I came across this neat presentation on BrandNoise on what many brands are doing to reach consumers during the recession. What are you doing?

Recession Washing 2009

Boasting huge growth in viewership in both daytime and primetime television, Cartoon Network released it’s new program lineup which contains 19 new features.  They’re also continuing their emphasis on live action, including The Othersiders, featuring five friends separating paranormal fact from fiction; Survive This, a challenge-based adventure series hosted by Survivorman’s Les Stroud.  They’ll also be showing their first all-CGI feature length movie called Firebreather.

For more, read the article here.

At the Wall Street Journal, they took time to measure the opinions of customers both when time and when money were advertised as a selling factor.  The results showed that when marketing time and value, more customers purchased the product and were more satisfied with their purchases.  The one exception to this rule was when marketers were advertising luxury goods.  In this case, monetary value was a positive when marketing.

Have you seen this effect in your marketing?  What do you emphasize when you’re marketing your product?

According to MediaPost.com, Drug Free America is now going mobile with their marketing towards teens. According to MediaPost’s article, But the partnership relies on pro bono contributions from agencies and media partners to get its work done, Baris says. In this case, the media partner is Ringleader Digital and the agency contributor is Contagious. “We have a lot of stars aligning at the right time to bring this to life.”The pro bono effort uses banner ads from two ongoing interactive efforts — the teen-oriented “Check Yourself” and the parent-aimed, “Time to Talk” — reformatted to work on mobile platforms. Once at the mobile WAP sites, parents can sign up to receive their first “talk tip” via text message, and teens can use the Check Yourself site to examine their relationship with drugs and alcohol and share the site with friends via text messaging. Will parlaying the Drug Free effort to mobile phones prove beneficial for the non-profit leader? We’d like to hear your thoughts.

According to MediaPost.com, Drug Free America is now going mobile with their marketing towards teens. According to MediaPost’s article, But the partnership relies on pro bono contributions from agencies and media partners to get its work done, Baris says. In this case, the media partner is Ringleader Digital and the agency contributor is Contagious. “We have a lot of stars aligning at the right time to bring this to life.”The pro bono effort uses banner ads from two ongoing interactive efforts — the teen-oriented “Check Yourself” and the parent-aimed, “Time to Talk” — reformatted to work on mobile platforms. Once at the mobile WAP sites, parents can sign up to receive their first “talk tip” via text message, and teens can use the Check Yourself site to examine their relationship with drugs and alcohol and share the site with friends via text messaging.

Will parlaying the Drug Free effort to mobile phones prove beneficial for the non-profit leader? We’d like to hear your thoughts.

Saturn, among many other automakers have experienced declining sales due to the financial crisis that started in September. Their sales though is being complicated by requests made by G.M. to the federal government for loans to fight off bankruptcy. This article in the NY Times highlights how Saturn is launching a new campaign where its dealers are talking to consumers, urging them to not be deterred from considering a Saturn because of the problems facing G.M.

The new campaign is extremely frank, it’s even titled “We’re still here.” Saturn has been known for the way they treat their customers, and now they are doing the same by leveling with them and being honest. A reason why this campaign is risky though is that automakers tend to stay away from going into detail about a world that is not so shiny and happy. It will be interesting to see how the public will react to these ads.

This year the Youth Marketing Mega Event is please to welcome keynote speaker, Jane Buckingham. Jane is President and Founder of The Intelligence Group/Youth Intelligence established in 1996. Jane is also the author of The Modern Girls Guide to Life. Building upon quantitative and qualitative analysis, the company provides marketing consulting, trend forecasting and market research to determine today’s concerns and tomorrow’s trends. Clients of the firm include leading fortune 500 companies and entertainment companies including Levis, Microsoft, Nike, NBC, Fox and Paramount pictures. The Intelligence Group/Youth Intelligence publishes the leading trend forecasting product, The Cassandra Report™ and also created trendcentral™ which includes a daily e-mail and comprehensive Internet trend site about 12-35 year olds, covering fashion, beauty, lifestyle, technology, and entertainment.Buckingham is a regular contributor to Good Morning America, a contributing editor at Cosmopolitan Magazine, and a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate, for which she writes a weekly column on trends.

According to this article in the NY Times, in this recession consumers are purchasing items and merchandise in this particular order: first, for the children; then for mom; next, for the pets; and finally, for dad.

Companies like Campbell Soup, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, and Mott’s apple juice are all stepping up to the plate delivering campaigns encouraging children to be more active and eat healthy. Others like Disney and State Farm Insurance has created messages to encourage safe driving among young teenagers. It will be interesting to see the types of children based campaigns companies will launch in the upcoming months.

An Unprecedented Conversation with Leaders on Relevance, Brand & ROI: Join the Conversation.

A new website has launched for kids into designing their own clothing.  By Kids Only is a new web page where children can take initiative and begin designing their own clothes.

ByKidsOnly.com is an interactive site where children aged 5-13 draw and post their ideal shirts, dresses, pants – even pajamas – and vote on their favorites. Winning designs are interpreted by fashion designers into actual clothing that will be produced locally with eco-friendly materials and sold online and at select retailers for mid-range prices.

For more information read the article here.