APPLE found its next commercial for the iPod Touch on YouTube. A lively spot was created by 18-year-old Nick Haley and uploaded to the video-sharing site, where it received a few thousand views. Apple employees saw the ad and had TBWA/Chiat/Day contact the young student. The agency collaborated with him to create a professional, broadcast-ready version of the spot. It will air this Sunday during football, Desperate Housewives, and the World Series.
AMERICAN GREETINGS purchased photo-sharing site Webshots.com from CNET for $45 million. CNET paid $70 million for the site in 2004 and it pulled in 7.2 million visitors in September. However, CNET says it needed to get rid of the site to “focus on key areas of growth” and to create “a bold media company that is entrepreneurial and aggressive.”
AT&T has delayed the release of its mobile MediaFlo TV service until “early 2008.” The Qualcomm-based offering will bring broadcast television to mobile phones, eventually delivering full-length television shows. Verizon began a MediaFlo service in March.
AT&T has consolidated most of its media accounts into one $2.3 billion account with WPP Group’s Mediaedge:cia. The company had previously used five different agencies, separating wireless from landline and print from digital. Mediaedge was responsible for much of the success AT&T saw with the Cingular brand.
COMCAST has chosen MOTOROLA as its supplier for switched digital video technology, which is already being tested in Colorado and New Jersey. Switched digital systems save valuable bandwidth and allow a better quality of service for additional offerings such as voice and data.