Oprah gets own TV network

Talk show queen Oprah has tied up with the Discovery Communications to launch OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, her own cable television channel over which she will have editorial control. No word yet on her content objectives, but in time her popular talk show will probably move there too. The New York Times has more: Oprah Winfrey and Discovery to Create New Cable Network

After the cancellation of the Golden Globe awards ceremony and with the 50-year-old celebration of the Grammies now also under threat from the Hollywood writers strike, the annual sporting showcase in America, the Superbowl, might be the only highlight for advertisers. Let's hope the Oscars aren't affected either or the fashion industry will platz. The American Marketing Association news feed has more on this continuing story: For advertisers, 2008 Superbowl may be silver lining to writers' strike cloud.

The social media race for consumer equity is hotting up as marketers – and social media sites – realise that gaming is one of the biggest attractors to the web, and growing rapidly. MySpace is believed to be working on a gaming portal, according to AdLab, which reports that new gaming sites should focus more on the application friendly nature of social marketing tools: MySpace Builds Game Portal?.

Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, has secured the services of top creative Gerry Graf from Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day. Graf will replace Saatchi's outgoing chief creative officer, Tony Granger, reports AdvertisingAge: Saatchi Snags Graf From TBWA.

Marketing Vox reports that while consumers still trust health professionals first and foremost, the internet is becoming the top resource to search for health related topics: Internet Is Top Resource for Health Info, Social Media Gaining Popularity.

Engadget reports that Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA is another airline that will be allowing mobile phone and wireless Internet services on board flights later this year. Quantus is another and the new A380s will also allow full wireless access online, as well as power sockets to charge your gadgets: Norwegian Air rolling out in-flight phone use, internet access and Laptop power in flight internet coming to Qantas.

And if you don't have enough friends on Facebook yet, were rejected by Idols and voted off Survivor SA and are feeling a tad insecure, here's how you can up your global personal brand profile by becoming a YouTube star! A handy guide is offered by PC Mag; “go forth and entertain us” as they say: How to Become A YouTube Star.

New link to bookmark

Ads of the World: Creative Advertising Archive & Community – your daily dose of creativity from around the world: http://adsoftheworld.com/.

Tip of the week

If you want to think and operate more strategically in business and any forum where you need to co-operate and negotiate, upskill quickly with a couple of my favourite authors, Clem Sunter and Chantell Ilbury (also an ex-lecturer of mine in Scenario Planning, so I admit I'm biased) with their latest book in their ‘foxy' scenario planning and strategy series: Socrates & the Fox.

It's not a huge volume; it's well written and easy to read, not full of academic constructs that you have to read several times before it sinks in or you fall asleep in the process. Great real time stories too from their own case study roster. What you get are 10 well-constructed questions for your strategic agenda to ask of your organisation or management team to provide you with a clear idea of the future of your organisation in the game of business.

Here's a quote from the book: “…if your organisation is looking towards a more epic journey, where its presence as a business leader will be felt far and wide and its legacy will be experienced long after it may have left the playing field, it needs constantly to reinvent itself as the game changes. This requires open debate of the highest order, with maximum participation.”

They shouldn't have…

And my personal favourite: the annual Darwin Awards were released last week… you know, the ones where you do the world a favour by removing yourself from the gene pool?! The winner: some poor git who couldn't take alcohol by mouth, due to his er… alcoholism… so resorted to giving himself sherry enemas which killed him. For the rest of the sad tales courtesy of IOL: Darwin Award winners announced.