Weight Watchers Belgium’s newest cause: yo-yo dieting. A pitfall known to anyone familiar with the attempt to maintain a steady weight, Weight Watchers hopes to combat this phenomenon and change its brand’s perception (from a tool for weight loss to a tool for weight maintenance) a bit through its recently-launched viral campaign. To get the word out, office building elevator buttons have been relabeled with stickers marked “kg” (for kilogram), implying that it’s weight that’s fluctuating, not the elevator’s location. The campaign also includes coupon-dispensing posters featuring a woman whose waistline shrinks along with number of coupons, and boomerangs and broken yo-yos handed out to unsuspecting passersby who look like potential customers. Here’s hoping no one gets offended.

Prison Break watchers who’ve been mesmerized by the intricate tattoos on character Michael Scofield will like this one: Toyota has partnered with the popular FOX drama to promote its newest model, the Yaris. Working with the artist who created the TV tatts, Toyota has had an image of the Yaris incorporated into the (presumably temporary) tattoo appearing in a special section of this week’s TV Guide magazine. An eye-catcher, for sure, but it seems to muddle the brand a bit, we think. The ad’s accompanying microsite, which is much darker than the car’s main site features Prison Break mobisodes…and a cute yet inexplicable cartoon owl, leaving us wondering: tough getaway car or cute, eco-friendly vehicle?

It seems there is a perfect time to reach email readers: Thursday morning, around 11 am.
According to the latest issue of Marketing News, the Web consultants eROI, Inc. have found that most electronic mail gets read at either 11 am or 4 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays—after that first of the week rush, but before weekenditis sets in. Good to know.

One of the biggest (and quickest) tools for measuring the success of an online campaign are click-through rates (or CTRs, as we call them in the biz). Trouble is, the knowledge of how to use them hasn’t spread as fast as their actual use – which is why we loved the article in this month’s Marketing News on CTRs and their various roles in the world of online marketing.

Put simply, click-throughs refers to the number of people who clicked on your link when it appeared on a third-party Web site or in an email blast. The CTR is the percentage of click-throughs given a certain amount of exposure. So, if you sent out 100 emails and 20 people clicked on a link to your Web site, your CTR would be 20%. Great, except - what does that mean? (more…)

Today, Facebook announced plans to give the world’s biggest internet search engines access to user profiles. And while the online community received cheers for opening its doors to .edu-less networkers just last year, the site’s latest invited guests are being greeted with a lot less enthusiasm. Perhaps because this promising new revenue stream seems like an about-face for loyal users who value Facebook’s exclusive, by-invitation-only brand. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg might want to consider Brandweek’s advice on balancing brand identity with business opportunity instead.