CBS is hoping you’re in the mood for a cool lime mojito, or at least something that sort of resembles the traditional Cuban cocktail.

Ahead of the 2007-08 television season, CBS is promoting the new series “Cane” starring Jimmy Smits by running a print advertisement showcasing a fictional rum brand, Duque, that is central to the storyline of the TV show.

But that’s not all.

The two-page promotion, which will run in the September 7 edition of Rolling Stone, includes a tamper-proof taste packet with a lime mojito-flavored dissolving taste strip.

“We’re confident that this latest concept will not only appeal to Rolling Stone readers, but engage them to get a true taste of Cane,” said George Schweitzer, president of the CBS Marketing Group.

The concept was the work of Initiative, a unit of Interpublic Group, while the taste packet was developed by First Flavor.

And in case you were wondering — as we were — the taste strip is non-alcoholic.

Just a day after AT&T Inc announced it was putting its media buying into review, Visa confirmed that they, too, are following suit and will pick just one agency to run their account.

At the moment, the telecoms company and the credit card network each employ a handful of agencies to conduct their media buying and planning work. That “share the wealth” mentality has now fallen out of favor. Turns out it’s a more costly and less efficient way to do business.

In the case of Visa, it will take proposals from four holding companies — Omnicom Group, WPP Group, Aegis Group and Publicis. It plans to pick just one holding company or one agency.

From Visa’s statement:
Visa has made a decision to evaluate global consolidation of media buying in order to more effectively manage advertising spend globally and to simplify agency relationships.

Visa and AT&T aim to select an account winner by the end of the year, making this year’s holiday season an anxious one on Madison Avenue.

If there was any lingering doubt that billboard, park bench and every other sort of outdoor advertising are hot, well, just check out the latest figures.

In the first half of this year, outdoor advertising revenue rose about 8 percent to almost $3.8 billion in the United States, according to an industry trade group. That puts it on pace to match the increases seen in 2005 and 2006.

 Outside the Internet, those growth figures are tough to beat.

Here’s a breakdown of the top categories from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America:
    1. Misc. Services and Amusements $581 million
    2. Insurance and Real Estate $382 million
    3. Public Transportation, Hotels and Resorts $326 million
    4. Communications $311 million
    5. Media and Advertising $307 million
    6. Retail $296 million
    7. Restaurants $232 million
    8. Financial $217 million
    9. Automotive Dealers and Services $199 million 
  10. Automotive Equipment $180 million

Shortly after NBC Universal announced its deal for Sparrowhawk Media, we caught up with Chief Executive Jeff Zucker.

Zucker discussed why international expansion makes sense now, the economy’s impact on advertising and the nameless online video joint venture with News Corp.

What makes an international cable deal so appealing to you right now?

This is an important move for us to grow our international business. Clearly, media is growing more outside the United States than it is inside the United States. So for us to be able to double our global networks business was just a unique opportunity. There’s a lot of interest in these channels and it dovetails nicely with the footprint we already have outside the United States. And it will allow us to double our international business revenues over the next three years.

Is it a risky time to expand in cable given the fragmentation of media?

We don’t think so. We think, in fact, it’s the same thing we see here in the United States. The biggest story in TV in the United States this summer has been the tremendous strength of the cable networks. We’re seeing very much the same thing internationally. The growth of the Internet has not come at the expense of cable networks either domestically or internationally.

Are there any particular global regions you like at the moment?

What this acquisition does is fills in gaps where our portfolio already existed. This gets us into Eastern and Central Europe and Asia in ways we just weren’t. So what this does is really round out our portfolio.

You’ve made clear your intention to boost the international business. What other kind of acquisitions would you look at?

I’m not going to go into specifics at this time. It won’t be all through acquisitions — we’re going to grow organically as well. We already had a plan to grow out global networks footprint organically. It’s a combination of acquisitions and organic growth. So we’ll look to be opportunistic just as we were here.

How concerned are you about the economy and its possible impact on advertising?

Obviously, the economy is something we keep a close eye on. There is an article out today in MediaPost that confirms what we obviously know, which is that the scatter market for the fourth quarter is incredibly strong. Double digit price increases over the upfront, which was strong. Things are very strong. Business is excellent right now. I know some thought that advertisers would reconsider their television buys, but that has not happened this year. Nothing has been pulled back. We feel very good. There is no evidence that the economy is softening when it comes to advertising. 
    
How’s the online venture with News Corp progressing? Is September still a launch date?

Yeah. I think we’ll have some news shortly on that. 
     
Any chance of you announcing the name?

It was an excellent try, but we’ll have news later. 
     
The Dow Jones board has now accepted the News Corp. bid. What does all this mean for CNBC?

CNBC is in excellent shape. They’ve transformed themselves as a network over the last two years. They’ve never been in a stronger position. We’ve had many strong competitors in the past. We’re not going to take anybody lightly but we feel excellent about how CNBC is positioned.

Promoting the city of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — which struck the city two years ago this week – has been no simple task for the agency assigned the campaign, Trumpet Advertising.

The campaign, “Forever New Orleans,” aims to be upbeat and humorous, without misleading the public about the state of the city. Ads with taglines such as “Open. To Just About Anything” and “Soul is Waterproof” are already running in print, on billboards, online and even on tray tables on some U.S. Airways and America West planes.

Trumpet President Robbie Vitrano discusses the campaign and New Orleans, which has yet to see tourism fully rebound. Officials expect the summer of 2007 — a slow season anyway because of the heat — to hit a record low for tourism. 

Here’s an excerpt from our e-mail interview: 

“Forever New Orleans” is meant to be a fun campaign. Why take it that direction rather than a more emotional one?

It’s not a solely fun campaign, but it allows for a sense of humor, a satire even, which is very much a part of our DNA.  We acknowledge the emotion without torturing it - there is a very understandable emotional fatigue, awkwardness and even pity associated with the profound fondness people have for New Orleans.  We felt it was time to channel that into something with more momentum and opportunity for engagement.  Pity, left to its own devices can become disabling.  At some point, everybody wants to go forward.  Not insensitively, but some sense of forward progress and nascent momentum.

The campaign is obviously designed to lift tourism. But what about the residents of New Orleans. How have they responded to the advertisements?

It has been well received.  We’re only recently attaching it visibly to local events such as a new Saturday concert series. In many ways, this is entirely new for the city.  Tourism marketing was generally an external thing.  It’s very different for us seeding a holistic message that is designed to align with branding realities that impact residents, business investment and tourism.  Locally, people are so emotionally engaged in the issues of recovery and transformation that marketing efforts are not top of mind.  Our obligation is to understand these dynamics and authentically reflect them in the branding.  Just as tourism is a municipal asset that belongs to the city, so must the branding campaign primarily, fundamentally support the citizens.

Did you learn anything from how New York promoted itself after Sept 11?

We studied it, but the situation was very different.  This is an enormously complex branding problem - where certain brand equity had to be abandoned, new markets and opportunities identified, and new products had to be launched - all at once, all immediately.  People understood that the vast majority of the New York was untouched and fully functioning.  They were clear as to who was the enemy.  This allowed New York to mobilize patriotism… and communicate that the best way to support the city was to visit and spend money.

That wasn’t the case here.  The months that New Orleans was virtually shut down following Katrina, the huge, transcending moral and political questions associated with the cause and effect of the tragedy, the finger pointing in the response - all of this made it impossible to get a simple message out.  We had to cultivate our truest advocates immediately.

New Orleans is still struggling to attract visitors. What needs to be done next to promote the city as a tourist and convention destination?

First, I need to point out that tourism is actually rebounding ahead of schedule and next year should actually be better than 2004, so that is good.  We’ll continue to develop and deepen our relationship with cultural tourists especially online giving them tools to not only share and deepen their experience but to become a true part of the reinvention of the city.  Tourism and the general recovery of the city can no longer be separated.  So we’ll be aligning messages that not only promote tourism, but that also support an increased level of engagement by the citizens as well as economic development activities.

A new study conducted by Visa found that old and young had much to agree on when it comes to how to pay for things - use plastic. Not surprisingly, that plays right into one of its recent ad campaigns.

Entitled “How America Spends,” the Visa study polled 500 Baby Boomers (ages 43 to 61) and 500 Echo Boomers (ages 18 to 28), two groups key to consumer spending trends.

Some 79 percent of Baby Boomers and 74 percent of Echo Boomers believe “our society will one day operate without cash and checks and will conduct all payment transactions electronically.”

But that’s about all they agreed on. Here’s what the study also found:

• Baby Boomers think Echo Boomers are self-absorbed losers. The study found just 25 percent of Baby Boomers would describe the Echo Boomers as an admirable generation. And 68 percent of Baby Boomers believe Echo Boomers and too self-centered.
• Given that, Echo Boomers may want to rethink their position. By contrast, some 68 percent of Echo Boomers said they admire Baby Boomers — or did before reading the survey results.
• They should settle this over a nice dinner — paid for with Visa, of course. Among Echo Boomers, 45 percent cited dining out at restaurants as their second largest expense, after housing. Among Baby Boomers, it was cited as the third largest expense, after housing. Oh, and medical/dental.

You know speeding dating? When men and women rotate around tables in a room, taking five minutes or so to get to know one another before moving on to the next romantic candidate? BBDO is here to remind you.

The Omnicom Group advertising agency, one of the hottest on Madison Avenue, recently tried out a little speed dating during a client pitch.

“You know how there’s this awkward moment in new business pitch when you go around the table and people introduce themselves?” BBDO Worldwide Chief Executive Andrew Robertson said during a recent sit-down with us. “Instead, we did this speed dating thing.”

BBDO set up eight tables during the pitch, sitting the executives from the potential client company at each of the tables. The admen then quickly moved from table to table, making small talk, selling themselves.

“Two minutes,” Robertson said, snapping his fingers. “It was so effective — you get all this great stuff.”

It doesn’t end there.

BBDO, whose clients include, Bank of America, General Electric Co., Target Corp. and FedEx, is testing out speed dating with job candidates.

At its Organic agency in San Francisco, recruits don’t have to go through the usual process of getting four interviews scheduled with different managers at different times.

“It tends to take three weeks to schedule that,” said Robertson. “And really, we take the view that you get about 80 percent of what you’re going to get from the interview in first five minutes.”

So, instead, BBDO sets up one 30 minute interview for the job candidate. Here’s how it works:

• Minutes 1-20: Job candidate moves through five minutes sessions with four  agency bigwigs.
• Minutes 20-25: Bigwigs confer, offer job
• Minutes 25-30: Candidate makes up mind. Quickly.

“It’s cool,” said Robertson. That is, unless you didn’t get the job.
   

If you are a sports nut who rifles through YouTube looking for Nike commercials — we know there are plenty of you judging by nearly 3 million views of just one Ronaldinho spot — there’s a new campaign for you to check out.Regarded as one of the best when it comes to branding, Nike is launching a new campaign for its “ZOOM” shoe featuring star athletes like football’s LaDainian Tomlinson and basketball’s Steve Nash. The campaign’s tag: “Quick is deadly.”The broadcast TV commercials come courtesy of Michael Mann, the director behind such films as “Ali”, “Miami Vice” and “Heat”, and kicked off this week with the Tomlinson spot (of course it’s on YouTube).

Nike also has print, digital and PR elements thanks to its longtime agency Wieden+Kennedy Portland.

Wieden+Kennedy teamed with Ensequence to develop an interactive component to the TV campaign for Dish Network customers who have DVRs, offering viewers 22 extra minutes for viewers to learn more about the product or watch additional footage.

And Nike gets a little bonus from the interactive TV part of the campaign — it will be able to track and measure viewer response, giving it one more important metric to play with.

Westin Hotels is banking on the bad mood of New Yorkers in August, when tourists crowd the city and the weather turns unbearably hot and sticky. As part of its latest $30 million advertising campaign, the hotel has decorated the interiors of three subways running between Grand Central and Times Square with 360-degree images meant to calm frayed nerves.

One car is made to look like a soothing sauna, another an icy lakeshore, another a lush rain forest and yet another a tropical scuba dive. The outdoor campaign — one of the hottest areas of advertising these days — was created by Deutsch New York for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s Westin.

Westin says the idea is to convey its “renewal experience” by surrounding consumers in “positive experiential” advertising. Maybe next time the hotel chain could go a step further and get the subway platforms air-conditioned.

Sumner Redstone just won’t stop dancing.

CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc.’s executive chairman keeps getting questions about whether he would take one of his media companies private — and he keeps dodging the issue.

His latest dance came during a conference call to discuss CBS’ quarterly earnings, when he was asked what would “trigger” a decision to go private. Back in June, he fielded a similar question during an interview on CNBC.

Here’s what he said on Tuesday: 

“(We) like the companies the way they are. We think there is an enormous amount of growth in them without any great strategic change. 
However, and I’m very clear on this, we do consider all alternatives. There has been a lot of discussion inside and outside about taking one of these companies private. 
What I can say is, I’ve said it before, it’s not on the front burner. But you can rest assured it will receive the consideration it should as we always consider what’s good for these companies.”

Why the equivocation? Given the the skittishness of the debt markets, this would seem a reasonable time to rule out going private. What do you think? What’s Redstone got in mind?