Advertising Age reports that GM and DaimlerChrysler are gutting their magazine ad budgets and moving their ad money to the web.

Blame it on Detroit. While many are looking to the digital future to explain why Time Inc. fired 289 people last week, they’d do just as well to look at the present — particularly at the changing marketing habits of the domestic auto industry.

While the story of magazines’ ongoing battle to adapt to the web world is well-documented, the untold story is of Detroit’s beleaguered carmakers, long pillars of print advertising, which are cutting their costs and, when they are spending, often seek more direct and interactive connections with their customers.

Detroit automakers slashed spending with Time Inc. a total of more than $100 million last year. General Motors, formerly Time Inc.’s biggest advertiser, cut its spending by 29%, or $47.8 million, according to estimates by TNS Media Intelligence. GM added no new Time Inc. magazines to its media plan and completely dropped All You, Baby Talk, Motorboating and Salt Water Sportsman.

DaimlerChrysler, while not quite as big an advertiser, was equally aggressive, slashing its spending with Time Inc. from $93.5 million in 2005 to just $39.7 million last year. Ford Motor Co. also reduced spending, albeit much less dramatically, trimming its Time Inc. outlay from $106.7 million to $101 million.

The companies are shifting money to the Web, but Internet ad spends are not yet enough to compensate Time and many other traditional publishers for the decline of their print spending. While this represents a risk for traditional publishers, it also represents a tremendous opportunity for Internet publishers as companies move their money to Web advertising.

New research offers a mixed bag for people wanting to monetize their online videos.

Burst Media has released a study that found 69.5% of survey respondents actively view video content on the web and 56% recall seeing ads in content they have watched.

The study also found that 52.7 percent say they typically continue watching video content once they encounter an advertising unit. That means you could be losing nearly half your potential audience with the use of intrusive ads.

The study found that (77.5 percent) of respondents say advertisements in online video are intrusive and nearly two-thirds (62.2 percent) say advertisements in video content disrupts their web surfing experience.”We did not explore the quality of video ads and if the creative played a role when the ads are abandoned by users. But I suspect that it is a significant factor, especially since one in four users like video more than inert online ads,” says Chuck Moran, manager of market research for Burst. “For users who take the time to watch video ads, their recall rate is pleasantly high.”

via iMedia Connection

Mainstream media is beginning to pick up on the idea that in a world of infinite channels, brands can have their own shows, rather than looking for the best ones to advertise on.

Marketers have found a new way to try to keep viewers from tuning out: offer them TV shows, movies and online programming created by the marketers themselves, often with help from their advertising agencies.
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You-know-who may star in Burger King’s feature-length movie.

These new offerings, the marketers hope, will be entertaining enough to endear viewers to the brands behind them.

Burger King, for example, is making a feature-length film that may star — no surprise here — the “King” character of its ad campaign. Office Max recently created a show on the ABC Family channel. Anheuser-Busch plans to start a seven-channel TV network online, called BudTV.

“It’s the exploration of sort of a new world,” said Doug Powell, chief integrator of Maiden Lane, an advertising agency. “Clients would love to have a way for customers to be able to participate with their brands more often and not have to rely on the traditional media world.”

via New York Times

Metacafe has announced a program that will pay you $5 for every thousand views your video gets.

Payment starts when your video reaches 20,000 views and has a rating of 3.00 or higher - which tells us that the viewers like the video. The license to Metacafe is a non-exclusive deal - you retain ownership of your video.

The New York Times reports that Frito-Lay and Chevrolet are planning contests to capitalize on the buzz surrounding user-generated video:

Frito-Lay and Chevrolet, looking to capitalize on the buzz created by user-generated content, are holding ad-making contests, with winners getting money and prizes and their spots used as part of Super Bowl XLI campaigns. Some of the spots will also appear online, giving them a chance to be spread around the Internet virally.In addition, the National Football League expects to announce rules for its own ad contest in the next month.

The Super Bowl spots, unlike some other recent online user-involvement campaigns, will be heavily vetted by the companies and their ad agencies. Frito-Lay will allow consumers to vote for which advertisement should be shown, from five finalists the company will choose. Chevrolet and its ad firm will choose which ad idea to use themselves.

“In both cases, it’s a very tight grip,” said Drew Neisser, president and chief executive of the Renegade Marketing Group, a marketing firm based in New York that is affiliated with Dentsu. Frito-Lay and Chevrolet “are reserving judgment because they have a brand to protect.”

Let’s hope LonelyGirl15 doesn’t reveal her cultish Frito fetish in Danielbeast’s new Chevy.