By Stuart Elliot, The New York Times

Last summer, travel marketers scrambled to cope with consumer anxiety over fast-rising gasoline prices and airfares.

Ah, the good old days.

The economy has worsened significantly since then, making it more difficult to persuade consumers to take vacation trips. As a result, airlines, hotels, resorts and destinations are intensifying attempts to appeal to frugal, worried would-be travelers…

View full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/business/media/25adco.html?_r=1&ref=media

Announced today, shiftcontrol.com has been distinguished as an Official Honoree in the Professional Services category in the 13th Annual Webby Awards. The honor signifies an outstanding caliber of work as voted on by members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

The site was created in collaboration with Mod7 and also recently won two Applied Arts Interactive Media Awards. Congratulations to Wil and your entire team!

This represents Shift Control Media’s third recognition by the Webby’s having previously won two in 2008 in the category of Interactive Advertising—Games and Applications for our work on the Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory” games.

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I’ve come across a bunch of different research lately that make me feel like we should stop talking about emerging media and start talking about emerged media. First and closest to my heart, December video game industry sales rose 9%. Imagine an industry that’s actually growing in this wonderful economy. According to NPD, games, consoles, & accessories rose to 19% to $21.33 billion in 2008. Games are now bigger then domestic box office, DVD sales and packaged music. And it’s not just video games. If you look at online game sites like Yahoo Games, Addicting Games, Mini Clips and the like, they had 27% more unique visits and 42% more playing time in December 2008 then just one year prior according to ComScore. During the same period Internet traffic was up only  4%. And then there’s Internet usage overall. A recent study from Harris Interactive found that US adult Internet users are now spending an average of 14 hours per week online. That’s twice as much time as they were spending in 2001 and nearly 1/3 more time then just one year ago. The same poll found that only 2% of computer users do not go online. Bottom line - there’s an ever greater opportunity for brands to connect with consumer online and through games. We’ve emerged!

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A recent article in the New York Times talked about marketers challenges reaping the supposed rewards of social networking. The piece talked about the fact that while 130 million spend their time on Facebook, advertising there is getting anemic response rates.  Is that so surprising? People go on social networks to connect with friends, share photos, network, etc. There is really no value for them is engage with advertising. But a lot of brands are viewing social networks as yet another medium to push their messages to consumers. Sure they create a group page, but why should consumers care. They’re on social networks to spend time with what they DO care about - each other. (more…)

Greenwich, CT – October 9, 2008 –Shift Control Media’s original branded games for the Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory” online environment won a Silver Pencil in the gaming category at Tuesday night’s first-ever One Show Entertainment Awards.

The One Show awards are designed to “pay tribute to creative branding beyond mere product placement,” according to One Club C.E.O. Mary Warlick.  Winners were announced at a gala ceremony at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles on October 7. (more…)

Games Offer Brands a Unique Way to Be the Entertainment - Not Just Sponsor It

For all their experimentation with social networks, user-generated content and online video, marketers seem content to view games as little more than another advertising platform. Yet with 72% of U.S. consumers playing games of one type or another, according to NPD Group’s Online Gaming 2008 report, they’ve become far too pervasive for marketers and advertisers to ignore. The untapped potential of games lies in their ability to tell stories, thereby more closely linking brand mythology with game play and blurring the lines between brand and entertainment. (more…)

Tim Zuckert, Shift Control President & CEO, appears on the Business Bull podcast to discuss the origins of Shift Control Media and the role of games in marketing.

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Picking up an unexpected third award the following day, a column appearing in Cnet titled ‘The awards for the best Webby acceptance speeches’ (each speech being limited to only 5 words), gave us this nod:

Best use of two awards: The “Happiness Factory” ad campaign for Coca-Cola picked up two awards; the representative accepting the award from agency Shift Control Media used his first five words to say “Seth, your fly is open” and his second, an hour later, to say, “Still down, Seth, getting creepy.”