AllThingsD » Kimberly Chou

Levi's Looking for "New Americans"

Kimberly Chou — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:00:26 +0000

Levi’s is hoping to tap into its all-American image while appealing to young, user-generated-content-savvy consumers in its “Go Forth” advertising campaign.

The campaign, which started over the Fourth of July weekend, asks visitors to rewrite parts of the Declaration of Independence and submit photos, video and stories of “today’s America.”

The jeans maker worked with digital agency Razorfish and advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy on the print, online and, starting in the fall, television spots. It declined to say how much it spent.

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Audi Tries to Create an Online Pro-Diesel Movement

Kimberly Chou — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:16:34 +0000

For Audi’s latest advertising campaign, the automaker says it’s promoting a cause, not just its cars. With a motto of “Diesel: It’s no longer a dirty word,” the “Truth in Diesel” campaign aims to convince consumers that diesel is the greenest solution, said Scott Keogh, Audi of America’s chief marketing officer.

“You get behind a cause, you don’t get behind an engine option or a feature,” Keogh said. Switching to a diesel-engine vehicle “is something that you can do that’s realistic and right now and practical.”

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Obama Administration Launches IT Spending Tracker

Kimberly Chou — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:00:35 +0000

President Barack Obama’s Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra announced this morning the launch of an “IT dashboard” that allows people to see how the federal government is spending taxpayer dollars on information technology projects.

Announced at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, the IT dashboard, allows users to view data for various federal agencies, including major investments and dollars spent, as well to view the “health” of projects through graphs comparing planned and actual expenditures.

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Personal Democracy Forum: Seeking the Youth Vote

Kimberly Chou — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:49:35 +0000

The historic election of President Barack Obama marked a high point for youth involvement in elections. Now, activists are trying to figure out how to bottle youthful Obamania and transport it to other elections. At a panel discussion of the Personal Democracy Forum, author and youth vote activist Mike Conner said that young voter turnout (18-29 year olds) has increased the last three election cycles – marking the first rise in youth voter turnout since the Reagan era.

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Iowa Teen Wins Text-Messaging Championship

Kimberly Chou — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:30:55 +0000

After the tears (and there were tears), texts and frantic thumb work, Kate Moore, 15 years old, came from behind to win the best-of-three finals round of LG’s U.S. National Texting Championships Tuesday.

Ms. Moore, from Des Moines, Iowa, beat Morgan Dynda, 14 years old, for the $50,000 prize by being first to text an error-free modified chorus from “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”

Ms. Dynda was in New York for a second straight year to compete for the texting title, which began as a promotional campaign for LG’s cellphones three years ago.

“I’m just, like, completely stunned right now,” Ms. Moore said. “You’d never think a girl from Iowa would win something this big in New York.” Minutes earlier, she had joked about buying Coach purses and “a pony” if she won.

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Prius Takes Over Dictionary.com's Home Page

Kimberly Chou — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:01:32 +0000

To advertise its third-generation Prius hybrid, Toyota is playing a bit of word association with potential customers.

With help from advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the car maker is working with Dictionary.com for ads targeted to the definitions of words such as “sustainability,” “green” and “moonroof.” Those keyword-based ads launched last week, but Prius also took over the online dictionary’s home page Wednesday and Thursday, with another two-day takeover planned for July. Dictionary.com has also included Prius ads in its word-of-the-day emails, which reach 1.3 million subscribers.

Doug Frisbie, Toyota’s national media manager, said the company was active with search engines before (and this campaign ties with partnerships with MSN (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO), as well), but never before a dictionary site.

The objective of the Prius campaign is to integrate the ads with Dictionary.com content — to “enhance, rather than interrupt,” he said.

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