Harley turns 105, and it shows.

Harley-Davidson will turn 105 years old, and they’ll mark their anniversary with a blow-out bash in Milwaukee, Wisconsin starting August 28. 4 days of street thunder, wreckless abandon, debauchery and leather-clad 45 to 65 year old men (and their secretaries). The Foo Fighters will take a stage and perform, likely drawing a few people under the age of 40, but the band will rock hard enough to make the 60 year old forget about how they’d have rather paid to hear Ted Nugent.

It’s being reported (by AgencySpy) that H-D is looking for help outside C-L, who’ve largely been responsible for H-D’s success to this point. But, with failing sales numbers to younger riders, lack of product depth and an old-man image, H-D continues to struggle in growing their marketability to a broader range of potential buyers. H-D has reportedly, over the past decade, alloted a relatively small budget to youth marketing efforts. The product and communications managers inside H-D struggle with a chicken-or-egg scenario, where a question is whether potential young buyers should be heavily marketed to and then taught to ride, or if potential buyers are already learning to ride motorcycles.

Thus Rider’s Edge, the H-D riding academy, is teetering on the edge of lameness. H-D is and always has been about attitude, freedom and adventure. Rider’s Edge is about safety, control and other “real” lessons of moto riding. BMW has great adventure motos and the promise is paid off through great ads.

So, for H-D and it’s 105 years of attitude-driven, freedom-seeking… don’t let the anniversary party get re-colored “lame” by the oldies on turquoise elektra glides, their quest for T&A and thirst for cheesy t-shirts and embroidered denim.

A quick thought on sex-laden advertising.

Sexual attraction is a powerful human desire. Marketers know this and they’ll proliferate it’s use because, well, it works. To those who think a sexually suggestive campaign will cheapen the product or the service your advertising: you’re right… and wrong.

Effectiveness will be based on how properly the sex card gets played. If you can’t figure out how far on the sex-laden advertising scale yours have slipped, reconsider your approach or your customers will reconsider you.

Anticipating Enfatico

First, an idea for an in-house agency for computer giant, Dell, was created. They called it Project Da Vinci for a long while until it became officially named Enfatico. They hired some people, tried to hire some more, watched a mock site get created and still, nothing has come out of the shop (at least nothing Tribble can track down).

So, let this be a lesson to all those wheel re-inventors, the ones who set out to create new client-agency dynamics, the ones who believe a better agency model DOES exist in theory, the ones who are forging sound, incestuous relationships with biggie clients: if you’re going to do it, you need to prove it works quickly or people will blog and make websites about your spinning wheels.

Top online advertisers, the strategy and the buy.

Jeff Jarvis says not to listen to the people that tell you blogs are too small for big advertisers. Using American Apparel as an example, citing their stats, ya can’t argue with fact. Well, some people in the red states argue facts all the time, but it’s also noteworthy to see that big advertisers aren’t synonymous with big brands.

This comscore release listing the top apparel retailers’ display ad views shows quite a few mega corps at (presumably) lower online buys. The bigger catalogers are up there, Levis and Nike, down a tad. All things considered, each of these retailers has a different game they’re playing, with different niches and thus different techniques they’re deploying to attract business. Nike, with probably the most favorable media budget, has the mass media vehicles to leverage nike.com, to drive TV viewers, magazine readers, etc to the website, which is really a destination spot(s) where one can find much more than a webstore.

The point: know your customers (and potential customers) media consumption, and apply the marketing dollars to where they’ll gain traction the quickest.

Reebok players NFL migration

Reebok opens training camp media hype with their 60sec 20-player “Join the Migration” campaign for the moisture-wicking tees.

This campaign, on mediapost, includes a “comprehensive mobile initiative.” YOU can “Join The Migration” by txting the word “migrate” to 94444. In exhange, Reebok will allow YOU to view the TV spot, teaser spots and browse product information. YOU will also be entered in a sweepstakes for a trip for 2 to the Pro Bowl.

spending txt’s just to see advertising? lame. spend time browsing product information (read: marketing speak)? lame. Pro Bowl? Most lame.

Chicago Blackhawks want “one goal”.

After putting their advertising up for review, the Chicago Blackhawks have settled on Ogilvy & Mather to take up an overarching “one goal” campaign, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Blackhawks have turned around their game, not only on the ice, but in the hearts of the fans. With a few more tricks up their sleeve, the NHL confirmed that the Blackhawks will take on the Detroit Redwings at the second Winter Classic, outdoors at Wrigley Field. The spectacle, with the forces of two storied NHL franchises, a hallowed stadium and the outdoor novelty working on marketing overdrive, will be a sure measure to see if the NHL is a viable big money sports property again.

U.S. newspapers’ big opportunity.

U.S. newspapers are making cutbacks – staff, pages and content. The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, SF Gate – all are going through tough times… seemingly. Because the real estate market took a dive? Job market/classified sections go dry? Was nobody taking out those ads?

Obviously avertisers are moving to the internet in steadily growing numbers (do your own research), those that remain on the pages in ink are also suffering as the economy continues to stumble. Soft news and breaking news will always be a commodity – the newspaper industry must find a way to package and monetize it, and yes – it is possible to monetize news by way of relatively traditional ad sales.

The internet is still a huge advantage for the newspaper industry. In fact, I can’t imagine a time when news reporting was more relevant to a sped-up society than it is today. CNN and other news broadcasters used to jump out front because of their always-on content delivered through TV. Now, any web-savvy journalist can post news at any second.

The web will force speed in posting information with immediacy. CONTENT IS EVERYTHING. These journos will be faced with the need for empowerment – the ability to publish news as they retrieve it without ten trips through the editorial and publishing departments. Breaking news and commentary will drive repeat web traffic, which will drive exposures to the site UP, which will drive advertisers back to their new vastly electronic news pages.

The opportunity is there, which makes these editorial job cuts all the more stupid.

Tribune makes cuts. Heavy editorial casualties suffer to lack of corporate foresight.

There is always something to sell.

According to the NY Times, Sam Zell is saying that the Tribune company is (quickly) about to cut some costs. The LA Times and the Chicago Tribune will cut costs by printing fewer papers and employing fewer journalists. Advertising vs. Editorial pages will be close to 50/50. Taking a page out of “What to do if it was 1978” Sam will make a cutback on material costs… and a cutback on editorial staff.

Now is the time for smart reporting. On what people care about. Now is the time for the smart companies to translate their current assets into workable, 22nd century, user-friendly, quantifiable and desirable assets. Beef up the online presence (eg. keep the editorial staff!), transcend the shitty current newspages and get hyperlocal. (Hyperlocal became part of my common vernacular thanks to self-professed internet nerd Rob Curley) Fewer printed pages should mean NOTHING these days. RSS feeders proved pushing content CAN be retardedly simple, because a full news story is just a click away. Relevant news will always be needed (and sought out – heads up to SEARCH), it all depends on its delivery – so, there will always be something to sell.

Few businesses can survive very long without new customers. Then there’s the businesses that cycle through customers, like health clubs. Call them what you like – health clubs, fitness clubs, gyms – in essence they’re all the same unless they’re keenly defined and they’re only as strong as the will of the customer. They’re all in the business of providing you the opportunity to improve your health… but is improving your “look” a promise that’s mutually exclusive

One might say that if I dropped 25lbs I would “look” better, healthier. That 25lbs is representative of MY hard work, simply facilitated by the health club. So, I’ve used the club for what I need and I resign, thus bringing me to the question: what’s a health club to do for advertising? Sex appeal? Cost appeal? Time-of-day appeal?

This ad for Equinox clearly positions the brand as “not about fitness”. I could replace the logo at the bottom right with two things: a plastic surgeon and/or a bottle of fat burner.

The answer is simple. Health is a lifestyle – appeal to the lifestyle, don’t be polarizing and discretely show (and prove) results. Be careful with your advertising message and consider public relations as a key storytelling component of the lifestyle marketing plan.

Good for the dinosaurs

In the ever darkening world of old skool print magazines, someone at Paste magazine has his/her light switch turned on. Kudos to BMW, who identified a cute little ad-space at the number footer. And, a clever integration to boot. Don’t hate it.

Should the stuffy, constipated editorial traditionalists not give a little to the ad industry and those who seek to find their way onto their pages, print (mags and newspapers) will continue to disappear. Like dinosaurs.