On June 9th, The 2013 Tony Awards will return to Radio City Music Hall to honor Broadway’s best and brightest of the past year. As is the case most years, 

PMD is especially proud to be working directly for The Tony Awards this year, for the first time. The Broadway League has tapped PMD Windowposter™ Displays to get their message SEEN across Manhattan, in neighborhoods like Times Square, Union Square, and the Upper West Side.

Pippin, one of the most celebrated musicals of all time, has been nominated for 10 awards including Best Revival of A Musical. The story looks at a circus troupe, who’s title character is the son of Charlemagne, with an identity crisis. Described by the New York Times as “Astonishing. Dazzling & Awe-Inspiring“, the circus setting is new to this production, and is full of breathtaking on-stage acrobatics.

Motown the Musical is a look at the rich history and influence of Motown Records on the world of music.  From The Four Tops to a young Michael Jackson, audiences are transported back to 1950′s Detroit, and the rise of Motown owner Barry Gordy. With close to 60 songs, fans are treated to familiar tunes, everyone is sure to hear many of their favorite Motown hits.  Motown the Musical has been nominated for 4 Tony Awards, including nods for lead actress and featured actor.

The Huntington Theatre Company of Boston will be honored with the Regional Theatre Award. The Huntington Theatre Company is one of Boston’s leading professional theaters, often fostering new productions that make it to the Great White Way.

We congratulate all the Tony nominees this year, and wish them the best of luck on June 9th!

After a combined 80 plus years on daytime television, All My Children and One Life to Live  have moved to a PC or a smartphone near you. Debuting online yesterday and quickly moving to the top ten downloaded shows for the day, All My Children and One Life to Live are getting a second life.

While both soaps will have many of the original cast members, fans can expect some new faces and will get an edgier plot line, along with guest appearances from popular music artists. The Friday installments of the series will be weekly recap shows, featuring memorable moments, cast interviews and behind the scene secrets.

Daily soaps started on radio, then moved to TV, just in time to ride that wave. As TV became more popular than radio, the daily soaps enjoyed the transition to the new medium.  The move to online streaming is a natural evolution, in light of this history.

While both series will be shown daily in 30 minute installments, viewers have the freedom to watch anytime they want. Both Hulu and iTunes have the reach and technology to help expand the audience of both shows, reaching younger generations as well as long time fans.

Online streaming entertainment has changed the thinking of television viewers. Netflix has had great success with the original series “House of Cards”, all 13 episodes were released at once, giving viewers the freedom to watch when they wanted.  Now, it’s the Daily Soaps’ turn.

It’s no longer daytime television–it’s anytime!

Word-of-Mouth. We’ve all heard the phrase before. Advertisers love it – it’s the Holy Grail of marketing. They long for “good” word-of-mouth: people referring other people they know, to a product or service, a new TV show, a great hamburger joint down the street. “You’ve got to try this new mouth wash!”

But how do Advertisers get people talking about their product? More and more are turning to Social Media and online forums. And these aren’t working.

At least according to the author of an upcoming book by Wharton professor Johan Berger, called “Contagious: Why Things Catch On“. Berger found that only about 7 percent of word-of-mouth discussions are happening online – or less than 1 in 13 conversations. Berger also maintains that people are spending about eight times more time offline than online. While it may seem that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are always with us, the vast majority of time is spent away from a computer screen, perhaps walking down the street (seeing a Windowposter™ in your neighborhood storefront, for example *).

So what do expert marketers recommend? To quote your Grandma, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

Sounds trite? It makes sense. Use multiple platforms. Online, social, print, outdoor. We said the same thing in our blog post last July. And so does Kent Lewis of iMedia Connection in a recent article about media and marketing strategy: “In today’s world, marketing teams should be media agnostic and develop integrated marketing campaigns …”

What do you think? Drop us a line and let us know!

(* Another shameless plug for Windowposter™ Displays. What did you expect?  :)

2012 is almost in the history books. And for many, it’s been a tough year; economic uncertainty, presidential politics, and Hurricane Sandy loom large.

Fortunately, we’ve had a good year at PMD. So let’s reflect, and say thank you to all the people in the PMD universe: loyal clients, hard working personnel, friends & display venue partners. All have contributed to our success this year, as they have every year since 1991.From Los Angeles to New York, and all our other cities in between, we wish you and your loved ones an amazing New Year to come. Happy Holidays!

We’ve all seen the images of the storm damage, and heard the tales of our heroic first responders and our fellow citizens. The loss of homes, businesses and entire communities has been devastating. We would like to send our sincerest condolences to the families who have lost loved ones. We are also acutely aware of the people who are still without power, clean water, and heat, even now, 7 days later.

We are ready, willing and able to do our part, and more, to get our community back to business as usual. Please let us know how we can help.

The American Dream is moving to the City. The modern high-rise apartment building, with its short walk to the subway, is replacing the suburban house with the two car garage. The recent shift in metropolitan population shows that more people seem to be updating the neighborhood they want to live in, and it’s not the Suburbs.

According to the latest data from U.S. Census Bureau and research from the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think tank, the nation’s metropolitan areas are growing faster than their suburban counterparts, for the first time in nearly 100 years.

While part of this shift in migration can be attributed to the downturn in the housing market, and an increase in gas prices, many of the growing cities have put forth a large effort to attract and retain their populations with new amenities such as mass transit, and greater employment opportunities.

Much of the urban population increase is from young adults, professionals, and families moving into the cities, according to the Brookings research.

This move has major ramifications for many industries, no more so than Advertising & Marketing. The growth in population in urban areas means more people concentrated in less space, making certain advertising more effective. Think of Outdoor Advertising: billboards, bus shelters, or Windowposter™ Displays, they’re seen everywhere in the major cities across the U.S.

Let me know what you think about this exciting news, and how it may affect you or your industry.

Let’s face it, Social Media is here to stay. What was once just an entertaining way of seeing your friends and family make fools of themselves, is now being used to sell you things.

Or is it?

When looking at Social Media as advertising, there are questions that should be asked. Are people actually looking at that annoying Facebook sidebar ad? Are they actually reading those sponsored Tweets? One thing to keep in mind when spending precious ad dollars: advertising must SELL to be effective.

When GM recently pulled their paid advertisements from Facebook, there was an outcry from both sides. There was the argument that GM was not keeping up with the trends, and they were going to be missing a large audience. Larry Popelka wrote in Bloomberg Business Week that GM didn’t “get social media” He argued that social media requires advertisers to develop more thoughtful ads than the traditional 30-second TV ad, and to create a deep engagement with consumers.

The opposite argument agreed with GM, in that paid ads on social media services were not effective. Forbes Magazine reported a recent survey that found 91% of companies believe social media doesn’t “significantly impact sales”. The main argument is that there has been no exact way to measure the return on investment. Forbes argues that social media needs to be part of an overall advertising package.

Our opinion? Social Media is one part of the 4 or 5 major ad vehicles to get your product SEEN: Broadcast (TV, Radio), Print (Newspapers, Magazines), Outdoor (Billboards, Bus Shelters, Windowposters™ *), Online, (Banner Ads, Social Media).

There is a common rule of advertising that says your audience needs to see your ad 3-5 times to be effective. Social media is just one of those layers that needs to be considered.

What do you think?

* Shameless plug intended.

The recently released Nellymoser Q1 study on Mobile Action Codes in Magazine Advertising provided valuable information on the rapidly growing usage of Mobile Codes. Of the 100 magazines surveyed, 99 contained at least 1 mobile code.  45% of the all action codes were from four industries: beauty, health, home and fashion.  QR Codes accounted for 80% of the codes in the magazines surveyed, with Microsoft Tags lagging far behind.

While code usage by marketers is on the rise, is the public joining in?  From our standpoint, we have not seen the results that we once hoped (see below for some of our past articles on the subject).

A recent report from ScanLife shows that there has been a great increase in usage, with the greatest surge coming from males in the 25-34 age group.  However, information for this study was provided only by users of the ScanLife platform, so the numbers may be skewed.  Until there is a definitive, third-party study, we can only rely on our own experience with mobile codes in real-life marketing campaigns.

We have frequently found mobile codes to be ineffective for a variety of reasons.  Design, accompanying instructions, incentive and mobile experience are all elements that need to be considered when using mobile tags.

QR codes are – dare we say it? ugly, black and white blobs that often clash with design elements in the ad artwork. And while they have a recognizable design to the tech savvy, the general population may still see them as confusing.  Often mobile codes do not come with instructions.  Users will just have to be “in the know” on how to use the code effectively.   In the Nellymoser study, 64% of codes were accompanied with instructions and only 6% of codes were accompanied with an icon of a mobile device.

Incentive is a large part of the draw to mobile codes, but what do I get for going through the trouble of scanning this? The cool factor has dried up.

The scans from the Nellymoser study often lead to videos (behind the scenes, how to), sweepstakes, coupons, social media, as well as other mobile experiences.  But often, scans will take the user to a URL of a website and more often than not, that will just lead to the general home page of the advertiser.  The text, graphics, buttons and navigation links are often too small to be useful when displayed on a mobile device.

While the growing use of mobile and smart phone technology is advancing at an almost light speed pace, there are still adjustments that need to be made.  We will be keeping a close watch on the growing trend of mobile codes in advertising, and we will keep an even closer eye on any reports tracking the actual usage of this technology. Stay tuned …

More articles from PMD on this subject:

Mobile Barcode Scanning up 700% in 2010

Albany Rail Station using 2D Bar Codes

Microsoft Features PMD Promotion

Taking Mobile Tagging a Step Further

NY Times Reports on TV Tag Technology

Microsoft Tag Technology for Mobile Interactivity 

Best of luck to all our friends and clients up for awards!

A Streetcar Named Desire
End of the Rainbow
Follies
Jesus Christ Superstar
Leap of Faith
Lysistrata Jones
Once
Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark
The Lyons

Times Square is the world’s most visited tourist attraction, bringing in over 39 million visitors annually. Since 1907, Times Square has been home to the annual New Year’s Eve ball drop.  A major commercial intersection in the middle of Manhattan, Times Square is home to the Broadway show, one of the world’s busiest pedestrian intersections and a major hub of the entertainment industry.  In addition, Times Square is home to Restaurant Row, some of the cities best restaurants, with worldwide dining opportunities.

Name: Mission District, San Francisco
Population: 47,000
Main Street: 24th Street, Valencia St, Dolores St.
Who’s Here/BE SEEN BY: Tourists and locals

Whether you’re looking to take in the newer, locally-owned stores and cafes or get a taste of the neighborhood’s history and Latin culture, the Mission District is crawling with things to see and do. While the flavor of the neighborhood changes subtly from block to block, you can easily walk from one street to the next. The 24th Street area is the culturally rich heart of the Mission, the stretch from Dolores Street through to Valencia Street is young and upscale, the area around 16th and Valencia streets hops with nightlife and the industrial area near Bryant Street has hip, trendy restaurants

Name: Downtown Austin
Population: 10,000
Main Street: 6th Street, Congress Avenue
Who’s Here/BE SEEN BY: Music fans, Foodies

Casual, eclectic, five-star, techie, hippie, historic, chic, artistic, and weird are just a few of the adjectives used to describe Downtown Austin. Within a mile of the historic intersection of 6th Street and Congress Avenue, you’ll find an abundance of arts and culture.  Host of the annual South by Southwest Music festival, Downtown Austin is the home to over 200 live music venues, easily earning it’s name of the “Live Music Capital of the World.”  In addition to it’s historic music venues, 6th Street is home to many well known restaurants, from locally famous Fran’s Hamburgers to the world famous Stubb’s Bar-B-Q.  Austin is a town like no other and Downtown is “As Austin as it Gets.”