Daily Buzz 7/19

Part of the complementary digital/social effort involved a pledge that Domino’s would stop using aesthetic doctoring of marketing photos of its food, and instead the company encouraged consumers to take photos of their pizzas when they arrived. The goal was to prove that Domino’s pizza looks good as is.
More recently the company, based on consumer concerns about sourcing of pizza ingredients, launched a digital ingredients game. “For the entire year every national campaign has had a digital complement that extends it online.”
More recently the company, based on consumer concerns about sourcing of pizza ingredients, launched a digital ingredients game. “For the entire year every national campaign has had a digital complement that extends it online.” (www.mediapost.com)

In the U.S., key elements of the campaign, “Where Flavor Comes From”, are a cooking/entertainment iPad app from celebrity chef Fabio Viviani, an associated sweepstakes, and a new “WhereFlavorComesFrom” Web site.
While U.S. consumers are aware that olive oil has antioxidant and other healthful benefits, the best uses of Bertolli’s different types of olive oil are considerably less well understood
The HD-format iPad app, “Let’s Cook!,” offers more than five hours of content, including Viviani’s step-by-step guides to preparing 16 different recipes (www.mediapost.com)

It is not a network sitcom, nor are there any announced clearances yet. But former Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen will headline Anger Management in first-run syndication.
Produced by Lionsgate and distributed by Debmar-Mercury (home of talker The Wendy Williams Show, game show Family Feud, and comedies Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and Meet the Browns), Anger Management is loosely based on the 2003 theatrical of the same name with Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler. Sheen, who will have a significant ownership stake in the project, is expected to inherit the role of the out-of-his-mind therapist played by Nicholson.
“Who better than Charlie Sheen to tackle Anger Management,” said producer Joe Roth, who has worked with Sheen in five feature films, including Major League, Young Guns, and Three Musketeers. “With Charlie’s incredible talent and comedic gifts, he remains the leading man of TV sitcoms.” (www.adweek.com)

After emerging from a prepackaged bankruptcy in early 2010 and undergoing some major executive shuffling in the past few months, Reader’s Digest Association is putting itself up for sale—and is hoping for a $1 billion offer, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
This past April, President and CEO Mary Berner left the company after its newly elected board replaced her with company CFO Tom Williams, leading to speculation that big changes—such as a sale—could be on the horizon. Now, sources are saying that the company has hired financial advisors to shop it around to potential buyers, including private-equity firms and other media companies. Two of those people added that the process could result in the sale or spin-off of some RDA properties rather than the sale of the entire company.
One of the most attractive RDA properties is the cooking website Allrecipes.com, according to the sources. RDA acquired the site for $66 million in 2006, outbidding Yahoo, and it has more than doubled its traffic since then. If RDA is willing to part with it, sources said that Allrecipes.com could draw interest from a range of digital media companies and could bring in between $100 million and $200 million. (www.adweek.com)

Borders will be closing its doors by then end of September, with liquidation of its remaining 399 stores starting as early as this week. The closure comes as the United States’ second-largest bookstore struggled and ultimately failed to find a buyer to keep the company going.
The final decision to cancel a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for today was fueled by a general lack of interest from buyers. Since filing for bankruptcy-court protection in February, Borders has struggled to receive merchandise on advance from publishers, causing the company to further hemorrhage money. The company currently has around 10,700 employees.
Borders’ defeat marks the beginning of a new era, where online book sales and digital downloads for e-readers dominate the market. “We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now,” Borders President Mike Edwards said. (www.adweek.c0m)

San Francisco startup Scribd seems to have built a thriving Web publishing site, where people and companies can share everything from individual documents to e-books, which the company says is visited by 75 million readers every month. But Scribd is now adding a second option for online reading with an application called Float that it’s releasing today for the iPhone and the Web.
Co-founder and chief technology officer Jared Friedman described it as an attempt to create the ideal reading environment on any device. It sounds like a competitor to popular reading apps like Instapaper and Flipboard, but Friedman said that with Float, Scribd tried to encompass the entire browsing and reading experience in a way that hasn’t been done before. So yes, it allows readers to save articles found online for later reading on their phones, like Instapaper, and yes, it allows you to browse reading recommendations from your social network, like Flipboard. (www.adweek.com)

Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez remains committed to launching a clothing line at Kohl’s Corp. with husband Marc Anthony despite recently announced plans to divorce.
Mark Young, Ms. Lopez’s publicist, said the Kohl’s launch in September “will proceed as planned.” Mr. Young called Ms. Lopez’s line “distinctive” and said it represents style in an accessible way. (www.wsj.com)

ESPN earned a 2.6 overnight Nielsen rating for the final round of yesterday’s British Open from 8:00am-2:00pm ET, which saw Darren Clarke capture his first major championship by three strokes over Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson
The rating is flat with the final round last year. (www.sportsbusinessdaily.com)

The Hornets have experienced “astounding success” with an offseason campaign aimed at selling 10,000 season tickets “by mid-September for a basketball schedule that could be shortened — or canceled entirely — by a work stoppage,” according to Jimmy Smith of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. (www.sportsbusinessdaily.com)

Marriott International is reviewing media agencies in an attempt to consolidate the majority of its global media-planning and -buying accounts within one shop. It aims to either tap one of its four leading incumbent shops, or a new agency, by fall.
The incumbent shops — which are Carat in the U.S., Starcom in Latin America, ZenithOptimedia in Asia and MEC on a project basis in the Europe, Middle East and Africa — have been invited to participate in the review, according to a statement issued by Marriott. Those shops could not be reached for a comment by press time.
Creative duties, which are handled by Team One and Dentsu’s McGarryBowen, as well as search marketing agency Publicis Modem are not affected by the review. (www.adage.com)