Top Story

• Go Daddy goes for timely with well-placed Super Bowl spot
  Go Daddy is emphasizing the prospect of running out of time with its 30-second spot scheduled for the two-minute warning during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. The ad's message urges people to apply soon for a .CO domain before someone else gets there first. Adweek (1/25)     

Agency News

• Razorfish is named Masco's lead shop; Firstborn gets Redken work
  Two New York digital agencies have added new clients. Masco has hired Razorfish as its digital agency for brands such as Milgard windows, Behr paint and Delta faucets, after a review. And L'Oreal Group's Redken has signed a one-year contract with Firstborn for online content, as the brand continues to split duties among several digital shops. Adweek (1/25)     

• Other News

• Former White House spokesman, Facebook exec Joe Lockhart is back at Glover Park
  Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (1/25)     

Creative

• Barbasol enlists rugged icons to encourage manly shaving habits
  Manly archetypes berate their less manly descendants to at least "shave like a man" in the latest Barbasol campaign. Actors playing a WWII soldier, an 1854 Western trailblazer and a baseball player from 1920 mock the less-than-manly habits of today's youths. The TV spots, which will run mostly on sports-focused cable networks, are the first work from Barbasol's new agency, GSD&M, which is attempting to help the venerable brand come back by following the humorous lead of competitors Old Spice and Brut. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (1/27)     

• RIM plans first Super Bowl ad, will tout BlackBerry 10
  AMV BBDO in London will create the first Super Bowl ad for Research In Motion, touting its BlackBerry 10 smartphone and operating system. The company is using on-site, digital and social advertising before and after the game to extend the campaign. "A Super Bowl commercial is a great opportunity to show the redesigned, reengineered and reinvented BlackBerry to tens of millions of consumers on the largest advertising stage of the year," says Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben. Mashable (1/25)     

Media

• Chicago public radio station wants its listeners to make babies
  Chicago public radio station WBEZ is venturing onto new promotional ground by literally encouraging listeners in younger, child-bearing age brackets to have offspring. The tongue-in-cheek idea, called "2032 Membership Drive," is to appeal to parents and young couples who listen to public radio, as they are more likely to have children who become listeners as well. "We wanted to break the mold and take some risks," said Daniel Ash of Chicago Public Media, which owns WBEZ. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/Media Decoder blog (1/27)     

Trends & Research

• Industry groups announce new mobile ad standards
  The Mobile Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau have joined forces to publish a new set of industry standards for mobile advertising, in a bid to streamline ad buying and selling. The standards should help marketers create ads capable of running on several different devices, and help publishers to get better prices for their mobile ad inventory. "Mobile is a unique medium that gets you closer to the consumer than any other. Because of that it needs its own unique framework," says MMA North America Managing Director Michael Becker. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (1/25)     

• Digital marketers take aim at brands' TV budgets
  Until now, most online ad spending has been diverted from brands' print budgets -- but the rise of online video is now letting online marketers make a play for brands' TV budgets too, says RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney. "The number of people watching TV seems to be stagnating or declining, and the number of people turning to the Internet for entertainment is surging," he says. "It almost inevitably drives these TV budgets online." Reuters (1/25)     

Marketer News

• P&G's comeback means ambitious marketing plan can proceed
  A strong recovery in North America led Procter & Gamble to beat the Street's estimates for its last fiscal quarter of 2012, though it continues to see market share erode slightly. Executives say that no further job cuts are on the horizon and that the company can proceed to plow profits back into increased marketing for an ambitious schedule of product launches. Neuberger Berman analyst Jason Tauber says the company has done "a good job at managing expectations and investing in the business, and kind of under-promising and over-delivering." The Wall Street Journal (1/25), Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (1/25)     

• Taylor Swift signs on for Diet Coke
  Musician Taylor Swift has signed a deal with Coca-Cola making her a brand ambassador for Diet Coke, though sources say she will not be in Super Bowl commercials for the company. Details of the campaign are not yet known, but independent agency Droga5 may play a role. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (1/25)     

Association News

• Talent & Development: Last Call for 2013 Southern California Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies
  The deadline for the 2013 Southern California IAAS program is today, so don't miss your last chance to sign up. For more than 25 years, the 4A's Southern California IAAS has been training the best and the brightest in the advertising agency business. Many of today's top agency executives are IAAS graduates. This year's client is Qualcomm.
  
  The course runs from Feb. 4 to May 14 at UCLA Extension. Sign tomorrow's leaders up by registering today.     

• Webinar Alert -- Competitive Pitch Discovery: Getting to the Heart of What it Takes to Win
  Don't miss your last chance to sign up for this webinar that will take you behind the scenes of a competitive review. Brent Hodgins of Mirren Business Development will show you on Jan. 29 a step-by-step process that will make your prospects open up, and uncover how to ask the best discovery questions and tactics that will provide the results you need. Leave with an approach that will help you better understand your real chances of winning and what it will take to beat other agencies.
  
  Save a spot now.     

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by 4A's SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Unilever lifts ad spending 8%, but cuts to agency fees loom (Advertising Age (tiered subscription model))

• Bacardi stirs up a media agency review as account is set to grow (Advertising Age (tiered subscription model))

• Adweek names PHD global media agency of the year (Adweek)

• Lessons from American Airlines' "turbulent" logo rollout (Adweek)

• Wheat Thins ad shows that even a yeti will try to take your "snack" (The New York Times (tiered subscription model))

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

SmartQuote

If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow." --William McFee, British-American writer