

• Maximum yield per unit: 20,000 pages
• Print technology: Laser
• Remanufactured; postconsumer recycled content: 90%

Office Depot 82X Remanufactured High-Yield Black Toner Cartridge Overview

Supplies for your laser printer.

Office Depot 82X Remanufactured High-Yield Black Toner Cartridge Specifications

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jan 16, 2010 02:45:06

Next Week 1/17 – 1/23 Office Depot Dollar Deals

$1 Tops Docket Wire Bound Writing Pad
$1 Papermate Wood Pencils, 24-PK

$2 Wilson Jones 1” basic View Binders
$2 Wide Rule Wirebound 1-Subject Notebooks 6-PK

$3 Office Depot Brand 13 Pocket Poly Expanding files (could be good for couponing? )

$4 PaperPro One-Touch Compact Stapler

$5 Office Depot Brand Standard Green Hanging Folders 25-PK
$5 Office Depot Brand Premium Invisible Tape 4-PK

My research plan for Forrester’s 2010 Customer Experience Index (CxPi) includes an analysis of all 14 industries in the rankings. I recently published the retail analysis which examines the 25 retailers (out of 133 total companies) in the CxPi. Here are the overall results: 

As a group, the retailers did quite well; grabbing 12 out of the top 20 spots in the rankings. Retailers also showed a modest improvement over the 2008 CxPi. Here are some insights from looking at the retail results:

• The best retail customer experience. At the top of the list, 7 retailers ended up with “excellent” ratings: Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Kohl’s, JCPenney, Macy’s, BJs Wholesale Club, and Costco Wholesale.
• The worst retail customer experience. At the bottom of the list, 2 retailers ended up with “okay” ratings: Office Depot and Marshalls.
• Best Buy & Macy’s got better. When we compared the 2010 results with those of the 2008 CxPi, we found that nine retailers improved. Best Buy and Macy’s made the largest gains. Going in the other direction, Toys “R” Us, Old Navy, Borders, and Staples had the largest declines.
• Wal-Mart and  Office Depot aren’t enjoyable. The CxPi contains three underlying components: 1) meeting needs, 2) being easy to work with, and 3) enjoyability. There were only 2 ratings that fell below “okay” in any of those three areas: Both Wal-Mart and Office Depot received “poor” ratings for “enjoyability.”
• iTunes is most difficult to work with. 24 of the retailers received “good” or “excellent” ratings in the second area, being easy to work with. The lone exception: Apple iTunes received only an “okay” rating.

The bottom line: Retailers are good, but not great in customer experience