Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

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Mardak Accomplishes Goal Of Coast-to-Coast Offices

International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:INLM) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the client base and certain assets of Barter Network, a trade exchange operating out of Springfield (VA) with clients located in Arlington, Alexandria, the District of Columbia, and Maryland.

CEO Don Mardak said, “This acquisition makes us a coast-to-coast barter system. We will now be servicing clients in twenty-five markets across the United States.” For more information see: www.internationalmonetary.com.

BarterNews issue #62 is now available...Get yourself a copy now! Orders are shipped within two business days. (Click on Order Form.)

Hubcap Billboards Latest Advertising Venue

In Los Angeles there are 250 cabs rolling around the city with “hubcap billboards,” a patented 16-inch steel disc affixed to the lug nuts. They remain stationary as the wheels turn, so they’re readable at high speeds.

AdFleet Advertising US, a Santa Monica ad agency, thinks its advertising idea will be red-hot, as the 250 cabs hitting the road last Friday (July 9) will soon see more—an additional 1,750 by summer’s end.

Local clients include Taco Bell, 1800CheapSeats, Virgin Drinks North America, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Advertisers are paying as much as $250 a month per cab—with $50 going to the cab driver.

Nationally, the ads are set to premiere this summer on as many as 7,500 cabs in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta. New York City, the nation’s cab capital, is in the works. Ian M. Klassen, president and co-founder of the 2-year-old AdFleet, is already working on his next big idea: putting a “monster of a disk” on bus wheels!

Trade Exchange Owners...
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Fingerprints Of Globalization Ubiquitous As U.S.
Companies Ring Up Trillions In Sales Overseas

Joseph Quinlan, a Bank of America economist, says that some startling figures from the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis is the true measure of how American firms compete around the world.

Here’s what the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reports: Foreign affiliates of U.S. companies last year rang up $3 trillion in sales. Moreover profits are soaring overseas, up 55% in 2003 and are now running at a rate of $250 billion annually.

The overseas branches of majority-owned U.S. affiliate firms number 24,000 and presently have more than 8 million employees in all corners of the globe.

U.S. companies are expanding abroad for two reasons, according to Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank backed by organized labor. Millions of skilled workers and college graduates will work for one-tenth the pay and benefits of Americans.

And second, U.S. companies are moving overseas because that’s where the fastest-growing markets are. Most of the biggest U.S. companies, including P&G, IBM, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola and Exxon, gain more than half of their sales and income outside the U.S. They hire locally to serve local customers.

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Tuesday Report archives?!

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Cannes, France Attracts Advertisers Globally

Ad agencies have traditionally attended the advertising industry’s annual awards show in Cannes. But this year their clients are invading the glitzy French Riviera in unprecedented numbers, attending the 51st International Advertising Festival. Nearly 10% of the festival delegates being clients.

Overall, 8,000 advertising and marketing executives—up 20% over last year—attended this year’s awards show held the third week of June. The influx reflects the pressure marketers are under to make their ads stand out from the clutter, and to master the rapidly changing media landscape—including the threat from ad-skipping digital video recorders such as TiVo.

Advertisers are attending Cannes because it’s a showcase for the best advertising from around the world. For marketers, who are looking to get more ideas for how to grab consumers’ attention, Cannes has become more relevant as the festival has expanded beyond TV and print. (They began honoring direct mail, direct-response TV, and alternative media two years ago.)

This year a 49-year-old Indian, Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director of WPP Group PLC’s Ogilvy & Mather India, heads the awards’ film and outdoor juries, signaling a growing Asian clout.

Today, more companies are seeking “cultural marketing,” as well, which includes online advertising, viral marketing, and guerrilla marketing.

Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

You can obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue of BarterNews.

Entrepreneurial Owners Upbeat

Owners and executives of small businesses feel positive about the national economy, according to the 2004 CIT Small Business Outlook, a nationwide survey by CIT Group and BusinessWeek Research Services.

“The enthusiasm expressed by the small businesses across the country indicates that the United States is experiencing an economic recovery,” said John Canning, president of subsidiary CIT Small Business Lending Corp.

Survey findings:

• Eighty-five percent of those surveyed said now is a good time for companies to invest in their organizations, and 72 percent are confident about the future of the U.S. economy.

• Eight out of 10 believe their sales revenue will increase in 2004.

• A total of 45 percent believe their sales will increase more than 20 percent.

• A total of 74 percent said U.S. companies would increase their spending in the next 12 months.

• A total of 54 percent expect consumer spending to increase in the next 12 months.

Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies.

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The Art Of Trade And The Trade Of Art!

100% quality art reproductions are now available to Trade Exchanges and their clients and members through ARTrade Corporation (www.artrade.ca), a Canadian company, part of the JUMA Publishing Group. ARTrade and JUMA employ both the giclee and oil on canvas processes of reproduction. ARTrade takes pride in their diverse collection of artists and their works.

The best part is that the art can be obtained at 100% Trade and through a barter/cash blend for larger orders. ARTrade is now ready to accept your orders on their comprehensive, interactive website that not only allows your to view the catalogue, but allows you to select a frame and place the framed image on your selection of wall treatment. While shipping and taxes must be paid in cash, your will find that ARTrade’s prices are the same as the cash prices on their JUMA website. Absolutely, no trade inflation!

Hotels, interior designers and corporate premium and incentive buyers are invited to contact ARTrade and inquire about special corporate program details. ARTrade will also assist you in the development of affinity, charitable giving and loyalty programs. ARTrade is also accepting proposals from qualified Trade Exchanges and would be willing to discuss mutually beneficial marketing opportunities.

Book your corporate and holiday giving requirements early and receive a special bonus if you mention you saw ARTrade in BarterNews or the Tuesday Report.

Visit www.artrade.ca, or call Brian Owen or Con Mathios at (877) 901-5862.

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Here & There...

• Deadline is August 1 for advertising in the up-coming issue #63 of BarterNews, which will be out prior to the NATE and IRTA conventions. For complete rates click on “Advertising” (above navigational bar) or contact Bob Meyer...e-mail: bmeyer@barternews.com.

• Bentley Commerce has announced the completion of its first few Per Inquiry (PI) Media agreements. The initial companies that have agreements with Bentley advertise discount health and medical plans, VolP Telephone Services, DirectTV equipment, plus installation and service.

• The top 100 law firms in the U.S. saw annual gross revenues jumping nearly 10% (9.5% actually) to $41.7 billion! New York firms, helped by Wall Street’s recovery, claimed 13 of the top 15 spots.

• Paul Donovan, a global economist at UBS in London says the U.S. Federal Reserve increase in interest rates (a quarter point hike over the current rate of 1%) will see increased pressure on other Central banks to raise rates.

  According to Donovan, the Fed exerts more influence on global markets today than in the past. (Central banks in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia already have raised rates. The European Central Bank, overseeing a still-fragile economic recovery, is resisting the Fed’s powerful pull and is expected to leave their key rate at 2%.)

• A glut of advertising time available on the radio has some pundits suggesting it’s time to make some fundamental changes. One change they say would be helpful, is the weekly reporting of data because so much radio advertising is bought at the last minute, and such free flow of information enables better negotiations by the buyers. (Clear Channel has stopped reporting weekly “sales-pacing data,” and will now do so on monthly “actual-sales” figures.)

• The glut of time came about when radio companies, eager to boost their earnings, carved more advertising time out of each hour. Radio carries an average of 15 minutes of advertising per hour, compared with about 12.5 minutes for television. However, news talk shows, particularly during morning and afternoon commuter drives, cram as much as 22 minutes of advertising into each hour.

  Selling more minutes per hour boosts overall revenue in the short term. But as supply increases, the price for each spot declines. And analysts indicate that radio sales forces nationwide are too quick to lower prices if they think they might lose a sale.

• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!

• On-screen commercials in movie theaters, already among the nation’s fastest-growing advertising segments, are expected to mushroom even more in the next few years. Last year, an estimated $356 million was spent on ads in cinemas, up 37% from the previous year.

• Staging the Olympics in Athens this summer will cost the Greek government more than $11 billion. Close to a billion dollars of goods and services, however, will be bartered as “payment in kind” by the worldwide Olympic sponsors.

  For an in-depth look at how “Barter Plays Major Role in the Olympic Games” go to our Corporate Barter Section and then click on that story. In the article you will find 30 major companies listed that traded their goods/services in exchange for a corporate sponsorship.

• Recently a press release came across our desk from a company (XrayMedia) outside the barter industry. One sentence caught our eye, “Barter transactions currently represent approximately 40% of the world’s overall economy.” Huh? This is an absurdity, given the world’s GDP approximates $34 trillion.

• The U.S. has experienced a real estate price boom in recent years, as have Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark, among others, as investors turned from sagging equity markets to put their money in bricks and mortar. Home prices in Britain have doubled since 1999 and are rising an annual rate of 20%.

  The London market is so hot that one developer converted a 350 square-foot roadside public restroom into a one-bedroom apartment with an asking price of $200,000. At the high-end of the market, a mansion in the capital’s swanky Kensington district sold this year for $126 million.

  The U.K.’s love affair with housing worries Bank of England Gov. Mervyn King more than many other central bankers. Partly because the U.K. boom has been particularly steep...caused by historically low and stable interest rates, rising employment levels, and a long tradition among Britons of treating their houses as a way to make money.

  British home buyers are more vulnerable to changes in interest rates as 75% of Britons hold variable-interest-rate mortgages. By contrast, 85% of U.S. home loans are on long-term fixed interest rates.