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Sexy mass media like network TV, consumer magazines and the Internet seem to occupy much of Madison Avenue's attention, but it is the relatively staid medium of newspaper ad inserts that prove to be the best a motivating consumers to make actual buying decisions, according to findings of a new consumer research study released Wednesday by insert specialist Vertis. More than a quarter (28 percent) of consumer surveyed said they consider inserts the most influential medium for purchase decisions, followed by television (22 percent), newspaper display advertising (18 percent).

Search giant Google is testing a feature for its AdWords program that would allow marketers to target their ads regionally, so they appear only when users in certain areas perform searches.

These are tough times for national marketers. Pressure to demonstrate a return on their media spending is huge. Yet research shows that half the population uses more than one medium at a time, suggesting that marketers may be wasting ad dollars on people who aren't fully engaged in one medium. According to a new Simultaneous Media Usage Survey by BIGresearch in Columbus, Ohio, 94% of people who say they go online while watching TV regularly, or occasionally, tune out mentally when a commercial comes on.

In an effort to get Madison Avenue focused on the creative applications of outdoor media, the outdoor ad industry Monday unveiled plans for a new ad campaign running - where else - in outdoor media. Details of the media strategy were not disclosed, but the effort, dubbed the "Year of the Creative," was announced during a meeting of the Creative Committee of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America in Los Angeles. The new committee is comprised of artists, designers and advertising executives who will concentrate on five specific initiatives: development of an industry creative positioning and campaign; initiation of a series of innovative seminars to introduce agency designers to the creative opportunities that outdoor provides; expansion of the involvement by advertisers and agencies in the industry's annual creative competition, the OBIE Awards; creation of a speaker's bureau that will focus on outdoor design at ad industry conferences and universities; and improvement of the quality of public service advertising within the medium.

Even though more than one in three takes little notice of at least one of the top five mass media, consumers still pay greater attention to those outlets than most other venues for marketing, according to a new study from MediaVest USA.

Preliminary findings that scenarioDNA provided MediaDailyNews show Millenials are not just a phenomenon, but a new consumer force to be reckoned with. They generally go with the undercurrent, and look to their peers more than anyone for guidance and recommendations. "Marketers need to reach the Gen Y leaders to pull the masses," says Tim Stock, managing director and co-autho

As the third-quarter revenues come in over the next few weeks, the industry will be looking at radio's performance to see whether the anticipated recovery in the third and fourth quarters will materialize. Analysts are increasingly deciding that 2003 won't end as well as hoped and are looking toward 2004 as the real recovery year for radio. Bear Stearns said recently that it was expecting radio to register either flat or slight growth (1.5 percent) in the fourth quarter. It said that national advertising, which had been the driving force in the gains in radio revenues, seems to be stalling. In early September, national advertising was up 5 percent to 7 percent compared to the same period a year ago but now Bear Stearns said it's flat.

Blogs, online's niche media format du jour, are chronologically structured logs of text and images published to the Web with easy-to-use software tools. The segmentation and abundance of blog content (think anything from the naval-gazing minutiae of a teenage girl's life to the practical punditry of a tech firm CEO) is fueling a new form of online advertising.